G&C 172
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 172
April 2017
Caption Competition
1. Steve Finn: Where’s Eion?
Paul Stirling: Eion who?
2. Sam Robson: Would you say we have the most penetrating attack in the Championship?
Dawid Malan: You mean Finn, Murtagh and Roland-Jones?
Sam Robson: No I mean Fuller, Helm and Podmore.
3. Tim Murtagh: Olly what are you doing here, I didn’t think they renewed your contract?
4. Sam Robson: So, how many Irishmen are there in our squad?
John Simpson: Well there’s Morgs.
Tim Murtagh: I suppose that you’d better include me!
Paul Stirling: Do I count?
5. Nick Compton : Who will get most Championship wickets this season: Malan, Patel or Sowter?
James Franklin: It depends who I put on to bowl.
Out and About with the Professor
I wonder how much Googlies readers are looking forward to the proposed new T20 competition? Is there panting excitement or grumbling curmudgeonly acquiescence? Perhaps somewhere in between?
On the excitement/curmudgeonly spectrum I sensed that there were, at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club AGM, rather more at the latter end; indeed everyone who spoke about it (with the exception of the Chair) expressed views which were about as far away from excitement (not an emotion readily displayed by Yorkshiremen) as it is possible to get. Our Chairman (who has replaced the now Chairman of the ECB, Colin Graves) spelt out some of the details of the competition (8 teams based on cities, 120 players allocated on a draft system, 3 overseas per squad, etc.) which were quite widely publicised in the Press a few days’ later.
It is a bold step, I wonder if it will work.
There seem to be two obvious difficulties in emulating the “Big Bash”: there is (almost) no tradition in this country of city rather than county affiliation and the vision of thousands of spectators relaxing on long balmy summers evenings might just be occluded by the often non-balmy English weather.
But these weren’t the issues that were concerning the Yorkshire membership – or at least the vocal ones. As I understand it, the venues have still not been settled although Headingley is likely to be one. But the team might not have a single Yorkshireman in it and it is very unlikely to have “Yorkshire” in its title. What!! A team taking the field at the home of northern cricket called…well what? Presumably it will be Leeds Something. Alliteration will doubtless be compulsory so we will have…? Leeds Lions? Leeds Lancers? Leeds Loveables (perhaps not). Leeds Lethargics? I feel this is an opportunity for a new Googlies competition – decide on the venues and come up with alliterative titles for all. There will presumably be two London sides, so “L” words might be in short supply. Birmingham will most likely stay with “Bears”. Nottingham? Manchester? Should the SWALEC stadium get a team the proposed Cardiff alliterations might require some careful editing.
None of this went down awfully well with some members, the most vocal of whom, having declared that the word Yorkshire must be in the title then told us that, in any event, he had no intention of coming to see yet more (or indeed any) 20 over cricket: “If thee thinks I’m payin’ good brass t’come and watch this candy floss dross, thee can think on”. So not too much support there.
The argument in favour was however succinct and one that carries considerable weight in these parts: £1.3 million. This sum, guaranteed per annum for five years, needed very little elaboration to prove persuasive. Especially since, although Yorkshire made a (tiny) profit for the first time in some years and notwithstanding a membership of 7,300, the County still owes some £19 million to Colin Graves (more correctly three distinct Colin Graves trusts) and £6 million to the bank.
And then there’s the redevelopment plan. We were told that unless the south stand was demolished (the one that backs on to the rugby ground for those who know Headingley) and a new facility put in its place, Test match status will be in jeopardy. We were also told that a planned loan from the Council had been blocked …”by Labour Party members”. Apparently, they thought that when social care and residential homes were being shut several millions spent on a cricket ground might require some further justification. Subsequently that justification seems to have been forthcoming and it has been announced that the loan will go ahead. Presumably the old folk will just have to shift for themselves in the streets.
So, it looks like a new stand is on its way and Leeds Laconics will take the field to a full house in a couple of years’ time.
Now that is something to look forward to, yes?
Morgan Matters
We get another privileged peek into the Great man’s diaries
The other day I was complaining about the O not publishing scorecards, but now the Times has done the same thing by not finding room in 70 pages of newspaper for the card from the 2nd warm up in St Kitts. There was a sort of (PA?) report though, which told us that C Woakes had dug England out of a hole with 47* to take England to a narrow victory by 2 wickets. Earlier they had crumbled from 128-1 (opener Bairstow 86, Root 46) to 177-7. The Times thinks the likely replacement for Ball is going to be Broad or Jordan, but see below. Later, I checked Cricinfo for the scorecard and found that Billings made 2, Buttler 8, Moeen 2, Morgan 15, Stokes 0, Rashid 10 and Plunkett 6*.
I have just found out that the only player prior to L Livingstone to score two centuries in an England Lions match was K Pietersen.
Re Eoin playing for Middlesex: he has a chequered record in the last couple of years and did not play at all in the Championship last season, which was not such a blow because his 2015 record was an average of 10 from 4 games. His limited overs record was also disappointing in 2015 averaging 6.67 from 3 RLC games and 26 from 10 T20s. However, he did better in the limited overs stuff last season averaging 43.8 in 6 RLC games and 36.66 in 8 T20s. I do not know if he has actually retired from CC cricket, but I am not expecting to see much of him (if anything at all) in the Championship, but he will surely want to continue to play some limited over games.
It is interesting that Ali Martin thought that S Curran would be called up by England for the ODIs v Ireland (and he still might, I suppose) because brother Tom is actually the one who has now been called up as cover for J Ball for the ODIs in WI. A Hales also joins up, but is not officially part of the squad... strange. I had to smile at the BBC website, which illustrated its piece on Tom Curran with a picture of... Sam Curran! Sam is a fine prospect, but is not international class as a bowler at present (in my opinion).
B McCullum re-joins Middlesex for T20 this season.
The Cricketer thinks Middlesex will be 2nd behind Yorkshire in the Championship.
A very strange situation has developed at Kent, where A Donald has not bothered to get the required coaching qualifications, so he has been replaced by J Gillespie (temporarily until Donald gets his coaching badge), who had to give up the Yorkshire job because he was so keen to return to Oz!
