Samuel Canynge Caple

The paternal grandfather of Samuel Canynge Caple was an American, so one of relatively few people who, in Victorian times, bucked the trend and travelled from the new world to the old in order to make their fortune. For Charles Caple there was only modest success, but his son, Percival, certainly made a good move when he joined CJ King and Sons Ltd, a company of Bristol tug boat owners. Percival went on to marry Grace, the daughter of Samuel King, one of the original CJ King’s two sons.

Born in Bristol in 1910 Canynge Caple was educated at Clifton College, the scene of AEJ Collins famous score of 628* in 1899. From there he went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and then, presumably keen to make his way in the world of entertainment, he joined a repertory company performing Shakespeare. In 1921 Canynge Caple married a fellow thespian, Hilda, herself the daughter of a successful father, in her case a commercial artist. Canynge Caple seems not to have been destined for stardom however and he became a journalist although, presumably, not one who had to work too hard.

Always a cricket lover Canynge Caple was a Gloucestershire member from an earlier age, and took out memberships with other counties as well. He appeared regularly in the correspondence section of The Cricketer throughout the 1930s. Generally his letters picked up on statistical matters and were not controversial in nature and were certainly respectful, and at times almost apologetic in tone. He began however in 1933 with a letter in rather different vein, on the subject of the Bodyline tour, just completed. Canynge Caple’s letter advocated a temporary cessation of Ashes cricket suggesting Tests should be limited to those countries who still regard the cricket field as the scene of a fine game and not an arena for the slaughter of the innocents.

The quoted comment suggests that Canynge Caple was opposed to Jardine’s tactics, but in fact that was far from the case. His main complaint was about the behaviour of the Australian spectators, adding it is most unfair that having travelled thousands of miles to take part in these games, our cricketers should be the victims of this hooliganism, which savours more of an American “gangster section” than the peaceful fields of cricket.

The admiration for Jardine’s men is further demonstrated by a photograph of The Men Who Won The Ashes that represents the frontispiece of Canynge Caple’s first book, The Cricketer’s Who’s Who, that appeared in 1934. The formula had been attempted before, and a not dissimilar publication, HV Dorey’s ‘Blue Book’, appeared annually between 1909 and 1913.

Canynge Caple’s book was a ‘one off’ but was well received, and it is perhaps surprising that, the hard work having been put in to that first book, there was no repeat. With a photograph of Gilbert Jessop gracing the dust wrapper the book was an attractive one and must have sold well as (unless you want a copy complete with the flimsy original jacket) it is not difficult to pick up a copy today for a modest outlay.

The Who’s Who consists of 214 pages, which sounds relatively modest, but the font is very small and there are as many as 52 lines of text on a full page. This means that some of the entries are over a thousand words in length, and there are more than 250 profiles of current English players as well as 40 of the leading overseas cricketers of the day. The writing is not, it has to be said, particularly exciting and is generally limited to a strictly factual account of a player’s career with very little by way of comment. What is remarkable, and this is surely a sign of what was found interesting in the 1930s rather than an omission on Canynge Caple’s part, is that noticeably absent from the entries are their subject’s career statistics.

Moving on from the book it is not easy to ascertain how Canynge Caple spent his time. He certainly watched a lot of cricket, and thought about the game a good deal as his regular letters to The Cricketer amply demonstrate. He also did other writing, David Frith in his obituary in Wisden Cricket Monthly mentioning that he occasionally wrote for the Daily Telegraph but, overall, it seems likely that Canynge Caple, with no need of a regular income, was very much a freelancer, working as and when he chose.

In 1939 Canynge Caple was living in Weybridge in Surrey and that year’s census records him as living with his wife and son (as well as, to further underline his comfortable financial circumstances, a servant). As to his occupation in addition to his journalism he is described as an author (despite just that single book five years earlier) and a cricket statistician. I cannot locate any war service, despite Canynge Caple being of conscription age, over and above his being an Air Raid Warden. At some point during the conflict the Caples relocated to Tintagel on the North Cornwall coast, the county in which he would spend the rest of his life.

After the war Canynge Caple was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Society of Cricket Statisticians (that soon became the Cricket Society), and he was also involved in the ill-starred Cricket Book Society that Roy Webber started at around the same time. Canynge Caple planned to reprise his Who’s Who for Webber’s society, a letter at a time, but he had only got as far as ‘E’ when the venture folded.

Those five booklets from the Cricket Book Society apart ‘author’ Canynge Caple had not written a single book since 1934, but in 1948 and 1949 he then produced three. The first was a joint venture with AG Powell and was once more under the aegis of the Cricket Book Society. The title was The Graces, EM, WG and GF, and the book a fairly brief run through the lives of the famous brotherhood with the emphasis of their cricketing stories. Initially released in an edition of 1,000 copies the authors said there would also be an unlimited edition later. They probably didn’t have in mind twenty five years later, but that is when the standard edition eventually appeared.

