From the Editor It has been a race to get this edition of Logogriph, and the wordsearch, before “Faith Matters” to the printers on time going. as Beryl and I only returned from a A new PCC was formed at the APCM cruise to the Canaries in the Queen on 25 April and is shown below. The Victoria – see future article - on 14 th new organisation and committees were May and then on the 15 it was a day formed at the PCC meeting on 24 May out to Wembley with my daughter for and will be shown in “Faith Matters” the FA Cup Final to see Portsmouth from the July edition. play Chelsea. Not the result we were hoping for but as I said to Colleen on Many congratulations to Peter and the way home “We have been to Tricia on surviving their first year with Wembley four times in the last two us on 1 June. We look forward to years and seen Pompey win three of them being with us for many more them.” Fortunately, I was able to years. prepare the crossword, thanks to Colin Carter MEMBERS OF PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL (PCC) (Registered Charity No. 1128278) Reverend Canon Peter Jones (Chairman & Incumbent) Dr Graham Frost (Churchwarden) Mrs Mary Strugnell (Churchwarden) Mrs Helen Faulkner (Hon. Treasurer) Mr Roger Bryant (Hon. Secretary) Mr Colin Carter Mrs Shirley Caunter Mrs Fiona Hedley Mr Geoffrey Jones Mrs Anne Plater Mr Bill Skilleter Prof. Jan Stuart Mrs Rosemary Thomas Co-opted Members Mrs Armineh Pogosian Mrs Jane Rowthorn Deanery Synod Reps: Dr Michael Fluck Mrs Sandra Haggan Dates for Your Diary Tuesday 1 June. HMS HAVANT remembrance at 10.50am at War Memorial. Saturday 5 June. Coffee morning from 10am to 12-noon in Church. Saturday 5 June. Quiz night at 7.30pm in Church Hall. Monday 7 June. BMC meeting at 7pm at 29 Hamilton Close, Langstone. Saturday 12 June. The garden at 4a Langstone Avenue will be open from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. There will be plants, teas and paintings for sale. All proceeds to St. Faith’s Restoration Fund and Help in Bereavement. Saturday 11 September. Town Fair from 10am to 3pm in Churchyard. Saturday 27 November. Bellringers Christmas Dinner at 7pm in Church Hall. Sunday 13 March 2011. Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) in Church. -1- From the Rector June is pregnant; a month full of hope Further out in the community our and expectation. The first cabinet secondary schoolchildren from meeting of a coalition government has Warblington and elsewhere plunge into just bounced out of number ten. I wait exams and spend their summer nervously to hear whether it is a ‘yes’ confinement awaiting results which will or a ‘no’ from the Gulbenkian have not a little bearing on their future Foundation in response to our bid for lives. Those couples we recently funding to resource a summer long married in May will be embarking on programme that will help us re-purpose their own post honeymoon lives with St. Faith’s so it’s fit for purpose for the the nervous excitement that attends a years ahead. It feels almost like a new new life together. coalition of our very own where young And all these things to contemplate and old have the opportunity of co- having spent two nights at Douai designing a programme of hope that Abbey in Berkshire, the home of one of can address our material and spiritual our English Benedictine communities deficit. where clergy who had served up to a The ferry that will take us to Santander year in a new post gathered to reflect for the first proper few day’s break for on and then plan the next steps of the the Joneses since last June departs in developments they had each identified the next few hours after I’ve put to bed as being vital to the life of their the planning for our Pentecost respective parishes or chaplaincy work celebrations which could spawn ‘who settings. It is so encouraging to knows what?’ for our church mission discover how every parish represented reinvigorated by the power of the Holy in that gathering of priests from across Spirit. Rather more prosaically I await the dioceses of Salisbury, Winchester, the results of a survey on Church Oxford, Chichester and Guildford as House to see the extent of any works well as Portsmouth is in a peri-natal needed to rectify yet more damp position preparing to give birth to a decay. Well, at least, we shall shortly new way of being church in its be erecting the temporary vestry in community. church to save music, robes and June is ‘busting out all over’. Get people from the ravages of the same ready to push. in the old choir vestry! Peter Jones