King Cricket Matters
Alex Bowden shares some thoughts on free to air cricket
There’s been a few headlines about the possibility of some free-to-air cricket off the back of the ECB’s proposed new T20 league. People get excited about this sort of thing, but the whole point of free-to-air is that it opens up a larger market, yet this is a form of media which is of rapidly diminishing importance.
How many people will be watching conventional forms of TV by 2020, which is when the tournament is due to take place? Whatever free-to-air channel wins these rights may also broadcast via some sort of internet player, but it seems to odd to us that this is secondary and not the focus itself.
We saw one report on the tournament last night – which has since been edited – which floated the possibility of an online stream to which cricket fans could directly subscribe. We were briefly excited about the prospect, but then the end of the sentence revealed that this would only be available to overseas viewers.
Why?
Last month we wrote about how more and more people are streaming live cricket via Kodi or other online applications. It’s a mistake to think this is happening purely for reasons of cost. In many cases it’s because it’s more convenient, or because it’s literally the only way of accessing the matches you want to see.
The software is arguably not yet sufficiently mainstream to warrant serious consideration, but what will the situation be three years hence? The concept of a sport-specific subscription at reduced cost to the consumer – because they wouldn’t also be paying for darts, biathlon, motor racing or the broadcaster’s hardware – makes sense to us.
A broader cricket app could even serve as a hub from which individual matches could be ordered. That might typically be for a fee, but it could also be free of charge if the broadcaster in question could find a way of funding the broadcast through advertising or reduced outlay on rights.
The ECB seems keen to make at least some of their domestic T20 matches easily and freely accessible. Perhaps in 2020 the place where people will go looking for such a thing is in the ‘free sport’ category within their online TV application.
Xenophobic Matters – part 789
First Murray Hedgcock
I don’t wish to spin out my exchanges with the Prof endlessly, but feel a brief riposte to be justified. How about:
“Despite regular Lord’s visits since 1953 (missing a few years in the Fifties-Sixties) I have, as the Professor records, never had the privilege of running into him at Headquarters. But I feel I know something about his approach when he played, clearly as a Boycottian opening bat, either letting every testing delivery go past off-stump, or meeting it with the deadest of dead bats.
I cite one specific Google 171-11 delivery to the Prof – how many non-Englishmen would he be happy to see in the national XI? This was left severely alone in his latest innings.
On my concern that a national XI should truly represent the country whose flag it flies, the Prof sees this as “emotional rather than rational”.
If cricket is to lose the emotion, amounting to passion, which drives all who play, organise, watch, or write on it, then include me out.
However, I thank the Prof for his good wishes on my approaching diamond wedding, and I shall raise a toast to his absence (only in fruit-juice, I fear, being that rare bird – a non-drinking Australian).
Followed by the Professor
Proverbs, 16:22 (AV)
Danes Matters
Jim Revier was the first to draw my attention to the following which appeared in the Guardian
David Smith: I’m wearing my school uniform and holding out our fixture list for three famous managers to see.
I was captain of my school football team in west London. It was the school’s centenary in 1962, and my last year of sixth form. We had such a strong sporting record, we asked Queens Park Rangers if we could play them in their stadium, which was just down the road. When the manager, Alec Stock, agreed, we couldn’t believe it.
I was a big QPR fan. My grandfather and father used to take me when I was a boy. We would jump on the bus from Acton to Shepherd’s Bush. We’d go through the old-fashioned turnstiles and then Grandad would make sure I got into the boys’ enclosure behind the goal; he and dad would be behind me on the terraces. Football stadiums then weren’t the comfortable palaces they are today – most of the ground was standing.
My school, St Clement Danes grammar, had one of the best school football teams in the country. We were unbeaten for three years and would often play older teams. It was a big part of my life, maybe too big, because I didn’t study as hard as I should have. We trained a lot and had coaching from Jimmy Hill, who was playing for Fulham. The England captain, Billy Wright, also coached us on occasion.
For our match at QPR, Alec Stock put forward a “junior” team, which included himself, QPR’s coach and one of their star players, George Bristow, who played wing half: today, he would be called a midfielder. It was my first experience playing on a professional ground. I was incredibly nervous. The pitch felt huge. I remember looking up at the serried ranks of schoolmates in the stands. There were only 1,000 of them in the 15,000-capacity ground, but they made enough noise to make the stadium feel full.
I played inside right, which would be a forward today. We won 4-3, but it was tight. The match was covered by two local newspapers and this picture, taken afterwards, was used in one of the articles. I’m wearing my school uniform and holding out our fixture list for three famous managers of the time to see – they had all been invited to spectate. They are, from the left, Malcolm MacDonald of Brentford, Arthur Rowe of Crystal Palace and Tommy Docherty of Chelsea (second from right). The other two were school team-mates. As a young footballer, it was something you dream of. We had a big celebratory dinner that night.
There was a joke in the team that I was made captain not because I was the best player, but because I was a good public speaker; there may have been some truth to that. I continued to play at university, but I knew I really wanted to pursue an academic career; I became a modern languages lecturer. Sadly, I didn’t keep in touch with any of the boys, but I know our goalkeeper, John Jackson, went on to play for Crystal Palace.
I’m 74 now and still follow QPR fervently, as does my grandson. But I live in Devon and haven’t been to a game since they last got promoted to the Premier League a few years ago. When I look at this photograph, I feel a fantastic sense of achievement.
Jack Morgan explored his archives
I have just tracked down my copy of The Dane for Summer 1962 and although it mentions the game between the School 1st XI and a "strong QPR side" (which the school won 3-4, but soon after lost at home to Crystal Palace 1-5), it does not actually say who played in that game. However, it mentions that i) J Jackson and D Richardson played for England Youth; ii) J Jackson played for England Grammar Schools XI; and iii) K Clarke, A Paterson, A Milton, D Smith, J Evans were also selected for representative football. We also learn that the 1st XI was: Jackson, Slavin, Paterson, Smith (capt), Brandon, Richardson, Wright, Clarke, Milton, Puxley, Evans; and the reserves were: Sneesby, Williams L, Williams O, Barton, Dickerson, Waters, Jones, Foster, Taylor and Fernley.
