G&C 209
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 209
May 2020
Ossie Burton
I don’t how Ron Impey knew Dick Simpson and probably don’t want to. But, nevertheless, as a result Ron led a motley mid-week crew down to Surbiton in the late sixties for the first of what became a series of Wednesday and later weekend fixtures between South Hampstead and Surbiton. After the initial match Dick made occasional but flamboyant appearances at Milverton Road. He invariably in conversation made reference to the West Indian quick bowler, Ossie Burton, who played for Surbiton at weekends. After protracted negotiations, to Dick’s dismay, Ossie made his South Hampstead debut for the seconds in late May 1972. The following weekend he played for the first eleven in a league match against Hornsey in which he took 3 for 53. His first scalp was Alan “Daisy” Day.
In 1972 he topped the South Hampstead 1st XI bowling averages with 46 wickets at 14.54. That year Geoff Howe took 89 wickets, Alan Cox 64 and Bill Hart 45. In 1972 Ossie was 41, although nobody knew it at the time.
In 1973 he again topped the bowling averages with 77 wickets at 12.61 and also had the lowest economy rate. Alan Cox took 110 wickets that season. In 1974 Ossie took most wickets tied with Keith Hardie at 71. In 1975 he topped the bowling averages with 88 wickets at 12.42. In 1976 he took 95 wickets. And so it went on.
In the 1970s League cricket had started on Saturdays and Sunday cricket was still fiercely competitive. Ian Jerman and then Steve Thompson captained the Saturday side and Don Wallis and then I captained the Sunday side. Ossie was always available because he worked nights on the London underground and so he would often play having had none or minimal sleep. He would put in a full shift on Saturday afternoon and then I would treat him as if we were starting again.
I was a bat first captain and so often I would start the second innings with the slow left armers -Cox, Hardie or Cozens at one end and Ossie at the other. Ossie would bowl about six and then I would offer him a rest knowing that I would need him for ten more of the last twenty. I was still doing this in my last season, 1981, when Ossie was 50. He never once complained or performed less than totally. However, you would sometimes detect an extra spring in his step if there was a bit of green in the wicket, such as at Beaconsfield.
In the bar he could normally be found near the phone and notice boards chatting with Rhys Axworthy or Dick Simpson, if he was around. Some said that he was Dick’s minder, but I cannot imagine this gentle man ever being physical with anyone else.
When we had the initial South Hampstead Re-unions in the early 2000s no one had been able to contact Ossie but at Bill Hart’s gathering in a Lord’s box in 2013 we were all delighted to see him. The usual buzz went round the box about his age and so I decided to confront him: “If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you” He replied, “I’m 82”. I went on “Why have we never known your age?” He replied, “Because no-one ever asked me”.
Steve Thompson sent me this
Were a 15 year-old boy to undress for PE first thing on a Monday morning and reveal severe bruising to the inner right thigh and similar contusions to the lower left in the school changing room of today, his PE teacher would be duty-bound to report the matter to the head as a possible child protection issue. Not so on the 22nd June of 1970 and not so when the boy’s PE teacher was Russ Collins himself no stranger to the developing concentric scarlet to purple patterns which result from five and a half ounces of Dukes cricket ball on unprotected flesh.
The previous afternoon I had batted at number three for South Hampstead 2nd XI against Surbiton Ist XI. Suffice to say it was one of those innings one has as a teenager which begins the process of defining you as a batsman. Courtesy of G&C’s scorebook archive, SH batting first were all out 89. There were 6 ducks and the scorecard reveals only Denley 51 and Thompson 22 reached double figures. One O. Burton’s figures read 17-4-36-8 with all but one of the eight being bowled. I can remember being at the crease and I can still remember the pain that comes with being struck repeatedly in the same place on the inner thigh. It was as they say, ‘character building’. I can also remember Nigel Ross, also playing for Dick Simpson’s Surbiton All- Stars that day giving me typically generous encouragement after every over survived. This was the first occasion that I spent time on a cricket field with Ossie, it was to my great fortune to be the first of many. I only faced him once more, two years later in a midweek game at South Hampstead. I was suffering from a bout of diarrhoea and on the loo when the first wicket fell (b. Burton). Within three minutes, one ball later, I returned to my cubicle (lbw Burton).
Courtesy of Dick, Ossie soon came to South Hampstead. At a time when personnel changed often and the dressing room echoed to antipodean accents, Ossie was a most wonderful constant.
I cannot remember ever facing Ossie again - if he did attend nets, I cannot recall it, but then why would he? Come the second week in April, he would be thrown the ball, come in from the Milverton Road end off his six or seven paces and hit the proverbial sixpence. He would do that week in, week out all summer long. I cannot recall any opposition batsman (even the best of them) tearing into him. His economy rate would surely have been as low as any. For those of us lucky enough to have captained him - he was a dream. You never thought, I wonder how Os will bowl today? The biggest challenge was not to over bowl him. In time, I learned, ‘One more Os?’ was the best way to ascertain whether or not he needed a breather down at fine leg. Invariably he would tilt that marvellous head to one side and in that lovely, endearing, stuttered manner say ‘Yes’. It was never, ‘No’. It was the manner of the ‘Yes’ which let you know how he was feeling and whether the wheel-tapping on the Underground of the long night before was finally beginning to tell.
We rarely saw him bat but when we did it was invariably accompanied by Terry’s giggling after every essayed flick to leg. There would be the occasional contact which resulted in a maximum and even greater guffaws from Cords. I can hear it now. I cannot remember Ossie throwing in overarm from the boundary. The underarm flick back to the keeper on the full from his position down by the gate became trademark.
Of all the outstanding contributions Ossie made to the life of South Hampstead Cricket Club and there were many, for me, one other stands out. In an era where an increasing number of young black players were joining the club, Ossie became a significant factor in their development. Not overtly of course, not his style, but more subtly. If anyone was worthy of emulation, it was Ossie.
In more than a decade of sharing hours both on and off the cricket field I doubt we shared more than a few dozen conversations of any length. In many ways I knew very little about him. And yet I also feel I really knew him. He suffered personal loss and typically bore it with great fortitude. That hearing of his passing affected me as much as any, reflects the importance of his presence in my life in a decade which was so developmental for me not just as a cricketer but as a person. In so many ways Ossie was of another era, certainly as far as club cricket is concerned.
When I heard from Jim that he had passed away. I immediately told Heather whose first response was, ‘Bless him, how old was he?’ Wasn’t that what we asked every time he defied the ageing process with another lengthy spell?
This is a deliberately long reflection. If, as we believe, Ossie died as a consequence of contracting Covid-19 it is sadly highly likely that he died without the presence of anyone who really knew him. And yet, throughout the 70s and 80s mention of his name in pavilions around the London club circuit will have been greeted with universal affection and admiration. Ossie Burton was a very special cricketer, but more so, he was a very special human being.
Bob Fisher sent me this
I was so sorry to learn of the death of Ossie Burton. Way back
in the 1960's or maybe early 70's, I often played for Ernie Perrone's
side against South Hampstead in a mid-week game. Ernie was the
secretary of Paddington and his side used to include Ron Bunning often with his son Chris and other young Brondesbury players. I can recall Mike
Gatting being one of these once, I think he was around 15 at the time.
Anyway, always in the South Hampstead side used to be Ossie, a terrific bowler of line and length with an almost effortless action. He was competitive
but in a very nice way and whilst I cannot remember if he did or not, I
suspect he might have slowed his pace down when the youngsters were at
the wicket. On one occasion and I do not know why or when it was, I
happened to be in the same side as Ossie and keeping wicket got a close
up view of his bowling skill and the number of times that he beat the
bat were extraordinary. Off the field he was always very pleasant. I
had not seen him for many years but maybe 15 to 20 years ago, I met him
purely by chance close to Swiss Cottage underground station and we had a
nice chat about those days gone by. It is a memory that I will treasure.
Allen Bruton sent me this
So sad to hear of the death of Ossie Burton. A fantastic bowler and a wonderful gentleman so quiet and modest, even his appeals for a plumb lbw were delivered as a polite enquiry to the umpire. I cannot recall a single stand out performance simply because outstanding performances were the normal for Ossie. It was an absolute pleasure to have played cricket with him and meet up at the occasional South Hampstead reunions. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Bob Peach sent me this
Ossie arrived at South Hampstead in 1972 as part of the Dick Simpson travelling circus. He was a welcome addition to the club’s powerful but declining seam attack, and it was ironic that he was older than those he replaced. Much quieter and less demonstrative than several of his colleagues Ossie took the ball in mid-April and seemingly bowled continuously up to September each year until around 2000. He made a significant contribution to South Hampstead’s Middlesex Cup successes and the league and Cup double in the early 70’s. The effectiveness of the unerring accuracy of his fast-medium seam bowling was enhanced by the short time he took to bowl an over. With Peach running back faster than he bowled, 22 overs an hour was no exception. He was no mean batsman when required and his resilient innings to take the club into the national KO semi-final in 1975 is well remembered. Although verbally quiet during the game he was good company off the field. A really genuine nice guy it was typical that after his cricketing time he sang in a local church choir for many years.
In and Within on the Professor’s sofa
The daffodils being in full bloom, the time had come for the little yellow house-brick to drop through the letter box, its 1,536 pages making the customary dent in the hall carpet. I think it must be a sign of increasing age that I rather look forward to “my” Wisden arriving. Even more damning is the ritual I have noticed in myself of first looking at all the photos, then reading the editorial, then going through the reports of the matches I attended and then finally, and slowly, plodding through the rest of the text, picking and choosing bits to read.
The photos are, so it seems to me, increasingly good in Wisden. Given the year of cricket that 2019 was, there must have been much to choose from and I imagine there must have been a long debate (in the editor’s mind, if nowhere else) on which image to put on the cover. I think I would have found the Stokes’ roar hard to resist but, as we all have seen, he went for the Buttler run out. My beef about the photos is not about the images but the captions. I have written about this before but they don’t seem to improve. (Could it be that the editor of Wisden doesn’t read Googlies?) The editor, Lawrence Booth used to write for the Daily Mail I believe (maybe still does) and so a “tabloid” element might be expected, but does a photo of little boys playing cricket in the middle of fishing gear need the caption: “Net Practice”? Two batsmen being hit by the ball produces “Impact Assessment”; Mark Wood touching his mouth is “Finger-lickin’ good”; and on and drearily on. This may be, I readily admit, an old man’s obsession, but does anyone actually like it? Honestly? The Stokes picture is the first in the book and he wins the Leading Player accolade – just about the easiest decision Mr Booth had to make, I should think.
