My first match for the club was in June 1957, It was my birthday. I asked the captain, Bill Goodwin, if I could play. Opening the batting, I failed miserably. So much for the previous two years coaching from Jack Marshall to whom I paid two shillings per session – he actually took my money! However I had been a member (sort of) before that, since I had the job of hanging tin plates on a scoreboard before being apprenticed to the First XI scorer AN Lord in the newly built scorebox in 1955 – a handsome holiday income came from scoring for visiting teams. Summer holidays were spent also as an unpaid labourer to successive groundsmen. Arlington Avenue was a second home.
Vimto and a packet of crisps
In early teenage years, if not selected to play, I scored in Second XI away games, rewarded with a Vimto and a packet of crisps, sat in a car not allowed in the pub. When I was selected to play, away sides met at the Clarendon Hotel; why was unexplained until much later I learned that the adults were being fortified in the bar! Moreover the car park was available for, as JC Mayo told me, selection was based on the size of your motor vehicle.
As a late teenager and early 20-something, one could sense a great gulf between Second and First team cricket and not only in quality but also personality. Second eleven cricket was then calm and benign with ageing avuncular ‘characters’ supported in the field by young ‘grammar grubs’ (Leamington College) and ‘toffs’ (Warwick School) who did all the running about. Usually uncovered pitches, again until the mid-1970s, and certainly no sheets for run ups and the wider square.
Clothes thrown out the dressing room
My first First eleven match found all my clothes thrown out the dressing room; my sin was (though unknowingly) to have changed using a senior player’s peg. I believe I made two successive ducks on debut. There were matches when I was asked (told) to open the batting, an honour of course, but soon to be confronted by some very fast, nasty and experienced quick bowlers. One learned fast! Senior players were addressed as ‘Sir’ or ‘Mister’. My mentor was Phil Bromley, the only first teamer to encourage and advise me. One felt, on reflection, that you were in the side because there was no one else. Apart from Phil, other players provided no support, advice or coaching. Indeed coaching and practice seemed to be non-existent. Jack Marshall’s mantra was “keep playing straight and runs will come.” He was, of course, right but… try it!
This is a modified and abridged version of text from Mark Ryan’s Cricket in Leamington and Leamington Cricket Club. Highly praised by Wisden, the book can be purchased here.
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