Ian Napper commented
Who remembers a couple of weeks after the QPR match when the Crystal Palace Ist Xl beat us 5-1 on our home pitch? It had been 1-1 but, like my beloved Arsenal, the Danes folded. Although the match was part of the centenary celebrations, it was regarded as a "transfer fee" for our most successful player, John Jackson, who had signed for Palace a few weeks previously. Jackson went on to play for Palace 346 times including 222 consecutive appearances, Later, in Palace's first four seasons in the top flight, he missed only four games. He retired as a pro at the age of 40. I remember very well Don Palmer, master in charge of football, being much prouder of Old Danes who were playing top amateur football than he was of the top Old Dane pro.
By the way, I recall seeing Jackson on the BBC TV football quiz programme "Quiz Ball" where he showed off his grammar school background by doing well on the general knowledge questions. In fact, he helped his team get to the final one year. I Player has the first episode of the first series - Arsenal v Nottingham Forest. It is unintentionally funny. Well worth watching. Just google Quiz Ball I Player.
Bowles Matters
Ed Vulliamy wrote this article which appeared in the Guardian
The twinkle is still there but the memories are gone. The brilliant former QPR player is suffering from Alzheimer’s, with friends and family pushing for a testimonial year at the club where he dazzled in the 1970s. Stan Bowles is now cared for by his daughter, Andria, and despite moments of clarity is unable to recall his long career in football.
The smile has not changed, as puckish as it always was; nor has the mischievous glint in Stanley Bowles’s sea-blue eyes. I remember it all like yesterday, when Bowles bedazzled football, weaving, winding through a humiliated defence yet again, in the hoops of Queens Park Rangers, atop the league, back in the 1970s.
But at a pub in his native Manchester, Stan himself remembers none of this. His Alzheimer’s disease is now, as they say, “100%”, both sides of the brain, “and something at the back”, adds his daughter Andria, nowadays, as she describes herself, “full-time carer” – and lifeline. Of course, we recall a few goals of yore: “We’re talking about you playing football, Stan.”
“Football?”
Fifty years ago last weekend, QPR won one of the most remarkable cup finals in football history: from the Third Division, they overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat First Division West Bromwich Albion 3-2, and win the League Cup. I was at Wembley that unforgettable day, aged 12, with my father and brother, dizzy with disbelief.
Little did we know, though, that 1967 was just the beginning for hitherto humble Rangers. Within 10 years the club came within 14 minutes (during which Liverpool put three past Wolves, in a deciding game) of the First Division title, equivalent to today’s Premier League. But memory of the zenith decade casts a shadow over QPR’s half-centennial, for that achievement in 1975-76 was synonymous with the uncanny brilliance and waggish personality of one player: Bowles. The man who, as his best friend Don Shanks says, “can hardly remember who he is. It’s heartbreaking, soul-destroying.”
My God, those days. I travelled every long weekend either back from university to west London or up and down the M6, M1, usually in a Morris Minor driven by my best friend Patrick Wintour (of this parish), brother Tom and a friend, William, whose family had shared our house. We went to watch the Superhoops and above all the greatest player ever to wear them, Bowles. My sister, now a professional illustrator, started her career by winning, aged 15, a “Draw Stan Bowles” competition. My first ever article was published in The Superhoop supporters’ club magazine.
We would drive to Sunderland or Manchester, take supporters’ club chartered trains to Stoke, hitchhike back from Everton. After listening to that last terrible Wolves v Liverpool game on the wireless, Patrick said: “I’ve never felt so philosophical in my life. Nothing’s ever meant so much.” His girlfriend was furious. At the centre of it all: Bowles’s flair, long hair, gawkish gait but spellbinding ability to accelerate, decelerate, anticipate. His late winner at Newcastle, voodoo with the ball against Middlesbrough, a perfect winning goal at Leicester, then what could have been a title-clincher against Leeds in our last game of the season.
Among those also watching was the former home secretary Alan Johnson, who says: “Bowles’s impish wizardry left so many Rangers fans with wonderful memories. I am privileged to be one of them.” The broadcaster Robert Elms insists: “The bond between QPR and Stan Bowles is more complete than between any other single player and a football team. This wayward, wondrous, magical, yet totally down-to-earth street genius is the embodiment of our Queens Park Rangers.” The composer Michael Nyman says: “My love of Stan goes back to a muddy match when he first played at Loftus Road against Rangers for Carlisle in 1972 [we signed him five months later]. He was as astonishing then as in every subsequent match I saw him play in.”
Stan’s golden years were shared, on and off the pitch, with Shanks, the QPR defender famous for “stealing” Miss World winner Mary Stavin from Liverpool’s Graeme Souness. Bowles reputedly took every opportunity during a game at Anfield to remind Souness of his mate’s conquest. “Stan played football without stress or pressure,” Shanks recalls. “While other players would be in a panic during a big game, or poor shape for a bad one, Stan would just play. ‘Give me the ball, I’ll do the rest.’ A football pitch was Stan’s natural home.”
Stan can hardly remember who he is. It's heartbreaking, soul-destroying.
The manager Dave Sexton stressed then what he called Rangers’ “continental” football, inspired by Dutch games, and Shanks places Bowles in the history of what has happened to British football since. Shanks says: “Stan was like players who come from Europe now, before their time: Costa, Agüero. A star, but unselfish; he was a team player … amazing rapport. We knew what Stan would try to do – the amazing thing is that he did it. Round the back of the defence, with pace – and magic.”
But it was Stan the man that Shanks – and QPR fans and players – loved too. “Everyone was equal to Stan,” he says. “It didn’t matter if you were collecting rubbish or a pop star. If QPR were up in Manchester, he might stay over and play for a Sunday league team.” Bowles would stop over at Shanks’s parents’ flat on the White City estate, next to Loftus Road: “Always polite – ‘Thank you Mr Shanks, thank you Mrs Shanks’ … I used to say: ‘It’s OK Stan – no one else talks to them like that.’”
