Meeting: 14 April 2007
Guest Speaker: Nick Bailey
Grace
Grace was delivered by Rev. David Brown
Resignation of President, Ashley Mote
It is with regret that we must inform you of Ashley Mote’s resignation as President of the Hambledon Club, for personal reasons. As you all know Ashley has been the prime mover in restarting the Club and arranging our meetings and speakers. For this, we must all be eternally grateful.
The Menu, by Dick Orders
Venison Pate served with a mixed salad and French toast
Cornish Crab Fishcakes, with a citrus mayonnaise
Chicken Breast in a white wine and mushroom sauce served with seasonal vegetables and roasted new potatoes
Cheese and Biscuits
Coffee & Chocolate Mints
The Meeting
The President, Ashley Mote, welcomed everyone, including those who had not been before. Looking forward to the coming season and hoped we would be more successful than we had been in Australia.
He had visited Melbourne CC and received a request from the Victoria State Team for a donation of a Hambledon Club tie for their outstanding collection. He had also arranged for a tie from Sevenoaks Vine, believed to have been established in 1734.
He went on to explain, for the benefit of the new members, that the Hambledon Club had been revived in 1998, 202 years since the last meeting in September 1796, where the Minutes recorded “there were no gentlemen present”. The club meets twice a year, at the beginning and end of the cricket season to celebrate the legendary exploits of the great club of the late 18th Century, which beat All-England 29 times in 51 matches. The membership subscription has been maintained at 3 guineas, since 1796, a fact which qualifies us for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Apologies for Absence
Clive Barnett, Roy Clarke, Chris de Mellow, Alistair & Jenny MacLennan (who would be in the UK for 4 months this summer), Douglas Miller, the Pardoe family and Wilfrid Weld.
Election of Officers
The President paid tribute to the Treasurer, Neil Jenkinson, who did not wish to stand again, praising his great strength. Neil had been impeccable as the Treasurer and had helped to raise money, for a host of worthy causes, ever since the club had been reformed.
Stephen Saunders had very kindly agreed to stand for the role of Treasurer. The following Officers of the Hambledon Club were proposed, seconded and voted unanimously:
President Ashley Mote
Treasurer Stephen Saunders
Steward Dick Orders
Secretary Penny Taylor
Subscriptions
Consideration about whether or not we wished to increase the subscription did not last long and it was unanimously agreed to keep the Annual Subscription at 3 guineas (£3.15). Members were reminded subscriptions were now due and should be paid to Stephen Saunders.
The Bat and Ball
The President then brought the membership up to date with his proposal to try to purchase the Bat and Ball, Fullers having bought out Gales.
Fullers are still acquiring more pubs in the South of England, so are not at the stage of considering disposals. They are aware of our interest and the dialogue continues.
New Publications
Dave Allen has produced another excellent book – Hampshire County Cricket Club 1946 – 2006 Entertain or Perish. Members were advised that the proceeds of any books bought from Dave would be donated to Hampshire Heritage.
Hospital Radio Services
The President made a plea on behalf of John Young, Producer from the hugely successful HRS, which provides a ball-by-ball commentary on games at the Rose Bowl for local hospitals. HRS is looking for a scorer for their home games.
Colts Cricket
The President explained that the Hambledon Club has made it its business to allocate money for Colts Cricket, in particular for Hambledon Cricket Club, echoing what our forebears did all those years ago.
John Waldron, Wayne and Justin had attended the lunch on behalf of various levels of Hambledon CC. John explained that the club was trying to raise £16,000 to completely rebuild their nets and substantially improve facilities for the club.
The President asked the Treasurer to present a cheque from the Hambledon Club for £1,000 towards to cost of the nets.
John Waldron: “All I can say, on behalf of the club, is thank you very much indeed. You don’t know how much this amount means to us.” He went on to explain that the club has 15 boys, in all age groups, playing for Hampshire, and 14 in the SE Hants, all of whom will go on to do nets and training for HCCC this year.
Members were invited to attend the opening of the nets, by Dimitri Mascarenhas, the following Friday evening.
The Speaker
The President welcomed and introduced the guest speaker, Nick Bailey, a local historian. They had met when working on the ‘You and Yours’ programme with Peter White, who lives near Winchester. Having written a book about Hambledon, the President looked forward to hearing from someone who knows more than he does about the area.
