|
Year
|
Month
|
Day
|
Speaker
|
|
Topic
|
|
2025
|
Oct |
9th
|
James Graham-Brown
|
|
Our season started with the best first-day attendance ever. 46 members
gathered, firstly to remember three of our former members who had passed away during
the summer, Dai Davies, Frank Fortey and Warwick Rust, then to hear from James Graham-Brown
- a man with three careers and two names!
James started off telling us about the end of his career as a county professional
when he just failed to clear Harry Pilling (5’0”) on the long off boundary in his
final game for Derbyshire. He lamented that, like politicians, most sporting careers
end in failure. He claimed that his started, continued and ended in failure, doing
himself rather a dis-service. It had all started aged 11 when he watched Colin Cowdrey
score two centuries for Kent against the touring Australian side, little believing
that 13 years later he would be playing with the same man. James attended Sevenoaks
School where the coach was a great believer in youth, bringing boys into the 1st
XI at the age of 13 or 14, thus setting James on his cricketing journey. In 1970
he was selected to play for Young England against the West Indies and even opened
the bowling. This would have appeared slightly incongruous a few years later when
his bowling had declined as his batting improved. In fact in a team which also included
Geoff Miller and John Emburey he was actually the leading wicket taker. At that time
Kent were totally ignorant of his presence and it was only when Middlesex asked permission
to invite him to play for their 2nd XI that Kent took an interest. Rejecting Middlesex’s
approach, Kent invited him to play for their 2nd XI and at the end of the season
offered him a contract for the following season. It had been James’ intention to
go to Oxford University to get a Blue for cricket, but the dons saw through his scheme
and didn’t offer him a place, so the Kent offer was accepted. His first season was
in 1971 and Les Ames gave him some sage advice part way through the season. He said
”You’re never going to play for England, you should go to university. So Kent arranged
for James to take his degree at Kent University, paid for by Kent and with a tutor
who was a cricket enthusiast who would tutor him during a match when James wasn’t
batting, so plenty of time for learning there then! After 4 matches where he was
12th man, including one occasion when a dog-bite to a fellow team-mate looked as
if it would be an opportunity to play, James finally made it into the team. As James
didn’t drive at that time his nearest neighbour was Colin Cowdrey, who drove him
to matches in the Daimler, MCC 307. On one occasion when late for an away match Colin
organised the coin toss over the phone. Needless to say Kent won the toss! James
also related the time that he was playing for the 2nd XI on a rather sporty pitch
at Dover. He was number six in the order but found himself in during the 3rd over
with only 1 wicket down. The others had all retired hurt thanks to one Anderson Roberts
of Hampshire who was steaming in to bowl far faster that anything the 2nd XI normally
produced. In 1974 James got his breakthrough into the team when Bernard Julian was
injured and he had a good run in the side, which managed to get to the Gilette Cup
final against Leicestershire. He was originally picked for the team, but the whole
of Saturday was washed out by rain, they then had to play a Sunday League game where
he went for 68 off 12 overs, a massive amount at the time. Fortunately his rival
Richard Elmes went for over 70 off his overs so James retained his place when the
game was played on the Monday. It was probably the highlight of his career, as the
weather was overcast, the wicket was green and James bowled 12 overs 5 maidens and
took 2-15. The cricketing fates are fickle though and by the end of the following
season he was out of favour and moved to Derbyshire, which culturally was a complete
change. There he played under Eddie Barlow, who dragged Derbyshire up from the bottom
of the County Championship. James tells how he once bowled to Geoffrey Boycott who
defended an over of fairly rank bowling, mainly tapping it back to James. At the
end of the over Geoff tapped him on the shoulder and said “That’s the last time you
will bowl a maiden over to the greatest batsman in the world” - and it was! When
James was offered the opportunity to captain the 2nd XI for the following season,
he recognised that his time was up and started his second career as a teacher. He
taught at Bournemouth School and later became a Headmaster in Truro and finally in
Bath. While teaching he played Minor Counties cricket for Cornwall and Dorset, including
playing with Julian Shackleton. In his latter years of teaching he turned his hand
to playwrighting and has written over 30, including some memorable sporting ones,
particularly about Colin Milburn -‘When The Eye Has Gone’ and Chris Lewis -“The Long
Walk Back’. James himself lost the sight in one eye a while back. He talked about
the mental health of cricketers, particularly of the older generations who found
it difficult to cope when the attention a'd adulation had gone. His plays, both supporting
the Professional Cricketers Association, were intended to appeal to a young audience,
rather than the more traditional theatre audience. In fact his play about Chris Lewis
was first staged at Portland Prison and Chris Lewis attended every performance to
talk about his experience. James is still writing plays, he has two or three at different
stages in their creation and also wrote the biography of Dennis Amiss. In a long
Q&A session he was asked why he wrote under a different name, Dougie Blaxland.