I remember Bowles joining fans in The Crown & Sceptre near QPR’s ground on Christmas Eve – his birthday. He was offered more pints than even he could manage, and bought a few himself, for total – albeit adoring – strangers.
Most famously: “Stan loved a bet,” says Shanks, who was also his partner at the White City dog track or bookmakers. “Not big money – it was a pastime, 50 quid between two dogs, for the adrenaline rush. He hardly went to a casino, but if he did, he’d put £20 here, £20 there. Later, he’d go to those card schools and play for six hours.” A barman at the dog track was John O’Mahony, now among fans campaigning for a Bowles testimonial. He says: “Stan always drew people round him, but he never showed off. He was always just himself.”
And he still is, but actually not. Bowles moved back from London to Manchester before the family announced his condition in 2015. And here he is, at the Whitegate Inn on the road to Oldham, enjoying lager-and-lemonade-top with Andria, his friend Mike, a builder who visits every day, and Joanne Connolly, a fan whose dad – “Taxi Teddy” – knew Bowles from outings to the dogs; Joanne calls Stan the “adolescent fervour that lasted a lifetime”.
Stan wears a dapper woollen overcoat, tartan tweed hat and smart scarf. Now he puts on a pair of sunglasses. “Dino!” he says. “That’s Robert De Niro,” explains Mike. “Dino!” repeats Stan. “It’s hard to speak Stan-ish,” says Andria. “He’s having a good day today, but it’s not always like this. On bad days, he’s a rabbit in the headlights, very anxious and confused.” Andria, the modern-day matriarch of Moston, is a woman of humbling strength and commitment, but insists to the contrary: “It’s something I do,” she says of her charge. She admits: “He was a selfish dad, but he’s mellowed, he’d started to do that before the disease. Now he’s home, with us, where my own nan and grandpa lived.”
There are moments of sudden clarity from Bowles. I mention Gerry Francis, the QPR captain with whom Stan had a telepathic rapport: “Gerry, he’s alright he is.” And when you call him Stan he corrects you: “It’s Stanley!”
In comes Stanley’s great-granddaughter, Macie, aged five. Andria used to run another pub down the road “where my nan used to drink”, but gave it up to look after Macie (“my son’s daughter, but …”) before Stanley was diagnosed. “So it’s like having two children now,” says Andria. I ask: “Macie, does he do what he’s told?” “No, ’cause he doesn’t know what you’re saying. He can’t talk proper because he’s poorly. But I understand him.”
Mike says he still takes Stanley for a bet: “He’ll write ‘2.15C’ – it could be Cheltenham, it could be Catterick. Once he put a tenner on a winner, worth £130, but he’d thrown away the chit.”
“London!” Stanley repeats. Mike takes him “up” to the smoke occasionally, and they stay around Brentford, Bowles’s last professional club. Mention of the Bees starts another, urgent, conversation: that club staged a benefit game in 1987, and this season published a commemorative programme to raise funds for Stan’s welfare. “I see myself looking after him for the rest of his life,” Andria insists, but talk inevitably turns to the possibility that Stan will need residential care one day. “There are two options,” Shanks had said, “go the NHS way or get private so he can be comfortable and his family can visit.” “There’s a place down the road,” says Andria, “£600 a week.”
Bowles played in days when footballers even at his level were unable to plan for what might follow. The announcement that Billy McNeill – the first captain of a British team, Celtic, to hoist the European Cup, half a century ago – suffers from dementia reopened the dual debates over welfare and head injuries. Bowles’s condition – and dire financial straits – is an example of the game’s reluctance to look after its own; Nobby Stiles also suffers from Alzheimer’s, but there is scant care from mighty Manchester United. Alex Young, who died last week from a short illness after suffering from dementia, had better luck having played for Everton who operate, says O’Mahony, “a role-model system for former players”.
QPR has an ex-players association, but with no benevolent welfare charge. “Sometimes,” says Shanks, “I wonder what the PFA is there for if not to help people like Stan and Frank Sibley [Rangers midfielder in that 1967 Wembley final, now battling Parkinson’s]. I also wonder if the people running QPR understand the legacy, who Stan was, what he meant to the club and its fans.”
The club did organise a Stan Bowles Day in 2015, at which he waved to adoring crowds before a game with Rotherham. Fifty pence from each programme went to Bowles, and there’s a fund with over £15,000 in it – but the matter of a proper testimonial at QPR has embittered some corners of Shepherd’s Bush. Discussions began in 2015, when supporters met the club soon after Bowles’s family made his condition public. “The first meeting was positive,” says O’Mahony, “but it was down to us to arrange it all, and raise funds. Now we’re two years down the line, and Stan has deteriorated.”
A spokesman for the club referred to a statement a fortnight ago from the chief executive, Lee Hoos, who said: “To set the record straight: QPR, as a club, welcome the proposal of a Stan Bowles benefit match. We are determined to help put on an event for Stan that supports his care and raises money … We are today starting the steps to ensure this event is a success.”
“There’s no coming back from where Stan is now,” says Shanks. “But …” He recalls Stan Bowles Day – “when Stan walked out at Loftus Road he knew exactly where he was, for some reason; a moment of knowing who he was. The family’s been fantastic, and now this should be testimonial year for Stan – he was the greatest, this is a special case. I’ve got a lump in my throat saying this, but we don’t have long. We can’t get to that situation of: ‘Oh, should’ve done this, should’ve done that.’ It has to be now.”
We raise another glass in Manchester. “We all love you Stan!” Bowles puts down his beer, takes my hand with a vice-grip, and stands. “Stay still,” he says, takes my head between his palms and plants a smacker on my cheek. I glance towards the others and, as Mike says, “I’ve got glass in my eyes”. Stanley sits and says: “I’m still going.” His eyes twinkle. And again: “I’m still going.”
