Meeting date: 7 October 2000
Guest Speaker: Peter Baxter
Despite the appalling weather, it is time to be thinking of a new cricket season. Will the grounds ever be dry?
A new cricket season means (of course) our April lunch. This Newsletter is partly a reminder that it is time to contact our steward at the Bat and Ball and book your places for Saturday 7 April 2001 12.30 to 1 p.m.
Grace
Grace was delivered by the Rev. David Brown
As ever, the lunch provided by your steward was a marvellous affair. The menu was:
A Trio of Smoked Fish
Poachers Broth
Breast of Guinea Fowl stuffed with hazelnuts, apricots, and thyme. Served with braised vegetables and potatoes
Cheese and Biscuits
Coffee and Mint
For the forthcoming meeting, we remind you that the full committee was re-elected a year ago and your secretary requires nominations for any of the posts in advance of the meeting. The current committee is:
President Ashley Mote, Langley Court East, Liss, GU33 7JL, 01730 894355
Steward Dick Orders, Bat and Ball, Hambledon, PO8 0UB 023 9263 2692
Treasurer Neil Jenkinson, 20 Chilbolton Avenue, Winchester SO22 5HD 01962 869203
Secretary Dave Allen, 35 Broad Street, Old Portsmouth PO1 2JD 023 9281 6265.
There was some uncertainty after the meeting about previous elections of Honorary Life Vice-Presidents and posthumous members – an uncertainty not helped by your secretary’s awful memory! According to these Newsletters, which serve as unofficial minutes, our Honorary Eternal President is Richard Nyren, Life Vice-President Bob Beagley, and posthumous members:
Harry Altham, John Arlott, FS Ashley-Cooper, James Aylward, Colin Barrett, JM Barrie, Silver Billy Beldham, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, Tom Brett, Desmond Eagar, CB Fry, Gilbert Jessop, Brian Johnston, EV Lucas, David Harris, Arthur Haygarth, John Nyren, Cecil Paris, Rev J Pycroft, John Small Snr and Jnr, EM Sprot, Lumpy Stevens, Tom Sueter, Wilf Wadham, Edward Whalley-Tooker, WR Wright.
An election took place on this occasion, which elevated Lord Alexander of Weedon to Life Vice-Presidency of the Hambledon club, making him the first man ever to hold simultaneously the presidencies of M.C.C. and Hambledon Cricket Club and the Vice-Presidency of the Hambledon Club. His Lordship has indicated his appreciation of this singular (or should it be ‘triple’?) honour, and hopes to join us in April.
WG Grace remains the only person to have been denied posthumous membership (see Newsletter 2).
Apologies were received from Jocelyn Galsworthy, Stephen Green, the Pardoe family, and Stephen Saunders.
Publication
Your Treasurer has published his history of cricket in Hambledon from the demise of the famous club to the present day. The details are as follows:
HERE’S THE HAMBLEDON CLUB.
A History of Cricket in Hambledon between 1796 and 2000 by Neil Jenkinson
£14.99 including p&p in the UK from Downend Books, 20 Chilbolton Avenue, Winchester SO22 5HD, 01962 869203
We hope to see as many of you as possible at the next meeting. Guests and new members are always welcome, with annual membership fixed at three guineas.
In our last Newsletter, we published a message from Alistair Maclennan of the Bradman Museum in Bowral. We are delighted that Alistair is able to join us this time and we have invited him to address us – thus maintaining our practice of finding speakers from within our own club.
Peter Baxter gave a delightful talk on John Arlott, the greatest of all cricket commentators. Peter had, of course, worked with John on Test Match Special but his tales went back to John’s one appearance in a first-class match at Worcester in 1938. He fielded substitute for Hampshire wearing clothes borrowed from Reg Perks while the Nawab of Pataudi scored a century. At one point, he caused great hilarity while fielding at third man, going head-over-heels as he prevented a four, but turning a probable single into three!
John was born in Basingstoke, lived for many years at “The Old Sun” in Alresford, and had been a beat bobby in Southampton. With his local connections, it is hardly surprising that he wrote much on Hambledon including a version of Nyren’s classic.
Despite his love of cricket, he made his name initially at the BBC in the poetry section. He gave readings on air but his most lucrative writing assignment was the hymn “God’s Farm is All Creation”. Peter told how he had written this and two other hymns as a bet and its success was such that it earned him more than any of his other writing. Peter suggested that our President might follow suit!
It is fairly well known that John’s first cricket commentaries were on the Indian tour of 1946 but he had previously made his debut with a radio piece about Hambledon. He was a great success and soon broadcast regularly for the BBC while developing his journalism with the Manchester Guardian as a worthy successor to Neville Cardus. As Peter pointed out, both Cardus and Arlott added an aesthetic string to their cricketing bows – one with music and the other wine. When they discussed the matter the older man told John that he enjoyed the better situation since “I’d rather sleep with a soprano than a wine waiter!”
More seriously, Peter recalled John’s central role in bringing Basil d’Oliveira to England where the South African was able to enjoy a successful professional career. Peter concluded by recalling that it is now more than twenty years since we last heard a live Test Match commentary from John Arlott and read from John’s poem for Jack Hobbs’s 70th Birthday:
There falls across this one December day
The light remembered from those suns of June
That you reflected, in the summer play
Of perfect strokes across the afternoon.
Our President thanked him for a delightful and entertaining presentation.
We offer our particular thanks to Dick and Lesley Orders, the chef and all the staff at the Bat and Ball, and to George Gale and Sons, Brewers, Horndean.