Early Years

Where did it all begin? I guess I could say that I come from a sporting family. I have a photo of my father, affectionately known to all as Bertie (though Daddy to me) when he was captain of cricket and football at Xaverian College in 1931. My mother was Gwen and her father George is recorded as organising a company cricket match in 1926.

I have no cricketing memories before 1953, when I was nearly seven. Sussex played the all-conquering county champions Surrey at Hove. I believe I went to the game in late August but I have no evidence to support the vague memory. The game ended in a dull draw (if 100 from PBH May could be dull) but it featured my early cricketing heroes: David Sheppard, Don Smith, George Cox, Ken Suttle, Jim Parks, Ian Thomson, Rupert Webb and Ted James (in batting order of course). I later benefited from coaching from most of them at the annual Easter nets at the County Ground.

The following week I went with my father to the Farnborough Air Show on my seventh birthday. He served in the Second World War in the Royal Artillery and later in the Territorial Army and had considerable expertise in aircraft recognition. My main memory of that hot day is of being stung by a bee, but the images of the Javelin and the Vulcan Bomber were also implanted.

On 2 June 1956 Sussex played the Australians at Hove.  Thomson, James and Smith dismissed Harvey, Miller, Benaud et al for 231 and Sheppard fell just short of a hundred in reply but rain intervened. By then the cricketing path was set.

I had first been to school at Lourdes Convent in the Preston Road in 1950 where my sister, Phillipa, was already a pupil. At that time we lived at 40 Springfield Road in Brighton to where we had moved in 1948, from 20 Bristol Gardens in Kemp Town, where the family lived when I was born at Brighton Maternity Hospital. As an aside a previous use of the building was premises for Brighton Grammar School.

We used to take the one mile twenty minute walk through Preston Park, including home for lunch, come rain or shine. The nuns were more interested in having us perform tableaux than sport. But by seven I had moved to Cottesmore Primary School in the Upper Drive in Hove, also a one mile twenty minute walk but up Dyke Road Drive and Highcroft Villas and down the Upper Drive. In those days there was not that much organised primary school sport, so what I did play would have been with my father in Preston Park in Brighton or while watching him play for Brighton Old Xaverians at their ground at Horsdean. I recall being at a game, and later playing, at the Xaverian College’s postage stamp ground near Queen’s Park in Brighton. It has now been demolished to make way for flats.

My most distinct sporting memory at Cottesmore was of making 49 in one innings of a rare match. I was mortified that I was then given out Hit Wicket by a teacher who did not know the Laws of Cricket, when I dislodged a bail as I was marking my crease for the next ball. He obviously thought my innings had gone on long enough without realising the impact of depriving me of the magic maiden fifty. There was also an occasional game of football, but no fond memories the main one being of taking a blow to the head from a ball kicked at short distance by Winston Weatherill (amazing how one remembers names from yesteryear), a rather more able opponent with whom I was later to play in the Pelham House Team at senior school.

My father was a teacher at Fawcett School, then near St. Peter’s Church, one of the more difficult schools in central Brighton for those boys who ‘failed the 11+’ . I met an old school acquaintance in 2022, who had been at that school before transferring at 13. He reminisced that my father was the only teacher who could quieten the class on entry to the room. Until 1959 he had a secondary weekend career in the TA as Battery Commander in Brighton and Hove. This enabled him to organise a Sussex Yeomanry v Surrey Yeomanry cricket match. In 1956 he persuaded the Duke of Norfolk, who was of course interested in both cricket and the TA, to permit the use of the cricket ground at Arundel Castle for the occasion. My father could only find ten players, or cunningly organised it so that I became the eleventh. It meant third man at both ends but to play at Arundel at the age of ten was really special. It brings back memories whenever I visit the ground, now for an annual county match when Sussex play there or to support the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation in its efforts for less abled cricket lovers.