As for the editorial, Googlies readers will have their own view. I thought he was clear in his dislike of televised cricket being behind the Sky “paywall” and notes, by comparison, the success of broadcasting the WC Final on free-to-air. Booth is in favour of five-day tests in most case as, I think, are most people. He has a pragmatic view about The Hundred: he lampoons the promo material that has Southern Brave (Hants and Somerset) as the team that “go boldly where others shy away” – a bit rich from him given the dreadful puns, a couple of which slip into the Editorial. But he hopes: “for the sake of crickets finances” that it will work, as, I imagine, do most cricket lovers. There’s a slightly sideways paragraph about racism in cricket which could do, in my view, with a more forthright statement. But, for the whole, it seemed a well-balanced review.
Reading through the reports of the matches I attended is a touch like rushing home from the match to see what you have just been watching on the TV…and who hasn’t done that. In general, the accounts accord with my memories and when they don’t I am, these days, less sure that it is the reporter who is in error or my recollection. I did go to Yorkshire’s very first match last year against the Leeds/Bradford students. It was Olivier’s debut and I thought the students did rather well against bowling of that pace. The report was clear and concise but didn’t mention my principal memory, which was that March 31st on a wide-open field on the outskirts of Leeds was about as cold a day as I have ever experienced, watching or playing.
Some of the other articles are well worth a read, I particularly liked Andy Bull’s piece about left handers. He reports something I had never heard of: a campaign by the Times to ban left-handers. They are: “a thorough nuisance and cause a waste of time”. The Grauniad chipped in with: “they tend to upset the poise and movement of the game”. When I was playing I thought they should all have been drowned at birth, but the piece, obviously discusses the great left-handers, together with grainy photos of Frank Woolley, et al.
Grainy photos are much in evidence in some of the footage that Lord’s has put out recently, it is all very staged and stiff but there are chances to watch, for example, Everton Weekes playing for a Lancashire club side called Bacup, who I confess I had not heard of before. He played there for seven seasons passing the 1,000 mark each time. The Lord’s footage shows a game against Rawtenstall – a local derby apparently. There was however some local interest in these two very small Lancashire towns and not a bad gate really for a club game – the match was watched by 11,000 people.
There are numerous other articles to go through, although even here the writers are subjected to the dreadful punning titles – a piece about the impact of tropical storm Humberto on county matches is: “Humberto’s Echo” (ye Gods).A final thought is, of course, for next year: 1,536 pages might just be a touch hard to fill from the 2020 season and Wisden might start, once again, to take on the appearance of the War-time editions. Still there’s a fair bit more reading to do in this one and, these days, I find I have comparatively few appointments in my diary. Stay safe Googlies readers.
Morgan Matters
With nothing else to write about, Tanya Aldred has come up with her top 15 cricketing books of all time: Golden Boy (Christian Ryan), Pundits from Pakistan (Rahul Bhattacharya), An Australian Summer (Patrick Eagar and Alan Ross), Following On (Emma John), Glory Gardens 1-9 (Bob Cattell), Tom Graveney's Top Ten Cricket Book, The Art of Captaincy (Mike Brearley), Beyond a Boundary (CLR James), Wisden, The Judge (Robin Smith and Rob Smyth), Mystery Spinner (Gideon Haigh), Steve Smith's Men (Geoff Lemon), Another Bloody Tour (Frances Edmonds), Fred Trueman (Chris Waters) and Rain Men (Marcus Berkmann).
B Stokes has been named as Wisden's leading cricketer in the world, A Flintoff (2005) was the last Englishman to receive the award. Wisden's 5 Cricketers of the Year are Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Ellyse Perry (all Oz), Jofra Archer and Simon Harmer. Perry is also the world's leading women's cricketer.
My 2020 Wisden arrived today (£55 to you, £25 to me) and it immediately settled one or two issues. Ollie Rayner's career first class batting record was 3,432 runs @ 20.3 with two hundreds (best 143*), his career first class bowling record was 313 wickets (best 8-46) @ 33.26 with 10 five wicket innings hauls and one 10 wicket match haul, he took 196 first class catches. Alan Moss died on 12 March this year aged 88, he played 307 first class matches for Middlesex taking 1,088 wickets with career best figures of 8-31, he took 5 wickets in an innings 59 times and 10 wickets in a match 13 times with an average of 19.81. This places him 8th on the all-time list of Middlesex wicket takers, which is topped by FJ Titmus (2,361) followed by JT Hearne, JW Hearne, JM Sims, JE Emburey, JA Young, FJ Durston, then AEM. Only Mossy does not have a J initial! In all first class matches, Mossy took 1,301 wickets at 20.78. Six of Ireland's top ODI scores are by Middlesex men: P Stirling 177, E Joyce 160*, A Balbirnie 145*, A Balbirnie 135, P Stirling 130 and P Stirling 126. At 37 years and 225 days, Tim Murtagh (54* v Afghanistan) became the second oldest no 11 to hit a Test fifty and also became the eleventh to make top score from no 11 in all Test cricket.
Graeme Smith is the permanent director of South African cricket, despite being in charge of SA's dismal 1-3 home defeat to Eng in December.
Because of the dreaded virus, Middlesex are launching their first ever online Members' forum. Questions will be answered by Mike O'Farrell ((Mx Chairman), Richard Goatley (Chief Exec) and Gus Fraser (Managing Director of Cricket). Can't wait!
I got this by e-mail from Middx today: "Middlesex CCC has furloughed all players and the majority of coaches, professional support and administrative staff until further notice under the government's coronavirus job retention scheme, in measures to protect the long-term well-being and stability of the Club." I get fairly regular informative e-mails from them these days: it is not as good as seeing some cricket, of course, but it shows they are trying!
ECB boss Tom Harrison sometimes sounds sensible, but other times he talks bollocks: this quote falls into the latter category "the importance of the Hundred has been accelerated by the coronavirus"!
J Marler's 10 week ban for grabbing AW Jones's bollocks will pass without him missing a match thanks to the virus.
I have just finished the May Cricketer and it is a hell of a lot better than the last one. Only 98 pages, but as there has been hardly any cricket anywhere, that is not a bad effort. It seems that Z Crawley made 91 against a Sri Lankan XI and a ton against a SL Board President's XI and J Root also made a ton v the Pres XI; I had previously seen no scores whatsoever from the short SL tour. C Woakes has turned down the chance to fulfil his contract with Delhi Capitals in the IPL, saying he thought it would help him to extend his England career. Colin Ackermann is the new captain of Leicestershire. George Dobell wants a good selection of local derbies to replace the dreaded Hundred... "and if the Hundred doesn't happen this year, C Graves can go and he can take his unnecessary, unwanted, unsustainable competition with him". There is a good 3-page article on Ian "Gunner" Gould, who has a new (auto?) biography published by Pitch Publishing titled "Gunner, My Life in Cricket" (£19.99). M Selvey thinks that "it will not be long until England tour Pakistan again". It was (slightly) surprising to see a full page article on Tony Adams (yes, that one) and his love of cricket: "I've always loved cricket, I'm a big Essex fan and Graham Gooch was one of my idols... my defensive technique is solid - a bit Boycottian".
Tim de Lisle, in the G, thinks that England should resort to staging simultaneous series from July onwards in order to squeeze in all the fixtures they need. There would be two separate England teams eg Test team: Burns, Sibley, Denly or Crawley, Root, Pope, Bairstow, S Curran, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson, 12th: Leach; ODI team: Roy, Hales, Banton, Morgan, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen, Woakes, Rashid, T Curran, Wood.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me the following
WGCCC
After being the champion club in the Herts Premier League in the previous three seasons, 2019 proved to be a slight disappointment. We were second to Radlett after the match between us was abandoned without a ball being bowled when a win or a win draw would have won us the league. We were beaten by a very good Potters Bar side in the semi final and they went on to beat Radlett in the final on our ground.
The Potters Bar match with us featured two outstanding performances by good young cricketers. The WGCCC score of around 230 was almost entirely due to a superb century by Jamie Southgate who was once a Lord’s ground staff boy and is a Herts regular. But the Man of the Match was Thilan Walawakita whose ten overs of spin brought him four wickets for few and all were key batsmen. He also figured prominently in the play-off final scoring valuable runs and conceding few himself. He is now on the Middlesex staff.
Jamie Southgate was poached by East Molesey CC as their player coach for £50k pa. Unfortunately for Jamie this looks like being a hypothetical signing for this year. And I thought that we played recreational amateur cricket (let’s forget about Owais Shah for the moment).
Virus Chaos
The virus must be causing financial havoc in cricket clubs not least because of the loss of income from junior cricket. WGCCC run about a dozen junior sides U9 to U17 involving about a hundred juniors. The subs are paid up front by mums and dads and so we lose about £8000 before the season starts.
The club bar which opens every day of the week turns over about £250k giving a net profit of about £65k. This has been closed since March 20 and there is no re-opening date. This is serious but we are miles better off than most clubs. We can save a little from not having to pay a coach or a visiting Aussie player, or Mr Shah’s match fees.
The only happy people are the groundsmen who love preparing the outfield and wicket but hate anyone playing on it.
Like the GJM my Middlesex membership came through and 2020 looks like being very bad value. I go to no white ball cricket and look forward to 8-10 days of county cricket each year plus one boozy lunch in Pelhams at the end of the season. It looks like there will be no county cricket and so can I get a refund?
Extras
Whilst captaining an all day Sunday 1stXI game for WGCC against Old Merchant Taylors I took an instant dislike to their captain, a tall somewhat arrogant man, who explained on the way out to the toss up that he didn’t normally play in this grade of cricket and our ground though a little small was quaint. First, we were quite a good side and secondly our ground is very nice and certainly not small.