“I am very honoured to be speaking to such a distinguished gathering of cricketers today.
“Ashley invited me to talk about ‘Hambledon Village and Cricket’ from a historical perspective. However, I am sensitive to the start time of the Grand National at 415 pm!
“Firstly, my cricketing credentials are:
• Maurice Tate signed my first cricket bat;
• HMS Burghead Bay cricket team, Honorary Able Seaman Ken Barrington;
• Six into the sea, off Simonstown and all that followed – not popular!
“Thereafter, a major skiing accident put paid to any more serious cricket.
“My Hambledon credentials are: I first visited the village at the start of World War II. My Godmother then lived in the Red House. I have lived there for 30 years. My wife has lived in Hambledon all her life and her Grandmother lived at Park House and farmed Park Farm from the 1930s to the 1950s. Her pupil, John Sykes, has farmed there ever since.
“I am primarily a Naval Historian, but I am currently researching a book on Marshall Vauban, the great French fortification engineer. My recent efforts to reform a Hambledon Local History Group have not been successful, but, nevertheless, I am trying to awaken interest in the village in our extensive history going back over the centuries. I recently unveiled my Houses History project, inviting householders to research their houses more thoroughly.
“I have just written A Short History of Hambledon and a Street Guide of the houses in the centre of the village, which will be published shortly. I am also the Village Webmaster, giving me an interesting insight into cricket worldwide!
“My short talk will be a loosely-connected canter around Hambledon over the last 200 years, with occasional reference to its famous Cricket Club. What I am not going to talk about is the heyday of the Hambledon Cricket Club, which has been so extensively covered, particularly by your own President!
“However, I wonder sometimes about those 20,000 spectators and all those horses? Imagine that Health and Safety had influence then and insisted on proper toilet facilities! Would there be a carpet of Portaloos stretching all the way to Waterloo-ville?!
“And I am not going to talk about the history of the Hambledon Cricket Club from its heyday into the 21st Century, because Neil Jenkinson has covered that subject so well. His book is a wonderful record of the men of Hambledon over the centuries who played cricket for – and supported – the Hambledon Cricket Club and who generally lived in the village. Take the letter B, for example. A quick glance in the book lists references to Baker, Banting, Barrett, Beagley, Beldham, Bendell, Best, Bligh, Bonham, Bourne, Boyce, Briggs, Brighton, Brindley, Brown, Bucksey, Budd, Bulbeck, Burdekin, Butler… even Bazelgette, who lives over the hill. I am sure I have missed a good few other Bs!
“In my new description of the Houses in Hambledon, I have sometimes added the people who lived in them, but, more importantly, what they did. I have also added the cricket associations from the great days of the Hambledon Cricket Club. For example, Whitedale, the home of John Richards, was the long-serving Treasurer of the Hambledon Cricket from 1771 to 1814. His son, John, also lived there until 1835. I haven’t mentioned Tim Rice, briefly the owner of Whitedale, who appears to have been driven out by half a hundred harpies! He and I sat together in the front end of a Pan Am jumbo from New York around that time and passed the hours talking about cricket. I am sorry he didn’t feel safe remaining here!
“Park House, with its association with ghosts and priest holes, is where Squire Thomas Land, the Patron of the Hambledon Cricket Club, lived there from 1759 to 1791. He is also remembered for the pack of foxhounds he kept up Dog Kennel Lane. Later John Foster lived there, remembered as the first owner of the Ridge Meadow cricket ground in Brook Lane, following the Inclosure Acts in 1857.
“Hambledon House, the family home of Edward Hale, who owned Windmill Down, which became the site of the second cricket ground. Interestingly, the Hon Ivo Bligh lived there recently, a direct descendent of one of the Ashes Urn family. And, of course, the George Inn, which was Richard Nyren’s main place of residence from about 1772 until at least 1795 and the second clubhouse of the Hambledon Cricket Club.
“One of my research projects is to identify exactly where the second cricket ground was located on Windmill Down? It has always surprised me that the few books I have read never mention its location. I have asked Ronald Knight for his help. It is only recently that Neil Jenkinson’s book has come to my attention, with the Colonel Mudge Map of 1810, showing the Cricket Down behind Whitedale.