School

In 1957 I started at senior school, Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School, having passed the 11+, a selection process which put supposedly more intelligent boys into a more academic school. Being a September birth but ahead of my peer group, it was a surprise to find that I was initially placed in a fast track class known as 1T. It lasted only one term before I moved to 1A but I later came to believe that this became a significant disadvantage because I think there was basic learning in Maths and English which without initial repetition went over my head. It was no doubt exacerbated by my primary focus being on cricket and chess.

In my second year the family conveniently moved to 6 Avondale Road in Hove. At the top of the road was the school playing field. The one mile walk became just a few hundred yeards and enabled me to continue to avoid the dreaded school lunches, with my home-making mother Gwen waiting to provide a decent meal.

Team cricket matches did not start until the third year, but being something of a cricket prodigy I was selected to play for the School Junior Under 14 team in my first year when I was only eleven.  This was most unusual, especially as I was already one of the youngest in my year and in a sense, like my absence from school lunches, set me apart from my peers. I recall the team asking me if I used a box, as I surely had not by that time developed balls. purely in a physical sense. (The box was used as a protector since being hit by a cricket ball could cause significant discomfort to say the least.) Naturally by the time I got to the third year I was the obvious captain for the team. This continued at every level as I progressed through school.  It could set me out in class as well. I recall the team manager and my class teacher, Stan Cave, a delightful elderly northern gentleman, asking me what the first rule was. I had no idea what he was talking about and he had to tell me the obvious: watch the ball. (Oddly enough as I write I hear discussion about the England wicketkeeper failing to catch the ball because he did not watch it into his gloves. A lesson not learnt in 60 years it seems.)

Summers in the early 1960s were idyllic and memory says largely sunny, unlike the winters which included being frozen in 1963. I extended my stay at school to a third year in the Sixth Form in 1963/4, ostensibly to apply to Oxford University, for which I was in reality wholly unequipped with which my interviewers agreed, but primarily so I could enjoy another summer batting and playing for Sussex Schools and Sussex Young Cricketers. That gave me treasured opportunities to play at the Hove County Ground, where I suffered a blow to the head from a bumper – pre-helmet days of course. I had in 1961 played for Sussex Schools against Surrey Schools at the Oval, an inauspicious occasion on which I was bowled Pocock nought. He did go on to play Test Cricket and captured the wickets of many more able batsmen than I was.

These dubious qualifications turned out to stand me in good stead. When I applied to study law at Southampton University the interviewer Professor Phillips showed little interest in my academic prowess and focussed largely on cricket. In spite of my poor A Level Results I was offered a place. My School Headmaster Mr. Brogden must have written me a good reference.

https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/28/28999.html

University Cricket

The highest standard of cricket I ever played was at Southampton University, where I started in October 1965. I played chess and studied in the first two terms and played cricket in the third. In those days it was possible to do that, at least in the first two years, unless you wanted a First, which was quite beyond my ambition or ability. Sadly that is no longer possible because of the dominant academic demands and the shortened timings of the summer term. Cricket as a national sport has suffered as a consequence.

The university side played at the Montefiore Ground, widely regarded as having one of the best pitches in Hampshire under the tender care of groundsman Ted Barrett. During the 1980s in a philistine move matching the decreasing importance placed on sporting excellence during the Thatcher era, the ground disappeared under concrete and was used for housing development. Cricket pitches and other sporting facilities were moved out to a far less attractive area known as Wide Lane. When I went back to play in later years it was to a soulless environment.

Southampton University Cricket Club had always been competitive in matches against other universities but when I arrived it had never won the University Athletic Union Championship (UAU).  In my first season in 1966 I was fortunate to be selected regularly for the 1st XI. This was only by dint of keeping wicket to add that skill to my batting ability, which at this level was limited. I carried on as wicket keeper throughout my university career, unusual for a man of 6’ 2”.

