|
Year
|
Month
|
Day
|
Speaker
|
|
Topic
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2023
|
Oct |
12th
|
Chris Finch
|
 s
|
Members gathered for the first meeting after the longest season of
1st class cricket ever seen. Our trusty Chris Finch had watched much of it and summarised
with aplomb. He started with the Ashes Series which had been crammed into the
weeks of June and July. He considered that the series as a whole was one of
the best, on a par with 2005. There were a number of reasons for this: no player
on either side managed to consistently dominate proceedings, the highest scoring
batsman on each team managed less than 500 runs and the bookies' odds at the start
of the series would have been pretty high on that not being Zac Crawley and
Usman Khawarja. Equally the bowlers shared the wickets around with Mitchell Starc
on 23 and Stuart Broad on 22. Chris felt that England probably should have won the
series 4-1 but failed to do so for a number of reasons. They were quite unprofessional
in the field with numerous catches dropped and wickets taken with no-balls, the rain
in Manchester surely deprived them of a win.. After two wins for Australia to start
England had to respond and a selection change bringing in Chris Woakes & Mark
Wood inspired the first win of the campaign. It wasn’t just their performances with
the ball, they were there at the end with their match-winning partnership. Manchester
put a dampener on things with the chance of regaining the Ashes gone, but there was
still the series to play for in the final Test, which England wrapped-up to level
the series, Stuart Broad bowing out of his career with a 6 off his final ball batting
and a wicket off his final ball bowling - a feat never before achieved. The series
had a fair share of controversies, the Bairstow stumping, the catch that was grounded
to name just a couple.
Chris then moved on to the County Championship, a competition which the ECB marginalise
to the outer parts of the season. There are only 52000 County members across the
whole country and over 17000 of them are at Surrey. The ECB seem to forget that
this is supposed to be a summer game. Early bookie odds on Surrey or Essex winning
the title were spot on, likewise the relegation places were fairly assured from the
start. Chris felt that Hampshire didn’t perform to their ability, they are particularly
in need of a decent opening partnership if they are to challenge next season. The
50 over competition and the 100 were commented on, with the 50 over game producing
lots of games at out-grounds as it clashed with The 100. In addition a large number
of young players were given their opportunity as more senior members were in The
100. Finally Mike Vimpany treated us to a rapid round-up of the local cricket scene
with information about the Dorset League, Dorset County cricket and the Southern
League. Many thanks to both gentlemen for an entertaining afternoon. |
|
|
|
19th
|
Mark Garaway & Dom Kelly
|
 |
We were joined by Mark Garaway, director of cricket at Millfield
School and one of the current pupils, Dom Kelly who has played for Hampshire and
England U-19s. Mark was the first professional cricketer from the Isle of Wight,
having succeeded as an England schoolboy. He took up wicket-keeping when his team
were short one day and continued to professional level. His progress at Hampshire
was limited as the number one keeper at that time was Adrian Aymes, someone who suffered
few injuries and kept consistently. In 2001 he moved to Somerset as 2nd team coach
and director of the ECB’s South West Academy. He progressed to 1st team coach in
2005, before becoming an England analyst and assistant coach. His next post
was for Cricket Ireland as director of cricket and he was instrumental in the progress
that Ireland made in international cricket. Finally, in 2012 he took up his current
post as director of cricket at Millfield School in Somerset, where one of his
current crop of players, Dom Kelly, is looking forward to a tour of India very shortly,
followed hopefully by the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. This was Dom’s first experience
of being on a public platform, which he handled very well, whereas Mark is a polished
performer at public speaking and regaled us with a plethora of anecdotes with lots
of famous names dropped in for good measure.
A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, with many thanks to both our guests and Mike
Vimpany for chairing the meeting. |
|
|
|
26th
|
Dilip Jajodia
|
|
Dilip Jajodia, managing director of Dukes Cricket came to tell us
all about their famous cricket balls. Dilip was born and educated in India, before
moving to the UK to train in a profession. Finding that accountancy was too expensive,
he settled on insurance where he got his first job through his ability to play cricket.
In time he tired of the insurance world and set up the Morrants company to sell cricket
balls and equipment directly to the public. He was a pioneer in the world of direct
selling of equipment and I have no doubt many of us attended one of the company’s
sales evenings locally. In time he bought the Dukes cricket company which had been
in existence since 1760. With the aid of a video he showed how the ball is manufactured,
which highlighted the skills need to make a top quality product. The best balls are
hand stitched from four quarters of leather, from prime Angus cattle. The leather
must be at least 4mm thick to provide resilience. Two leather cups are made, which
then have the cork inside fitted before they are hand stitched through the seam.
A top ball-maker will take an hour to stitch one ball, using his eye to get 80 stitches
around the circumference. In total a ball takes about 3 1/2 hours to make. After
stitching, the ball is then pressed into shape, greased, polished and the gold writing
applied by heat treatment. He revealed that for Test matches the balls are stamped
with the match details. It is quite amazing that this top ball sells for around £50,
considering the amount of labour it entails. Dilip also explained his philosophy
on pricing, he doesn’t do discounts nor sponsorship of leagues, he has a premium
product which he doesn’t want to devalue. Once again we had an excellent afternoon’s
entertainment, ably chaired by Martyn. Many thanks to both of you. |
|
|
Nov |
2nd
|
David Payne
|
|
We heard the cricketing life story of David Payne, who started his
development at Parley Cricket club under the watchful eye of team manager Keith Clarke.
Keith led the early part of the interview, which revealed that David was more fancied
as a batsman than a bowler at that stage in his development. We also learnt that
David’s nickname is Sid. In 2006 he won the coverted U-15 Championship with Parley,
the winning team are featured in the photo below. He was a regular for Dorset at
U-13 & U-15 level. He moved to Bournemouth Cricket club to get a higher level
of competition playing in the Southern League and being part of the team that won
the the national 20-20 Championship. He played for England U-19s in the U-19 World
Cup and then joined Gloucestershire. He has over 600 wickets in first-class cricket.
In 2022 he played for England against The Netherlands in a T20 international. He
played for the Perth Scorchers in the BBL last season and was a part of the team
that won the competition. In the past two seasons he has played in The Hundred -
for Welsh Fire! A couple of his early wickets were Joss Butler and Jack Leach. He
was fast-tracked into the England age group squads on account of his left arm swing
bowling. Early in his Gloucester career he took 7-29 in a List A game, but didn’t
get Man of the Match as Grant Flower scored a hundred to win the match for Essex.
He talked about the physical and mental stresses of playing professional sport, he
has had several surgeries as well as counselling during his career. In Australia
Perth were very good in easing him into the side after he had taken a week to acclimatise
to travelling hallway across the world. In one match he was playing in front of a
crowd of 50000, nearly all of them home fans. David is a representative on the PCA
and he spoke about the problems of scheduling in the English season, but the ECB’s
priority is The Hundred. There has to be some compromise for change to happen. This
coming season has the added problem of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies during
the English season. The afternoon ended with a lengthy Q & A session. Many thanks
to David for a fascinating afternoon about a local lad done good! Thanks also to
Mike & Keith for chairing the afternoon. |
|
|
|
9th
|
Derek Pringle
|
|
Derek Pringle arrived to tell us about his career, supplemented by
photographs he had taken around the world and interposed with some mimicry. He started
with Graham Gooch and his fixation with fitness, which wasn't always the case, he
was much rounder when he first joined Essex. His fitness fetish led to clashes with
the likes of Ian Botham and David Gower, even his Essex teammates would quip that
they would be the fastest to get the ball back if their opponent hit the ball 5 miles.