The second of the triumvirate was a 72 page booklet celebrating the history of international cricket between England and New Zealand, published to coincide with the arrival of Walter Hadlee’s ‘forty niners’. I don’t own the booklet so will not comment further, but I do have the last of the three, A History of the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, published Worcester by Littlebury. The book,which has a foreword from John Arlott, is a model of its type in that it contains a comprehensive narrative account, some interesting and well presented statistics, scorecards of important matches and a decent index. Fully illustrated there are some excellent photographs and some entertaining caricatures. The writing style is however, as is usually the case with Canynge Caple, somewhat unadventurous.

It was during the late 1950s that Canynge Caple embarked on the most prolific period of his writing career. With just a short history of Thornbury CC (a Gloucestershire club closely associated with the Graces) in between from 1957 to 1961 he produced, annually and to coincide with the visit to England of that summer’s tourists, a book chronicling the history of that nation. The titles are England v West Indies 1895-1957, The All Blacks at Cricket 1860-1958, England v India 1886-1959, The Springboks at Cricket 1888-1960 and The Ashes at Stake. All five books were again published by Littlebury and, with similar jackets utilizing the same style and colour scheme, they make an impressive looking set of books.

In terms of content the books, as would be expected from Canynge Caple, do their job well and are well illustrated. What they noticeably lack however is, in each case, a bibliography or acknowledgments statement. There certainly doesn’t seem to be much, if anything in the way of original research. The New Zealand volume, for its early years, relies very much upon a two volume history of the game in the Shaky Isles that was written by Terence Reese, and the South African one is heavily influenced by the similar volumes published by Maurice Luckin and Louis Duffus.

It is impossible from this distance to know how well the books sold, but the absence at the time of very much being available in the UK on the history of overseas cricket suggests to me that the first three probably sold pretty well. The South African volume was a little different, Canynge Caple (or perhaps his publishers) dropping the scorecards and statistics that had been present in the three previous books and the largest so far (318 pages) consisted of narrative content only.

With the Australians due to visit in 1961 it would seem that a comprehensive Ashes history had originally been planned but, Canynge Caple explained in his preface, owing to rising costs, my publishers have had to limit this book to a size which makes a magnum opus impossible.

The Ashes at Stake therefore deals largely with home Ashes series, and is very much in the Canynge Caple style of well written but pedestrian content with, for once an exception. Perhaps unsurprisingly in light of that 1933 letter to The Cricketer the one chapter in the book that is really worth reading is that on ‘Bodyline’. Canynge Caple’s views had probably mellowed a little in the intervening quarter of a century or so, but not in a significant way. He gives an excellent account of why Jardinian leg theory came into being, although then, bizarrely, seems to be under the impression that prior to the third Test no ‘Bodyline’ had been bowled. By far the most interesting comment however is one that will come as a great surprise to some when he writes; to the young enthusiast the names of Jardine and Larwood mean little today, while the phrase bodyline bowling merely recalls, a storm in a teacup in the bad old days. That comment certainly is accurate however – until the fiftieth anniversary of the tour brought it the new audience it has never lost the 1932/33 series had certainly been consigned to the backwaters of cricket history and England’s two great heroes swept under the carpet.

Although he was only 50 when he wrote The Ashes at Stake Canynge Caple, by now living in St Ives, an hour and a half’s drive further down the Cornish coast, never wrote another book.  He didn’t entirely stop writing however, using his local knowledge to contribute to a centenary publication from Gloucestershire in 1970 and, the same year, publishing a modest history of Cornish cricket to coincide with a first round fixture in the old Gillette Cup, something he updated for the county’s next appearance in 1977. There were other contributions to brochures and booklets and some non-cricket writing on the subject of Cornwall as well.

As to how Canynge Caple spent his time in middle age a recollection of David Kelly is illustrative of that, on the subject of a tour of Cornwall he was part of in the mid 1960s; we had a match against Perran-ar-Worthal Cricket Club, a delightful name and, as I recall, a decent ground…. I recall asking who the person was who appeared to be holding court on a bank overlooking the playing area, easy chairs, a sunshade and picnic, with several hangers-on.  I was told by one of the home players it was a writer named Canynge Caple.

Sam Canynge Caple died in April 1991, the day after his 81st birthday. As a cricket writer he is largely forgotten, but his name lives on in Cornwall, and I am grateful once more to David Kelly for bringing to my attention the existence of the Canynge Caple Cup, and the Canynge Caple Colts Cup, awarded each year to the county’s outstanding players.

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In praise of David Warner and his home Test record

When David Warner won the Allan Border Medal for best annual Australian male player earlier this year, it led to bemusement and mocking from certain quarters as he won despite a disastrous Ashes tour of England. It just seemed to be rewarding him for being a home-track Test bully while everyone ignored his record overseas.

It is certainly easy to write Warner off as a Test home-track bully; indeed, personally speaking I largely thought of him as this in recent years. Certainly overall stats and recent performances highlighted this. He averages over 30 runs more per innings at home in Tests in comparison with his away record. Apart from Bangladesh, he hasn’t scored a Test century outside Australia since 2014. He has failed to score a Test century in England after 13 Tests. One could go on and on with such examples.

But that is ignoring too easily how good a player Warner has been in home Tests. Not only does he have an enormously impressive statistical record, but it has achieved with great consistency over a long period of time.