Old Danes Gathering
The next Old Danes Gathering at Shepherds Bush CC is scheduled for 2018.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also a large number of photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 172
April 2017
Caption Competition
1. Steve Finn: Where’s Eion?
Paul Stirling: Eion who?
2. Sam Robson: Would you say we have the most penetrating attack in the Championship?
Dawid Malan: You mean Finn, Murtagh and Roland-Jones?
Sam Robson: No I mean Fuller, Helm and Podmore.
3. Tim Murtagh: Olly what are you doing here, I didn’t think they renewed your contract?
4. Sam Robson: So, how many Irishmen are there in our squad?
John Simpson: Well there’s Morgs.
Tim Murtagh: I suppose that you’d better include me!
Paul Stirling: Do I count?
5. Nick Compton : Who will get most Championship wickets this season: Malan, Patel or Sowter?
James Franklin: It depends who I put on to bowl.
Out and About with the Professor
I wonder how much Googlies readers are looking forward to the proposed new T20 competition? Is there panting excitement or grumbling curmudgeonly acquiescence? Perhaps somewhere in between?
On the excitement/curmudgeonly spectrum I sensed that there were, at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club AGM, rather more at the latter end; indeed everyone who spoke about it (with the exception of the Chair) expressed views which were about as far away from excitement (not an emotion readily displayed by Yorkshiremen) as it is possible to get. Our Chairman (who has replaced the now Chairman of the ECB, Colin Graves) spelt out some of the details of the competition (8 teams based on cities, 120 players allocated on a draft system, 3 overseas per squad, etc.) which were quite widely publicised in the Press a few days’ later.
It is a bold step, I wonder if it will work.
There seem to be two obvious difficulties in emulating the “Big Bash”: there is (almost) no tradition in this country of city rather than county affiliation and the vision of thousands of spectators relaxing on long balmy summers evenings might just be occluded by the often non-balmy English weather.
But these weren’t the issues that were concerning the Yorkshire membership – or at least the vocal ones. As I understand it, the venues have still not been settled although Headingley is likely to be one. But the team might not have a single Yorkshireman in it and it is very unlikely to have “Yorkshire” in its title. What!! A team taking the field at the home of northern cricket called…well what? Presumably it will be Leeds Something. Alliteration will doubtless be compulsory so we will have…? Leeds Lions? Leeds Lancers? Leeds Loveables (perhaps not). Leeds Lethargics? I feel this is an opportunity for a new Googlies competition – decide on the venues and come up with alliterative titles for all. There will presumably be two London sides, so “L” words might be in short supply. Birmingham will most likely stay with “Bears”. Nottingham? Manchester? Should the SWALEC stadium get a team the proposed Cardiff alliterations might require some careful editing.
None of this went down awfully well with some members, the most vocal of whom, having declared that the word Yorkshire must be in the title then told us that, in any event, he had no intention of coming to see yet more (or indeed any) 20 over cricket: “If thee thinks I’m payin’ good brass t’come and watch this candy floss dross, thee can think on”. So not too much support there.
The argument in favour was however succinct and one that carries considerable weight in these parts: £1.3 million. This sum, guaranteed per annum for five years, needed very little elaboration to prove persuasive. Especially since, although Yorkshire made a (tiny) profit for the first time in some years and notwithstanding a membership of 7,300, the County still owes some £19 million to Colin Graves (more correctly three distinct Colin Graves trusts) and £6 million to the bank.
And then there’s the redevelopment plan. We were told that unless the south stand was demolished (the one that backs on to the rugby ground for those who know Headingley) and a new facility put in its place, Test match status will be in jeopardy. We were also told that a planned loan from the Council had been blocked …”by Labour Party members”. Apparently, they thought that when social care and residential homes were being shut several millions spent on a cricket ground might require some further justification. Subsequently that justification seems to have been forthcoming and it has been announced that the loan will go ahead. Presumably the old folk will just have to shift for themselves in the streets.
So, it looks like a new stand is on its way and Leeds Laconics will take the field to a full house in a couple of years’ time.
Now that is something to look forward to, yes?
Morgan Matters
We get another privileged peek into the Great man’s diaries
The other day I was complaining about the O not publishing scorecards, but now the Times has done the same thing by not finding room in 70 pages of newspaper for the card from the 2nd warm up in St Kitts. There was a sort of (PA?) report though, which told us that C Woakes had dug England out of a hole with 47* to take England to a narrow victory by 2 wickets. Earlier they had crumbled from 128-1 (opener Bairstow 86, Root 46) to 177-7. The Times thinks the likely replacement for Ball is going to be Broad or Jordan, but see below. Later, I checked Cricinfo for the scorecard and found that Billings made 2, Buttler 8, Moeen 2, Morgan 15, Stokes 0, Rashid 10 and Plunkett 6*.
I have just found out that the only player prior to L Livingstone to score two centuries in an England Lions match was K Pietersen.
Re Eoin playing for Middlesex: he has a chequered record in the last couple of years and did not play at all in the Championship last season, which was not such a blow because his 2015 record was an average of 10 from 4 games. His limited overs record was also disappointing in 2015 averaging 6.67 from 3 RLC games and 26 from 10 T20s. However, he did better in the limited overs stuff last season averaging 43.8 in 6 RLC games and 36.66 in 8 T20s. I do not know if he has actually retired from CC cricket, but I am not expecting to see much of him (if anything at all) in the Championship, but he will surely want to continue to play some limited over games.
It is interesting that Ali Martin thought that S Curran would be called up by England for the ODIs v Ireland (and he still might, I suppose) because brother Tom is actually the one who has now been called up as cover for J Ball for the ODIs in WI. A Hales also joins up, but is not officially part of the squad... strange. I had to smile at the BBC website, which illustrated its piece on Tom Curran with a picture of... Sam Curran! Sam is a fine prospect, but is not international class as a bowler at present (in my opinion).
B McCullum re-joins Middlesex for T20 this season.
The Cricketer thinks Middlesex will be 2nd behind Yorkshire in the Championship.
A very strange situation has developed at Kent, where A Donald has not bothered to get the required coaching qualifications, so he has been replaced by J Gillespie (temporarily until Donald gets his coaching badge), who had to give up the Yorkshire job because he was so keen to return to Oz!
