No. 8 - Winter 2014 The Newsletter of Stourbridge & District Society Founded 1972

Season’s Greetings to All Members and Friends!

Shakib joins famous Test Chairman’s View

Double Duo ith the annual Northern hemi-

angladesh and former Worcester- W sphere of gloomy autumn turn- B shire all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan ing into winter we in England need the has become only the third player in his- vibrancy of Southern summers to keep tory to take ten and score a cen- 63 alive our cricket passion. tury in . Around the world countries are He scored 137 and had match working together to promote our game, figures of ten for 124 which enabled Phil Hughes produce fine athletes and present his team to beat Zimbabwe and take a cricket in the best possible way with 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The some exciting Test and ODI's sched- match was played at Khulna in Novem- 1988-2014 uled throughout our winter culminating ber 2014 in the ICC 2015 World Cup. I wrote some time ago that in His performance has been R.I.P. achieved only twice before. By a happy my opinion, and I have had no reason coincidence, each of the other achievers to change that view, Test Cricket is at a also have strong Worcestershire links. very high level around the world and The first man to complete the for that reason is very watchable. Test Double was Ian Botham (114; 6/58 Where then I might ask are the & 7/48) v. India in 1979/80. He was West Indies ? The missing piece in the followed by Imran Khan (117; 6/98 & jigsaw. The WICB are currently sitting 5/82) v. India in 1982/83. Who was the best? on their hands doing nothing but de- stroying potentially the most untapped Although Alan Davidson can By Ken Workman claim to be the first man to complete the landmass of cricket talent in the world. Test double, he did not actually score a omparing the performances of players How on earth have the WICB century in the match. Playing at Bris- C from different eras is problematic. The been allowed to mismanage such po- bane, Davidson scored 44 & 80 and had accepted criteria for assessing the quality of tential? Why have they not built on, figures of 5/135 & 6/87 v. India in ‘all-rounders’ is the difference between promoted and sold West Indian cricket 1960/61. their and bowling averages, subject around the globe? We are talking of Shakib Al Hasan played nine to certain minimum achievements. rich areas of talent waiting for opportu- matches for Worcestershire in 2010 and If we apply the formula to Worces- nity. once in 2011. He scored 412 runs (av. tershire players who have completed their Islands which have produced so 27.46); HS 90 v. Derbyshire. He took careers in first class cricket, assuming they many cricket knights and many of the 42 wickets (av. 21.66). His best bowl- have scored at least 4,000 runs and taken greatest fast bowlers of all time. Clive ing to date is 7/32 against Middlesex. 200 wickets or more, the following table Lloyd put the West Indies at the fore- Both performances occurred in his first enables us to compare players from differ- front of World Cricket making them season with Worcestershire. ent eras. the most feared and formidable oppo- nents of any world sporting arena. To Bat Ball Difference then allow inferior minor American BL D’Oliveira 38.16 24.95 +13.21 sport to infiltrate into West Indian SCS member now on G A Hick 52.23 44.43 +7.80 schools is a crime. WICB choose to do E G Arnold 31.34 23.73 +7.61 WCCC Board! nothing, they neither coach or market M J Horton 29.04 26.33 +2.71 cricket with any degree of intent and, im Jones has been elected to the R Howorth 20.22 21.36 -1.14 as a result, cricket is suffering. board of Worcestershire CCC. R Jenkins 21.88 23.72 -1.84 T At this moment in time after As Chairman of the County S Martin 26.36 29.16 -2.80 nearly one month WICB have no idea Club’s Heritage Group, Tim has played F Root 15.67 20.52 -4.85 how they are to meet the demands of a leading role in creating the superb D Slade 18.06 22.94 -4.88 the Indian Cricket Board BCCI in pay- displays in the foyer of the Graham F Pearson 24.43 29.70 -5.27 Hick Pavilion. ing the £26.2m penalty for not com- Tim is currently writing the Members are encouraged to submit their pleting the India tour. There has been biography of the legendary Don Ken- views on the above. intervention from several Prime Minis- yon; it is surprising that no such tribute Does anyone have any other method of ters around the Islands, but there is still has appeared before. comparison? no conclusion. Â Turn to page 2