KP once passed the comment that playing for England was his day job, but he was really
South African. David Lloyd was captain of Lancashire when Cambridge University beat
them, but his comment that nobody died meant that he never captained Lancashire again.
Playing in Australia, Ian Gould had a meat pie dumped on his head by a spectator
on the boundary, but his repost was ‘steady on mate, I only had my barnet done the
other day.’ Ian Botham left Somerset after the sacking of Viv Richards & Joel
Garner and went to Worcestershire who went on to win the Championship a couple of
times, something that Somerset still haven’t done. Derek Randall roomed with Derek
Pringle on tour and had an unfortunate habit of waking up his roommate to tell him
that he was unable to sleep! Randall like to talk in the middle, so when the Aussies
tried to sledge him, he lapped it up. Jack Russell would use a single tea bag to
make about 15 cups of tea a day, once at the Oval in a Test match he used the same
teabag for the entire match, hanging the teabag on a nail when it wasn’t needed!
Jack didn’t get his wish when he wanted Derek to put two weetabix in milk exactly
12 minutes before lunch followed by a banana being mashed exactly 4 minutes later!
Phil Tufnell became obsessed that he chucked the ball after Ian Smith the New Zealand
keeper tried a subtle sledge, which caused more sleepless night for Derek who was
rooming with him. There then followed a lengthy Q&A session, ably chaired by
Mike Vimpany. Many thanks Derek. |
|
|
|
16th
|
Gareth Berg
|
|
Gareth Berg is a professional cricketer with an interesting pedigree.
His father is Norwegian and his mother is Italian. As early as 2012 he claimed an
Italian passport and planned to represent Italy, but almost immediately was offered
a contract to play for Northants. He has been the coach for Italy for three years
now, as he tries to make them a more professional unit. At the time selection was
often based on who you knew rather than ability. The majority of the squad are ex-pats
of Asian origin but there are a small number of native-born Italians, which Gareth
plans to increase as time goes by. There are currently a couple of hundred clubs
affiliated to the Italian federation, who have to pay to be affiliated, with another
couple of hundred unaffiliated, plus several hundred clubs that play tape-ball or
softball cricket. Gareth grew up in South Africa, playing at school and representing
under age sides, he played with or against the likes of Graeme Smith, Morne Morkle
and Jonathon Trott. However once you reach the age of 19, opportunities to progress
are extremely limited. He talked about some of the trials and tribulations of being
coach to a side like Italy :- the opportunity to get the squad together only exists
about three times a year, they have 7 or 8 different nationalities within the squad
and the practice facilities can be very limited. This weekend Gareth was flying out
to Italy to conduct coaching, which may be limited to fielding practice at one venue
because of ground conditions, then he will travel 3 or 4 hours to another session,
this time with indoor facilities before flying out of the country after a whirlwind
48 hours. We also learnt about Gareth’s county career which nearly came to a premature
end after a horrific shoulder injury. Doing throw downs in the nets he injured his
shoulder which needed surgery including some extra anchors as his shoulder had hyper-mobility.
A year later diving for a ball in the outfield he injured the shoulder again and
finished up in agony, losing 12 kg in weight and having sepsis in the shoulder which
could well have killed him. He had a further seven operations in two months. Middlesex
refused to give him the close season to show that he could still bowl and terminated
his contract immediately. By the end of the winter he was back bowling and a video
he placed on social media was seen by Rod Bransgrove, who invited him to come to
Hampshire. In his first year at Hampshire he was Player of the Year and his career
since the injury was longer than before the problem. His first ball that he bowled
for Hampshire was a wicket. Now that he retired from the professional game he is
concentrating on coaching, but is not afraid to do a bit of labouring or scaffolding
to bring in the bread. I should also mention that he plays club cricket now for Lymington!
A lengthy Q&A session followed to round off a fascinating afternoon. Many thanks
Gareth and Mike Vimpany. |
|
|
|
23rd
|
Paul Farbrace
|
|
Paul Farbrace had a modest playing career, but as coach he has been
involved with Sri Lanka when they won the World Cup and with England when they won
the Ashes in 2015. He is now the Head coach at Sussex. He played for Kent and at
the age of 19, managed to achieve his ambition of getting a wicket off Derek Underwood,
in Underwood’s last match. In his early days Paul was desperate to become a professional
football, joining Coventry City, but lacking both height and ability he didn’t last
very long. Back at Kent his early coach, Colin Page, encouraged him and taught him
the lesson that even the best cricketers need some love sometimes. Explaining the
Sussex situation at the moment, he said that not every member of the club is going
to like you, especially if you are not selecting them. He told the story of Joss
Butler struggling in the IPL and the phone called he received. Paul reassured him
that he had seen all the games, but observed that Joss wasn’t smiling and his body
language was poor. Paul advised him to just concentrate on how cleanly he hit the
ball, which put Joss in a better frame of mind - in reality he hadn’t seen any of
the games on tv! It emphasised that for top players a coach is more about the mental
side of cricket than the technical. He related his interview at Yorkshire to become
their 2nd team coach, when Geoffrey Boycott was in on the interview, but not on the
panel of four. Boycott paced around the room like a barrister in court, then came
out with the question “ if you only have an average of 15 how do you think you can
coach our batters?” Paul’s reply was that it was a good job that he was coming to
coach the batters, not to be a batter, as he wouldn’t get a game - but he did get
the job! Some of the best stories were about the time when he was in Sri Lanka. Muttiah
Muralitharan took umbrage when Paul suggested that Muri had bowled a bit straight
going around the wicket against Pakistan. The lesson Paul learned was that even the
greatest players want helpful information from you, just not in front of their team
mates. Paul told us how politics played a massive part in cricket in Sri Lanka, with
government ministers picking some members of the team. He and Trevor Bayliss were
sacked three times in their time coaching Sri Lanka. Bayliss was not the best at
remembering names, calling David Willey David Walker. Paul put a lot of emphasis
on learning the players names and pronouncing them properly. A fund of wonderful
stories followed, keeping us richly entertained before a Q&A session rounded
off the afternoon. Many thanks to Paul and Mike for chairing the meeting and a special
mention to Tony Wharton, whose name cropped up on several occasions during the afternoon. |
|
|
|
30th
|
Jocelyn Galsworthy
|
|
Jocelyn Galsworthy became only the third female speaker to address
the Society. She has been an artist for over 60 years, with a particular interest
in portraiture and drawing cricket grounds. After being educated by an aunt in her
younger years she attended Winchester College of Art before learning from the tutorage
of a german artist in Europe. She explained that to be a credible artist you must
have a good sense of perspective, perhaps Jack Russell’s other attributes on a cricket
field make up for his sense of perspective.