From 43 home Tests Warner averages 65.94 with 18 centuries and 12 half-centuries. As impressive as these numbers are, they’re even more impressive when broken down. In 14 separate Test series the lowest Warner has averaged is 39.33 (actually higher than his overall away Test batting average). In 10 out of the 13 Test series he has averaged over 50.

As well, in 8 home Test seasons Warner has scored at least 2 Test centuries in all of them bar one (2017/18 Ashes series). It’s fair to say that Warner has never had a poor series or season in home Tests. In almost a decade of play that’s a highly commendable record.

As well, his home record stands up very well with other high-class aggressive Australian openers in recent decades. Michael Slater played 33 home tests for Australia from 1993 to 2001 and averaged an excellent 52.62 with 9 centuries and 12 fifties. While an excellent record with many notable innings, not only is his average significantly lower than Warner but he twice averaged under 30 in series (Pakistan 1995/96, India 1999/00), something Warner has never done despite playing more series.

Then there is the more recent example of Matthew Hayden, one of Australia’s premier batsmen of the 2000s. However despite his incredible highs as a Test batsman in Australia (including the highest ever Australian Test score of 380), his overall home average from 56 Tests is 57.88, well below Warner’s home average. More significantly, Hayden’s record has notable lulls at the start of his career (averaging 35 & 29 in his first two series), in the middle (only 3 half-centuries from 5 Tests in the 2004/05 summer) and at the end (averaging just 16.56 in his final home summer in 2008/09).

What makes Warner such a dominant force in home Tests? Australian pitches of his era have suited his strengths in that they generally have had good pace and bounce, which he expertly utilizes for his speedy run-scoring. While he has a reputation of being ultra-aggressive in his technique in Tests at least he’s relatively economical and pragmatic in his playing style, using the pace of the ball to score runs all round the wicket. His efficient punching of good length balls through the cover and point regions has been a particular trademark.

As well, while Warner has sometimes struggled against spin outside Australia, in home Tests he has almost always been at ease and regularly dominated them. Perhaps the difference is that Warner knows that Australian pitches are often difficult for overseas spinners to adjust to and therefore has the self-belief to play with confidence and flair whereas in Asia he has sometimes looked sketchy and unsure of himself. That the likes of Yasir Shah and Moeen Ali have never dismissed him in Australia from 5 Tests each is testament to this.

Warner’s excellence in running between wickets has always been a strength in all conditions and all formats but it becomes particularly prevalent in home Tests for a few reasons. His expert ability to procure sharp singles and turn twos into threes is particularly valuable in wearing down sides on a hot day on the big Australian grounds. It’s the base from which Warner is able to plunder opposition attacks for huge scores.

As well, it’s not just the amount of home Test runs in obtained, but the proportion of them that have occurred in pivotal pressurized situations. To be sure he has cashed in regularly in dead rubber matches at the SCG but there have been regular occurrences of him standing up when his side needed him most.

A famous early example of this was in just his 2nd Test against New Zealand in Hobart in the 2011/12 season. In a match dominated by the bowlers, Warner almost single-handedly brought Australia home as he carried his bat for 123 out of a total of 233 as he single-handedly brought the side within 7 runs of victory. To put this innings in context, the next highest individual match score was 56. And he didn’t achieve this by reigning in his natural attacking game; his strike rate of 72.35 was well above the overall match average. It was the innings that highlighted he was more than just a limited-overs slogger.

Another example of him playing a pivotal innings was against Pakistan in the 2016 Boxing Day Test. In a heavily rain-affected match, Pakistan batted well into day 3 to compile 443 and the only course of action for Australia was to bat conservatively and ensure a draw. But Warner responded with a marvelous counter-attacking innings of 144 at better than a run-a-ball that completely changed the momentum of the match and set the base for Australia’s remarkable final day victory by an innings.

But probably the best illustration of Warner’s effectiveness was how Australia played when he wasn’t available due to suspension for the 2018/19 home series. Limited-overs specialist Aaron Finch was tried as the aggressive opener but never looked convincing and was dropped by the final Test. Marcus Harris had moderate success but failed to score a century. Their options were so limited they used Usman Khawaja as a makeshift opener for the final Test. There’s no doubt that Warner’s absence was one of the prime reasons Australia lost to India at home in a Test series for the first time ever.

David Warner turns 34 in October and presumably won’t be around as a Test player for that much longer. When that day arrives his absence will be greatly missed by the Australian team.

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Lessons Learned From Cricket To Improve Business Management Skills

Cricketers enjoy playing this game from the moment they step their feet into the playing ground. Did you know that this game can help you improve your business management skills? If you are a cricket lover, this piece will take you through what you can take out of cricket and apply it to your business online or offline. Let us have a look at some important lessons below:

Lesson #1- The Preparation Process

Cricket game requires a lot of preparation when bowling, batting, and fielding. For any good performance in any field, preparation is always the key. When starting a business, you need to prepare adequately to be successful. If you are thinking of doing online business, check out this page for more info on the best online business ideas as the start of your preparation process.
The game will help you understand the importance of following rules in any particular field of business. You need some level of discipline in the business including:
• Opening your store/office on time
• Being available during office hours
• Do not just leave everything to your staff.
Cricket teaches you how to be really tight on discipline just like a bowler is expected to be very disciplined while bowling. It also empowers entrepreneurs in terms of time management skills. Cricket players have very limited time to accomplish targets. To be timely in all the aspects of your business is very crucial for its success. Always ensure the timely delivery of goods and services for the sake of your business.