Two main events were memorable in the season of 1966, when the First XI played under the captaincy of Tony Parkinson, a lawyer and a stylish if defensive opening bat. The early rounds of the UAU were not especially competitive but when we got to the semi-final we faced Loughborough University at Reading University in a game for which two days were allowed. At that time Loughborough was just starting to be the most competitive place to be with its focus on sporting achievement. It was a surprise to bowl them out for 161 but by the end of the first day we did not seem to be well placed. Early on the second day we declined to 137-9, when James Evans, an opening bowler not renowned for his batting, joined the author. To our mutual surprise we took the score to level pegging when we lost our tenth wicket to end the game in a tie. James was the survivor on that occasion, although sadly not later when his life ended prematurely. James always swore he would have won the game. We lost the reply when the author was unable to play, having been dragged reluctantly to an exam on the English Legal System.

The end of the summer term was in those days celebrated by a cricket tour to Torquay, to play a few local clubs of variable quality. Trips to Plymouth and the Devon hinterland necessitated travel in a convoy of cars, an arrangement which was only possible because the Road Safety Act was not passed until 1967. Cricket kit was of course in the car boot, including pads, bats and gloves. Having safely negotiated the hour’s drive from Plymouth, on arrival at the hotel in Torquay a following car stopped less quickly than the one in front. No more was thought of it until on arrival at a ground somewhere near Cockington, the boot could not be opened to give access to the kit of half the team.

In my second year I was Club Secretary, Colin Pinch was captain, a very fine left arm spinner and useful batsman, supported by Tim Davies, a highly skilled off-spinner, with support from Paul Clarke, another useful off-spinner when needed. My skills at keeping up to the wicket were certainly tested.

At the end of my second year at University it somehow came about that I was called up to play for Sussex 2nd XI – professional cricket. They must have been very short for a game at Worcester. Apart from an appearance at one of the most beautiful grounds in the country (when it is not under water) between the river and the cathedral, the game was notable for having eight Sussex sometime first team players. Worcestershire played Glenn Turner, who made 0 and 91*, and went on to play for New Zealand, and Sadiq Mohammed, who having had me caught and bowled for 16 in the first innings (I did not trouble the scorers in a run chase in the second innings) went on to play for Pakistan.  (For further details see   http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/28/28999.html )

In the third, and my finals, year I was elected captain of the club. This came about partly as a matter of seniority and having been secretary the previous year, because I was not the best player, who was usually the person appointed as captain. But as it happened I was a good captain (in my opinion). I had had years of experience, but managing a skilful group of intelligent students with diverse characters was much more difficult. I was also a good onfield strategist, which is more important in cricket than in other team games.

Probably the most significant event at University (even more important than graduation two weeks later) took place on 24 June 1968 when we won the University Athletics Union Cup in a match against Manchester University. Batting when the winning runs were scored was a highlight. For some years six of that team met regularly. In 2016 several of us went on a (non-playing but memorable) tour to India organised by Shiv Datt, a member of the successful 1970 side. We planned a fifty year reunion in 2018 of the successful cricketers, with the next two years teams who had the same success as we did.

Back to Brighton and Hove

I returned to live in Brighton (well with my parents in Hove Actually) on completing my degree in 1968. From the high of winning the UAU Final in July 1968 came the worst time of my life and little cricket. Life was dominated by travelling daily to Lancaster Gate in London to attend the College of Law to study for the Solicitors’ Professional Exams. Things improved but marginally when in February 1969 I succeeded in passing only three of the exam heads, the minimum requirement, which meant I had to spend the next six months studying for the remainder.

This was done part time however because in February 1969 I was fortunate to obtain articles with John Donne (later Sir John), Senior Partner of Nye and Donne, a long established solicitors’ practice in Ship Street, Brighton. My father had tutored John’s brother in the 1930s and had obviously done a good job, because John remembered. As an almost equal benefit John and his partner Geoffrey Seaton were both members of the MCC and put me forward for membership. This was accepted and I became an Associate Member on 15 May 1971. I was fortunate again when in 1973 the 16,000 Associate Members were given Full Membership in addition to the existing 2,000.