Anyway, we batted first and made about 240 and when they batted they looked like winning easily. Their opener, Ducat, who I think played Minor Counties cricket, had scored 80 odd and they were cruising at 160-3 with lots of overs to go. At this point our very reliable gentle seamer, John Page, took withs with consecutive deliveries which brought the aforementioned captain to the crease at 160 for 5. He approached Ducat at the other end and took his bat from him handing him a replacement. This took a minute or so. He then took guard and was bowled first ball. Hat trick for John and a slow trudge back to the pavilion for the captain. This was interrupted to my great satisfaction by Ducat who chased after him, tapped him on the shoulder and asked for his bat back. WGCCC won the match.
Incidentally John Page was one of those bowlers one rarely sees in club or first class cricket these days. In my side I had John and Geoff Cowgill who had played at Edmonton with David Evans, Tony Berry, John Snow, Sunil Gavaskar etc. They both bowled at the wicket, never short and every now and then the ball would hit the seam and sometimes it would swing. It was always a delight to see a typical over in which the batsman played two to mid-off, two back to the bowler and two to mid-on. The batsman would look amazed that the over was completed and it had only taken ninety seconds.
I was umpiring a game at Knebworth Park, a Herts League fixture against Redbourn. The home side scored around 200 and were winning the game as the visitors struggled at 80 for 6. In comes number 8. His green helmet failed to cover up an untidy mess of red hair. As he walked to the crease a Knebworth wag remarked “Fuck me, they’re bringing in Mick Hucknall”. Whereupon three or four of the fielding side started to sing “If you don’t know me by now”. I could hardly keep a straight face as I gave the Simply Red lookalike his guard. The batsman held up the bowler as he ran in to bowl complaining about the reception. I remember “Holding back the tears” also being sung during the batsman’s brief stay at the wicket but in reality most people were pissing themselves. I suppose in this day and age this would be a level 1 or 2 offence but to us then it was just funny.
I pointed out a while back that Surrey fielded five wicket keepers in a county match- Burns, Sangakkara, Davies, Foakes and Wilson. England could replicate this quintet: Burns, Bairstow, Buttler, Pope and Foakes.
Lockdown Matters
John Williams sent me this
It's very much business as usual for me during the day although I would have been at Lord's last week on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday and at Cheltenham on Wednesday & Thursday. But it's the evening's when I can't get down the pub that are really frustrating. But large G & T's and glasses of Laithwaites large reds help. However, a revolution is looming if the loonies try to lock us up till next year!
I am currently reading Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket. I have just reached Wednesday 19th August 1953 at the Oval. Earlier that summer I had just finished my 1st year at the Lower School of John Lyon when my parents despatched me to my paternal grandparents in Monkmoor Road, Shrewsbury. They lived in a semi-detached house in which the lounge was kept locked and only used on special occasions. They had no TV or phone and for some reason on that final day of the Oval Test I was allowed into the lounge to listen to the radio commentary on that famous day as Compton swept Morris for the winning runs.
The following Saturday I went to Gay Meadow to see Salop beat Watford 6-4. Then on Monday there was another Division 3 South game when they drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace.
The passing of Norman Hunter last week brought back memories of that World Cup qualifier against Poland when Jan - The Clown- Tomaszewski played so brilliantly. Norman had missed his tackle on the halfway line from which error Poland scored their goal in a 1-1 draw. I had been a fairly regular follower of England when they played at Wembley but that was the last time I watched them live. I suppose having been at Wembley on 30th July 1966 did not help. The England goal in that game against Poland was scored by Allan Clarke from the penalty spot. He was one of 5 brothers who all played professional football and only the eldest, Frank, did not play for Walsall. Frank played for Shrewsbury Town from where he moved to QPR for a few seasons. GJM might remember him. Bowser -Dave Bowers - of Eastcote certainly does. You may recall Bowser as he was a colt at South Hampstead.
Steve Thompson sent me this
One Wednesday night in the mid -70s after a game at South Hampstead, a well-oiled Jim Franklin was taking me home in his early prototype of the driverless car. There had been a particularly quick bowler playing for the opposition that afternoon and as we meandered our way back to Chiswick Jim recalled the time he had to face John Price in a Cross Arrows game at Lord’s some years before. ‘How did you play him Jim?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I decided I’d get absolutely everything behind it. In he came off his curved run and I middled it.’ ‘Well done,’ I said. He continued, ‘Yes, middled it, the bat flew straight out of my hands and took all fucking three out!’
Allen Bruton sent me this
We were informed some time ago by the Professor in his excellent Out and About features that York C.C. were to host county cricket at their Clifton Park Ground. This took me back to 1975 and the highlight of my cricket career when South Hampstead captain Ian Jerman informed me that I was in the team for the National Knockout Semi Final v. York. The match was played on a Monday and sadly we failed to progress to the final. The York cause aided to a certain extent by their umpire seemingly promoting the case for neutral officials.
Our Saturday league match prior to the final was away to Brondesbury, a game watched by county coach Don Bennett as Mike Gatting featured for Brondesbury and Nigel Ross for ourselves. Post-match Don joined us in the bar and the forthcoming semi-final was discussed, whereupon Don announced he would happily release Nigel from county duties to enable him to play. Suddenly a total silence descended and I was aware of at least fifteen pairs of eyes staring in my direction. Quickly assessing the situation, I volunteered to step down to twelfth man. Conversation immediately resumed a few decibels higher and a distinctly more optimistic tone.
Following many years of counselling I am pretty much recovered from my PTSD condition with only the occasional flashback to the Brondesbury bar.
Ken Molloy sent me this
Why are the Chinese no good at cricket?
Because they eat all the bats….
Eric Tracey sent me this
Something the Middlesex cohort that forms the base of the Googlies readership might enjoy to fill the void in these cricket-less times is a play – A Month of Sundays, by Bob Larbey which is all around the championship winning Middlesex XI of 1947 – (captained by a distant cousin of my wife’s mother, one RWVR).
Alvin Nienow sent me this
It was great to see the response from Bob Fisher. I played against Bob and Alan Price starting at the Bush and continuing when I went to South Hampstead, and later at Reading. It was always very competitive on the field and good fun in the bar afterwards. When I was at the Bush, being of a similar age amongst often much older players, we naturally congregated together.
Bob’s reference to the Evening Standard League brings more reminiscences. Following my 1959 performance against Wembley, in 1960, I became the Bush Vice-Captain under Dennis Capps. Unfortunately, Dennis broke his finger playing football just before the season started, so I was suddenly thrust into the role of captain at the age of 22. Surprisingly, we went on to win the North of Thames Section (it was run as Bob described, except as I recall, it was not necessarily for Middlesex teams, because when I was at South Hampstead, more than once we came second to Wanstead). We played Elmers End in the final at Ealing; but unlike Ealing, we lost. A key reason for this was that our youngest star, Chris Langhorne, decided that in September it was more important to go for hockey training with Hounslow. As he later played hockey for GB in the Olympics, he clearly made the correct decision. However, as he batted at 4, bowled slow left arm and was a demon fielder, it seemed like we lost half a team.
The next year at the Bush, I was vice-captain to Bob Talbot, which didn’t work out. In the winter, I played squash with Bob Peach every Sunday evening and we then drank afterwards at South Hampstead. Bob and I had been in the same class at St Clement Danes from the age of 11; then we were at the University of London at the same time. Whenever I played for the school juniors or 1st X! and later in our final year at university, Bob was captain. So with his encouragement, I upped-sticks and joined SH. Moving clubs in those days was pretty much frowned upon in the London circuit, so I was a bit nervous and very anxious to prove myself, especially as I was immediately picked for the 1st XI when there were so many good players in the club already. Anyway, the first weekend, as I recall, I was due to bat at about 4 or 5 and on the Saturday, Terry Cordaroy (then a 17 year old) and John Weale opened with Len Stubbs at 3. Terry got about 2000 runs that year and John about 1500 with Len chipping in with about 1700 (in less minutes!). Anyway, I didn’t bat! On Sunday, we played Finchley, and Ron Hooker, in one of his early season outings with SH before the county season got properly underway, opened and was out before lunch having scored a blistering 100! Incidentally, Josh Levy who was skippering Finchley, brought himself on just after Ron was out! So, again, I didn’t bat.
The next weekend Bob decided he should try to let others have a knock and Alan Clain was duly put up the order. Alan, a previous captain of SH, was a cancer surgeon, known as ‘Butcher’ for obvious reasons, as hard as nails, who used to field at suicidal short leg and one of the side’s senior citizens (along with Norman Cooper, a brilliant wicket keeper). After a few balls, Alan took a suicidal short single and was struck on the forehead by the shy at the stumps! Though he wanted to remain, there was a lot of blood and he grudgingly retired to the pavilion for repairs. We batted on and a declaration was clearly approaching. I was next in and a wicket fell. In order not to waste time, I leapt to my feet and set off, thinking of a few balls to have a go at without any responsibility. I promptly tripped over a boundary rope and fell dramatically down on my face. By the time I got up, Bob had declared!
Clearly, there are some noteworthy details missing from this account. I cannot remember what happened when I finally batted but I had a terrible season with the bat. Fortunately, it hardly mattered with the batting we had; and fielding at cover, I got many run-outs; Don Wallis called me ‘our fielder’ for the rest of my time at SH!
Ricky Gunn sent me this
My own personal best memory was hooking an already peeved Roy Cutler off my nose for four at Southgate in 1974. Peeved, because he had me caught in the slips off a no-ball two balls earlier. Alf Langley ultimately caught me at deep backward square running round from fine leg. Anyone with shorter arms wouldn’t have reached it.
Miller Matters
Douglas Miller poses another quiz
There have been 43 Test captains of England since the war. Of these five did not captain a side when a new cap was awarded. They are Donald Carr, John Edrich, Allan Lamb, Mark Butcher and Kevin Pietersen.
The following 38 players all received their first cap under a different captain: Dennis Amiss, Bob Appleyard, Bill Athey, Bob Barber, Jack Birkenshaw, Ian Botham, John Childs, Brian Close, Alastair Cook, Geoff Cook, Norman Cowans, Tim Curtis, Richard Ellison, Liam Dawson, Phillip DeFreitas, Godfrey Evans, Keith Fletcher, James Foster, Mike Gatting, Warren Hegg, Mike Hendrick, Jeff Jones, Don Kenyon, Jim Laker, Peter Lever, Peter Loader, John Mortimore, Graham Onions, Craig Overton, Kevin Pietersen, Jack Robertson, Fred Rumsey, Reg Simpson, Phil Tufnell, Sean Udal, Johnny Wardle, Mike Watkinson, Bob Woolmer. Can you pair up the players and the captains?