Lesson #2- What you need to do to keep your business going

Consistency- Once you are prepared and you already know what your business requires you to do, what next? From cricket, we learn about being consistent. You need to consistently win games as a team to maintain the top ranking. As an entrepreneur, you have to deliver to your customers consistently to win!
In cricket, a player needs to stay on the wickets and the runs will follow regardless of the duration it takes. Similarly, you need time in business to become a master in the game. The longer you operate your business, the more successful you turn out to be.
Handling pressure – Any cricket player should master the art of pressure handling to play well. A good performance from the players means wins and more wins in the game. Business comes with different types of pressures that you need to know how to manage to win. Besides the normal pressures of delivering on time or paying suppliers, there is a major one known as competition. Be ready to compete in any business and the secret is to stand out from your competition.
Teamwork – Cricket involves a team of players supporting each other towards a common goal. Teamwork in business works the same as in cricket throughout your business success journey.
Achieving targets – Always set targets you need to achieve in business daily, weekly or monthly to be successful in the long run.

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‘He Dipped His Pen in Vitriol’

‘He Dipped His Pen in Vitriol’

So said veteran sportswriter Ian Wooldridge of his long time fellow scribe Evelyn ‘Lyn’ Wellings, a man who, over more than half a century, probably ruffled more cricketing feathers than any other writer before or since.

As we all are Wellings was doubtless shaped by his upbringing. He was born in Egypt, where his father was a tea merchant, before joining the British Army and rising to the rank of Major in the Royal Army Service Corps. In time Wellings Senior was awarded an OBE, in 1920.

In common with many in his situation the six year old Wellings, by dint of being born in 1909 just an Edwardian, was packed off to England for an education that began at a prep school in Bournemouth. He went on to Cheltenham College from where he went to Christ Church, Oxford to read classics. Wellings was a decent golfer who was awarded his blue in that sport and he was also a cricketer, an off spinner and useful lower order batsman. Wellings was good enough to win a blue in 1929 and 1931, and his Wisden obituary suggests the only reason he missed out on one in 1930 was due to a personality clash with that year’s captain. In days when most cricket writers were generally just that rather than players as well Wellings’ experience as a First Class cricketer was unusual and, no doubt, a big advantage to him.

In addition to his appearances for Oxford in 1931 Wellings also appeared four times for Surrey that summer, but he enjoyed no great success in the county game and, as so many with his background did, he went into teaching. The role of schoolmaster was not however a calling that Wellings enjoyed and he stuck it for just a single year, at the end which he was successful in his application for a position as a junior sports reporter with the Daily Mirror. In 1938 he moved on to the London Evening News, and despite many clashes there and a break for war service in the Honourable Artillery Company he remained with the paper for the rest of his career. From 1945 he, additionally wrote Wisden’s annual review of cricket at the Public Schools.

The first book from Wellings was his account of the 1950/51 Ashes series, No Ashes For England, in which he took a broad brush approach, blaming all concerned for England’s failings. The players put having a good time before their duty as players, although that was fairly mild compared with the  lashing he saved for the selectors, variously accused of facile optimism, sheer lunacy and taking action dictated by prejudice. Despite those and other criticisms Wellings did however demonstrate his support for Alec Bedser, Len Hutton and Godfrey Evans as well as, perhaps surprisingly after some broadsides on the subject of how he got the job, skipper Freddie Brown.

There was only ever one book on a home Ashes series by Wellings, and that had to wait until 1964. He did however produce a pre tour brochure for the 1953 series, Meet the Australians. As an example of how a tour brochure should be put together it is a model publication and an enjoyable read, but probably most notable now for a foreword from John Arlott in which he describes Wellings as having a shrewd and technically expert eye, which suggests at that time there was at least a degree of mutual respect between the two if not friendship.

If the pair ever did get on the amicable relationship did not last as when Arlott died in 1991 and the octogenarian Wellings was asked by The Guardian for a tribute, according to Arlott’s biographer David Rayvern Allen, Wellings’ response included the comment that Arlott was the most evil man I’ve ever met, an extraordinarily strong reaction. The pair’s fundamental difference of opinion over South Africa was doubtless part of the problem, as well as Arlott’s popularity in the light of his lack of any discernable playing ability.

In 1954/55 England, after losing the first Test but famously inspired by Frank Tyson, came back to retain the Ashes with a 3-1 victory and there was another Wellings book, The Ashes Retained. There was criticism once again for the selectors, as well as for the other members of the press, for barrackers, for players trying to pressurise umpires and, despite the handsome victory, for those England players who Wellings felt paid more heed to playing golf than fielding practice. On the whole completely supportive of Hutton’s captaincy Wellings still managed to criticise him for the marginalising of Alec Bedser, whose non-selection after the first Test he repeatedly deprecated.