Over the years Jocelyn has done portraits of many of the finest cricketers and characters
in the sport. We saw pictures of John Barclay, Chris Martin-Jenkins, Peter Baxter,
Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and KP to name just a few with Dickie Bird and David Sheppard
adjudicating!. These were in her book ‘Lords of Cricket’ available from Amazon! She
also has been commissioned to paint a variety of grounds and matches. These are found
in her first book ‘White Hats & Cricket Bats’ She explained that ideally she
would like four hours to do a portrait, but often the stars could only spare an hour
and a half. For the paintings done at matches, Jocelyn would make use of photographs
after the game to complete the scene. However she was insistent that when doing portraits
they must not look like a photograph, even if they have been drawn from one. Therein
lies the artist’s skill. Many thanks to Jocelyn for a fascinating afternoon and to
Charlie Tuck for arranging the visit. |
|
|
Dec |
7th
|
Rod Bransgrove & Ivo Tennant
|
|
Rod Bransgrove returned just about a year after his last visit, this
time accompanied by Times reporter and obituary writer, Ivo Tennant. The purpose
was to discuss Ivo’s book entitled ‘Back from the Brink’ which tells how Rod Bransgrove
saved Hampshire cricket from bankruptcy more than twenty years ago. Hampshire had
pre-sold the Northlands ground with no uplift in the contract and had insufficient
funds to buy a new ground. Rod Bransgrove came on to the Hampshire board and financed
the development of the Rose Bowl. Rod’s background is in business and he felt that
the committee members who were giving their time for free had insufficient experience
to develop such a large project. Rod thought that it would take a year or two and
a couple of million pounds - little did he know! Hampshire had to move for the 2001
season and had just the close season to move the entire club out to the new ground.
The site was 175 acres, now nearer to 200 acres. The site was far too big to just
play cricket on it. It was obvious that a business plan was needed to produce the
revenue to allow cricket to continue. Rod believed that there will be a seismic meltdown
in county cricket with a reduction in the number of counties and it was imperative
that Hampshire joined the big 6 Test match grounds. The hardest part of the journey
has been getting the ECB to grant the ground international status. This has now happened
with the allocation of an Ashes Test match in 2027 and this means that Hampshire
are now part of the group that decide the allocation of future Test matches. Although
there will not be an Ashes Test in 2031, there will be in 2035 and 2039. Twenty 20
cricket has ensured the survival of at least four counties as previously revenue
was dependant on the small number of members attending county matches and hand outs
from the ECB. When T20 first started Rod wanted to play Matt Le Tissier as wicket-keeper,
he reckoned that it would put 10,000 on the gate. The ECB suggested that Hampshire
weren’t taking T20 seriously! There is a 999 year lease on the land where the stadium
is built, on a peppercorn rent, while the remainder of the grounds are on a commercial,
rent-paying 125 year lease. There is now a hotel and a golf course as part of the
development. In fact the latest proposals call for the building of a second hotel,
the re-location of some of the golf course and redeveloping the car parking. To help
the financing of the ground Rod had to sell his boat! Ageas stepped in eleven years
ago with extra finance, though the name is changing in the next few days. It was
the Covid pandemic that helped Hampshire. They hosted Test cricket to help fulfil
the Sky contract because they had the hotel on the same site and so could provide
all the isolation that was needed. The following year they hosted the world Test
championship when the Oval and Lords were not suitable for covid reasons. This helped
to ensure that Hampshire was included in the grounds hosting Ashes cricket. Attention
then turned to Ivo who reports on sport for The Times, but is also an obituary writer.
He explained that newspapers hold stock obituaries that are written before the person
dies, to be updated when the event occurs. He has recently written Johnny Giles’
obit and explained some of the difficulties of getting all the information needed.
Alan Knott was a childhood hero who Ivo got to know in later life after interviewing
him. Barry Richards was another who he greatly admired, along with Geoff Boycott.
Rod did reveal that he had’t actually read all of Ivo’s book. Maybe he will find
time when he is relaxing in the Barbados in the New Year. We heard how he had dinner
on Mustique with Mick Jagger and Ian Botham. He revealed that Mick doesn’t drink
but Both wasn’t impressed when jugs of fruit juice appeared on the table! Rod also
revealed that Mick is a very strict parent and an extremely intelligent person, he
has a library of classic English literature. A long Q&A session then followed,
including Rod’s take on Shane Warne to wrap-up a wonderful afternoon. Many thanks
to Rod, Ivo and Mike Vimpany. By the way we made the sports pages of The Times on
Saturday with the Matt Le Tissier story, with a mention of the DCS! |
|
|
|
14th
|
Members
|
|
25 members gathered for the annual Christmas buffet and film. Many
thanks to everyone for their contribution to the meal which was enjoyed by all. We
presented Mollie & Sue with small gifts in appreciation of their efforts on our
behalf, before we settled down to watch a Michael Burns film ‘ England’s Finest’
. Michael’s films combine cricket action from the past, intercut with contemporary
film. So it was with this film, which focused on the MCC’s tours to the West Indies
in 1953-4 and Australia in 1954-5. They were both captained by Len Hutton, England’s
first professional captain of the 20th Century. The West Indies tour proved to be
a controversial affair with reports of bad behaviour on and off the field by the
players of both sides and a full-blown riot in one game. After losing the initial
Tests, England recovered to draw the series 2-2. The following winter the tour party
set out by boat to Australia, stopping off in Ceylon for some practice matches. When
they finally got to Australia, their warm-up games lasted longer than most current
tours! After an initial defeat, England hit back to take a 3-1 lead into the final
Test in Sydney. Unseasonal rains flooded the ground and play didn’t commence until
day 4 of 6. Unsurprisingly the result was a draw, but England had won the Ashes.