Some of you may still be grappling with Douglas’ quiz from the last edition. Here are the answers:
1. Who won his first cap in the same Test match as these England captains:
a) Mike Atherton – Devon Malcolm
b) Nasser Hussain – Alec Stewart
c) Michael Vaughan (2) – Gavin Hamilton and Chris Adams
d) Ted Dexter (2) – Illingworth and Subba Row
e) Alastair Cook (2) – Monty Panesar and Ian Blackwell
2. Nineteen men played Test cricket for England before and after World War II. Can you name them? GO Allen, FR Brown, Hutton, Compton, Hardstaff, Hammond, Edrich, Gibb, Hollies, Copson, Bowes, Fishlock, Langridge, Yardley, Washbrook, Wright, Barnett, Gover, Voce.
3. From the nineteen name:
a) The four who made a Test century both before and after the war;
Hutton, Compton, Hardstaff, Edrich
b) The four who made one only before the war but not after;
Hammond, Allen, Barnett, Gibb
c) The only one who made his first Test century after the war. Washbrook
4. Name the ten players who made England Test appearances before and after World War I. - Hobbs, Woolley, Rhodes, Strudwick, Mead, Douglas, Gunn, Hitch, Hearne, Tennyson.
5. Name the four England umpires currently on the ICC elite panel.
Illingworth, Kettleborough, Llong, and Gough.
6. The last specialist batsman to be a one-cap wonder in Tests for England was Alan Wells. Name the other players with only one cap since then. There have been 14 - AM Smith, Lewis, Kabir Ali, Amjad Khan, Ajmal Shahzad, Blackwell, Pattinson, Crane, Stone, Simon Brown, Kerrigan, Hamilton, Borthwick, Rankin.
7. Of all England’s post-war one-cap Test players, who has made the highest score? Neil Williams with 38.
8. Name the pairs of brothers who have played Test cricket for England since the War. (5) Richardson, Greig, Smith (C and R), Hollioake, Curran
9. And the fathers and sons who both played post-war. (8) Hutton, Cowdrey, Bairstow, Jones (Jeff and Simon), Sidebottom, Broad, Butcher and Stewart.
10. And the fathers and sons who played but with the father only pre-war. (3) Mann, Hardstaff and Parks.
11. And all post-war Test England cricketers with a grandfather who was a Test cricketer. (3) Tremlett, Compton and Headley (whose grandfather played for West Indies)
12. Name the 29 players who appeared for England in the summer tests of 1989. Gower, Russell, Gooch, Gatting, R Smith, Lamb, Broad, Robinson, Tavare, Moxon, Curtis, Atherton, Stephenson, Capel, N Foster, N Cook, Small, Dilley, Igglesden, Pringle, Emburey, Barnett, Botham, Malcolm, Fraser, DeFreitas, Hemmings, Jarvis, Newport.
13. Which England Test cricketer died while playing in an inter-diocesan cricket match? ET Killick
14. Which England cricketer lost the 1934 season as he was in prison for manslaughter? VWC Jupp
15. Which England cricketer was in the squad for a football world cup? Willie Watson
16. Which England cricketer received a jail sentence of 13 years for drug smuggling? Chris Lewis
17. Which England cricketer, after the death of another Test cricketer, married his widow? Bob Berry, who married the widow of Malcolm Hilton – both left-arm spinners, who competed for the same place in the Lancashire side!
18. Which England captain lived to read his own obituary? FL Fane
19. Who was the England captain in Hobbs’ first Test match? FL Fane again!
20. Which England cricketer played as a saxophonist in the band of Fred Elizalde? MJC Allom
Media Matters
Harry Compton sent me two Willesden Chronicle cuttings showing Honours Lists from the late fifties. I scanned them and saw Don Bick (Brondesbury) 161, Maurice Applegate (Willesden Green) 116, John Weale (SH)111* and 108*,Roy Huntley (SH) 105*, Jack Singman 102*, John Tutton (SH) 103*, Roy Phipps (SH) 7 for 28 & Alan Huntley 5 for 29. It was only when I got further down that I saw H. Compton (Kilburn Poly) 53* & 60.
“Foreman “Lakers” Southfields” So ran the headline in the Acton Gazette in June 1965. It went on to say: Lakered by the cleverly flighted spin bowling of Frank Foreman, Southfields School from Oxford crashed to a 72 run defeat against St Clement Danes at Northolt. Southfields had made 47 without loss in reply to Danes 153 when Foreman entered the attack. Two smart catches by Bond and two slick stumpings by Matthews helped Frank to capture 9 for 17 as Southfields were shot out for 81. Earlier, after losing early wickets intelligent, attractive batting by Caley(27), J Sharp(29), Morgan(21) and G Sharp(30) enabled the home side to build up a winning score.
Ged Matters
Ged describes a day at Chelmsford for Essex v Lancashire Day One, 20 April 2018
The original idea for this expedition was to be a day at the Essex v Lancashire cricket match with Escamillo Escapillo as well as Charles. Indeed, Charles had also been hoping to line up Nigel “Father Barry White” Hinks – a Lancashire supporter, like Escamillo Escapillo – but in the end neither of the Lancastrians could make it. With the cricket season still new and the weather set fair (at long last), I was still up for it, so we arranged that I would drive over to Malloy Manor, leave Dumbo in safe custody there, while Charley drove us to Chelmsford for the day.
Charley was on hand to greet me as I arrived along the driveway of Malloy Manor – he then directed me to a very specific parking place he had in mind for Dumbo. It’s protocol galore in such rarefied parts of the land, it seems. I had the opportunity to greet Mrs Malloy briefly, but Charley wanted to keep the pre-expedition pleasantries to a minimum, as he was convinced that we needed to get to the members’ car park early. As it happens, Chas was right.
But it also meant that I didn’t get to greet The Boy Malloy, who it transpired was also in the house at that hour, as he is on late shift at the moment. That made me feel badly about not having even shouted out a “hello” to the lad, although The Boy could, of course, have come down to say hello to me. The Boy was probably seething with envy in his room, envisaging me and Chas relaxing all day in the sun at Chelmsford, while he would be toiling on a late day at work.
Chas and I were in the ground and well positioned in the Tom Pearce stand by about 10:20. We would have been in place five minutes sooner, but Chas started to mount the wrong staircase for his favourite spot, realising his mistake quite late in the ascent and displaying considerable embarrassment at his error. “You’re going to blog that mistake, aren’t you?” said Chas. “How many years have you been coming here?” I asked.
We watched the whole of the first session from Chas’s favourite spot, elevated in the Tom Pearce stand. But while there, Chas spotted that, across the way, a small stand with green chairs has been erected, where formerly there were just some higgledy-piggledy loose seats. It was from that shady spot three years ago we had witnessed Essex v the Australians and a steward who seemed to have St Vitas Dance: “That looks tempting for the second session”, said Chas. “I can see some seats at the front, by an aisle, that would certainly do the job”, I agreed. So that’s where we went for the second session and the start of the third. A shadier spot for the hottest part of the day with an excellent view.
Soon after we arrived in that small green stand, a gentleman with a dog, Clive, arrived and sat near us. Chas and I remarked afterwards that, although people talk about County Championship cricket being attended by “one man and his dog”, this was the first time we’d ever seen (or at least noticed) a man with a dog at the cricket. It transpires that the dog’s attendance is perfectly permissible at Chelmsford. Chas wondered whether the same applies at Lord’s. “Only if the dog is of the requisite pedigree and from the right sort of family, I should imagine”, I mused. Clive displayed extreme indifference to the cricket at times, which encouraged me to ask permission to photograph him.
Having enjoyed my ham sandwich in the Tom Pearce (Chas went for cheese initially), I felt ready for my cheese sandwich just before tea – as Chas indeed felt ready for his ham. But, horror of horrors, it transpired that Chas had eaten my cheese sandwich, not his own. I should perhaps explain that it is Mrs Malloy’s charming habit to write a little personalised note in each sandwich, describing in detail the delights therein. Sometimes she will prepare different sandwiches for different people. She knows that I don’t like egg, for example, while Chas normally would opt for egg ahead of cheese.
As good fortune would have it, the menu was exactly the same for both of us on this occasion, so the fact that Chas had eaten “my” cheese sandwich rather than his own ought to have made no difference. But I threatened to snitch on Chas for this error. In fact, perhaps fearful of my squealing, Chas himself confessed to that misdemeanour when we returned to Malloy Manor. Parenthetically, Mrs Malloy seemed irritated and a little anxious about Chas’s mistake, chastising him for his carelessness. Also parenthetically, I have displayed some strange symptoms in the subsequent days, which Daisy has diagnosed as mild arsenic poisoning. Daisy and I are both absolutely sure that these must be entirely unrelated matters.
But I digress. Chas and I moved on to The Boy Malloy’s favourite side-on view (beyond the members area) for most of the final session of play, taking in some early evening spring sunshine. Essex had been on the wrong end of this match for much of the day, but as the day unfolded they were right back in the contest, ending up, in my view, a smidgen ahead. Late in the day we got a response from Escamillo Escapillo to my morning message. I wanted to take and send him a photo of the sunset, but while trying to mug the phone into a suitable light setting, ended up taking and sending a short video instead: I told Escamillo that it had been super entertaining cricket – which it had. Of course it’s super entertaining – it’s Lancs……came the reply.
When Chas and I returned to Malloy Manor, in addition to Chas’s chastisement for the sandwich swap error, I also got a quick tour of the lovely garden and a look at a wonderfully moving cricket team photograph, including Chas’s father, taken in a German prisoner of war camp. It had been a great day. The weather had smiled on us and the cricket had been excellent. An especially memorable day of county championship cricket.
The Last Old Danes Gathering
I understand that SBCC are very keen to keep their cricket week if only for the financial benefit that will accrue to the club. As soon as I have any definite information as to whether the Old Danes Gathering can proceed, I will circulate it separately.