Wellings’ book on the 1958/59 Ashes series was pointedly titled The Ashes Thrown Away. Having found much to criticise on the previous trip it is not surprising that Wellings was in his element on this one. Australia’s battery of, in the opinion of many, illegal bowlers and some poor umpiring took much of Wellings’ attention, although he still took the opportunity of taking pot shots at the MCC and its selectors, declaring Lord’s to be controlled by crack-brained theorists.

In May 1962 a article appeared in the Evening News under Wellings’ byline with the headline; May and Surrey rumpus – Decision to miss more matches shocks county. The piece that followed asserted that Surrey skipper Peter May had upset the Surrey committee by declaring that he would not be available to play in any away games that summer, and only half of the home fixtures. Wellings concluded that far from becoming the asset anticipated this year May has turned himself into a liability ………..it is clear that May should either change his mind and play regularly or resign the captaincy.

In the event May played in as many as 17 of Surrey’s 28 fixtures and sued for libel. May later conceded that he accepted that Wellings had submitted his article in good faith on the basis of information received from a normally reliable source but, palpably untrue, his employers wisely decided not to contest the case and a settlement was reached and an appropriately worded apology tendered.

Wellings again spent the winter of 1962/63 in Australia and, on his return, his book on the series was entitled Dexter v Benaud. The review of the book in The Cricketer, unusually, got its own headline, Grouse out of Season!, and the reviewer went on to say whereas well and fairly aimed criticism can be interesting and instructive, there comes a point when too many grouses about almost everything and everyone becomes tedious. This book contains a grouse on almost every page. This is the tour where England were managed by the Duke of Norfolk, whose rank certainly did not render him immune from the acid pen of Wellings and the two men most certainly did not get on.

The following winter England toured India. The team selected was some way below full strength and the side badly affected by illness. All five Tests were drawn and watched by Wellings, reporting for the Evening News. There was no book on the series but, for the only time, Rowland Bowen decided to mention Wellings. Both being men who held trenchant views fireworks might have been expected, so Bowen’s comments are worth setting out in full:-

This leads us on naturally to our newspaper writers most of whom showed that they did not know how to behave in print: they let us down badly with one notable, and to many people surprising, exception. This was EM Wellings whose sourness, so often noted before, seemed wholly absent: his comments were sympathetic and his criticisms valid. He did not parade his ignorance of Indian conditions as did all the others (maybe he is not ignorant of them) and proved to be the only one consistently worth reading, the only one who did not indulge in either snide or vulgar remarks on the country he was visiting, and on its inhabitants.

We mention all this at some length because we know that Wellings is not the best liked cricket writer – often through his own fault. The Indian tour has shown that he can write moderately and with pleasure and that it may be we can look forward to a more benign, and less carping approach from him in future: it would be cricket’s game as well as Wellings.

After the side’s return there was a home Ashes series to contest and it was a disappointing one. Australia, weakened by the retirements of such luminaries as Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey were still good enough to beat England and, despite Bowen’s expressed hopes, in his book of the series, Simpson’s Australians, Wellings reverted to type. His conclusion says it all:-

So much was wrong with English cricket that it is difficult to know just where the rulers ought to set about putting things right.The first essential is to recognise that the fault lies with the players and not the game. The spirit of our cricket, once bold and challenging, has become timid, the emphasis placed firmly on defensive safety.

But if those who ran the game thought that for once they were avoiding Wellings’ ire they were to be disappointed as he continued my criticism of the administrators is that they have done too much in unnecessary directions and too little to check undesirable tendencies.

There were no more Ashes books from Wellings after that on the 1964 series, although he did not attend his last Test match as an Evening News journalist until 1973. He went to Australia again in 1970/71 and watched Ray Illingworth’s side bring back the Ashes. There was much sympathy in the press box for the man who missed out on the captaincy, Colin Cowdrey who, as Illingworth’s deputy, did not have a happy trip. Wellings was an exception, and despite sharing a public school background with Cowdrey was entirely supportive of Illingworth, the gruff Yorkshireman.

As a retiree Wellings and his second wife initially took themselves off to Spain, David Frith recalling that that was to the amusement of those who had always accused Wellings of standing, politically, somewhere to the right of General Franco. Wellings did return however and an older but not noticeably mellower character started to write the occasional feature for Frith’s Wisden Cricket Monthly, and he also produced an interesting book, part autobiography and part appreciation of the great players of his youth, Vintage Cricketers. What had certainly not changed were his views on one day cricket, overseas players in the county game and poor technique.

Frith, not a man himself who generally panders to the feelings of others sums up Wellings rather well. As far as his writing is concerned his view is that he was not a pretentious writer, no lyrical Cardus. He dealt solely in fact and considered opinion. As a man Frith wrote he (Wellings) seemed to relish swimming against the current. He detested pomposity, intrigue and bad cricket, and instinctively lashed out against those things.