The opinions expressed in View are not necessarily those of Stourbridge Cricket Society Dave Nicklin (President) Committee Members: Mike Tomkins (Chairman); Craig Smith (Secretary); Ken Workman (Treasurer); Terry Church (Programme Secretary) Glenn Turner back at New Road Mike Tomkins recalls a memorable meeting Christmas / New Year Quiz lenn Turner and his wife Sukhi were visi- Questions by Ken Workman G tors to New Road this summer during one of our county games having travelled from their CONNECTIONS home in New Zealand. Together with a couple 1) What connects the following places? more GMT fans, I was privileged to chat and Evesham, Bournville, Halesowen, listen while Glenn reflected on his playing ca- Hereford. reer. His passion for Worcestershire Cricket What connects the following people? coupled with desire, dedication and sheer hard work, I thought gave him the platform to play 2) Harold Bache, Christopher Collier, internationally at such a consistently high level. John Winnington, Bernard Nevile. He made centuries in each innings of 3) Louis Vorster, Damien D’Oliveira, games at Gisborne, , Stourbridge, Sid Martin, William Greenstock. Worcester, Edgbaston and Christchurch. I was, however, most interested to ask Glenn about his 4) Ted Arnold, Dick Howorth, Fred first innings score of 168 at Stourbridge in 1981 Root, Martin Horton. against Northants, who had a strong opening A boyish-looking Kiwi prospect of attack led by Kapil Dev. He said, “I remember 1966 5) George Chesterton, Imran Khan, the wonderfully hot three days, what a crowd R.E. Foster, ‘Barmy’ Gilbert. and, of course, that reception walking to the pa- 6) Maurice Nichol, David Banks, vilion on reaching my century before lunch – Charles Fiddian-Green, Collis King. they must have enjoyed that - they were cer- 7) Doc Gibbons, Eddie Cooper, tainly entertained!” Ron Headley, Alan Ormrod. He also mentioned the square cut at Wan- tage Road off Bishen Bedi to bring up 1,000 runs 8) What connects the following scores? before the end of May 1973, whilst batting for 134, 101 not out, 140, 172 not out. New Zealand. I prompted Glenn on his association with A bottle of something alcoholic to the Midlands, his grandfather having played the highest scoring answer. football for the Albion. I asked also of his asso- ciation with Billy Ibadulla and at the time the Entries on a postcard to Ken Workman possibility of him signing for Warwickshire. to be received at the meeting on From then on, Warwickshire always seemed to 15th January 2015 make headlines whenever confronted by GMT. “Ton again Turner slams Warwicks” and Chairman’s View [from page 1] “Turner hits Warwicks yet again”. Glenn’s reply “That’s how it happened”! The picture tells the story! Where is this all going? I cannot Some of Glenn’s achievements are stun- understand how the ICC can allow such ning and surpass most professional cricketers’ Glenn Turner stands in front of muddling along ie: (bad management) achievements by some distance. I still find it the scoreboard after he set a new without doing something about it. remarkable that Worcestershire were fortunate record for the highest innings by We are talking about one of the enough to unearth such a magnificent overseas a Worcestershire batsman in a most important cricket areas of the player and that some of us were lucky enough to first-class match, when he scored world. We do not want to loose the West witness those glorious innings during the 1970’s. an undefeated 311 against War- Indies as a strong cricket nation, they are I must highlight, apart from Glenn’s cen- wickshire on 29 May 1982. far too important for this to be allowed. tury of centuries, the 19th to achieve this feat, Turner eclipsed Fred Bowley’s For the sake of cricket two of his records – Guyana 1972 with the tour- record of 276 which stood for 68 supporters worldwide let us hope and ing New Zealanders, he scores 259 and then years. Glenn’s record was over- pray that the WICB can find a President equals that same score during the Fourth Test v taken by in 1988. who will totally rebuild West Indian West Indies days later, taking him past 1,000 cricket and restore it back to its former tour runs. glory. In 1977, Glenn astounded the cricket world by carrying his bat for 141 not out through Worcestershire’s innings of 169 against Glamor- Second Cricket Fatality gan at Swansea to set up a world record for the highest percentage total of 83.4%. Glenn smiled n at a cricket match in the “It was for the team – crowds appreciate A Israel city of Ashdod has died after achievements!” being hit by a cricket ball. Thanking Glenn for his time and con- A batsman’s shot struck Hillel scious of the many autograph hunters and well Oscar in the neck, possibly after a rico- wishers gathering, I continued my journey chet from the stumps at his end of the around the ground thinking of many more record pitch. It was later said that he was hit on breaking achievements this wonderful cricketer the jaw. had produced. Who knows, one day we may The incident came two days after have the opportunity to find out more here at This picture shows a present-day Australian batsman Phil Hughes died of Stourbridge, where in 1981 whilst others Glenn Turner, who is Chairman of a head injury caused by being struck by watched the Royal Wedding of Charles and NZ Selectors. a ball in Sydney. Diana, Glenn entertained the crowd! 2015 Programme