King Cricket Matters
Alex Bowden shares some thoughts on free to air cricket
There’s been a few headlines about the possibility of some free-to-air cricket off the back of the ECB’s proposed new T20 league. People get excited about this sort of thing, but the whole point of free-to-air is that it opens up a larger market, yet this is a form of media which is of rapidly diminishing importance.
How many people will be watching conventional forms of TV by 2020, which is when the tournament is due to take place? Whatever free-to-air channel wins these rights may also broadcast via some sort of internet player, but it seems to odd to us that this is secondary and not the focus itself.
We saw one report on the tournament last night – which has since been edited – which floated the possibility of an online stream to which cricket fans could directly subscribe. We were briefly excited about the prospect, but then the end of the sentence revealed that this would only be available to overseas viewers.
Why?
Last month we wrote about how more and more people are streaming live cricket via Kodi or other online applications. It’s a mistake to think this is happening purely for reasons of cost. In many cases it’s because it’s more convenient, or because it’s literally the only way of accessing the matches you want to see.
The software is arguably not yet sufficiently mainstream to warrant serious consideration, but what will the situation be three years hence? The concept of a sport-specific subscription at reduced cost to the consumer – because they wouldn’t also be paying for darts, biathlon, motor racing or the broadcaster’s hardware – makes sense to us.
A broader cricket app could even serve as a hub from which individual matches could be ordered. That might typically be for a fee, but it could also be free of charge if the broadcaster in question could find a way of funding the broadcast through advertising or reduced outlay on rights.
The ECB seems keen to make at least some of their domestic T20 matches easily and freely accessible. Perhaps in 2020 the place where people will go looking for such a thing is in the ‘free sport’ category within their online TV application.
Xenophobic Matters – part 789
First Murray Hedgcock
I don’t wish to spin out my exchanges with the Prof endlessly, but feel a brief riposte to be justified. How about:
“Despite regular Lord’s visits since 1953 (missing a few years in the Fifties-Sixties) I have, as the Professor records, never had the privilege of running into him at Headquarters. But I feel I know something about his approach when he played, clearly as a Boycottian opening bat, either letting every testing delivery go past off-stump, or meeting it with the deadest of dead bats.
I cite one specific Google 171-11 delivery to the Prof – how many non-Englishmen would he be happy to see in the national XI? This was left severely alone in his latest innings.
On my concern that a national XI should truly represent the country whose flag it flies, the Prof sees this as “emotional rather than rational”.
If cricket is to lose the emotion, amounting to passion, which drives all who play, organise, watch, or write on it, then include me out.
However, I thank the Prof for his good wishes on my approaching diamond wedding, and I shall raise a toast to his absence (only in fruit-juice, I fear, being that rare bird – a non-drinking Australian).
Followed by the Professor
Proverbs, 16:22 (AV)
Danes Matters
Jim Revier was the first to draw my attention to the following which appeared in the Guardian
David Smith: I’m wearing my school uniform and holding out our fixture list for three famous managers to see.
I was captain of my school football team in west London. It was the school’s centenary in 1962, and my last year of sixth form. We had such a strong sporting record, we asked Queens Park Rangers if we could play them in their stadium, which was just down the road. When the manager, Alec Stock, agreed, we couldn’t believe it.
I was a big QPR fan. My grandfather and father used to take me when I was a boy. We would jump on the bus from Acton to Shepherd’s Bush. We’d go through the old-fashioned turnstiles and then Grandad would make sure I got into the boys’ enclosure behind the goal; he and dad would be behind me on the terraces. Football stadiums then weren’t the comfortable palaces they are today – most of the ground was standing.
My school, St Clement Danes grammar, had one of the best school football teams in the country. We were unbeaten for three years and would often play older teams. It was a big part of my life, maybe too big, because I didn’t study as hard as I should have. We trained a lot and had coaching from Jimmy Hill, who was playing for Fulham. The England captain, Billy Wright, also coached us on occasion.
For our match at QPR, Alec Stock put forward a “junior” team, which included himself, QPR’s coach and one of their star players, George Bristow, who played wing half: today, he would be called a midfielder. It was my first experience playing on a professional ground. I was incredibly nervous. The pitch felt huge. I remember looking up at the serried ranks of schoolmates in the stands. There were only 1,000 of them in the 15,000-capacity ground, but they made enough noise to make the stadium feel full.
I played inside right, which would be a forward today. We won 4-3, but it was tight. The match was covered by two local newspapers and this picture, taken afterwards, was used in one of the articles. I’m wearing my school uniform and holding out our fixture list for three famous managers of the time to see – they had all been invited to spectate. They are, from the left, Malcolm MacDonald of Brentford, Arthur Rowe of Crystal Palace and Tommy Docherty of Chelsea (second from right). The other two were school team-mates. As a young footballer, it was something you dream of. We had a big celebratory dinner that night.
There was a joke in the team that I was made captain not because I was the best player, but because I was a good public speaker; there may have been some truth to that. I continued to play at university, but I knew I really wanted to pursue an academic career; I became a modern languages lecturer. Sadly, I didn’t keep in touch with any of the boys, but I know our goalkeeper, John Jackson, went on to play for Crystal Palace.
I’m 74 now and still follow QPR fervently, as does my grandson. But I live in Devon and haven’t been to a game since they last got promoted to the Premier League a few years ago. When I look at this photograph, I feel a fantastic sense of achievement.
Jack Morgan explored his archives
I have just tracked down my copy of The Dane for Summer 1962 and although it mentions the game between the School 1st XI and a "strong QPR side" (which the school won 3-4, but soon after lost at home to Crystal Palace 1-5), it does not actually say who played in that game. However, it mentions that i) J Jackson and D Richardson played for England Youth; ii) J Jackson played for England Grammar Schools XI; and iii) K Clarke, A Paterson, A Milton, D Smith, J Evans were also selected for representative football. We also learn that the 1st XI was: Jackson, Slavin, Paterson, Smith (capt), Brandon, Richardson, Wright, Clarke, Milton, Puxley, Evans; and the reserves were: Sneesby, Williams L, Williams O, Barton, Dickerson, Waters, Jones, Foster, Taylor and Fernley.