Editor’s Note
From the very early editions I have strictly kept G&C to twelve pages, However, I have received so much excellent material this month that I decided to include it all and give you plenty of Lockdown reading. Please keep sending me stuff to ensure I can fill the next edition.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 209
May 2020
Ossie Burton
I don’t how Ron Impey knew Dick Simpson and probably don’t want to. But, nevertheless, as a result Ron led a motley mid-week crew down to Surbiton in the late sixties for the first of what became a series of Wednesday and later weekend fixtures between South Hampstead and Surbiton. After the initial match Dick made occasional but flamboyant appearances at Milverton Road. He invariably in conversation made reference to the West Indian quick bowler, Ossie Burton, who played for Surbiton at weekends. After protracted negotiations, to Dick’s dismay, Ossie made his South Hampstead debut for the seconds in late May 1972. The following weekend he played for the first eleven in a league match against Hornsey in which he took 3 for 53. His first scalp was Alan “Daisy” Day.
In 1972 he topped the South Hampstead 1st XI bowling averages with 46 wickets at 14.54. That year Geoff Howe took 89 wickets, Alan Cox 64 and Bill Hart 45. In 1972 Ossie was 41, although nobody knew it at the time.
In 1973 he again topped the bowling averages with 77 wickets at 12.61 and also had the lowest economy rate. Alan Cox took 110 wickets that season. In 1974 Ossie took most wickets tied with Keith Hardie at 71. In 1975 he topped the bowling averages with 88 wickets at 12.42. In 1976 he took 95 wickets. And so it went on.
In the 1970s League cricket had started on Saturdays and Sunday cricket was still fiercely competitive. Ian Jerman and then Steve Thompson captained the Saturday side and Don Wallis and then I captained the Sunday side. Ossie was always available because he worked nights on the London underground and so he would often play having had none or minimal sleep. He would put in a full shift on Saturday afternoon and then I would treat him as if we were starting again.
I was a bat first captain and so often I would start the second innings with the slow left armers -Cox, Hardie or Cozens at one end and Ossie at the other. Ossie would bowl about six and then I would offer him a rest knowing that I would need him for ten more of the last twenty. I was still doing this in my last season, 1981, when Ossie was 50. He never once complained or performed less than totally. However, you would sometimes detect an extra spring in his step if there was a bit of green in the wicket, such as at Beaconsfield.
In the bar he could normally be found near the phone and notice boards chatting with Rhys Axworthy or Dick Simpson, if he was around. Some said that he was Dick’s minder, but I cannot imagine this gentle man ever being physical with anyone else.
When we had the initial South Hampstead Re-unions in the early 2000s no one had been able to contact Ossie but at Bill Hart’s gathering in a Lord’s box in 2013 we were all delighted to see him. The usual buzz went round the box about his age and so I decided to confront him: “If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you” He replied, “I’m 82”. I went on “Why have we never known your age?” He replied, “Because no-one ever asked me”.
Steve Thompson sent me this
Were a 15 year-old boy to undress for PE first thing on a Monday morning and reveal severe bruising to the inner right thigh and similar contusions to the lower left in the school changing room of today, his PE teacher would be duty-bound to report the matter to the head as a possible child protection issue. Not so on the 22nd June of 1970 and not so when the boy’s PE teacher was Russ Collins himself no stranger to the developing concentric scarlet to purple patterns which result from five and a half ounces of Dukes cricket ball on unprotected flesh.
The previous afternoon I had batted at number three for South Hampstead 2nd XI against Surbiton Ist XI. Suffice to say it was one of those innings one has as a teenager which begins the process of defining you as a batsman. Courtesy of G&C’s scorebook archive, SH batting first were all out 89. There were 6 ducks and the scorecard reveals only Denley 51 and Thompson 22 reached double figures. One O. Burton’s figures read 17-4-36-8 with all but one of the eight being bowled. I can remember being at the crease and I can still remember the pain that comes with being struck repeatedly in the same place on the inner thigh. It was as they say, ‘character building’. I can also remember Nigel Ross, also playing for Dick Simpson’s Surbiton All- Stars that day giving me typically generous encouragement after every over survived. This was the first occasion that I spent time on a cricket field with Ossie, it was to my great fortune to be the first of many. I only faced him once more, two years later in a midweek game at South Hampstead. I was suffering from a bout of diarrhoea and on the loo when the first wicket fell (b. Burton). Within three minutes, one ball later, I returned to my cubicle (lbw Burton).
Courtesy of Dick, Ossie soon came to South Hampstead. At a time when personnel changed often and the dressing room echoed to antipodean accents, Ossie was a most wonderful constant.
I cannot remember ever facing Ossie again - if he did attend nets, I cannot recall it, but then why would he? Come the second week in April, he would be thrown the ball, come in from the Milverton Road end off his six or seven paces and hit the proverbial sixpence. He would do that week in, week out all summer long. I cannot recall any opposition batsman (even the best of them) tearing into him. His economy rate would surely have been as low as any. For those of us lucky enough to have captained him - he was a dream. You never thought, I wonder how Os will bowl today? The biggest challenge was not to over bowl him. In time, I learned, ‘One more Os?’ was the best way to ascertain whether or not he needed a breather down at fine leg. Invariably he would tilt that marvellous head to one side and in that lovely, endearing, stuttered manner say ‘Yes’. It was never, ‘No’. It was the manner of the ‘Yes’ which let you know how he was feeling and whether the wheel-tapping on the Underground of the long night before was finally beginning to tell.
We rarely saw him bat but when we did it was invariably accompanied by Terry’s giggling after every essayed flick to leg. There would be the occasional contact which resulted in a maximum and even greater guffaws from Cords. I can hear it now. I cannot remember Ossie throwing in overarm from the boundary. The underarm flick back to the keeper on the full from his position down by the gate became trademark.
Of all the outstanding contributions Ossie made to the life of South Hampstead Cricket Club and there were many, for me, one other stands out. In an era where an increasing number of young black players were joining the club, Ossie became a significant factor in their development. Not overtly of course, not his style, but more subtly. If anyone was worthy of emulation, it was Ossie.
In more than a decade of sharing hours both on and off the cricket field I doubt we shared more than a few dozen conversations of any length. In many ways I knew very little about him. And yet I also feel I really knew him. He suffered personal loss and typically bore it with great fortitude. That hearing of his passing affected me as much as any, reflects the importance of his presence in my life in a decade which was so developmental for me not just as a cricketer but as a person. In so many ways Ossie was of another era, certainly as far as club cricket is concerned.
When I heard from Jim that he had passed away. I immediately told Heather whose first response was, ‘Bless him, how old was he?’ Wasn’t that what we asked every time he defied the ageing process with another lengthy spell?
This is a deliberately long reflection. If, as we believe, Ossie died as a consequence of contracting Covid-19 it is sadly highly likely that he died without the presence of anyone who really knew him. And yet, throughout the 70s and 80s mention of his name in pavilions around the London club circuit will have been greeted with universal affection and admiration. Ossie Burton was a very special cricketer, but more so, he was a very special human being.
Bob Fisher sent me this
I was so sorry to learn of the death of Ossie Burton. Way back
in the 1960's or maybe early 70's, I often played for Ernie Perrone's
side against South Hampstead in a mid-week game. Ernie was the
secretary of Paddington and his side used to include Ron Bunning often with his son Chris and other young Brondesbury players. I can recall Mike
Gatting being one of these once, I think he was around 15 at the time.
Anyway, always in the South Hampstead side used to be Ossie, a terrific bowler of line and length with an almost effortless action. He was competitive
but in a very nice way and whilst I cannot remember if he did or not, I
suspect he might have slowed his pace down when the youngsters were at
the wicket. On one occasion and I do not know why or when it was, I
happened to be in the same side as Ossie and keeping wicket got a close
up view of his bowling skill and the number of times that he beat the
bat were extraordinary. Off the field he was always very pleasant. I
had not seen him for many years but maybe 15 to 20 years ago, I met him
purely by chance close to Swiss Cottage underground station and we had a
nice chat about those days gone by. It is a memory that I will treasure.
Allen Bruton sent me this
So sad to hear of the death of Ossie Burton. A fantastic bowler and a wonderful gentleman so quiet and modest, even his appeals for a plumb lbw were delivered as a polite enquiry to the umpire. I cannot recall a single stand out performance simply because outstanding performances were the normal for Ossie. It was an absolute pleasure to have played cricket with him and meet up at the occasional South Hampstead reunions. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Bob Peach sent me this
Ossie arrived at South Hampstead in 1972 as part of the Dick Simpson travelling circus. He was a welcome addition to the club’s powerful but declining seam attack, and it was ironic that he was older than those he replaced. Much quieter and less demonstrative than several of his colleagues Ossie took the ball in mid-April and seemingly bowled continuously up to September each year until around 2000. He made a significant contribution to South Hampstead’s Middlesex Cup successes and the league and Cup double in the early 70’s. The effectiveness of the unerring accuracy of his fast-medium seam bowling was enhanced by the short time he took to bowl an over. With Peach running back faster than he bowled, 22 overs an hour was no exception. He was no mean batsman when required and his resilient innings to take the club into the national KO semi-final in 1975 is well remembered. Although verbally quiet during the game he was good company off the field. A really genuine nice guy it was typical that after his cricketing time he sang in a local church choir for many years.
In and Within on the Professor’s sofa
The daffodils being in full bloom, the time had come for the little yellow house-brick to drop through the letter box, its 1,536 pages making the customary dent in the hall carpet. I think it must be a sign of increasing age that I rather look forward to “my” Wisden arriving. Even more damning is the ritual I have noticed in myself of first looking at all the photos, then reading the editorial, then going through the reports of the matches I attended and then finally, and slowly, plodding through the rest of the text, picking and choosing bits to read.
The photos are, so it seems to me, increasingly good in Wisden. Given the year of cricket that 2019 was, there must have been much to choose from and I imagine there must have been a long debate (in the editor’s mind, if nowhere else) on which image to put on the cover. I think I would have found the Stokes’ roar hard to resist but, as we all have seen, he went for the Buttler run out. My beef about the photos is not about the images but the captions. I have written about this before but they don’t seem to improve. (Could it be that the editor of Wisden doesn’t read Googlies?) The editor, Lawrence Booth used to write for the Daily Mail I believe (maybe still does) and so a “tabloid” element might be expected, but does a photo of little boys playing cricket in the middle of fishing gear need the caption: “Net Practice”? Two batsmen being hit by the ball produces “Impact Assessment”; Mark Wood touching his mouth is “Finger-lickin’ good”; and on and drearily on. This may be, I readily admit, an old man’s obsession, but does anyone actually like it? Honestly? The Stokes picture is the first in the book and he wins the Leading Player accolade – just about the easiest decision Mr Booth had to make, I should think.