Len Hutton returned to England for the 1955 season, but retired soon after. It was
fascinating to hear from players on the tour such as Tom Graveney, Trevor Bailey
and Bob Appleyard along with Len Hutton, who was knighted soon after his retirement
from the professional game. Many thanks to Michael for providing this film for us. |
|
2023
|
Jan |
4th
|
Jeremy Lonsdale
|
|
Jeremy Lonsdale visited us to tell us about the MCC’s first tour to
India and Ceylon in the winter of 1926/7. At the time, the only Test playing countries
were England, Australia and South Africa. The tour was organised by MCC through the
Calcutta Cricket club. It was a highly ambitious tour encompassing thirty four matches
and a journey in excess of 34000 miles. As ever, Lords were concerned with the cost
and selected a touring party of only 13 to undertake this mammoth journey. The tour
party was a mixture of professionals and amateurs, split almost evenly and captained
by Arthur Gilligan who was expected to be tour manager as well as captaining and
playing as an all-rounder. About half the party left from Tilbury on a boat to Marseille
where they met up with two further sub-sets of the party who had travelled across
France by train, avoiding the journey across the Bay of Biscay in October. At that
time India was much larger than at present, encompassing what is now Pakistan and
Bangladesh, the tour also visited Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The opposition teams often
contained mainly ex-pats, but there were a few local Indian players. There was an
incredible amount of socialising as the various factions who the team played against
almost competed to out-do the others. There were several controversies surrounding
the tour, before play had even commenced Gilligan was complaining that the work-load
was too great for the size of the party and insisting that he needed at least one
more player. Little thought had been given to the conditions, hot and humid, the
pitches (matting) and the outfields (often dried earth) and the glare. The tour arrangements
were very late being finalised and Gilligan insisted that many of the three day games
be reduced to 2 days. This antagonised the hosts who had incurred expenses based
on the games being spread over three days. It also meant that few of the fixtures
produced a result, though the team did manage to complete the tour unbeaten. Many
of the amateurs would take themselves off with friends to go hunting and socialising,
many of the hosts were reluctant to include the professionals in their social events,
but again Gilligan insisted that either all his players were included or none would
attend. The tour party returned to England a full six months after departing and
it was realised at Lords that dealing with individual clubs out in India was not
the way forward. That led in time to the formation of the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) and hence begun a process that has seen control of the game internationally
pivot from London to India. This was a fascinating story, very well told and I would
hazard a guess that most members came away with more than they expected from events
of nearly a century ago. Many thanks to Jeremy for visiting us and to Huw for arranging
and chairing the event. |
|
|
11th
|
Members
|
|
Over 50 members and guests assembled at the Hermitage Hotel in Bournemouth
for our annual lunch. We were blessed with a sunny, if cold, day down by the sea
and enjoyed an excellent lunch and good company. Chairman Derek Hopkins helped to
raise funds for a local charity with a version of Bruce Forsyth’s ‘Higher or Lower’
and Peter Braim conducted the free raffle with prizes generously donated by members
on the day. Many thanks for those and to Peter Braim for his hard work in organising
the event. |
|
|
|
18th
|
Bill Athey
|
|
Bill Athey of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Sussex and England entertained
us with a comedic tour-de-force on Thursday. After his initial introductory wise-cracks,
he related that he was born and brought up in Middlesborough, a place of which he
is obviously very proud. We heard that he wasn’t the most academic of pupils in a
fairly tough secondary school, but that he had the chance to become a professional
footballer as well as cricketer. Instead he joined Yorkshire for the princely sum
of £500 for the season. He was generally a middle-order batsman and it was
in that position that he was first chosen for England. His first cap was the Centenary
Test in 1980. He told us that his abiding memory of that game was how his Yorkshire
captain and teammate Geoff Boycott had treated him as he walked out to face the likes
of Lillee and Pascoe in his first innings. Despite Bill passing within a few feet
of Boycott, as he made his way to the Nursery end, there was not a single word of
encouragement from the England opener. It was a sad state of affairs and Bill revealed
that the Yorkshire civil war between Boycott’s supporters and the rest of the county
was a prime factor in Bill leaving Yorkshire to play for Gloucestershire. Bill was
recalled to the England squad to tour Australia in 1986/7, the famous tour when Martin
Johnson said the only problems with England were that they couldn’t bat, couldn’t
bowl and couldn’t field. Well, for a team that couldn’t do any of that, they had
an outstanding tour. Wilf Slack who had been pencilled in to open for England had
a poor start to the tour and Bill was asked to open the innings with Chris Broad.
The side emerged victorious by a 2-1 margin to secure The Ashes, then won the four
team Benson & Hedges Perth Challenge and the triangular World Series Cup to complete
a memorable four month tour. He explained how the Aussie public loved to batter the
Poms and recalled a time on the beach when a loudspeaker announcement requested that
Mike Gatting and Ian Botham leave the beach to allow room for the tide to come in.
However it was not all one sided, Phil Edmonds was asked by an immigration official
at the start of the tour whether he had ever had a criminal record. His reply was
that he didn’t realise that it was still necessary to have one to enter Australia!
Bill was also on the tour of Pakistan when the famous Mike Gatting incident occurred,
which led in time to neutral umpires, the only good thing being the players were
given a £1000 bonus for an arduous tour. Bill finished his professional career
at Sussex, before coaching sport at Dulwich College. He also revealed that he spent
one winter training with Brentford FC through his connections with Chris Kamara,
another Middlesborough lad and finished up playing for their reserve team.
It has been hard to convey just how superb Bill was, but in my personal opinion he
is one of the best speakers we have ever had at the Society. Many thanks Bill and
to Martyn for facilitating this event. |
|
|
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25th
|
Mike Thompson
|
|
Mike Thompson returned to speak to us for his second visit, with the
topic being his book, The Last Corinthian, about Mike (MJK) Smith, the last person
to represent England in two major sports (he played rugby against Wales). In his
meticulously researched book, he revealed that Mike was selected for his school U-14
team at the age of 10 and went on to captain the side in later years. After school
he decided to do his National Service while attempting to pass his latin exam which
was essential at that time to gain entrance to Oxbridge. After National Service he
gained a place at Oxford and played in each of his three years in the Varsity match,
scoring a century on each occasion. He played his first match for Leicestershire
at the age of 18, but in this first season only amassed 5 runs from 4 innings. He
didn’t play county cricket during his final year at university which meant that he
was free to switch counties to Warwickshire where he became Captain at the age of
23. After a poor start he scored 2000 runs in his first season, which he repeated
in the next five seasons, with his best year coming in 1959 when he scored over 3000.
He was captain from 1957-67 and won the Gillette Cup in1966. He made his Test debut
in 1958 and was selected for the tour of the West Indies in 1959/60, when there were
pitch invasions by spectators incensed with the local umpires! Tours of India and
Pakistan followed in 1961 and although England beat Pakistan 1-0 Mike’s contribution
was only around a 100 runs from 7 innings. He captain the team against India in India
in 1964, but all five matches were drawn on very docile pitches. Illness bugged the
team and at one stage Henry Blofeld, who was reporting on the tour, was genuinely
considered for a place in the side. In 1964/5 he led a very weak team to South Africa,
without Fred Trueman, who subsequently refused to come to Mike’s 2nd retirement party.
In 1965 they beat New Zealand 3-0 at home but lost 1-0 to South Africa, whilst the
Ashes tour of 1965/66 ended 1-1 with three drawn games, followed by three more drawn
games in New Zealand. His final Test as captain was against the West Indies in England
when he was dropped after the first test for poor scoring. Three years later he was
recalled to the Test side at the age of 38 for three further Tests agains the Aussies.
He finally retired at the age of 42 with a county batting average of 39 and a Test
average of 31. Many thanks to Mike Thompson for helping us re-live the 1950’s and
60’s and to Chris for facilitating the afternoon. |
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Feb |
1st
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Barry Lewis
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Barry Lewis was our speaker this week. Barry is a former Dorset County
captain and holds the record (unlikely to be beaten) for the highest number of runs
scored for the county. After representing Dorset in a friendly in June 1971 his first
Championship match was in July of the same year aged 18. He batted at 7 and took
three catches. Amongst his colleagues that day was a certain Derek Shackleton. His
final match was against Wales in August 1992, so his County career spanned over 21
years. He scored a total of 5920 runs, never quite reaching a century, his highest
innings being 99, though he did score 31 50’s. He even played as wicket keeper on
occasion and took 12 stumpings, plus a solitary wicket when bowling. One day matches
only occurred late in Barry’s career, but he still played in 16 matches and a further
6 List A matches plus 14 other representative matches for Dorset and the Dorset Cricket
Association. When he qualified through age, he started to play for the Dorset Over
50’s in 2005 and played 25 matches before finally retiring in September 2014. In
his latter years Barry took on various administrative roles within local cricket
and as we know finding such volunteers can be a difficult task. He played on many
occasions with professional county cricketers, sometimes there might be as many as
6 professionals within the two teams. A lengthy Q&A session then followed. Many
thanks to Barry and to Derek for hosting the event. |
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8th
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Ben Skipworth
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Ben Skipworth, managing director of Dorset Cricket ltd, came to tell
us of all the changes surrounding local cricket in Dorset. Ben played cricket from
an early age turning out for the U-13’s at Swanage while still 9 years old. He also
had trials for county tennis and football. He started playing league cricket for
Swanage at the age of 14 and in time played for Dorset, before moving to Poole CC.