In a remarkable coincidence of timing I was admitted as a Solicitor on 15 May 1971, the same day as I was admitted to membership of the MCC.

I was also fortunate that, although John Donne was laid up with a bad back for some months during my articles so that I had quite a work burden, it was a great way to learn. He was also generous in allowing me to play cricket during the week. That enabled me to play for Brighton Brunswick during 1970, 1971 and 1972.

During 1972 I started to think that a taste of London Life might be fun for a few years. My thinking had been influenced by the amalgamation of three Sussex solicitors’ firms on 1 January 1970: Nye and Donne, Mileham, Scatliff and Allen and Coole and Haddock. Twenty three partners was too much for me and I vowed that if I ever looked to run a business it would be with a small number of people. My concerns proved well-founded when it later came to light that the newly established Donne Mileham and Haddock was defrauded of a six figure sum (a lot of money in the 1970s) by one of the partners and the firm’s accountant.

An old school friend, Richard Hunt, with whom I had stayed in touch, suggested I might like to consider working in the local authority where he was working. Yet again contacts proved useful and in October 1972 I moved to London to work in the Legal Department of the London Borough of Camden.  Again I fell on my feet when another old school friend, Doug Fraser, let me know that there was a space in his flat. I was on my way to Turnham Green in West London.

I moved to London in October 1972. During that winter I made contact with Roger Morgan, one of the best cricketers of my generation who had been at the grammar school two years ahead of me. He introduced me to Hampstead Cricket Club and I started the nets there in April 1973. Apart from occasional trips back to Brighton to play for the Old Grammarians CC or St. James’s CC, there were all day Hampstead matches most Saturdays and Sundays around London and the Home Counties plus occasional midweek matches.

A few of us were recently discussing the history of Hampstead Cricket Club in the 1970s. That led to a rather personalised account. Any comments welcome. It might be a topic for a wet Wednesday at Lords. When I joined the Club in 1973 they had enjoyed a period of unparalleled success. For several years they had been able to field a side including blues and international or state players. They won the National Club Championship in 1969. In those days there was no league cricket, but two sides were often fielded on Saturday and Sunday and cup matches played on a Wednesday.

It was a Club full of larger than life characters. By 1973 many had moved on but some remained or arrived. Notable characters of varying skills in my time were Nic Alwyn, Richard Baker, Antony Berendt (and father), Sam Black, Chris Calvert, Richard Carr, Graham Chambers, Mike Farmiloe, Brian Field, Tony Goodfellow, Ken Henderson, Gerry Kelly, Peter Leaver, Derek Marchant, Nick Marchant, Paul Millman, Roger Morgan, Fergus Munro, David Norris, Roger Oakley, Jon Payne, David Peck, Andy Pollock, Bill Seldon, David Simon, Philip Sisson, David Tallon, Guy Townley, Russell Thomas, Jeremy Trevethick and Chris Winn were all good cricketers. Field and Oates frequently opened the batting, which could mean a morning watching them bat.

Players from Australia, Ceylon (as it then was), India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa turned up cricket bag in hand. Alluding to current debates I would not have regarded the Club as racist even with hindsight. It was cosmopolitan even in the 1970s. If you were good enough you played.

The 1960s produced a stream of imports, who either connected at Oxbridge or were sent up the road by Lord’s. In the 1970s they were followed by Peter Cox (a more than useful Aussie left arm spinner, Eric Gillott, (a New Zealand left arm spinner, who dossed with me in Turnham Green for several weeks in 1973, before his socks led to exclusion), Mustafa Khan, (a highly skilled off-spinner), Iain Maddocks, (who could be relied upon for quick runs), and Russell Thomas, (an all-rounder, whose arm from cover caught out unwitting batsmen and sometimes fielders at square leg).