15 January Alan Richardson talks to Dave Bradley

19 February Alan Hill Derbyshire CCC

19 March Isabelle Duncan Author of Skirting the Boundary

16 April AGM @ 7pm fol- lowed by Andy Collier (Curator of Cotswold Cricket Museum)

lower-order batsman and scored four David Fulton (Kent) fifties in his tally of 1,204 runs (av.

ur first guest of the 2014/15 season 16.05) with a highest score of 86 not O was David Fulton who provided out against the county of his birth, much enjoyment for the capacity audi- which had turned him down. York- ence. shire’s loss was definitely Warwick- Fulton played for Kent between shire’s gain. 1992 and 2006 and became in Further honours were confi- 2003 after sharing the role with Kiwi dently predicted for Jeeves, but he Matthew Fleming during the previous had to be content with a single ap- season. pearance for the Players in the tradi- An astute leader on the field, Ful- tional fixture against the Gentlemen ton impressed Aussie skipper Steve at the Oval in 1914. Waugh during his time as an overseas However it was in the previous player in 2002. Fulton hilariously re- season when Gloucestershire enter- called how Waugh made his presence tained Warwickshire at Cheltenham, felt, without undermining the Kent skip- that the name of Jeeves unwittingly per. Waugh allegedly was paid £30k for was to find posthumous fame in a his five weeks with Kent. The fact that on entirely different context. Attending his first appearance, Waugh attracted the match that day, the writer P.G. 3,000 extra spectators (at £10 a head) Wodehouse was much impressed by made the Club’s Treasurer very happy. Brian Halford (Author) the attire, conduct and demeanour of Fulton played 199 matches for one of Warwickshire’s bowlers. t was entirely fitting that The Real Kent and scored 12,008 runs (av. 36.40). Three years later, Wodehouse con- Jeeves, the biography of the War- He hit 28 centuries, the highest of which I ceived the idea of two new characters wickshire cricketer, Percy Jeeves, was 208 not out. He led M.C.C. against – a foppish aristocrat and his im- should have been written by our No- the Sri Lankans in 2002, which was the maculate manservant – for a series of vember guest speaker, Brian Halford nearest he came to international recogni- short stories. (top right) former cricket writer for the tion. All too soon, Jeeves had Birmingham Post & Mail. A year later, Fulton’s career swapped his whites for khaki. The Jeeves’s Championship career nearly ended prematurely when, facing a cricketer had become the soldier. The with the Bears occupied just two sea- bowling machine in the pre-season nets, a story does not have a happy ending. sons. Although his debut against ball hit him in his left eye. He had major The horror of the war cannot be imag- Worcestershire at Dudley was un- surgery, seeing three specialists and was ined. Contemporary accounts identi- eventful, he turned in two highly im- sidelined for eight weeks, but returned to fied the enemy and chief danger as pressive performances against them on skipper the county. not just the Germans, but the filthy his home turf. In 1913, he took 7/34 – One of his claims to fame was that conditions caused by the mud of his career-best figures – and, a year he caught in the final in- Flanders, in which men suffered later, took 7/52. These were the only nings of his first-class career. trench-foot, frost-bite, rampant dis- occasions when he took seven wickets Wisden noted that in the 1995 ease and shell shock. in an innings. B&H final v. Lancashire Fulton opened On 22 July 1916, Private 611 Jeeves bowled right-arm at th the batting, spurning a helmet for a sun- Percy Jeeves of the 15 Battalion of fast-medium pace and had the rare hat as he faced Wasim Akram. He ex- the Royal Warwickshire Regiment ability to hurry the best batsmen with plained: “I wanted to be seen on the big- was reported missing; his body has balls that seemed to gather pace off gest day of my career and didn't want to never been found. He was the 225th the pitch. He was extremely accurate be anonymous.” He duly received an of 461 cricketers to have been re- and balls destined to hit the stumps Akram bouncer on the shoulder for his corded as killed in 1916. were often deflected by the batsman’s cheek! He gave his life for his country and knuckles. Kent decided not to renew his his name to a legend. During his two seasons as a contract at the end of 2006. Fittingly, he professional cricketer, Jeeves obtained * Signed copies of The Real Jeeves went out with a bang, scoring 155 against an aggregate of one fewer than 200 priced at £12 (including postage) are Middlesex in his final innings for the wickets (av. 20.03). He was a useful available to order. Please order via County at Canterbury. Terry Church (292170) CCCS Autumn Meeting The 2015 Society Trip will Phil Colesby (1935-2014) Ken Workman reports: An appreciation by Terry Johnson be on Thursday 26 March.