Ian Napper commented
Who remembers a couple of weeks after the QPR match when the Crystal Palace Ist Xl beat us 5-1 on our home pitch? It had been 1-1 but, like my beloved Arsenal, the Danes folded. Although the match was part of the centenary celebrations, it was regarded as a "transfer fee" for our most successful player, John Jackson, who had signed for Palace a few weeks previously. Jackson went on to play for Palace 346 times including 222 consecutive appearances, Later, in Palace's first four seasons in the top flight, he missed only four games. He retired as a pro at the age of 40. I remember very well Don Palmer, master in charge of football, being much prouder of Old Danes who were playing top amateur football than he was of the top Old Dane pro.
By the way, I recall seeing Jackson on the BBC TV football quiz programme "Quiz Ball" where he showed off his grammar school background by doing well on the general knowledge questions. In fact, he helped his team get to the final one year. I Player has the first episode of the first series - Arsenal v Nottingham Forest. It is unintentionally funny. Well worth watching. Just google Quiz Ball I Player.
Bowles Matters
Ed Vulliamy wrote this article which appeared in the Guardian
The twinkle is still there but the memories are gone. The brilliant former QPR player is suffering from Alzheimer’s, with friends and family pushing for a testimonial year at the club where he dazzled in the 1970s. Stan Bowles is now cared for by his daughter, Andria, and despite moments of clarity is unable to recall his long career in football.
The smile has not changed, as puckish as it always was; nor has the mischievous glint in Stanley Bowles’s sea-blue eyes. I remember it all like yesterday, when Bowles bedazzled football, weaving, winding through a humiliated defence yet again, in the hoops of Queens Park Rangers, atop the league, back in the 1970s.
But at a pub in his native Manchester, Stan himself remembers none of this. His Alzheimer’s disease is now, as they say, “100%”, both sides of the brain, “and something at the back”, adds his daughter Andria, nowadays, as she describes herself, “full-time carer” – and lifeline. Of course, we recall a few goals of yore: “We’re talking about you playing football, Stan.”
“Football?”
Fifty years ago last weekend, QPR won one of the most remarkable cup finals in football history: from the Third Division, they overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat First Division West Bromwich Albion 3-2, and win the League Cup. I was at Wembley that unforgettable day, aged 12, with my father and brother, dizzy with disbelief.
Little did we know, though, that 1967 was just the beginning for hitherto humble Rangers. Within 10 years the club came within 14 minutes (during which Liverpool put three past Wolves, in a deciding game) of the First Division title, equivalent to today’s Premier League. But memory of the zenith decade casts a shadow over QPR’s half-centennial, for that achievement in 1975-76 was synonymous with the uncanny brilliance and waggish personality of one player: Bowles. The man who, as his best friend Don Shanks says, “can hardly remember who he is. It’s heartbreaking, soul-destroying.”
My God, those days. I travelled every long weekend either back from university to west London or up and down the M6, M1, usually in a Morris Minor driven by my best friend Patrick Wintour (of this parish), brother Tom and a friend, William, whose family had shared our house. We went to watch the Superhoops and above all the greatest player ever to wear them, Bowles. My sister, now a professional illustrator, started her career by winning, aged 15, a “Draw Stan Bowles” competition. My first ever article was published in The Superhoop supporters’ club magazine.
We would drive to Sunderland or Manchester, take supporters’ club chartered trains to Stoke, hitchhike back from Everton. After listening to that last terrible Wolves v Liverpool game on the wireless, Patrick said: “I’ve never felt so philosophical in my life. Nothing’s ever meant so much.” His girlfriend was furious. At the centre of it all: Bowles’s flair, long hair, gawkish gait but spellbinding ability to accelerate, decelerate, anticipate. His late winner at Newcastle, voodoo with the ball against Middlesbrough, a perfect winning goal at Leicester, then what could have been a title-clincher against Leeds in our last game of the season.
Among those also watching was the former home secretary Alan Johnson, who says: “Bowles’s impish wizardry left so many Rangers fans with wonderful memories. I am privileged to be one of them.” The broadcaster Robert Elms insists: “The bond between QPR and Stan Bowles is more complete than between any other single player and a football team. This wayward, wondrous, magical, yet totally down-to-earth street genius is the embodiment of our Queens Park Rangers.” The composer Michael Nyman says: “My love of Stan goes back to a muddy match when he first played at Loftus Road against Rangers for Carlisle in 1972 [we signed him five months later]. He was as astonishing then as in every subsequent match I saw him play in.”
Stan’s golden years were shared, on and off the pitch, with Shanks, the QPR defender famous for “stealing” Miss World winner Mary Stavin from Liverpool’s Graeme Souness. Bowles reputedly took every opportunity during a game at Anfield to remind Souness of his mate’s conquest. “Stan played football without stress or pressure,” Shanks recalls. “While other players would be in a panic during a big game, or poor shape for a bad one, Stan would just play. ‘Give me the ball, I’ll do the rest.’ A football pitch was Stan’s natural home.”
Stan can hardly remember who he is. It's heartbreaking, soul-destroying.
The manager Dave Sexton stressed then what he called Rangers’ “continental” football, inspired by Dutch games, and Shanks places Bowles in the history of what has happened to British football since. Shanks says: “Stan was like players who come from Europe now, before their time: Costa, Agüero. A star, but unselfish; he was a team player … amazing rapport. We knew what Stan would try to do – the amazing thing is that he did it. Round the back of the defence, with pace – and magic.”
But it was Stan the man that Shanks – and QPR fans and players – loved too. “Everyone was equal to Stan,” he says. “It didn’t matter if you were collecting rubbish or a pop star. If QPR were up in Manchester, he might stay over and play for a Sunday league team.” Bowles would stop over at Shanks’s parents’ flat on the White City estate, next to Loftus Road: “Always polite – ‘Thank you Mr Shanks, thank you Mrs Shanks’ … I used to say: ‘It’s OK Stan – no one else talks to them like that.’”