Jon Payne, a sugar broker, was an exceptional fielder though more of a golfer than a cricketer. He became a good friend and in 1974 with the benefit of a Camden mortgage we jointly bought a flat in Muswell Hill which we shared for four years. Most members were no doubt wealthy relatively speaking, many with views somewhere to the right. And it was something of an amusing juxtaposition that I worked as a solicitor for Camden Council, regarded as a left wing hotbed.

I will not record the many single figure scores but there were some highlights. Ninety against Old Parkonians on 7 July 1973 was followed by 50 at Gerrards Cross and 70 at Shoreham the day after a quick visit to Lords to see the end of a Sobers innings when he made 150* in the third Test of that summer. On 15 June 1975 I made 123 against Adastrians CC my career highest score and my only 100 for Hampstead. That was the night after a party given by Herbert Robinson, then Chief Solicitor at Camden Council and an MCC Member, a relaxed boss with whom I had some amusing discussions about cricket, not least about my appearance on TV sitting at the top of the Lords Pavilion on a wet Monday afternoon, when he thought I might have been in the office.

In early July 1975 I had a call from John Norman, a Hampstead member, who was match manager for the MCC match against Hampstead. He had heard I was an MCC Member; at that time I was ignorant of the fact that to play for the MCC you had to have qualified as a playing member. John convinced the MCC Secretariat that I was and on 2 July I got to make my debut for the MCC. I played one other game for the MCC against Southampton University Cricket Club, but by then the much loved Montefiore pitch had been destroyed and it was very different to the heydays of the 1960s.

On 27 January 1976 I went with a Hampstead Cricket Club touring party to Tobago for two weeks playing five matches. We played a two day game against Tobago Youth, who were far too good for us, a game memorable only for me being awarded Man of the Match for scoring 15* in two hours. Gerry Kelly contrived to lead us to a one run defeat against Tobago Ladies. We were batting left handed but I think they might have won anyway. We took a trip to Charlotteville at the far end of the island from where we were staying in Scarborough. A matting wicket was testing for us. Everyone turned out to watch what was probably the main event of the week, including the prisoner in the local gaol, who could observe from his cell window, always assuming he had recovered from the excesses of the previous evening. The most remarkable cricketing event was the winning catch by Philip Sissons in the gloom near the boundary off the last ball of the match. For me the most memorable social event was the beach barbecue, somewhere near Pigeon Point. Never a strong swimmer I ventured out into what I thoughts were the shallows. But no-one had told me that the currents initially swept you away from the beach, to deposit you back on land somewhere else. I soon realised I was unwillingly getting further away from the beach. Nothing to do with the consumption of rum of course. Fortunately the boatman was a strong swimmer and alert, as was Chris Cowdrey, our professional playing support.

Six seasons playing at Hampstead were memorable, full of cricket and social life, with some tennis, squash and bridge and not a little work. Of course in those days there were no women cricketers.There were tennis and squash sections, which added to the social environment. Sue Edwards, a physiotherapist, who played tennis at the Club moved into my Muswell Hill flat. And Sue introduced me to Diana Valentine, also a physiotherapist, who in December 1982 became my wife. There are other lifelong friends such as Jeanine Chambers.

My time playing cricket for Hampstead was curtailed when on 8 January 1979 I suffered a serious break of my right leg, ironically playing football for HCC on a Sunday morning. I had given notice to leave Camden Council two days earlier, but that very kind Herbert Robinson declined to process it as I was by then holed up in the Royal Free Hospital with my leg encased from balls to toes. A three week stay there was interrupted only by a trip to the Old Bailey to give evidence in a fraud case. Giving evidence while flat on my back and probably morphine affected, gave the defendant no chance.

When I was fit enough to play cricket it was in the 1980s and I started to play again in Sussex – nearer to my ageing parents.