Read more …
“However, another of my research projects is The Windmills of Hambledon. There were quite a number of them in times past, most obviously the one at the top of Speltham Hill. Why is Windmill Down so-called I asked and where was the Windmill? Recently I was chatting to the chaps tending the new vines opposite my house and they said they had located the site of the Windmill which, they claimed, was owned by William Lantry (another good village name) and burnt down in 1805!! These chaps are amateur archaeologists who spend much of their working life bottoms in the air and noses amongst the medieval chards they find on the ground!
“Off we went to the top of the Down and there indeed was a ring of burnt bricks that could have been the base of a windmill tower, clearly visible in the ploughed field, 20 yards or so from the hedge line. With my GPS, I measured the exact location and reported the finding back to Hampshire County Council. Back came the answer ‘you have found the Cricket Pavilion because it is marked on a map’! A circular pavilion on a brick foundation! Here is a mystery still to be resolved.
“In my role as Web Master, I receive enquiries from all over the world. The requests are generally divided into two broad bands – family history and cricket. Only yesterday I received a local enquiry about whether their son could play in the Under 9s team for Hambledon. I pass such enquiries on to the Cricket Club Publicity Officer.
“One current ethereal correspondence is about both family history and cricket! A lady in West Virginia, USA, says she is a relative of Richard and John Nyren. which she is working on her family tree to provide. Quite a difficult challenge from ‘across the pond’. However, using John Goulstone’s book, I have managed to fill a number of gaps. A most interesting relative had two marriage ceremonies on successive days in two different places!
“But back to Cricket and World Wide Web. Steve Weiss from Schenectady, New York State, near the state capital, Albany, contract me last summer seeking help to enable him to re-stage an 18th Century game of authentic cricket at the Saratoga Battlefield (1777) this summer! He is the President of the Tri-City Cricket Club, where cricket is thriving. The game is being taught in more and more schools because the Americans have discovered that cricket is much better for engendering ‘team spirit’ than baseball!
“Steve had approached MCC, but had received no help from that quarter – hence why he approached Hambledon. I approached Ashley for help about the best way to re-enact an 18th Century game of cricket – correct Laws, correct gear, correct clothes etc. Trouble is, as Ashley pointed out, the Laws in the 1770s were changing all the time.
“Steve sent me a message last week, which said ‘With regard to the re-enactment, I have been unable to find a good, reliable source of authentic information regarding the actual equipment used and have run into numerous dead-ends in this regard. This has led to a stagnation of my efforts, as the Saratoga Battlefield folks, as you know, are insistent on documented authenticity in all aspects of anything they engage in’. (I know. I visited the Battlefield site last summer and met the people).
“He went on ‘Mr Mote’s book was a good resource in some respects, but is light on specifics regarding equipment especially and that is the most challenging aspect of this whole project’.
“He concluded ‘I am hoping to kick start the whole process again with my visit to England (1st to 16th July) and I am looking forward to a visit to Hambledon, as well as Lord’s, over the course of my couple of weeks in England’.
“Do you have any suggestions that would assist me in my efforts, i.e. places to see, people to meet, etc? I have not lost my interest in the subject.
“Can anyone here today help us solve this challenge? Bob Beagley has suggested the Duke of Richmond’s archives might be a source. They were used apparently for the famous re-enactment of television in 1980.
“In conclusion, I note that Neil Jenkinson is unhappy about the expression ‘Hambledon – The Cradle of Cricket’. I must tell him that it is a wonderfully effective Metatag for Google searches!! Hambledon doesn’t claim to be the birthplace of the modern universal game, but the Hambledon Cricket Club can surely claim a fundamental role in defining ‘The Laws of Cricket’?
“Thank you”
President’s Closing Remarks
The President thanked Nick Bailey very much indeed for a most interesting talk. He also thanked Tony and Jane Drinkwater and their staff for an excellent lunch. Finally, he hoped we would all enjoy a good summer’s cricket
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 winner was Roger North, the amount raised to be confirmed.
Next Meeting
The next lunch will be on Saturday, 6 October 2007.