Meeting date: 08 April 2006
Guest Speakers: Keith & Jennifer Booth
Special Message from the President: Dick Orders is leaving The Bat and Ball.
It is with the greatest sadness that I have to tell you that Dick and Lesley Orders are leaving The Bat and Ball. Their departure is a direct result of the recent takeover of the Gales Brewery Group by Fullers Brewery. Almost all Fullers’ pubs are in central London. They have other ideas about how The Bat and Ball should be run.
There will be much more to say about the consequences of Dick’s going in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I can assure all members of the Hambledon Club that I am staying in close touch with him and will continue to do so as events unfold. Hopefully, this is not the end of the story. It has to be the beginning of something else. All actions create reactions and that is what I am now working on.
As for the immediate future, I can tell you that:
1. Although we shall lose Dick as our Steward he will remain a member and he intends to come to the next lunch.
2. The lunch on 7th October will go ahead as planned when Rod Bransgrove will be our speaker. This now promises to be an even more interesting meeting than we had anticipated. If you haven’t done so already, book now! This one is not to be missed!
3. Dick and Lesley will be holding a farewell party for all their regular customers at The Bat and Ball on the evening of Friday 4th August, from 7.00 pm. I am sure all Hambledon Club members within reach of the pub that evening will help ensure they have a fantastic send-off.
4. Dick and Lesley will then leave The Bat and Ball over the weekend of 5/6 August. (We do not yet know who will take over as landlord.)
Your committee hopes to see as many of you as possible at The Bat and Ball during the evening of 4th August.
Best wishes,
The President, Ashley Mote
The Menu, by Dick Orders
Duck & Orange Pate, served with Ciabatta bread
A trio of Smoked Fish, set on a bed of leaves, with a lemon & horseradish dressing
Braised Steak, in red wine, tomato, onion & mushroom jus, served with seasonal vegetables and potatoes
A selection of English Cheese & Biscuits
Coffee & Mint
Apologies for Absence
Ida Barrett, Bob Beagley, and Marion Beagley, Roy Birch, Reverend David Brown, Stephen Green, the Pardoe family, Peter Parsons.
The Meeting
The Chairman extended a special welcome to Roy Clarke, who had been unable to attend the meetings as a result of illness, saying how delighted we all were to see him.
Elections
Re-election of Officers – All were prepared to stand again and voted in unanimously.
Ashley Mote, President
Dick Orders, Steward
Neil Jenkinson, Treasurer
Penny Taylor, Secretary
Trafalgar Day Game on 1 October 2005
Ron Broome, of the Ancient Mariners XI, had been unable to attend the lunch, as he was attending the Grand National. Dick Orders reported that £2,305 had been collected on the day of the match, of which:
• £1,000 had been presented to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Poole. Poole is the site of a special submersion tank and simulators where the lifeboat men undertake 2 weeks of intensive training on new boats;
• £1,000 had been sent to the Youth Cricket Foundation at the Rose Bowl;
• the remainder is sent to the charities we support.
The bats, which had been specially made for the game, were auctioned.
New Book
Douglas Millar was congratulated on the publication of another book – a biography entitled “Charles Palmer – More Than Just a Gentleman”.
Posthumous Memberships
Lord ‘Bob’ Alexander and Colin Ingleby McKenzie were unanimously voted for posthumous membership, for their lifelong contributions to cricket, sponsored by the President.
Roy Clarke improvised a last-minute sponsorship of The Hon. Lionel Lord Tennyson, who had Captained England in 1921. He batted against bowlers Jack Gregory and Ted MacDonald with one arm in the 3rd Test, having split the webbing between his thumb and forefinger early on.
When Hampshire was all out for 15 in their 1st Innings in a Warwickshire –v– Hampshire County Championship match in 1922, the Hon. Freddie Calthorpe asked Tennyson if he’d prefer a game of golf. Tennyson declined, saying he intended to win. And win they did, with 2 centuries, they amassed 521 runs in the 2nd innings and bowled Warwickshire all out for 158, winning by 155 runs. An incredible win for Hampshire! When on tour in Australia, in 1938, he had been ejected from the hotel, having drunkenly asked to see Sir Donald Bradman.
This great character was elected posthumous membership unanimously.
Subscriptions
The President confirmed that the annual Subscription would remain unchanged, since 1796, at 3 guineas and reminded members that they should pay this to the Treasurer.
Prize Draw
The traditional donations and draw for payment of the winner’s lunch were part of making these events useful for Youth Cricket at Hambledon CC in support of their Colts. The draw raised £214.01 and the prize was won by David Newberry.
The President introduced our guest speakers, Keith and Jennifer Booth, a husband and wife who score cricket
Keith – Surrey, Test Match Special, and the Oval
Jennifer – Surrey IIs and International matches – for the opposition.
Keith had written two books and another was in production:
• Knowing the Score – Past, Present, And Future Of Cricket Scoring
• Notching in the Modern Era
Keith thanked the President for his welcome and the club’s hospitality and said how good it was to be at Hambledon, the antecedent of the modern game. He planned to talk briefly about the recording of the game by Notchers and then Scorers.
Carving notches on sticks was mentioned in 1706 in a Latin poem – a reference to crescentum numerum – growing score – in lingo – on wood – using a branch or twig and a sharp knife.
The word Score is old Norse and means ‘make mark’.
Score 20 – scorers / shepherds – involved a longer notch for 20th runs / sheep, was a method which continued for some time and was in use in Derbyshire well into the 19th Century.
1769 Sevenoaks Vine – very similar to today, with marks, but no bowling analysis, which started much later. Batsmen were the aristocrats and bowlers, the peasants. Written records gradually became more sophisticated as the Century progressed. Early details appeared for Hambledon, Hampshire and Kent games.
1st scorebook recorded is 1805, recording Lord Byron’s pair at Eton–v–Harrow – in a school exercise book, which passed into the hands of the local farmer and then back to the school. (View Link below)
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/211281.html
In the mid 19th Century huge Victorian ledgers were used, very much like book-keeping. The next major development was the linear method, by Bill Ferguson in 1905.
Computers started in 1991, faltered, and were re-introduced in 1993. The initiative came from the media, not the scorers. Modern-day scoring on computers linked to the telephone system produces instant results for Ceefax and Teletext.
Thanks
The President thanked Keith and Jennifer for joining us and Dick Orders for producing yet another excellent lunch.
Apologies for the brevity of the notes about the speech, but the speaker had no notes and spoke quite quickly and quietly. Your poor old Secretary is going deaf!
Next Meeting
The next lunch will be on Saturday, 7 October 2006, where the speaker is to be Rod Bransgrove, Chairman of Rosebowl plc and Chief Executive Officer of Hampshire Cricket.