Connections with Hampstead remained. In 1993 I helped to organise a charity match between the Hampstead President’s XI and the Mayor of Camden’s XI. Captaining a team which included Norman Cowans, Dilip Doshi, John Price and Neil Williams (even after their prime) and a brief appearance from Mark Ramprakash should have secured a rare win for the Mayor, but a typical 50 from Dr. Larry Baker (better known for his medical appearances at Lord’s) gave the home side a hard won victory.

There was an occasional Sunday side of irregulars called Hampstead Heathens, who played some attractive fixtures in odd places. Mike Willard, a Hampstead émigré, was always an entertaining player. A visit to Amersham Cricket Club was popular. Gemini Cricket Club was founded for the Dawson twins by their father and when we played them they were joint headmasters at Sunningdale School. In 1996 one week after my fiftieth birthday we played against Hurlingham Cricket Club, an exclusive venue in South West London. I made a century. Was it time to retire? Certainly the Heathens attracted fewer players and my playing became less frequent. I retained the Heathens flag but in 2023 it was donated to Hampstead Cricket Club.

When I returned to play it was in the 1980s and I started to play again in Sussex at St. James’s Cricket Club, who had by then acquired their own ground at Ditchling. This enabled me to spend weekends in Hove where I could more easily visit my ageing parents. It was another club full of characters, social activity and good cricketers,

I made two hundreds for St. James”s. Both had their amusing and memorable aspects. The first was at Horley on 31 May 1970. We were 11 – 4 when I was joined by off-spinner Ian Boyd-Pain who saw me to my hundred. The fulsome match reports in the local press were written by Ian, who later bowled us to victory with figures of 7-39.

The second was the following year against Preston Nomads CC, one of the better sides around Brighton and our main rival. The Club skipper for the day was the slightly eccentric but lovable ‘Sturge’ who was never without his pipe. But he had run out of tobacco. He left the ground in search. When he returned Bruce Lowe (who later emigrated to the USA and played cricket at the Cleveland Broncos baseball ground) and I had both made hundreds and with no-one to declare accumulated a score of 270 – 3, which even the renowned Nomads opening pair of Bidwell and Laing thought beyond them.

In 2000 we went on a family holiday to Kos with Mark Warner, a well known travel company for London families. An enterprising Oval employee had set up a cricket match. I met Tim Young, a cricketing barrister, who ran his own team Thebertons CC, who played half a dozen games a season in lovely grounds around the Home Counties. Perfect!

From more than 60 years of living with cricket I still having friendship groups at every level: Cottesmore Primary School, Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School, Southampton University, Brighton Old Grammarians, St. James’s Cricket Club (near Ditchling in Sussex), Hampstead Cricket Club, Hampstead Heathens, Thebertons, Bank of England Sports Club.

In 2008 I retired from playing. There were two reasons. First my inability to get down quickly enough to a ball passing my feet or to move five yards to my right on the boundary was becoming an embarrasment. Or to react quickly enough to take a catch at slip. I recall missing one which hit me in the chest. I caught one a few balls later as it passed me at speed but I realised it might have hit me between the eyes. Secondly it was increasingly apparent that while I could still score runs playing at club level, I was at risk from beamers and bouncers. I played in a pre-helmet era. I was hit on the head three times, once at Hove, once in the nets at Lord’s and once at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton and only once suffered concussion. It would not have troubled me to have ended my days felled at the wicket, but the greater and increasing risk was of suffering brain damage and becoming a cabbage.

For fifteen years or so from the mid nineties cricket was more focussed on encouraging sons, Andy born in 1984 and Nick born in 1987, to play cricket at Hampton School and the (sadlt now defunct) Bank of England Sports Club. Both had skills but not the same level of enthusiasm as their dad. But what they did inherit was enthusiasm for and recognition of the benefits and importance of sport. So in my later years it has been the football touchline watching Andy playing at Hampton School and beyond and Nick playing tennis around South London including at the Lawn Tennis Association and Putney Lawn Tennis Club.