In time he became a cricket coach. Ben was invited to be the cricket development
manager for Dorset, which was a big change from working for HSBC. It was felt at
that time that Dorset cricket needed to become more professional. The Dorset Cricket
Board no longer exists except as a company name with the creation of Dorset Cricket
ltd. Previously the staff were predominantly from one club which Ben sought to change,
the pavilion at Wimborne CC was left for more suitable (and warmer) offices in Blandford.
He wanted people who had a passion for cricket to work for Dorset, for funding decisions
to be decided more transparently and the women’s person to become a full-time member
of staff. So there were some staff changes.There are now 18 members of staff, 7 of
them full-time which improves communications. He gave one example where a “Glow in
the dark’ diversity cricket event in a local school brought 7 new youngsters into
mainstream cricket. Talent Pathways have replaced county age group cricket, with
a number progressing to Hampshire. A number of amalgamations have occurred, the County
cricket team, a county visually impaired team and the county disability cricket club
have all come onboard. There is an annual ’Showcase game’ against Hampshire at Wimborne,
this year there will be no age-group games on that day, so that the youngsters can
experience the occasion. A girls' hub is likely to be set-up somewhere in the middle
of the county, as although 120 U-13’s take part in indoor cricket, there are only
18 in the county age-group squad, when there needs to be 30. Tapeball cricket is
likely to take-off, as an alternative to traditional matches, this will reach out
to ethnic groups. Ben contrasted the old days when you might see a highlights package
the evening after play has finished, compared to today when his children can watch
three different matches live over breakfast. Dorset are now streaming matches with
watchers from around the world including Russia as well as all over the UK. It’s
important that all the members of a team are involved in the game, gone are the days
when two bowlers bowl throughout the innings. It is now possible to make a living
from playing amateur cricket, 7 Dorset players are currently playing abroad. Dorset
Cricket ltd work with lots of partners to provide cricket and use cricket for good.
The Dorset Cricket Foundation, a charity, is coming into existence, hopefully by
the summer. This will enable Dorset Cricket to work with other charity foundations
and help Dorset cricket to grow. One challenge is that the local councils are looking
to hand the maintenance of cricket grounds to the clubs playing on them, as they
may not be able to afford to prepare the pitches. Dorset Cricket ltd had to pay the
local authority to enable clubs to continue playing at Branksome Rec. Cricket is
being pushed to the extremities of the conurbation, the challenge is to bring cricket,
in some form, back to town centres. Village clubs are under threat because they tend
to be men only teams, whereas funding is only available to clubs that have women’s
teams or junior sections, however some clubs need to look to how they can help themselves.
Dorset now has Premier League status and is on a par with the likes of Southern League.
There followed a long Q&A session which revealed that the turnover of Dorset
Cricket ltd was over £700000 last year. Many thanks to Ben and to Martyn for
facilitating the afternoon. |
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15th
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John Bryant
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John Bryant came to tell us about the Association of Cricket Statisticians
and Historians, of which he is the chairman and a bit about his own contribution
to cricket statistics. He has been heavily involved in the work to update the cricket
records following the decision by the ACS that the 1st class game started in England
in 1772 rather than the 1800’s. As there is no-one around from that time, it involves
a lot of research to discover the statistics! John is also involved in the publication
of Overseas 1st Class Annual, which records all 1st class cricket played outside
England & Wales on an annual basis. He told us that Wisden records all 1st class
cricket played in this country, so there is no need for duplication. The ACS is about
recording the game as it evolves, so the ACS covers limited overs, T20, the Hundred
as well. They are a voluntary organisation, so the range they can cover is limited
by the number of willing volunteers. There followed a long Q & A session when
John was quizzed about what constitutes a 1st Class match, who decides the status
of games and why The Kerry Packer World Series matches were not considered 1st Class,
even though the teams contained many of the best players from around the world? The
question was posed as to whether statisticians should be allowed to re-write cricket.
This hinged around a tour of India in 1930/31 and whether the centuries scored by
Jack Hobb should be included. At the time the matches weren’t reported in the English
press, so they were ignored. The ACS held the opinion that the games should be included
and so Jack Hobbs' number of centuries increased from 197 to 199. All told there
was a lot of good-natured discussion about cricket, something that surely we are
all interested in? Many thanks to John and to Huw for facilitating the afternoon. |
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22nd
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Members
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This week heralded the annual general meeting preceded by a buffet
lunch. Many thanks for all the generous donations of food from members. A particular
shout-out to the healthy eating supporters, the fruit skewers went down extremely
well, thank you Christine. The meal was followed by the AGM. The Chairman reported
on another successful season with a wide variety of speakers talking to an increasing
number of members. The Speakers’ panel were thanked for their efforts in getting
such a great programme together. Membership has increased from 63 last season to
a current figure of 74. The treasurer reported that at present we had made a small
surplus on the season in the region of £500, though there were still six meetings
to go and some are likely to be relatively expensive. A committee proposal to keep
all fees for the new season at this year’s rates was agreed. The Clubman of the Year
award went to Peter Braim for all his hard work in arranging the annual lunch, maintaining
the membership badges, helping with the sound equipment and corralling the car parking.
Well done Peter, well deserved! The majority of post-holders were willing to continue
for another year, though there were vacancies on the Speakers panel. Our President,
John White, has decided it is time to step down and he was thanked for his many years
of service to the Society, being one of the founder members. In his place, Chris
Finch was very proud to be invited to become President, which he accepted. With Martyn
Levitt moving away from the area, a coordinator, to ensure that the programme of
speakers is compiled is one post that still needs to be filled. We finished the afternoon’s
proceedings with a video of Brian Lara, before polishing off the remains of the buffet.
Thanks to all who helped! |
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29th
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Dean Headley
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Dean Headley started by talking about the difficult job that spinners
have in County cricket. He revealed that Dom Bess played for three different counties
in three weeks. Dean feels that the wickets need to change, for a year he was an
ECB match referee and one of his jobs was to mark the suitability of the pitch. He
was always looking for consistent bounce. He talked about the young spinners who
have played for England in India, but will struggle to play for their counties in
the new season. He also spoke about all the requirements for a match referee. Dean
had to retire from the first class game after a chronic back problem and walked away
from cricket for 8 years, before being cajoled into playing again. At 39 he gave
up his job with a newspaper, without a job to go to, but with a knowledge that he
wanted to work with children. Dean’s grandfather was the great George Headley - the
black Bradman, he averaged 60 in Tests and there is a stand in Jamaica named after
him. George was so poor that he couldn’t afford to go in to watch the cricket. The
locals refused to go into the ground unless George was admitted for free. Dean’s
father, Ron, also played for the West Indies, so it was not unusual for the likes
of Michael Holding or Clive Lloyd to visit Dean’s house. However his father drilled
into him to treat these people as just people, who might be great on a cricket field.