Lyn Wellings died in 1992 at the age of 83. His last wish was for his body to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea before any announcement was made. There was then a funeral with just five people in attendance including the minister who conducted the service, Wellings’ widow and Frith, who was asked, as he walked in to the ceremony, to give a brief eulogy. Cricket writing has never really seen Lyn Wellings’ like again, which might be just as well – quite what he would have thought of T20 and ‘The Hundred’ I dread to think.

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Exploring the choice of cricket games in 2020

For those of us passionate about cricket, when were not absorbed in the action of live games via TV or streams, a fun way to keep ourselves entertained can be delving into the virtual world of cricket gaming.

Throughout the 90s, there seemed to be a huge choice of games available for PC and console, although that seemed to decline for several years with the turn of the millennium. However, there does appear to have been a gaming revival in recent years, as developers look at new and creative ways for us to enjoy one of the most popular sports in the world.

Online cricket games

Arguably one of the most common activities online is fantasy cricket, given there are numerous websites offering participants an entertaining way to follow the sport. This typically involves making team selections, and keeping a keen eye on player performances, in order to be successful. The most popular fantasy competitions tend to follow the Indian Premier League and international tournaments, which means they too need to be followed carefully.

For those looking for something a little more interactive, there are many online gaming sites which offer a host of themed games. Most of these are Flash or HTML based, which means they can be played on desktop or mobile devices. Likewise, many of these games are based around skill and timing, either simulating batting or bowling. Of course, the most popular trend for these games is the Indian cricket scene.

Aware of such a huge following, the leading online casinos in India have also started offering a broader selection of games themed around cricket. These include slot games like Cricket Star by Microgaming or Cricket Fever by Genii, both of which have been released in the last year. Of course, some of these sites also offer a variety of ways to bet on real cricket, alongside their casino gaming options, therefore it’s always recommended to check the relevant reviews.

Commercial cricket games

If you take a look at our very own selection of commercial cricket games reviewed, while there are plenty of releases, many of them date back over many years. The fact is that, compared to soccer or basketball, it seems that cricket just hasn’t enjoyed the same commercial success amongst the video gaming community, which means that many of the leading names in the games industry haven’t dedicated as much time to our favourite sport.

For a long time, one of the best management simulations was Cricket Coach, although there hasn’t been a new release since 2014. Likewise, there was also fierce initial competition in the virtual and 3D realm, with the Brian Lara cricket series by Codemasters, and the simply titled Cricket series by EA Sports. However, the last time either developer released a new version of their popular games was back in 2007.

Meanwhile, Australian developer Big Ant Games remained active, having produced the Don Bradman series of titles and Ashes Cricket in 2017, although their crowning glory is undoubtedly Cricket 19. As the most recent commercial game dedicated to the sport, Cricket 19 met with very positive reviews on Steam and is available for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Test, T20, and ODI are featured in the game itself, along with a host of both men’s and women’s teams.

Conclusion

While the choice of cricket games would appear to have been declining for some time now, there’s definitely a strong selection out there. Retro gamers will no doubt enjoy playing some of the past releases, even if the graphics and gameplay might be a little dated.

That said, there’s always the option of trying the very latest releases with beautifully rendered graphics, or alternatively, a growing selection of new online offerings themed around cricket to try. Overall, it looks as though cricket is once again having a positive influence on the gaming industry.

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Countdown to the Greatest Cricket Players of all Time

The game of cricket started way back in the 16th century, somewhere in Southern England. Over the years, it has grown in popularity, becoming one of the biggest games in England, Australia, Pakistan, India, West Indies, and South Africa, and other parts of Asia and Africa.

It has produced a host of legendary players who will be remembered far across the cricket world for their contribution on the pitch. Today, we feature 5 of the greatest cricketers of all time, including names the new generation of cricket fans have only read about in news channels.

#5. Viv Richards – West Indies

Viv Richards was a phenomenon in the 1970s and 80s, emerging as a top batsman averaging a strike rate of 90.2, at a time when the strike rate for most batsmen was between 60 and 70. The swashbuckling right-hander held the record for the fastest 100 off 56 balls in Tests until Brendon McCullum broke it in 2015. That was a whopping 40 years holding a record.

Viv Richards led West Indies to their famous world cup win against England in 1979, where he made an unbeaten 138 off 157 balls in the final match.

#4. Brian Lara – West Indies

The elegant left-hander will be remembered as one of the toughest cricketers to ball to, but he could also play pace and spin amazingly well. His remarkable 400 against England in 2004 remains the highest individual score in Tests to this day.

Lara had managed 375 in 1994, again against England, which is third in the highest individual score charts. His consistent displays for his country and clubs earned him many applauds from the cricket world.

#3. Ricky Ponting – Australia

Ricky Ponting is undoubtedly Australia’s greatest match-winner with the bat. When Australia posted a remarkable 359-2 in the 2003 world cup final against India, Ponting had 140 (128) on his own.

Ponting ranks as the second-highest run-getter in both world cups and Tests behind the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, as well as the third-highest in ODIs.