n Saturday 1st November I went Terry Church reports: hil Colesby was a long time member O with Terry Church to the half uring the morning we shall be P of the Stourbridge Cricket Society. yearly meeting of the Council of D visiting ECB’s National Academy Cricket was his life (he was a Worcs Cricket Societies at Derby - my first at Loughborough with a conducted tour CCC member), football (he held a sea- time. of the base given by Ray Baker who son ticket holder at WBA) and golf, It was interesting to learn how played for Surrey for several seasons which he played at Chesterton Golf Club other societies are faring and to com- during the 1970’s. His passion however was Dudley pare notes with other delegates. The Our visit will coincide with the Eng- St Johns CC whom he served loyally general picture seems to be that most land Ladies team being present but I both as a player and as fixture secretary societies are finding it more and more cannot confirm whether we will have for over 40 years. On leaving school, he difficult to maintain their membership the opportunity to observe them! joined his beloved St Johns and quickly numbers, albeit we are one of the In the afternoon we will travel to St earned the reputation of an above aver- smaller societies. George’s Park, Burton on Trent for a age club cricketer. He was an opening Many societies have to pay for conducted tour of The Football Asso- bowler who preferred to bowl left-arm the use of the premises where they ciation’s National Football Centre. round the , but he could never meet. How fortunate are we to be wel- The cost of the trip will be £26 explain why! In his prime he would av- come at Stourbridge Cricket Club free (cheaper than the estimate that I an- erage 65 wickets a season with his of charge! nounced at the meeting!). This does not steady medium-paced in-swingers. Most societies depend on the include lunch. Neither is coffee in- His limited batting opportunities income from raffles to subsidise their cluded, but can be purchased at included several fifties of which he was subscriptions, as do we, and our sub- Loughborough. rightly proud. scriptions are somewhere in the mid- I will be taking names for the trip at Following a short illness, Phil dle range compared with other the Society’s November meeting but if died on the day before his eightieth groups. you would like to book your place be- birthday. We seem to be the only group fore then please let me know by email, who do not charge non-members for phone or text. attending a meeting as we assume Payment will need to be made no Quick Singles By Ken Workman they will buy a raffle ticket and join later than our meeting on Thursday 15 he late RAY EDWARDS left his as a member if they enjoy the experi- January. Cheques preferred, please, extensive collection of cricket ence. made out to Stourbridge and District T books and memorabilia, including a set I came away feeling I was one of the Cricket Society. of 40 Wisdens, to the Supporters’ Asso- younger delegates, which maybe ex- I will advise definite times a little ciation at New Road. plains why most societies seem to nearer the date of the trip but I would Having been involved in the removal have problems recruiting members anticipate that we will depart from of the contents of his library to New from a younger age group. Stourbridge CC at approximately Road, a preliminary valuation suggests A number of societies offer 8.30am and arrive “home” early eve- the collection will raise more than food in some form at their regular ning although that will depend on traf- meetings and quizzes seem to figure £2,000 for the Association. Thanks Ray. in most programmes in one form or fic conditions. another. We used to hold an annual Raffle Prizes quiz at our January meeting each sea- Have you met any first-class e continue to depend on the gen- son, but this was poorly supported cricketers? W erosity of individual members in and dropped. supporting our monthly raffles, which Members’ ideas and sugges- lease tell us about any chats or enable us to met the increasing cost of tions for something different will be P meetings that you may have had speakers and hold our subscriptions at a welcomed. Please discuss with Terry, with county cricketers. reasonable level as compared with other me or any of our committee officers. Although preference may be societies. This only works if mem- We want to hear from you! given to Worcestershire players, we bers are willing to donate prizes rather Terry adds: welcome news of players from other than our having to buy them. So if you After lunch, we listened to a counties - or countries! can donate a prize for an upcoming most excellent talk by Wasim Khan, We don’t need facts, figures or meeting please see me. the newly-elected CEO of Leicester- photos; we just want your recollections P.S. Last year our raffle raised shire CCC. of any cricketer who was special to you. £166.45, which was donated to Mary Please share your memories Stevens Hospice.

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Preferably all articles should be typed and emailed to the address below The editor reserves the right to edit or refuse the publication of any material submitted without further reason. Editorial Contact Details: E-Mail: [email protected] Phone: 01384 442244 Snail Mail: 34a Chawn Hill, Old Swinford, Stourbridge DY9 7JB The Stourbridge & District Cricket Society is a member of the Council of Cricket Societies