As a youngster Dean was good at a number of sports, including football, but at his
school there were no less than 11 teachers who had played 1st class cricket. Dean
believes that as a youngster you should play the same sport for no more than 8 months
a year. From school he went to Worcestershire, but was soon sacked as they didn’t
think he was good enough. He went and played League cricket for a year, then he went
to Somerset, Derby & Middlesex for two week trials and was offered two year contracts
by all of them. He chose Middlesex and a injury crisis soon had him in the first
team. At the end of his contract he refused a new one and went to Kent where he enjoyed
8 or 9 seasons. In 1996 he equalled a world record by taking 3 hat-tricks in the
same County season. His first one was against Derbyshire in an 8-ball over, the second
against Worcester and finally against Hampshire, he could even remember the batsmen
he dismissed and the method of dismissals! In the 2nd Hampshire innings there was
another hat-trick! Dean played 6 times against Australia, 3 at home and 3 away. One
game in Adelaide was played when the temperature was 46C in the shade, 59C in the
middle. He felt that the main difference between the sides was that England dropped
too many catches, some of which were fairly regulation. The best teams catch their
catches. Dean is now a coach at Blundell’s School. His best players get sessions
at 6.30 am for an hour and half, this then allows him time in the rest of the day
with those who are less talented. Instead of coaching 45 players a week, he now does
180, across the junior and senior school. In a long Q&A session, Dean spoke about
the difference in Test selection between his time and now with Bazball. He was asked
about racism and related how his mother always taught him to pity the racist for
being uneducated. He was also asked about the situation that Yorkshire had found
themselves in. His reply was very eloquent, including references to Adolf Hitler
and Donald Trump and gave us a thought-provoking end to the afternoon. He reflect
on the fact that society and what is acceptable changes with time and we can’t necessarily
judge times past by modern standards. He also questioned whether in the modern day
people are all too pleased to be offended. Certainly a Q&A with a difference.
Many thanks to Dean for a great afternoon and to Mike Vimpany for hosting it at short
notice. |
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March |
7th
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Kumar Sangakkara
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Our largest ever attendance saw 80 members and guests arrive to hear
from one of the legends of cricket, Kumar Sangakkara. A former captain of Sri Lanka
and ex-President of MCC, Kumar scored 12400 runs in Test cricket, 14234 in ODI’s
and 1382 in T20’s. He also took 182 catches and 20 stumpings in Tests and 402 catches
and 99 stumpings in ODI’s, plus 25 catches and 20 stumpings in T20’s. Boy, I reckon
I would be tired after that! He also holds the record for the fastest man to 12000
Test runs. So how did he appear at the DCS? Well, we heard that he now lives in Dorset,
so that his twins can attend Bryanston School and he has played the odd game at the
school and has practiced with the Dorset Over 50’s! We even learnt that he scored
a 100 for Bryanston Butterflies! He now works for Sky Sports as a commentator and
is coach for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He flies out to Juipur,
India this weekend for the latest edition of the competition.He revealled that Nasser
Hussain used to call him ‘cymbals’ when he dropped the ball behind the stumps. We
learnt that volleyball, not cricket, is the national sport in Sri Lanka. Kumar played
tennis as a youngster, some cricket from the age of 12, but not very seriously. His
school was a rugby school, which he wasn’t built to play, so Kumar chose cricket.
While waiting to go to university to study law, he was living in Colombo and joined
the Nondescripts cricket club which was open to all comers, whereas many other clubs
were for particular ethnic groups. He had a breakthrough season in his 2nd year at
university when the national team was doing poorly and he was called up to the A
team before progressing to the Test side a couple of years later. His debut was against
Pakistan in Galle in a ODI, he was run out for 35. His first Test soon followed against
South Africa also in Galle. He had to wait 50 overs to get in, scored 35 and Sri
Lanka won by an innings. He had replaced Romesh Kalawitharana, a legend of Sri Lankan
cricket which led to roadside protests by fans. The coach stuck by him and he went
on the tour to South Africa and scored 98 in the final Test, opening the innings.
That gave him the confidence to believe that he belonged in the side. Kumar believes
that a cricketer will inevitably change over time and that should be embraced. He
changed his backlift from time to time and his trigger movements, his teammates were
puzzled that he was tinkering with his technique when he was so successful. The fact
that there was no social media meant that the team often spent time talking cricket
amongst themselves. He played during a time of civil unrest and war within the country
and the team realised the importance of their performance to the country. He first
came across Muttiah Muralitharan in school cricket, who played rugby as well as cricket,
until a bad injury forced him to give up rugby. Kumar spent 6 months learning how
to pick him when Kumar first came into the team. It could be chastening to have no
more idea than the batsman about what he was bowling. Kumar learnt to read the ball
out of his hand, he suggested that the dog-stick used for throw downs was not good
for batsman as they didn’t get used to picking the ball from the bowler’s hand. After
two years of keeping, Kumar reckoned he could read about 98% of balls bowled by Murali,
he hoped that the batsman would get in the way of the other 2%! Kumar was asked about
keeping to Lasith Malinga who had such an odd delivery action. Kumar said that he
was a nightmare to bat against in the nets, either bouncers at your head or toe-crushing
yorkers. Kumar would invite him to bowl in another net! Mike Vimpany then asked Kumar
how he prepared to bat against the fastest bowlers in the world, such as Dale Steyn.
He explained that it was no good being a thinking cricketer, you don’t have time
to think about each ball, you have to play by instinct and rely on muscle-memory.
He then went through a number of famous players, talking about their strengths and
the pleasure that he got from being friends with the likes of Ian Botham, Shane Warne
and Viv Richards. The talk then took a poignant turn as Kumar was asked about the
2004 tsunami and the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan in 2009. He was playing
in New Zealand when the tsunami hit and they initially didn’t realise the magnitude
of the event. He later visited Galle where he observed a fishing trawler 500 yards
inland and 40 feet up in tree. In Lahore Sri Lanka had scored 550-4 and they were
on the bus to the ground for the next day’s play when noises like fire-crackers were
heard. They were actually bullets being fired at the team bus. Kumar credits the
fact that the bus had a recessed channel down the centre of the bus, between the
seats, for ensuring that the casualty list was not higher or more serious. He related
what was obviously a terrifying experience with good humour and told how he later
finished up in hospital in London with suspected sepsis after wearing some tight
shoes. His friend said it was a good job he survived otherwise his tombstone would
read how he had survived war in Sri Lanka, attack in Lahore only to die from tight
shoes in London! A plethora of cricketing stories continued to engage the audience,
he was asked about the different formats of cricket. He thought the formats were
about relevance, he considered Test cricket to be like grand chess, ODI’s were the
equivalent of backgammon, while T20’s were rock, paper, scissors! He explained some
of the finances behind tours and the various formats, many of the tours are heavily
loss-making. He felt that the worst thing that happened to Afghanistan and Ireland
had been to get Test status, as these games only lose them money every single time
they play. He thinks that the ICC need to supervise the spending of receipts to ensure
that they go in the right direction. The IPL is the 2nd richest sport event in the
world after NFL American football. Cricket boards need financial stability moving
forward, a situation which doesn’t exist at the present. He also spoke about the
cost of cricket equipment which is a hinderance to the development of young cricketers.