#2. Sachin Tendulkar – India

Since making his debut as a 16-year old against Pakistan, the sky was always the limit for Sachin Tendulkar, the ‘god of cricket’. He amassed the most runs in both Tests and ODIs, scoring 100 centuries internationally, which is 29 more than second-placed Rick Ponting.

Tendulkar also leads in the number of runs in world cups, 2,278 in total, at an unrivaled average of 56.95. He is known beyond his native India as the man who made most people fall in love with cricket.

#1. Donald Bradman – Australia

Donald Bradman is arguably the greatest batsman of all time. His incredible Tests average of 99.94, which is 38.07 ahead of his closest challenger Adam Vorges is a record that might take decades to be broken if it ever will.

Bradman’s ability to play long innings was second to none. He managed more than 12,200 scores and scored 6 consecutive centuries in the 1937/38 season. He holds the record for most runs in a Test series where he scored 974 runs from 7 innings, at an average of 139.14 in 1930 Ashes.

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Cricket Lore

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I am a great admirer of The Cricket Quarterly. That it is my favourite cricket magazine/journal of the many that have come and gone over the years is most certainly the case but, lest my post on the subject should be misinterpreted, there are plenty of other good ones as well, all of which I intend to look at at some point in the future.

For now however I will concentrate on what is certainly my second favourite, Cricket Lore, an English publication that ran between November 1991 and July 2005. There were 47 issues of Cricket Lore over that period in five separate ‘volumes’. The first four consisted of ten issues each but, sadly, volume five was not completed. The timing of the publication of each issue was irregular. The ten issues of volume one appeared over twenty months – by contrast volume two took as many as 44 months to complete. Three and four took 27 and 30 months respectively, and the seven issues in volume five were spread over 37 months.

One thing that Cricket Lore had in common with The Cricket Quarterly was that it was very much the brainchild of one man, Richard Hill being its Rowland Bowen. There will certainly never be another Bowen, but to found a cricket magazine from scratch and keeping it going for a number of years must mean the two men share some characteristics, foremost amongst them of course a deep and enduring love of cricket.

Hill, I understand, had a long career in advertising before a generous redundancy package gave him the opportunity in terms of finance and available time to start Cricket Lore. At the time there were two well established UK cricket magazines, The Cricketer and Wisden Cricket Monthly, but there was never any thought on Hill’s part that he was competing with them.

The first edition of Cricket Lore, as such publications are wont to do, set out Hill’s mission statement. He wrote that his venture was intended to be a magazine of the widest scope and added that our coverage of current events will be considered and reflective. The first issue also proclaimed, as did the next six, that Cricket Lore would appear ten times a year, and that each issue was limited to 5,000 copies. The first of those lasted until issue seven, and the second just a little longer, last appearing in the penultimate issue of volume one.

On the basis set out in the preceding paragraph Cricket Lore certainly changed course over its fourteen years. In the end the scope was not particularly wide. Generally the magazine’s contents concerned past events, and concentrated on Test cricket and the First Class game. There was little coverage of current events, although Hill’s editorials touched on what was happening at the time of publication, and a number of the historical articles looked at their subjects in a modern context or were inspired by recent events.

Part of the reason for what proved to be a largely historical focus for Cricket Lore was its contributors, most of whom were not professional cricket writers. All of the pieces that appeared were well written, no doubt thanks in part at least to Hill’s editing, but most clearly came from writers indulging a passion rather than their calling. Some noted cricket writers’ work was showcased on occasion however, foremost amongst them Stephen Chalke (three essays), a handful more from David Foot and, in the early issues, more than a dozen from the veteran broadcaster and writer Don Mosey. The Alderman’s work was the highlight of the early issues and that which proved to be his last contribution to the magazine, a short but immensely powerful tribute from a tough Yorkshireman to the late Neil Hawke in issue four of volume two, is a genuinely timeless piece of writing.

Another type of contributor was the professional historian. By the nature of their calling such men are writers as well, and there were a number of these. The most prolific of them was Eric Midwinter, but Bernard Whimpress and Keith Sandiford are two others who come into the same category. What Cricket Lore lacked in its time in the nineties and early noughties was even a single female contributor, and the early issues were almost exclusively made up of the work of English writers only South African Luke Alfred breaking the monopoly in volume one with what proved to be the only contribution he was to make.

The third issue of volume two saw something of a change of direction. After that a piece or two each issue from Sandiford brought a Caribbean flavour to the magazine, and also saw Whimpress making his bow. J Neville Turner was another Australian academic who put in a few appearances and South African interest was added by Richard Parry and Brian Bassano. There were only ever seven contributions from the sub-continent however, five from the well known writer Ram Guha, and a couple from Vasant Naik.

But if in some ways Cricket Lore did not quite head off in the direction expected in others it certainly kept its word. Hill promised in the first issue that the magazine would be printed on high quality paper and it always was. In addition the centre pages always comprised some artwork that could either be detached and framed or, alternatively, the originals purchased from Hill. To be fair the quality of the art itself, as opposed to the way it was reproduced, struck me as variable to say the least. Some of the portraits of cricketers did not carry too much of a resemblance to their subjects, although some were thought provoking. By way of example those by Anya Daynoff in some of the early issues I find quite striking, and am surprised that the name of that lady, clearly the closest the magazine came to a female contributor, throws up precisely nothing on a google search.