I remember Bowles joining fans in The Crown & Sceptre near QPR’s ground on Christmas Eve – his birthday. He was offered more pints than even he could manage, and bought a few himself, for total – albeit adoring – strangers.
Most famously: “Stan loved a bet,” says Shanks, who was also his partner at the White City dog track or bookmakers. “Not big money – it was a pastime, 50 quid between two dogs, for the adrenaline rush. He hardly went to a casino, but if he did, he’d put £20 here, £20 there. Later, he’d go to those card schools and play for six hours.” A barman at the dog track was John O’Mahony, now among fans campaigning for a Bowles testimonial. He says: “Stan always drew people round him, but he never showed off. He was always just himself.”
And he still is, but actually not. Bowles moved back from London to Manchester before the family announced his condition in 2015. And here he is, at the Whitegate Inn on the road to Oldham, enjoying lager-and-lemonade-top with Andria, his friend Mike, a builder who visits every day, and Joanne Connolly, a fan whose dad – “Taxi Teddy” – knew Bowles from outings to the dogs; Joanne calls Stan the “adolescent fervour that lasted a lifetime”.
Stan wears a dapper woollen overcoat, tartan tweed hat and smart scarf. Now he puts on a pair of sunglasses. “Dino!” he says. “That’s Robert De Niro,” explains Mike. “Dino!” repeats Stan. “It’s hard to speak Stan-ish,” says Andria. “He’s having a good day today, but it’s not always like this. On bad days, he’s a rabbit in the headlights, very anxious and confused.” Andria, the modern-day matriarch of Moston, is a woman of humbling strength and commitment, but insists to the contrary: “It’s something I do,” she says of her charge. She admits: “He was a selfish dad, but he’s mellowed, he’d started to do that before the disease. Now he’s home, with us, where my own nan and grandpa lived.”
There are moments of sudden clarity from Bowles. I mention Gerry Francis, the QPR captain with whom Stan had a telepathic rapport: “Gerry, he’s alright he is.” And when you call him Stan he corrects you: “It’s Stanley!”
In comes Stanley’s great-granddaughter, Macie, aged five. Andria used to run another pub down the road “where my nan used to drink”, but gave it up to look after Macie (“my son’s daughter, but …”) before Stanley was diagnosed. “So it’s like having two children now,” says Andria. I ask: “Macie, does he do what he’s told?” “No, ’cause he doesn’t know what you’re saying. He can’t talk proper because he’s poorly. But I understand him.”
Mike says he still takes Stanley for a bet: “He’ll write ‘2.15C’ – it could be Cheltenham, it could be Catterick. Once he put a tenner on a winner, worth £130, but he’d thrown away the chit.”
“London!” Stanley repeats. Mike takes him “up” to the smoke occasionally, and they stay around Brentford, Bowles’s last professional club. Mention of the Bees starts another, urgent, conversation: that club staged a benefit game in 1987, and this season published a commemorative programme to raise funds for Stan’s welfare. “I see myself looking after him for the rest of his life,” Andria insists, but talk inevitably turns to the possibility that Stan will need residential care one day. “There are two options,” Shanks had said, “go the NHS way or get private so he can be comfortable and his family can visit.” “There’s a place down the road,” says Andria, “£600 a week.”
Bowles played in days when footballers even at his level were unable to plan for what might follow. The announcement that Billy McNeill – the first captain of a British team, Celtic, to hoist the European Cup, half a century ago – suffers from dementia reopened the dual debates over welfare and head injuries. Bowles’s condition – and dire financial straits – is an example of the game’s reluctance to look after its own; Nobby Stiles also suffers from Alzheimer’s, but there is scant care from mighty Manchester United. Alex Young, who died last week from a short illness after suffering from dementia, had better luck having played for Everton who operate, says O’Mahony, “a role-model system for former players”.
QPR has an ex-players association, but with no benevolent welfare charge. “Sometimes,” says Shanks, “I wonder what the PFA is there for if not to help people like Stan and Frank Sibley [Rangers midfielder in that 1967 Wembley final, now battling Parkinson’s]. I also wonder if the people running QPR understand the legacy, who Stan was, what he meant to the club and its fans.”
The club did organise a Stan Bowles Day in 2015, at which he waved to adoring crowds before a game with Rotherham. Fifty pence from each programme went to Bowles, and there’s a fund with over £15,000 in it – but the matter of a proper testimonial at QPR has embittered some corners of Shepherd’s Bush. Discussions began in 2015, when supporters met the club soon after Bowles’s family made his condition public. “The first meeting was positive,” says O’Mahony, “but it was down to us to arrange it all, and raise funds. Now we’re two years down the line, and Stan has deteriorated.”
A spokesman for the club referred to a statement a fortnight ago from the chief executive, Lee Hoos, who said: “To set the record straight: QPR, as a club, welcome the proposal of a Stan Bowles benefit match. We are determined to help put on an event for Stan that supports his care and raises money … We are today starting the steps to ensure this event is a success.”
“There’s no coming back from where Stan is now,” says Shanks. “But …” He recalls Stan Bowles Day – “when Stan walked out at Loftus Road he knew exactly where he was, for some reason; a moment of knowing who he was. The family’s been fantastic, and now this should be testimonial year for Stan – he was the greatest, this is a special case. I’ve got a lump in my throat saying this, but we don’t have long. We can’t get to that situation of: ‘Oh, should’ve done this, should’ve done that.’ It has to be now.”
We raise another glass in Manchester. “We all love you Stan!” Bowles puts down his beer, takes my hand with a vice-grip, and stands. “Stay still,” he says, takes my head between his palms and plants a smacker on my cheek. I glance towards the others and, as Mike says, “I’ve got glass in my eyes”. Stanley sits and says: “I’m still going.” His eyes twinkle. And again: “I’m still going.”
Old Danes Gathering
The next Old Danes Gathering at Shepherds Bush CC is scheduled for 2018.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also a large number of photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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