He explained some of the rules and regulations surrounding the IPL, which ensures
that a maximum of 4 non-Indian players are in any side, out of a maximum of 8 overseas
players in every squad. They have mock auctions to try to practice covering all the
options. India has a population of 1.6 billion providing a steady stream of potential
players and the mindset has changed from wanting to compete to wanting to be world-beaters.
A long Q & A session covered things like Eton & Harrow at Lords, losing the
wicket-keeping position in Test matches which helped his batting, the American league,
entertaining players on and off the field, favourite umpires and least favourites.
As the afternoon approached the two hour mark, we ended with the Society making a
donation of £150 to Kumar’s favourite charity, the Dorset Air Ambulance, in
appreciation of him donating his time freely to us for the afternoon. Many thanks
to Kumar for agreeing to come and great kudos to Mike Vimpany for arranging and hosting
the meeting. |
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14th
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Angus Fraser
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Angus Fraser completed our trio of Test cricketers as he arrived to
tell us about his career as a bowler for Middlesex and England. Born in Wigan, his
parents soon moved south following his father’s work. He has a younger brother, Alistair,
who was a promising young cricketer. Gus attended Harrow Grammar School before moving
to do his re-takes! He was envious of his brother when they wee teenagers, as Alistair
was one of the most promising youngsters in the England U-13’s, which probably helped
Gus by making him more determined. He played for Stanmore cricket club, mainly as
an opening batsman and change bowler. Around the age of 16 he had a growth spurt
which added about 6 inches to his height and this had a profound effect on his bowling.
The extra height made it far harder to judge length and brought the ball through
at an uncomfortable height. He was in the Stanmore 1st XI at 16 and started to attract
attention from Middlesex, playing a couple of 2nd XI games. Around the time he should
have been taking his A-levels, a contract offer arrived from Middlesex offering a
summer of cricket and £1700. Throughout his career he has managed to make a
quick impression at whatever level he was playing. He had a 5-for in one of his first
games for Middlesex 2nds, in the Nat West final he got Graeme Hick as one of his
three wickets and took 4-66 in his Test debut. He came into the Middlesex 1st team
with a lot of quality players around him, playing his first game against Glamorgan
at the age of 18, taking a wicket in his 3rd over - his final figures being 1-124!
He played in the Benson & Hedges semi-final before being left out of the team
in the final, then a couple of years of 2nd XI followed. Don Bennett, the coach,
was a big influence in Gus’s development, bringing him down to earth when needed.
In 1986 he suffered a stress fracture in his back, it was suggested that he needed
to improve his fitness, so he spent the winter working on a building site. His breakthrough
season was 1988 with 80 wickets at 20 a piece which raised hopes of an England selection
to tour India, which never came. Then the tour was cancelled because of some England
players going to South Africa. His strategy was to be as economical as possible so
that even if he wasn’t taking wickets, the opposition weren’t running away on the
scoreboard. A bowler who concedes 4 or 5 an over has to take wickets quickly to avoid
becoming a liability. One of his heroes was Richard Hadlee, bowling a heavy ball
and being miserly, Gus played the long game, wearing down the opposition. In 1989
he played for Middlesex against Australia at Lord’s taking four wickets, he wasn’t
picked for the 1st Test, but found out about his inclusion for the 2nd Test when
a photographer wanted his picture for the papers. Although he was in the squad, he
wasn’t picked for the side, so the two bags of kit with his name on them had to be
returned at the end of the match. You couldn’t wear England kit unless you were actually
playing for England. He was called up for the 3rd Test at Edgbaston and actually
played, taking 4-66 including Steve Waugh. In Manchester there were four dressing
rooms, the Australians had the one big dressing room, David Gower had the Captain’s
room, some of the team were in the 2nd XI dressing room and then there was a further
room at the back of the building where the less senior players were located - not
the best for enhancing team spirit! The England rebel tour was under consideration
which didn’t make for a good atmosphere, Gus described Neil Foster bowling in tears
as he realised this was likely to be his last match for England. That winter Graham
Gooch took a young England side to the West Indies where the emphasis was on fitness,
Graham showed by example what was needed to be an international cricketer. In the
1st Test in Jamaica Gus took 5-28, Allan Lamb scored 160 and England took a 1-0 lead.
The Test in Guyana was abandoned to the weather, while in the 3rd Test in Trinidad
bad light saved the day for the West Indies and Graham Gooch broke his hand. The
West Indies came back strongly in the final two Tests and took the series 2-1. The
following summer after an injury kept him out of the Tests against New Zealand, Gus
returned against India and took a 5-for at Lords. This was the Test in which Graham
Gooch scored 333. The winter tour to Australia brought Gus a serious hip injury which
saw him out of the game for nearly 2 years.
Finally an operation sorted Gus out and he was back in the England side in 1993 against
Australia, getting Mark Waugh out in his first game. In the West Indies he took an
8-for in Barbados and in fact he holds the record for the most wickets taken by an
overseas bowler in the West Indies. A change in management saw Ray Illingworth take
charge which wasn’t good for Gus, he was left out of the touring team to Australia.
He went to Australia as a reserve to play grade cricket and was called up due to
a chicken-pox outbreak in the squad. Around this time he started sports writing with
a diary in the Sunday Telegraph with Scyld Berry. He played in the 3rd Test in Sydney
after Phil De Freitas had a hamstring injury and took 7 wickets in the match forcing
himself back into England consideration. In early 1998 he toured the West Indies
and had a very successful tour as he took 28 wickets, back home the Test series was
against South Africa when Gus took took 19 wickets in the last two Tests. He played
the first match of the Ashes tour the following winter but was dropped after only
one match and that finished his England Test career. He was in the squad for the
1999 World Cup, but England exited very quickly and his international career was
over. He was offered a job at the Independent in 2002, it was time to finish his
playing career. He said goodbye to Middlesex and wrote for 9 years overcoming a bit
of resentment at parachuting into the job. In time he felt that he was away from
home too much, especially now he had a young family and his son had a brain tumour
when he was 13, so when Middlesex came looking for him, he responded. At the time
Middlesex had a number of players who thought that the club should be grateful to
have them. Middlesex won the title in 2016, which was a highlight for him, unfortunately
relegation followed the next year. By 2021 Angus was burnt out. He now works for
them in local participation and their charity work and umpires in the lower leagues
to find out what is happening in the lower echelons. He also explained about the
strange relationship between Middlesex and MCC. MCC has control of the ground and
Middlesex have to fit around them, so they play a larger proportion of fixtures at
out-grounds and this has a cost implication both from the expenses point of view
but also from the loss of sponsorship revenue. If Middlesex have a meeting at Lords
they have to pay for the room and they can’t leave kit in the changing room if there
is a gap between games, as there will be tours of the changing rooms. In the Q&A
session Gus answered questions about Richard Scott, do bowlers practice their batting,
his impressions of Phil & Francis Edmonds, working with David Lloyd, of course
Lymington got a mention (thank you Tony), in connection with Gareth Berg. Angus has
been an England selector and in 2014 they were looking for replacements for Stuart
Broad and Jimmy Anderson, Stuart played the game wonderfully but was hard to manage,
Jimmy was Mr Grumpy. He revealed that his son is the analyst for Middlesex, having
been doing the job for about 9 years. Once again we have had a wonderful afternoon’s
entertainment, many thanks to Gus and to Martyn for organising and hosting the meeting. |
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21st
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John Barclay
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The return of the magnificent 7th! - well the 7th visit for old friend
and Vice-President of the Society, John Barclay. Once again he entertained us most
regally in his own unique manner. He started on a semi-serious note, comparing the
merits of the different formats in cricket. He emphasised opportunity - particularly
the many opportunities to partake in the shorter format of the game. He felt that
we haven’t quite got the balance quite right, he would like to combine the great
skills of the county game with the short form of the game, but the basics need to
come first. He spoke about the Test series in India, he felt that we did well to
win a match, this revolves around habitat - we need the right habitat to survive.