He explained that it gave him a freedom which he didn’t have as a Headmaster and
teacher. More tales of cricketers such as Bob Taylor, Viv Richards and Colin Milburn
followed to round off a wonderful afternoon’s entertainment. Many thanks James and
to Derek for hosting the meeting. |
|
|
|
16th
|
Members
|
|
Illness prevented Charlotte Taylor from speaking to us today, so we
had a last minute look at some of the finest cricketers that have worn the baggy
green cap of Australia. Don Bradman of course springs to mind with his unique ability
and thin, nasal voice. The famous statistic of 99.94 batting average in Tests was
freqently mentioned, as was the fact that the next best only manages 60. The war
of course robbed him of almost a decade of Test cricket, leaving lots of what if
questions. Also amongst the greatest of all time is Shane Warne who took over 700
Test wickets, the 2nd highest ever. The 'ball of the century' to Mike Gatting was
pored over as were a vast number of other victims. Rounding off the event was Adam
Gilchrist whose batting at number 7 for Australia often dug them out of a hole. Initially
in the ODI team as an opening batsman Adam soon ousted Ian Healy and became a leader
within the Australian side. |
|
|
|
23rd
|
|
|
Tim Shutt, Director of the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation came
to tell us about the charity he runs and his background. Born in the North East,
Tim spent several years working for a bank before he started to volunteer with Sussex,
which led to a job with the Sussex Cricket Board. From there he progressed to become
Director of the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation taking over in 2020 from Johnny
Barclay who had run it for 34 years. Tim explained that the cricketing charity sector
was fairly crowded, maybe 250 charities and that the Foundation was a relative minnow
compared to say, Lords Taverners. Turnover was just over £400000 a year compared
to maybe £6 million for Lords Taverners or Chance To Shine. Therefore it is
important to have a unique selling point or USP. Why would a benefactor give money
or sponsorship to them rather than the larger charities? Well Tim explained that
they were not in the business of trying to discover and develop the next Joe Root
or Freddie Flintoff, plenty of other charities were covering that. They were endeavouring
to use the medium of cricket to provide opportunities for deprived children, in many
cases from the London area. They offer three day courses throughout the summer where
cricket is used to bring the children, often from very different backgrounds, together
and to teach them life skills and open their eyes to opportunities. So as well as
the sport, which is only cricket, they will try their hand at pitching tents, maybe
sleeping in them overnight, perhaps some cooking. The children mainly spend the overnight
periods at a local activity centre which has dormitory accommodation and they are
supervised by their teachers who come with them. During the day they are playing
on the Arundel ground and often pitching tents around the boundary! Tim emphasised
just how small the charity is when he revealed that thee were two and a half full
time staff, including himself. When the activity days are being held external, paid
coaches etc are brought in. The charity runs all year, but the activities go from
April to October, while the rest of the year is kept busy with organising future
events and fund-raising. In the Q&A session Tim revealed that about half their
funds come from other charities who exist to give money to facilitate sport or caring
for children, the remainder is raised from individual donors and events such as golf
days and cycle rides. It’s certainly a challenging amount of money which needs to
be raised each year. He was very clear that he wasn’t looking to raise funds from
us, but if you are re-writing your will at present, well…….. Next year will be their
40th year, so a big opportunity to raise their profile, though local interest can
be constrained a bit by the fact that this is being done for children from London
rather the immediate area, which makes fund raising a bit of a hard sell. A lengthy
Q&A session followed with Tim freely giving of his time, until he had to depart
back for an evening appointment. Many thanks to Tim for an extremely interesting
afternoon and also to Huw for organising the visit. |
|
|
|
30th
|
Roland Butcher
|
|
Roland Butcher stopped off to see us on his marathon journey around
the country and other parts of the world as he promoted his book Breaking Boundaries
which tells of his life story. As he explained it was intended to be more than a
book just about his cricketing exploits, it was intended to be an inspiration and
route map for young people. Roland was born in Barbados where he lived until he was
thirteen, mainly with his grandmother as his parents and the rest of his family had
emigrated to England. Finally his parents prised him away from his grandmother and
he came to live in London. It was a challenging time, not only did he have to cope
with a new country but also effectively a new family including his older siblings.