As for the editorial, Googlies readers will have their own view. I thought he was clear in his dislike of televised cricket being behind the Sky “paywall” and notes, by comparison, the success of broadcasting the WC Final on free-to-air. Booth is in favour of five-day tests in most case as, I think, are most people. He has a pragmatic view about The Hundred: he lampoons the promo material that has Southern Brave (Hants and Somerset) as the team that “go boldly where others shy away” – a bit rich from him given the dreadful puns, a couple of which slip into the Editorial. But he hopes: “for the sake of crickets finances” that it will work, as, I imagine, do most cricket lovers. There’s a slightly sideways paragraph about racism in cricket which could do, in my view, with a more forthright statement. But, for the whole, it seemed a well-balanced review.
Reading through the reports of the matches I attended is a touch like rushing home from the match to see what you have just been watching on the TV…and who hasn’t done that. In general, the accounts accord with my memories and when they don’t I am, these days, less sure that it is the reporter who is in error or my recollection. I did go to Yorkshire’s very first match last year against the Leeds/Bradford students. It was Olivier’s debut and I thought the students did rather well against bowling of that pace. The report was clear and concise but didn’t mention my principal memory, which was that March 31st on a wide-open field on the outskirts of Leeds was about as cold a day as I have ever experienced, watching or playing.
Some of the other articles are well worth a read, I particularly liked Andy Bull’s piece about left handers. He reports something I had never heard of: a campaign by the Times to ban left-handers. They are: “a thorough nuisance and cause a waste of time”. The Grauniad chipped in with: “they tend to upset the poise and movement of the game”. When I was playing I thought they should all have been drowned at birth, but the piece, obviously discusses the great left-handers, together with grainy photos of Frank Woolley, et al.
Grainy photos are much in evidence in some of the footage that Lord’s has put out recently, it is all very staged and stiff but there are chances to watch, for example, Everton Weekes playing for a Lancashire club side called Bacup, who I confess I had not heard of before. He played there for seven seasons passing the 1,000 mark each time. The Lord’s footage shows a game against Rawtenstall – a local derby apparently. There was however some local interest in these two very small Lancashire towns and not a bad gate really for a club game – the match was watched by 11,000 people.
There are numerous other articles to go through, although even here the writers are subjected to the dreadful punning titles – a piece about the impact of tropical storm Humberto on county matches is: “Humberto’s Echo” (ye Gods).A final thought is, of course, for next year: 1,536 pages might just be a touch hard to fill from the 2020 season and Wisden might start, once again, to take on the appearance of the War-time editions. Still there’s a fair bit more reading to do in this one and, these days, I find I have comparatively few appointments in my diary. Stay safe Googlies readers.
Morgan Matters
With nothing else to write about, Tanya Aldred has come up with her top 15 cricketing books of all time: Golden Boy (Christian Ryan), Pundits from Pakistan (Rahul Bhattacharya), An Australian Summer (Patrick Eagar and Alan Ross), Following On (Emma John), Glory Gardens 1-9 (Bob Cattell), Tom Graveney's Top Ten Cricket Book, The Art of Captaincy (Mike Brearley), Beyond a Boundary (CLR James), Wisden, The Judge (Robin Smith and Rob Smyth), Mystery Spinner (Gideon Haigh), Steve Smith's Men (Geoff Lemon), Another Bloody Tour (Frances Edmonds), Fred Trueman (Chris Waters) and Rain Men (Marcus Berkmann).
B Stokes has been named as Wisden's leading cricketer in the world, A Flintoff (2005) was the last Englishman to receive the award. Wisden's 5 Cricketers of the Year are Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Ellyse Perry (all Oz), Jofra Archer and Simon Harmer. Perry is also the world's leading women's cricketer.
My 2020 Wisden arrived today (£55 to you, £25 to me) and it immediately settled one or two issues. Ollie Rayner's career first class batting record was 3,432 runs @ 20.3 with two hundreds (best 143*), his career first class bowling record was 313 wickets (best 8-46) @ 33.26 with 10 five wicket innings hauls and one 10 wicket match haul, he took 196 first class catches. Alan Moss died on 12 March this year aged 88, he played 307 first class matches for Middlesex taking 1,088 wickets with career best figures of 8-31, he took 5 wickets in an innings 59 times and 10 wickets in a match 13 times with an average of 19.81. This places him 8th on the all-time list of Middlesex wicket takers, which is topped by FJ Titmus (2,361) followed by JT Hearne, JW Hearne, JM Sims, JE Emburey, JA Young, FJ Durston, then AEM. Only Mossy does not have a J initial! In all first class matches, Mossy took 1,301 wickets at 20.78. Six of Ireland's top ODI scores are by Middlesex men: P Stirling 177, E Joyce 160*, A Balbirnie 145*, A Balbirnie 135, P Stirling 130 and P Stirling 126. At 37 years and 225 days, Tim Murtagh (54* v Afghanistan) became the second oldest no 11 to hit a Test fifty and also became the eleventh to make top score from no 11 in all Test cricket.
Graeme Smith is the permanent director of South African cricket, despite being in charge of SA's dismal 1-3 home defeat to Eng in December.
Because of the dreaded virus, Middlesex are launching their first ever online Members' forum. Questions will be answered by Mike O'Farrell ((Mx Chairman), Richard Goatley (Chief Exec) and Gus Fraser (Managing Director of Cricket). Can't wait!
I got this by e-mail from Middx today: "Middlesex CCC has furloughed all players and the majority of coaches, professional support and administrative staff until further notice under the government's coronavirus job retention scheme, in measures to protect the long-term well-being and stability of the Club." I get fairly regular informative e-mails from them these days: it is not as good as seeing some cricket, of course, but it shows they are trying!
ECB boss Tom Harrison sometimes sounds sensible, but other times he talks bollocks: this quote falls into the latter category "the importance of the Hundred has been accelerated by the coronavirus"!
J Marler's 10 week ban for grabbing AW Jones's bollocks will pass without him missing a match thanks to the virus.
I have just finished the May Cricketer and it is a hell of a lot better than the last one. Only 98 pages, but as there has been hardly any cricket anywhere, that is not a bad effort. It seems that Z Crawley made 91 against a Sri Lankan XI and a ton against a SL Board President's XI and J Root also made a ton v the Pres XI; I had previously seen no scores whatsoever from the short SL tour. C Woakes has turned down the chance to fulfil his contract with Delhi Capitals in the IPL, saying he thought it would help him to extend his England career. Colin Ackermann is the new captain of Leicestershire. George Dobell wants a good selection of local derbies to replace the dreaded Hundred... "and if the Hundred doesn't happen this year, C Graves can go and he can take his unnecessary, unwanted, unsustainable competition with him". There is a good 3-page article on Ian "Gunner" Gould, who has a new (auto?) biography published by Pitch Publishing titled "Gunner, My Life in Cricket" (£19.99). M Selvey thinks that "it will not be long until England tour Pakistan again". It was (slightly) surprising to see a full page article on Tony Adams (yes, that one) and his love of cricket: "I've always loved cricket, I'm a big Essex fan and Graham Gooch was one of my idols... my defensive technique is solid - a bit Boycottian".
Tim de Lisle, in the G, thinks that England should resort to staging simultaneous series from July onwards in order to squeeze in all the fixtures they need. There would be two separate England teams eg Test team: Burns, Sibley, Denly or Crawley, Root, Pope, Bairstow, S Curran, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson, 12th: Leach; ODI team: Roy, Hales, Banton, Morgan, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen, Woakes, Rashid, T Curran, Wood.
Carlin Matters
Paddy Carlin sent me the following
WGCCC
After being the champion club in the Herts Premier League in the previous three seasons, 2019 proved to be a slight disappointment. We were second to Radlett after the match between us was abandoned without a ball being bowled when a win or a win draw would have won us the league. We were beaten by a very good Potters Bar side in the semi final and they went on to beat Radlett in the final on our ground.
The Potters Bar match with us featured two outstanding performances by good young cricketers. The WGCCC score of around 230 was almost entirely due to a superb century by Jamie Southgate who was once a Lord’s ground staff boy and is a Herts regular. But the Man of the Match was Thilan Walawakita whose ten overs of spin brought him four wickets for few and all were key batsmen. He also figured prominently in the play-off final scoring valuable runs and conceding few himself. He is now on the Middlesex staff.
Jamie Southgate was poached by East Molesey CC as their player coach for £50k pa. Unfortunately for Jamie this looks like being a hypothetical signing for this year. And I thought that we played recreational amateur cricket (let’s forget about Owais Shah for the moment).
Virus Chaos
The virus must be causing financial havoc in cricket clubs not least because of the loss of income from junior cricket. WGCCC run about a dozen junior sides U9 to U17 involving about a hundred juniors. The subs are paid up front by mums and dads and so we lose about £8000 before the season starts.
The club bar which opens every day of the week turns over about £250k giving a net profit of about £65k. This has been closed since March 20 and there is no re-opening date. This is serious but we are miles better off than most clubs. We can save a little from not having to pay a coach or a visiting Aussie player, or Mr Shah’s match fees.
The only happy people are the groundsmen who love preparing the outfield and wicket but hate anyone playing on it.
Like the GJM my Middlesex membership came through and 2020 looks like being very bad value. I go to no white ball cricket and look forward to 8-10 days of county cricket each year plus one boozy lunch in Pelhams at the end of the season. It looks like there will be no county cricket and so can I get a refund?
Extras
Whilst captaining an all day Sunday 1stXI game for WGCC against Old Merchant Taylors I took an instant dislike to their captain, a tall somewhat arrogant man, who explained on the way out to the toss up that he didn’t normally play in this grade of cricket and our ground though a little small was quaint. First, we were quite a good side and secondly our ground is very nice and certainly not small.