The three young spinners we took were all we had, as the habitat in county cricket
doesn’t help them to thrive, when county matches bookmark the beginning and end of
the season. Joe Root is a rarity, world class, but he developed when the balance
was different. T20 or The 100 are a one tempo affair, whereas the longer form of
the game provides variety. Bazball is about giving players more freedom, reducing
the fear factor. John told how his career was full of the fear of failure, he was
afraid of getting out - to the most innocuous bowlers. In India all our batsmen except
Root were without the technique to defend their wicket. John thought the best captains
were those who could both attack and defend. He quoted Ray Illingworth and Mike Brearley
as prime examples who knew when to attack and when to defend. He sprinkled his talk
with the opportunity for the audience to ask questions, ably assisted by Huw confirming
dates and statistics! 1963 was the start of the one day tournament with 65 overs
a side, nowadays play would need to continue under floodlights! Even better, Sussex
won the trophy! From that, limited overs reduced from 65 to 60 to 55 and then the
John Player Sunday League at 40 overs, gradually the rules were tweaked to provide
more entertainment. In 1981 there was another tournament the Lambert & Butler
trophy held in September, 10 overs a side, played on football grounds. John recalled
playing in pouring rain on a matting wicket when a ball bowled to him plugged in
the wicket from a lob bowler! The slower you bowled, the harder it was to hit. John
ran down the wicket to it, only to play and miss! John was asked about his old teammate
Imran Khan. He didn’t have too much up-to-date information, but he did pose the question
to the audience, asking how many of them had captained a Prime Minister? John got
on very well with Imran. He recalled a time when Sussex and Somerset were joint top
of the Sunday League. Sussex batted first and managed about 192 and at tea the players
formed a plan to defend the total, which involved deciding not to take a wicket -
as that would bring Viv Richards to the crease. He had it within his make-up to spoil
a Sunday afternoon and quite quickly! By mistake Brian Rose was dismissed and down
swaggered Viv to bat. Imran trotted over and suggested that John was the best person
to bowl, citing the fact that Viv didn’t really like facing joke bowlers! John took
the advice and came on to bowl at the pavilion end. He spread the field and bowled
his first ball, with a bit of flight, outside the off stump. Viv, with his jumbo
bat, popped it over the wall into the river. Local fishermen rescued the ball, which
by now was a little wet! Dickie Bird, the umpire, asked if John minded him taking
a few steps back! The second ball followed the first, the third was treated the same.
Thoughts of Malcolm Nash arose, particularly after the fourth ball was caught on
the boundary, only for the fielder to fall over the rope, 24 off four balls. The
over finally went for 28 and the game ended early! Viv thanked John, saying that
without bowlers like you, I would never have been the great batsman that I am! He
did however get another great batsman out - Gordon Greenidge c Graves b Barclay 256!
John enthused about playing against the likes of Mike Proctor, Geoff Boycott, Clive
Lloyd and Malcolm Marshall. Proctor was a very complicated bowler to face, with late
movement. John expressed concern for Imran, former Prime Minister of Pakistan and
now in jail there.He recalled the time there was a truce with the Taliban. Imran
was part of a group that was trying to form a relationship with the Taliban. John
asked how it was going, Immy replied that they had a Christmas get together with
a meal and party games. Musical chairs was ok, everyone enjoyed it, but when it came
to pass the parcel, he had never seen a parcel move faster! John played at Lords
aged 14 in the Eton v Harrow game, an extraordinary privilege, because nobody else
could bowl spin. This prompted some discussion of the Eton v Harrow match and the
current controversy. In those days the men dressed in tail coats, crowds were probably
in the region of 12000 and it was a two day match. The context was different from
what it is today. John posed the question do you continue with traditions even if
they have become rather lacklustre? Mike observed that the income from hospitality
boxes was the second highest of the year. We were entertained with many stories from
his playing days, including his less than stellar debut against Glamorgan, out LBW
0, didn’t bat and then tripping into the dressing room and depositing the contents
of the drinks tray into Tony Greig’s kit bag. John wasn’t selected again for two
years! We learnt a little about the workings of MCC in particular regarding the President.
John revelled that the new President is chosen solely by the incumbent President,
so for example the current President Mark Nicholas will have already made his choice
for the next President, even though it is still under wraps. Of course John was President
in 2009-10 and he was chosen by former President Derek Underwood. He puzzled over
how Derek had come to his decision, though he did recall a game he had played against
Kent when he was dismissed for 0 in each innings, caught Cowdrey bowled Underwood.
10 years later Kent v Sussex again, Derek comes in as nightwatchman and the next
day he dropped Derek when he had a score of 92 and Derek went on to make his only
1st class hundred! He wondered whether there might be a connection! Mention of Derek
Underwood brought memories of wet pitches and we had the wonderful sight of John
“patting down” the wicket with Nick Gossip’s walking stick! Then we heard about Geoffrey
Boycott studying the bible to improve his chances of a good score, with John upsetting
Malcolm Marshall so much that he refused to bowl anymore. A wonderful afternoon’s
entertainment finally came to an end, in about the time of a T20 innings, once again
we are indebted to John for kindly taking the time to visit us and to Mike for arranging
and hosting the meeting. John didn’t even ask for extra expenses to replace the shoe
leather he wore out as he paced from side to side of the stage! Come back again soon
please John. |
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28th
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Derek Hopkins
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32 members and guests arrived to have their brains teased by Derek
in the annual sports quiz Pictures of sporting heroes, cricket matches from the past
and descriptions of players who were ‘late bloomers’ to Test cricket were all featured,
along with questions on archery and footballers whose surnames ended with a ‘u’.
A fun time was had by all and a big thank you to Derek for organising the event.
We finished with a cream tea augmented with Easter eggs and chocolate cakes, to conclude
another successful season. We intend to restart on Thursday 10th October 2024. |