Father’s Day Don’t forget Father’s Day is on Sunday 20 June -2- Harold Larwood MBE This is a story without parallel in sport. bowling partner, for Nottinghamshire It is about the breakdown of relations and England, Bill Voce with four pints which almost occurred between two of beer each before they took the field. countries and the vengeance meted The drinks were smuggled into the out on the professional cricketer who Nottinghamshire dressing room and acted on the instructions of the English when they were fielding, beer was cricketing establishment, the MCC. It hidden by soft drinks when the tray is the story of Harold Larwood MBE. was taken out for the drinks break. Modern technology and newsreels of Larwood could not cope with the Larwood’s bowling have established drinking in his early days. On one that he was the fastest bowler of all occasion, he said to the umpire, time. Yet he was just 5 feet 7 inches “Where’s the batsman?” To which he tall and only weighed 11 stone! Quite replied, “On his way back to the simply, he was the greatest strike pavilion. You’ve just bowled him!” bowler in the history of cricket. Yet no Larwood then started his run up, only sport has treated anyone so to be stopped by the umpire. “Harold. appallingly as the English cricket I think you should wait for the batsman establishment did Larwood. Certainly to reach the crease!” not his enemies on the field because Larwood made his debut for England, the Australian cricketing world championed by the great batsman welcomed him with open arms when Jack Hobbs, in his second season. He he left England in 1950 to settle in appeared in two tests taking 9 wickets Australia with his wife Lois and their for an average of 28 runs. Overall that five daughters. Only one journalist season he took 137 wickets with an took the trouble to see him off at average of 18 runs. He played Tilbury and that was the “radio voice of regularly for England before the fateful cricket” John Arlott. The man who tour of Australia in 1932/33. The helped him most to start a new life in England captain for the tour was Australia was the fine cricketer and Douglas Jardine, who was determined journalist Jack Fingleton who opened to win the series. The problem was the batting for Australia in what how to deal with Don Bradman, became to be known as the Bodyline acknowledged to this day as the series. My introduction to Larwood greatest batsman in the history of the was in 1946 when, as a schoolboy, I great game. Bodyline was the answer. bought a book by Jack Fingleton called Fast bowlers bowling at the batsman’s “Bodyline Crisis” body with a packed leg side of fielders But let’s start at the beginning. to make catches when the batsman Larwood escaped going into the coal fended balls off his body. Only a great mines and joined Nottinghamshire. fast bowler like Larwood had the speed When he first played for them his and accuracy to succeed with captain was Arthur Carr who was bodyline, although he was given great noted for his heavy drinking. Carr help by Voce. There were terrible used to fuel Larwood and his fast incidents during the tour which led to -3- the Australian Cricket Board sending Unless stopped at once it is likely to the following cable to the MCC. upset the friendly relations existing “Body-line bowling has assumed such between Australia and England.” As proportions as to menace the best we will see in next month’s “Faith interests of the game, making Matters”, the principal victim of protection of the body by the batsmen bodyline was Harold Larwood MBE. the main consideration. This is causing intensely bitter feeling Roger Bryant between players as well as injury. In our opinion it is unsportsmanlike. Vestry and Annual Parochial Church Meetings - 25 April The Vestry and APCM meetings were regard to the young people in the held in St Faith’s Church with 53 parish. Our 2009 Accounts were then parishioners present. At the short discussed. Our finances in 2009 had Vestry meeting, Dr Graham Frost and improved on 2008, notably because of Mrs Mary Strugnell were elected the letting of Christ Church Centre and churchwardens for the ensuing year. Bungalow and Nos 1 & 2 Churchfields. The Chairman, Canon Peter Jones, We had building repair costs, notably thanked Prof Jan Stuart for his work £11.5K for the ceiling of the Lady over the last six years. The date of the Chapel paid for out of the Restoration next Vestry meeting would be Sunday Fund. Appreciation was expressed for 13 March 2011. There was no further the sterling work of the fundraisers business.