Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club a Miscellany
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HAMPSTEAD AND Hampstead and Westminster WESTMINSTER HOCKEY CLUB Hockey Club A MISCELLANY Conserving the Identity Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club A Miscellany Conserving the Identity Written and Produced for Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club 2016 by Ian Smith Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Introduction This is a collection of brief observations of Hampstead Hockey Club and, latterly, Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club and, in particular, some of its more noteworthy members, including in several instances, their lives outside the world of hockey. It is not intended to be inclusive or to run necessarily in a consecutive sequence. Hopefully there will be later opportunities to add to the contents of this volume and redress any perceived imbalances. The first third covers the first two decades in which Hampstead Hockey Club evolved and the key individuals who oversaw its transformation from a hockey-playing section of Hampstead Cricket Club in 1894 into a leading hockey club in England within a little more than a decade. This collection is in part to supplement the record of the first 75 years of the club, already covered by Colin Greenhalgh in his Short History of Hampstead Hockey Club published in 1969. It had proved to be a meteoric rise, with three Club members representing England in the gold medal winning team at the Olympic Games of 1920 held in Antwerp. A fourth player joined a little after the conclusion of the Games. Two members had also won gold medals in the 1908 Olympic Games in London, but, it has to be admitted, in a rather truncated format. The Club remained unusual in still playing its home games in Richmond (an arrangement that began as temporary but continued until 1945). It did not enjoy the same level of success between the Wars. Its membership dispersed after the Second World War. The Club was rescued and revived in the 1950’s by the efforts of three members, returning to a base at Hampstead Cricket Club. It then quickly established itself as a leading London club. At first team level, within five years its results and players in representative capacities, were contemporarily on a par with the Club’s first decade. By the end of the Fifties and in the Sixties, this level of success proved hard to emulate. In 1969, the London League was formed and Hampstead played in its first ever game. A gulf gradually opened with the leading clubs in London, notably at first team level. Hampstead probably came to be seen as unfashionable. A third transformation, in a little over ten years, began in 1983 with the establishment of a connection to Paddington Recreation Ground, the admission of what quickly became three Women’s teams playing in Hampstead colours and the appointment of Greg and Tracy Carr from New South Wales as coaches and players that led to a huge and sudden improvement in results. The Men’s 1st XI secured promotion to the National League in the Club’s centenary year, for which much is owed to the vision and philanthropy of Peter Boizot. Progress has continued, with a large growth in the number of teams fielded, contrary to the experience of a considerable number of other once well-established London clubs. The Men’s 1st XI starts its 16th consecutive season in the Premier Division and the Women’s 1st XI will enjoy a second season in the Eastern Conference of the National League. There is much to celebrate. A Club is essentially about identity and values, carried through the generations. It has a wide significance and Hampstead’s story demonstrates many of these qualities. We need to preserve them. This collection results from a wish to add insight to the Club’s identity. Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany CONTENTS The Meeting at the Eyre Arms 1 John Besch 3 Gerald Logan 7 Andrew Stoddart 13 A B Osmond 17 Stanley Shoveller 21 Harry Tennent 29 Baron von Bissing 33 Paddington Recreation Ground – Origins 41 Annual Dinners: the beginnings 43 Sholto Marcon 45 B G Lampard-Vachell 51 Cyril Wilkinson CBE 57 Sir John Masterman 61 Ken Ingledew 67 The Observer 1935 74 Club Colours 75 First Match; 1950 77 Jeremy Potter 81 The 75th Anniversary 91 London League: Opening Fixture 97 First Eleven 1971 99 Kettner’s 101 Women’s Section: Badlosers 104 Women’s South League Promotion 1994 105 National League Play Offs 1996 107 Men’s First Eleven 1998 115 National League Reports 1999 117 First v Second: Chelmsford v Hampstead & Westminster 2001 129 The Lure of the Cup 2001 131 Diary of a Season 2004-05 133 Investec Women’s East Conference 2015-16 137 Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany The Meeting at The Eyre Arms It is a little more than 120 years since 17 gentlemen met to form Hampstead Hockey Club. We have initials for a few but in some cases only a surname, displaying some of the difficulties frequently encountered by takers of minutes of meetings. This meeting was convened at the Eyre Arms, now sadly demolished. Come out of St John’s Wood underground station and look to the opposite side of the Finchley Road and there is the site of the Eyre Arms Hotel and Assembly Rooms. It was also known as a tavern and described in 1894 as being in Hampstead but, it has to be said, is at its southernmost extremity. This was a grand building, capable of accommodating 1,500. It included a concert room and was in extensive grounds. It was named after the Eyre family, whose substantial landed estate bordered those of Lord Portman and the Duke of Portland. Colonel Eyre was influential in the development of Hampstead by first building a turnpike that connected St John’s Wood to Finchley in 1827. Why did this meeting come about? Hockey had been played by a hockey section of Hampstead Cricket Club for several years. There is a report in the Richmond and Twickenham Times of 19 December 1874 of a return game between Richmond and Hampstead that Hampstead won 4-0 (but it, would appear, against eight opponents only). We can assume that a number of fixtures were being obtained for the winter months, to play on each side of the cricket square after the end of the season. Hampstead Cricket Club’s ground was at Lymington Road, Hampstead, located between the Finchley Road and West End Lane, where it still plays today. In 1893 there was an altercation within the Cricket Club, when it was discovered that some non- members had been playing hockey at the cricket ground. The Cricket Club’s historian says that these fixtures started in 1890 (although from the above we now think it was at least 15 years earlier) and that a sub-committee had been formed to deal with hockey matters. It was pointed out that a general meeting of the Cricket Club had approved two hockey matches to be played every week. However, there was insufficient hockey-playing support from within the club to fulfil the fixtures, so outsiders had been invited to play. There was an added problem. Although results had been very successful, a number of games had to be cancelled as the ground was frequently waterlogged. The hockey section representative complained that it was “useless to arrange fixtures for the coming season owing to the wet state of the ground”. The Eyre Arms meeting appears to have been called after the Committee of the hockey section had formed the same view and concluded that the hockey players needed to find a new ground. Opinions were sought of those attending. John Besch, who chaired the meeting, mentioned that he and H R Lipscombe had, at Mr McMillin’s suggestion, been to see a ground at Acton thought suitable for hockey that could be rented for £10 for the season. 1 Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club Miscellany Mr Lawrence then proposed that if the Committee (presumably of the hockey section) were unable to find a more convenient ground, he was in favour of procuring the ground at Acton. He was supported by Mr J N Brown. With a general meeting of the Hampstead Cricket Club due to take place two days later, the meeting decided formally to propose that “it is the opinion of the meeting that in consideration of the wet state of the Cricket Club ground, a hockey pitch be hired elsewhere for next season” and that “if no more convenient ground can be found than at Acton, it is decided to rent a ground there.” It added that it sought the Cricket Club’s permission for the hockey section to control its own affairs, including the election of officers and members. The uniform was to be as before, “a shirt of the club colours and a dark blue cap.” New members were to be proposed and seconded, as they were under the rules of the Cricket Club. As for officers, the meeting’s proposal was for a Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and not more than eight committee members (and that four would form a quorum). Mr A Russell Parker (a long servant of the Cricket Club – and goal scorer in the 1874 return match with Richmond, mentioned earlier) was to be proposed as Vice President. Finally, those attending agreed to meet again, inauspiciously, on Friday 13 April 1894, when the decision of the Cricket Club would be known. We know that later the hockey section of the Cricket Club was declared no longer to exist and the Hockey Club was formed.