Anyway, we batted first and made about 240 and when they batted they looked like winning easily. Their opener, Ducat, who I think played Minor Counties cricket, had scored 80 odd and they were cruising at 160-3 with lots of overs to go. At this point our very reliable gentle seamer, John Page, took withs with consecutive deliveries which brought the aforementioned captain to the crease at 160 for 5. He approached Ducat at the other end and took his bat from him handing him a replacement. This took a minute or so. He then took guard and was bowled first ball. Hat trick for John and a slow trudge back to the pavilion for the captain. This was interrupted to my great satisfaction by Ducat who chased after him, tapped him on the shoulder and asked for his bat back. WGCCC won the match.
Incidentally John Page was one of those bowlers one rarely sees in club or first class cricket these days. In my side I had John and Geoff Cowgill who had played at Edmonton with David Evans, Tony Berry, John Snow, Sunil Gavaskar etc. They both bowled at the wicket, never short and every now and then the ball would hit the seam and sometimes it would swing. It was always a delight to see a typical over in which the batsman played two to mid-off, two back to the bowler and two to mid-on. The batsman would look amazed that the over was completed and it had only taken ninety seconds.
I was umpiring a game at Knebworth Park, a Herts League fixture against Redbourn. The home side scored around 200 and were winning the game as the visitors struggled at 80 for 6. In comes number 8. His green helmet failed to cover up an untidy mess of red hair. As he walked to the crease a Knebworth wag remarked “Fuck me, they’re bringing in Mick Hucknall”. Whereupon three or four of the fielding side started to sing “If you don’t know me by now”. I could hardly keep a straight face as I gave the Simply Red lookalike his guard. The batsman held up the bowler as he ran in to bowl complaining about the reception. I remember “Holding back the tears” also being sung during the batsman’s brief stay at the wicket but in reality most people were pissing themselves. I suppose in this day and age this would be a level 1 or 2 offence but to us then it was just funny.
I pointed out a while back that Surrey fielded five wicket keepers in a county match- Burns, Sangakkara, Davies, Foakes and Wilson. England could replicate this quintet: Burns, Bairstow, Buttler, Pope and Foakes.
Lockdown Matters
John Williams sent me this
It's very much business as usual for me during the day although I would have been at Lord's last week on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday and at Cheltenham on Wednesday & Thursday. But it's the evening's when I can't get down the pub that are really frustrating. But large G & T's and glasses of Laithwaites large reds help. However, a revolution is looming if the loonies try to lock us up till next year!
I am currently reading Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket. I have just reached Wednesday 19th August 1953 at the Oval. Earlier that summer I had just finished my 1st year at the Lower School of John Lyon when my parents despatched me to my paternal grandparents in Monkmoor Road, Shrewsbury. They lived in a semi-detached house in which the lounge was kept locked and only used on special occasions. They had no TV or phone and for some reason on that final day of the Oval Test I was allowed into the lounge to listen to the radio commentary on that famous day as Compton swept Morris for the winning runs.
The following Saturday I went to Gay Meadow to see Salop beat Watford 6-4. Then on Monday there was another Division 3 South game when they drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace.
The passing of Norman Hunter last week brought back memories of that World Cup qualifier against Poland when Jan - The Clown- Tomaszewski played so brilliantly. Norman had missed his tackle on the halfway line from which error Poland scored their goal in a 1-1 draw. I had been a fairly regular follower of England when they played at Wembley but that was the last time I watched them live. I suppose having been at Wembley on 30th July 1966 did not help. The England goal in that game against Poland was scored by Allan Clarke from the penalty spot. He was one of 5 brothers who all played professional football and only the eldest, Frank, did not play for Walsall. Frank played for Shrewsbury Town from where he moved to QPR for a few seasons. GJM might remember him. Bowser -Dave Bowers - of Eastcote certainly does. You may recall Bowser as he was a colt at South Hampstead.
Steve Thompson sent me this
One Wednesday night in the mid -70s after a game at South Hampstead, a well-oiled Jim Franklin was taking me home in his early prototype of the driverless car. There had been a particularly quick bowler playing for the opposition that afternoon and as we meandered our way back to Chiswick Jim recalled the time he had to face John Price in a Cross Arrows game at Lord’s some years before. ‘How did you play him Jim?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I decided I’d get absolutely everything behind it. In he came off his curved run and I middled it.’ ‘Well done,’ I said. He continued, ‘Yes, middled it, the bat flew straight out of my hands and took all fucking three out!’
Allen Bruton sent me this
We were informed some time ago by the Professor in his excellent Out and About features that York C.C. were to host county cricket at their Clifton Park Ground. This took me back to 1975 and the highlight of my cricket career when South Hampstead captain Ian Jerman informed me that I was in the team for the National Knockout Semi Final v. York. The match was played on a Monday and sadly we failed to progress to the final. The York cause aided to a certain extent by their umpire seemingly promoting the case for neutral officials.
Our Saturday league match prior to the final was away to Brondesbury, a game watched by county coach Don Bennett as Mike Gatting featured for Brondesbury and Nigel Ross for ourselves. Post-match Don joined us in the bar and the forthcoming semi-final was discussed, whereupon Don announced he would happily release Nigel from county duties to enable him to play. Suddenly a total silence descended and I was aware of at least fifteen pairs of eyes staring in my direction. Quickly assessing the situation, I volunteered to step down to twelfth man. Conversation immediately resumed a few decibels higher and a distinctly more optimistic tone.
Following many years of counselling I am pretty much recovered from my PTSD condition with only the occasional flashback to the Brondesbury bar.
Ken Molloy sent me this
Why are the Chinese no good at cricket?
Because they eat all the bats….
Eric Tracey sent me this
Something the Middlesex cohort that forms the base of the Googlies readership might enjoy to fill the void in these cricket-less times is a play – A Month of Sundays, by Bob Larbey which is all around the championship winning Middlesex XI of 1947 – (captained by a distant cousin of my wife’s mother, one RWVR).
Alvin Nienow sent me this
It was great to see the response from Bob Fisher. I played against Bob and Alan Price starting at the Bush and continuing when I went to South Hampstead, and later at Reading. It was always very competitive on the field and good fun in the bar afterwards. When I was at the Bush, being of a similar age amongst often much older players, we naturally congregated together.
Bob’s reference to the Evening Standard League brings more reminiscences. Following my 1959 performance against Wembley, in 1960, I became the Bush Vice-Captain under Dennis Capps. Unfortunately, Dennis broke his finger playing football just before the season started, so I was suddenly thrust into the role of captain at the age of 22. Surprisingly, we went on to win the North of Thames Section (it was run as Bob described, except as I recall, it was not necessarily for Middlesex teams, because when I was at South Hampstead, more than once we came second to Wanstead). We played Elmers End in the final at Ealing; but unlike Ealing, we lost. A key reason for this was that our youngest star, Chris Langhorne, decided that in September it was more important to go for hockey training with Hounslow. As he later played hockey for GB in the Olympics, he clearly made the correct decision. However, as he batted at 4, bowled slow left arm and was a demon fielder, it seemed like we lost half a team.
The next year at the Bush, I was vice-captain to Bob Talbot, which didn’t work out. In the winter, I played squash with Bob Peach every Sunday evening and we then drank afterwards at South Hampstead. Bob and I had been in the same class at St Clement Danes from the age of 11; then we were at the University of London at the same time. Whenever I played for the school juniors or 1st X! and later in our final year at university, Bob was captain. So with his encouragement, I upped-sticks and joined SH. Moving clubs in those days was pretty much frowned upon in the London circuit, so I was a bit nervous and very anxious to prove myself, especially as I was immediately picked for the 1st XI when there were so many good players in the club already. Anyway, the first weekend, as I recall, I was due to bat at about 4 or 5 and on the Saturday, Terry Cordaroy (then a 17 year old) and John Weale opened with Len Stubbs at 3. Terry got about 2000 runs that year and John about 1500 with Len chipping in with about 1700 (in less minutes!). Anyway, I didn’t bat! On Sunday, we played Finchley, and Ron Hooker, in one of his early season outings with SH before the county season got properly underway, opened and was out before lunch having scored a blistering 100! Incidentally, Josh Levy who was skippering Finchley, brought himself on just after Ron was out! So, again, I didn’t bat.
The next weekend Bob decided he should try to let others have a knock and Alan Clain was duly put up the order. Alan, a previous captain of SH, was a cancer surgeon, known as ‘Butcher’ for obvious reasons, as hard as nails, who used to field at suicidal short leg and one of the side’s senior citizens (along with Norman Cooper, a brilliant wicket keeper). After a few balls, Alan took a suicidal short single and was struck on the forehead by the shy at the stumps! Though he wanted to remain, there was a lot of blood and he grudgingly retired to the pavilion for repairs. We batted on and a declaration was clearly approaching. I was next in and a wicket fell. In order not to waste time, I leapt to my feet and set off, thinking of a few balls to have a go at without any responsibility. I promptly tripped over a boundary rope and fell dramatically down on my face. By the time I got up, Bob had declared!
Clearly, there are some noteworthy details missing from this account. I cannot remember what happened when I finally batted but I had a terrible season with the bat. Fortunately, it hardly mattered with the batting we had; and fielding at cover, I got many run-outs; Don Wallis called me ‘our fielder’ for the rest of my time at SH!
Ricky Gunn sent me this
My own personal best memory was hooking an already peeved Roy Cutler off my nose for four at Southgate in 1974. Peeved, because he had me caught in the slips off a no-ball two balls earlier. Alf Langley ultimately caught me at deep backward square running round from fine leg. Anyone with shorter arms wouldn’t have reached it.
Miller Matters
Douglas Miller poses another quiz
There have been 43 Test captains of England since the war. Of these five did not captain a side when a new cap was awarded. They are Donald Carr, John Edrich, Allan Lamb, Mark Butcher and Kevin Pietersen.
The following 38 players all received their first cap under a different captain: Dennis Amiss, Bob Appleyard, Bill Athey, Bob Barber, Jack Birkenshaw, Ian Botham, John Childs, Brian Close, Alastair Cook, Geoff Cook, Norman Cowans, Tim Curtis, Richard Ellison, Liam Dawson, Phillip DeFreitas, Godfrey Evans, Keith Fletcher, James Foster, Mike Gatting, Warren Hegg, Mike Hendrick, Jeff Jones, Don Kenyon, Jim Laker, Peter Lever, Peter Loader, John Mortimore, Graham Onions, Craig Overton, Kevin Pietersen, Jack Robertson, Fred Rumsey, Reg Simpson, Phil Tufnell, Sean Udal, Johnny Wardle, Mike Watkinson, Bob Woolmer. Can you pair up the players and the captains?