Where he lived there was a very little cricket played, it was mainly soccer and Roland
showed quite an aptitude for the game. In fact he finished up as a semi-professional
football before he became a professional cricketer. Fate offered him a chance when
he was invited to help make up the numbers for a 3rd XI match in the local park where
he had been playing football with friends. Success came slowly and he was finally
recommended to Gloucestershire. They had a pretty good side at the time and so Roland
joined the MCC ground staff at Lords, which at the time was the equivalent of a cricketing
apprenticeship. In time Middlesex took note of this young batsman and he made his
way into the 1st XI. After some particularly good scores he was selected for England
for an ODI and later for the tour to the West Indies. Thus he became the first black
cricketer to play Test cricket for England. In total he played three Tests, but sadly
a serious eye injury affected his sight permanently, he was hit in the eye while
trying a hook shot. As he explained the injury prevented him from playing at the
highest level, but he managed to continue his professional career for another seven
years, which included winning the trophy for the fastest 1st class century in the
1987 season (off 73 balls) In time he acquired football coaching badges and worked
as a coach in the professional football game for a number of different clubs, but
in 2004 his career went in a different path when he was invited to become the Director
of Sport at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. As he explained this involved
no less than 14 sports which he was responsible for developing and he was particularly
keen on developing women’s sport. He also became a selector for the West Indies team,
as well as being made a Freeman of the City of London, which entitles him to herd
sheep over Tower Bridge! During the Q&A session he was asked why he chose to
play for England rather than the West Indies and he explained that choosing the West
Indies would have made him an overseas player in county cricket and there were limitations
on the number of overseas players each team could have, especially as Middlesex preferred
their overseas players to be fast bowlers. An interesting afternoon was spent by
61 members and guests, with many thanks to Roland and also to Mike Vimpany for hosting
the meeting. |
|
|
Nov |
6th
|
Vic Marks
|
|
|
|
|
|
13th
|
Richard Isaacs
|
|
|
|
|
|
20th
|
Peter Hardy
|
|
|
|
|
|
27th
|
Mike Smith
|
|
|
|
|
Dec |
4th
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11th
|
Jamie Cox
|
|
|
|
|
|
18th
|
Andy Murtagh
|
|
|
|
2025
|
Jan |
8th
|
Members
|
|
|
| |
|
15th
|
Andy Coleman & Luke Webb
|
|
|
|
|
|
22nd
|
Eddie Jack
|
|
|
|
|
|
29th
|
Ian Darke
|
|
|
|
|
Feb |
5th
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12th
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19th
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26th
|
|
|
|
|
|
March |
5th
|
Mark Peel
|
|
|
| |
|
12th
|
John Barclay
|
|
|
| |
|
19th
|
Andy Moles
|
|
|
| |
|
26th
|
Derek Hopkins
|
|
|
