Forget the nice shiny Ping G10 driver that Santa left under the tree. By far and away the best Christmas present I received this morning was given to me by my daughters and is fifty four years old. They found a 1953 copy of Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack somewhere and it is now mine. I have every Wisden from 1974 to date (a puny collection I know) but to get one from just two years after I was born is a rare treat. Nothing useful will be done for days now. I dutifully buy a new one each year and give them a cursory glance but they none of them hold the magic of today's present.
Where do we start? The Wisden's Five Cricketers of the year are Harold Gimblett (then aged 39), W S Surridge, D S Sheppard, T W Graveney and F S Truman - not bad. The whole book is the cricket of my boyhood. It is marvelous. I can recall being taken to the Oval to watch David Sheppard in 1962 against Pakistan. He had given up the first class game to concentrate on his ecclesiastical studies and was ordained in 1955. He was persuaded to return in 1962. I can't remember why because England were creaming Pakistan and their top order could be chosen from Pullar, Cowdrey, Dexter, Graveney, Stewart and Barrington for starters. However Sheppard became the only ordained minister to play cricket for England. He died in 2005 as the Right Reverend Lord Sheppard of Liverpool and was once thought of as a front runner to become Archbishop of Canterbury.
Fred Truman in this Wisden was the young tyro only being used in short sharp full speed spells. It was thought that if well managed he could be a successor to take on Larwood's mantle. Prophetic stuff indeed.Tom Graveney is a player of great promise and is applauded for his decision to turn down the opportunity to become a golf professional to concentrate on his cricket.
India were the Tourists in 1952 and there is picture of the scoreboard at the First Test at Headingly on the the third afternoon when they are 0 for 4. Attendance for the five days was 74,000 with gate takings of over £17,000. Another picture of the Fifth Test at the Oval with India 5 for 5 and Hutton has set six slips and two short legs for Trueman. Other matches at Lords feature, of course, Gentlemen vs Players (Players won by two runs) but also matches no longer mentioned (or even played). Look who played in the Army vs R.A.F match; Leading Aircraftsman J M Parks, Leading Aircraftsman R Illingworth, Aircraftsman F J Titmus, Aircraftsman F S Truman, Sapper M J Stewart, Gunner R J Carter. Don't forget this was a time when there was still National Service in Britain - we are only seven years post WW2. When Combined Services went to Lords to take on Public Schools the schoolboys had one E R Dexter (Radley) going in at number four (he made 8 and 43). M C Cowdrey bagged a pair playing for Oxford University against the M.C.C. There is no limited overs cricket (the Gillette Cup is still over ten years away) and certainly no coloured clothing or white balls.
As usual in old books the advertisements (not ads, please) make as interesting reading as the meat of the book. 'Men in the public eye prefer BRYLCREEM for clean grooming' complete with a picture of D C S Compton (Middlesex and England). Alf Gover's cricket school (one of my better coordinated school mates went there fifteen or so years later) is in 1953 called the East Hill Indoor Cricket School to be found at 172 East Hill, Wandsworth, SW 18. We are reminded that it is only 3 minutes from Clapham Junction (which in 1953 is still run by the Southern Railway) and is served by buses 39, 77A (I used to take the 77A to school), 37, 168 and by trolley buses 626, 628 and 630. All trolley buses (in South London anyway) had numbers in the six hundreds - 604 and 605 went past the end of my road. No mention anywhere of 'ample parking'. The Tavistock Banqueting Rooms situated at 18 Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square, WC2 - so we are talking a proper posh 'West End' location here - could organise your club's Annual Dinner and Dance for 10/- per head (or 8/6 per head for a Buffet Dance if you were a bit strapped for cash). Just phone the Catering Manger on GERrard 5928.
The whole tome is time warp stuff but back to an era with which I can identify not gas lamps and hansom cabs. Heroes of my boyhood summers, pounds, shillings and pence, trolley buses, the Southern Railway and Scotland Yard being at WHItehall 1212. Fred Trueman was in the Air Force and Ted Dexter was still at school.
Happy chappy.
No comments:
Post a Comment