Some of you may still be grappling with Douglas’ quiz from the last edition. Here are the answers:
1. Who won his first cap in the same Test match as these England captains:
a) Mike Atherton – Devon Malcolm
b) Nasser Hussain – Alec Stewart
c) Michael Vaughan (2) – Gavin Hamilton and Chris Adams
d) Ted Dexter (2) – Illingworth and Subba Row
e) Alastair Cook (2) – Monty Panesar and Ian Blackwell
2. Nineteen men played Test cricket for England before and after World War II. Can you name them? GO Allen, FR Brown, Hutton, Compton, Hardstaff, Hammond, Edrich, Gibb, Hollies, Copson, Bowes, Fishlock, Langridge, Yardley, Washbrook, Wright, Barnett, Gover, Voce.
3. From the nineteen name:
a) The four who made a Test century both before and after the war;
Hutton, Compton, Hardstaff, Edrich
b) The four who made one only before the war but not after;
Hammond, Allen, Barnett, Gibb
c) The only one who made his first Test century after the war. Washbrook
4. Name the ten players who made England Test appearances before and after World War I. - Hobbs, Woolley, Rhodes, Strudwick, Mead, Douglas, Gunn, Hitch, Hearne, Tennyson.
5. Name the four England umpires currently on the ICC elite panel.
Illingworth, Kettleborough, Llong, and Gough.
6. The last specialist batsman to be a one-cap wonder in Tests for England was Alan Wells. Name the other players with only one cap since then. There have been 14 - AM Smith, Lewis, Kabir Ali, Amjad Khan, Ajmal Shahzad, Blackwell, Pattinson, Crane, Stone, Simon Brown, Kerrigan, Hamilton, Borthwick, Rankin.
7. Of all England’s post-war one-cap Test players, who has made the highest score? Neil Williams with 38.
8. Name the pairs of brothers who have played Test cricket for England since the War. (5) Richardson, Greig, Smith (C and R), Hollioake, Curran
9. And the fathers and sons who both played post-war. (8) Hutton, Cowdrey, Bairstow, Jones (Jeff and Simon), Sidebottom, Broad, Butcher and Stewart.
10. And the fathers and sons who played but with the father only pre-war. (3) Mann, Hardstaff and Parks.
11. And all post-war Test England cricketers with a grandfather who was a Test cricketer. (3) Tremlett, Compton and Headley (whose grandfather played for West Indies)
12. Name the 29 players who appeared for England in the summer tests of 1989. Gower, Russell, Gooch, Gatting, R Smith, Lamb, Broad, Robinson, Tavare, Moxon, Curtis, Atherton, Stephenson, Capel, N Foster, N Cook, Small, Dilley, Igglesden, Pringle, Emburey, Barnett, Botham, Malcolm, Fraser, DeFreitas, Hemmings, Jarvis, Newport.
13. Which England Test cricketer died while playing in an inter-diocesan cricket match? ET Killick
14. Which England cricketer lost the 1934 season as he was in prison for manslaughter? VWC Jupp
15. Which England cricketer was in the squad for a football world cup? Willie Watson
16. Which England cricketer received a jail sentence of 13 years for drug smuggling? Chris Lewis
17. Which England cricketer, after the death of another Test cricketer, married his widow? Bob Berry, who married the widow of Malcolm Hilton – both left-arm spinners, who competed for the same place in the Lancashire side!
18. Which England captain lived to read his own obituary? FL Fane
19. Who was the England captain in Hobbs’ first Test match? FL Fane again!
20. Which England cricketer played as a saxophonist in the band of Fred Elizalde? MJC Allom
Media Matters
Harry Compton sent me two Willesden Chronicle cuttings showing Honours Lists from the late fifties. I scanned them and saw Don Bick (Brondesbury) 161, Maurice Applegate (Willesden Green) 116, John Weale (SH)111* and 108*,Roy Huntley (SH) 105*, Jack Singman 102*, John Tutton (SH) 103*, Roy Phipps (SH) 7 for 28 & Alan Huntley 5 for 29. It was only when I got further down that I saw H. Compton (Kilburn Poly) 53* & 60.
“Foreman “Lakers” Southfields” So ran the headline in the Acton Gazette in June 1965. It went on to say: Lakered by the cleverly flighted spin bowling of Frank Foreman, Southfields School from Oxford crashed to a 72 run defeat against St Clement Danes at Northolt. Southfields had made 47 without loss in reply to Danes 153 when Foreman entered the attack. Two smart catches by Bond and two slick stumpings by Matthews helped Frank to capture 9 for 17 as Southfields were shot out for 81. Earlier, after losing early wickets intelligent, attractive batting by Caley(27), J Sharp(29), Morgan(21) and G Sharp(30) enabled the home side to build up a winning score.
Ged Matters
Ged describes a day at Chelmsford for Essex v Lancashire Day One, 20 April 2018
The original idea for this expedition was to be a day at the Essex v Lancashire cricket match with Escamillo Escapillo as well as Charles. Indeed, Charles had also been hoping to line up Nigel “Father Barry White” Hinks – a Lancashire supporter, like Escamillo Escapillo – but in the end neither of the Lancastrians could make it. With the cricket season still new and the weather set fair (at long last), I was still up for it, so we arranged that I would drive over to Malloy Manor, leave Dumbo in safe custody there, while Charley drove us to Chelmsford for the day.
Charley was on hand to greet me as I arrived along the driveway of Malloy Manor – he then directed me to a very specific parking place he had in mind for Dumbo. It’s protocol galore in such rarefied parts of the land, it seems. I had the opportunity to greet Mrs Malloy briefly, but Charley wanted to keep the pre-expedition pleasantries to a minimum, as he was convinced that we needed to get to the members’ car park early. As it happens, Chas was right.
But it also meant that I didn’t get to greet The Boy Malloy, who it transpired was also in the house at that hour, as he is on late shift at the moment. That made me feel badly about not having even shouted out a “hello” to the lad, although The Boy could, of course, have come down to say hello to me. The Boy was probably seething with envy in his room, envisaging me and Chas relaxing all day in the sun at Chelmsford, while he would be toiling on a late day at work.
Chas and I were in the ground and well positioned in the Tom Pearce stand by about 10:20. We would have been in place five minutes sooner, but Chas started to mount the wrong staircase for his favourite spot, realising his mistake quite late in the ascent and displaying considerable embarrassment at his error. “You’re going to blog that mistake, aren’t you?” said Chas. “How many years have you been coming here?” I asked.
We watched the whole of the first session from Chas’s favourite spot, elevated in the Tom Pearce stand. But while there, Chas spotted that, across the way, a small stand with green chairs has been erected, where formerly there were just some higgledy-piggledy loose seats. It was from that shady spot three years ago we had witnessed Essex v the Australians and a steward who seemed to have St Vitas Dance: “That looks tempting for the second session”, said Chas. “I can see some seats at the front, by an aisle, that would certainly do the job”, I agreed. So that’s where we went for the second session and the start of the third. A shadier spot for the hottest part of the day with an excellent view.
Soon after we arrived in that small green stand, a gentleman with a dog, Clive, arrived and sat near us. Chas and I remarked afterwards that, although people talk about County Championship cricket being attended by “one man and his dog”, this was the first time we’d ever seen (or at least noticed) a man with a dog at the cricket. It transpires that the dog’s attendance is perfectly permissible at Chelmsford. Chas wondered whether the same applies at Lord’s. “Only if the dog is of the requisite pedigree and from the right sort of family, I should imagine”, I mused. Clive displayed extreme indifference to the cricket at times, which encouraged me to ask permission to photograph him.
Having enjoyed my ham sandwich in the Tom Pearce (Chas went for cheese initially), I felt ready for my cheese sandwich just before tea – as Chas indeed felt ready for his ham. But, horror of horrors, it transpired that Chas had eaten my cheese sandwich, not his own. I should perhaps explain that it is Mrs Malloy’s charming habit to write a little personalised note in each sandwich, describing in detail the delights therein. Sometimes she will prepare different sandwiches for different people. She knows that I don’t like egg, for example, while Chas normally would opt for egg ahead of cheese.
As good fortune would have it, the menu was exactly the same for both of us on this occasion, so the fact that Chas had eaten “my” cheese sandwich rather than his own ought to have made no difference. But I threatened to snitch on Chas for this error. In fact, perhaps fearful of my squealing, Chas himself confessed to that misdemeanour when we returned to Malloy Manor. Parenthetically, Mrs Malloy seemed irritated and a little anxious about Chas’s mistake, chastising him for his carelessness. Also parenthetically, I have displayed some strange symptoms in the subsequent days, which Daisy has diagnosed as mild arsenic poisoning. Daisy and I are both absolutely sure that these must be entirely unrelated matters.
But I digress. Chas and I moved on to The Boy Malloy’s favourite side-on view (beyond the members area) for most of the final session of play, taking in some early evening spring sunshine. Essex had been on the wrong end of this match for much of the day, but as the day unfolded they were right back in the contest, ending up, in my view, a smidgen ahead. Late in the day we got a response from Escamillo Escapillo to my morning message. I wanted to take and send him a photo of the sunset, but while trying to mug the phone into a suitable light setting, ended up taking and sending a short video instead: I told Escamillo that it had been super entertaining cricket – which it had. Of course it’s super entertaining – it’s Lancs……came the reply.
When Chas and I returned to Malloy Manor, in addition to Chas’s chastisement for the sandwich swap error, I also got a quick tour of the lovely garden and a look at a wonderfully moving cricket team photograph, including Chas’s father, taken in a German prisoner of war camp. It had been a great day. The weather had smiled on us and the cricket had been excellent. An especially memorable day of county championship cricket.
The Last Old Danes Gathering
I understand that SBCC are very keen to keep their cricket week if only for the financial benefit that will accrue to the club. As soon as I have any definite information as to whether the Old Danes Gathering can proceed, I will circulate it separately.
Editor’s Note
From the very early editions I have strictly kept G&C to twelve pages, However, I have received so much excellent material this month that I decided to include it all and give you plenty of Lockdown reading. Please keep sending me stuff to ensure I can fill the next edition.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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