One of the pleasures of reading Cricket Lore is the absence of any intrusive advertising, and indeed it contains very little in the way of sponsorship at all. In the early days the back page would sometimes attract a commercial backer, but generally the only items offered for sale in the magazine itself, the original artworks aside, were the books that in time Cricket Lore started to publish*, and occasionally other books published elsewhere by the magazine’s contributors.

As far as the contents of the individual issues are concerned the size of the magazine itself came in at 44 pages and the number of major essays in each varied between seven and thirteen. There was also a selection of book reviews in each issue, entitled In The Covers. Various contributors provided these. The reviews were always thoughtful, thorough and constructive even if they lacked the entertainment value and brutal honesty of those that Bowen made sure were one of the  highlights of The Cricket Quarterly.

The length of the individual essays varied. Occasionally, as with the Mosey tribute to Hawke, they were short, but more usually were much more substantial, sometimes extending to several thousand words, Hill very much allowing his contributors a free rein. Many of the subjects were essentially biographical in nature, often comprehensive looks at the lives and times of those who had not been written about at length before. Many were the result of extensive research, but a few, and in some ways it is a shame there were not more, were based around conversations between writers and subjects.

In addition to the players’ stories there were looks at past matches, Test series and controversies and, just occasionally, matters of more recent import. A particular highlight in that respect was, once again, contributed by Mosey and came in the third issue. Mosey’s deeply personal account of the schisms that were then damaging his beloved Yorkshire and his reasoning behind, after sixty years, giving up his membership of the county he loved and instead joining the then new boys Durham is compelling stuff.

On three occasions an issue of Cricket Lore was primarily concerned with one player. That two of those should be Walter Hammond and Garry Sobers will be of no surprise to anyone, but the identity of the third man, an Australian, would require a number of guesses that for most would run well into double figures. That Donald Bradman did not get a special issue to himself may at first blush seem surprising, although perhaps not so once the guesser reflected on the amount already in print on the subject of ‘The Don”. But Stan McCabe? ‘Napper’ is by a country mile the most overlooked all time great our game has seen and Hill showed his credentials as a cricket lover by devoting much of issue nine of volume three to him.

Cricket Lore’s journey ended with issue seven of volume five. There is no mention of it being the last issue, but the announcement of the magazine’s printer going out of business, and the content being extended by ten pages were perhaps clues, as was the unusual departure for the centrefold of including, in the style of old fashioned cigarette cards, portraits of 26 past and present contributors. In addition the title of the editorial was Well Left? Perhaps there was a subliminal message there, although the piece actually dealt with the then current issue of television coverage leaving terrestrial broadcasters, and the column regarding the printer’s demise expressly envisaged a replacement being found.

Perhaps Hill initially intended only to mothball Cricket Lore, but if so the time to continue it never came and, as a result, a full set of the magazine does not quite fill the fifth binder, something which is a little sad. In truth it seems likely that at the end of the day there were simply not enough subscribers to make the magazine viable. No one seems to have any knowledge of the actual level of sales, but it seems likely that it was not remotely close to the 5,000 limitation Hill bravely announced in the first nine issues. Given also that relatively few magazines come up on the second hand market, and those individual copies that do are almost never from volume five, and it seems likely that an already limited circulation was dropping at the end.

Despite its travails however Cricket Lore was and is an excellent read, and with something approaching 50,000 words in each issue it is well worth investing in. Full sets do appear on the market from time to time and the good news is that, certainly at this stage, the cost of acquiring one is certainly not prohibitive and I would suggest that £100, or a little more if housed in the very attractive official Cricket Lore binders, is about the ‘going rate’. 

*First Knock: Cricket’s Opening Pairs was the first stand alone publication from Cricket Lore. Written by Midwinter it was, as the title suggests, a look at opening partnerships and comprised 71 pages of A4 paper and was in keeping with the usual high production standards of the parent magazine.

The next two titles to appear were Darling Old Oval from Eric Midwinter and Peter Mahoney’s Mary-Ann’s Australians, both of which appeared in 1995. The former was an octavo sized paperback and looked at the history of Surrey’s ground. Mahoney’s book was the first account of the 1909 Ashes series and whilst also a paperback this one was A4 sized.

Published in 2001 James Aylward: The Untold Story by Roy Clarke goes all the way back to 1833 and the question of the authorship of John Nyren’s famous The Cricketers of my Times. The book appeared in a limited edition of 500, 167 of which were individually numbered and signed by Clarke to commemorate a famous innings that Aylward played in 1777.

That same year of 2001 saw Cricket Lore publish a book from Sandiford to mark the 65th birthday of his great friend, ‘The Lion of Cricket’. At the Crease with Gary Sobers: His Partnerships in Test Cricket appeared in a limited edition of 365 copies, the first 160 of which were numbered and signed by Sandiford and Sobers.

In 2002 financial journalist Michael Baws wrote Triple Glory: The Chronological History of the Triple Century 1876 – 2000 and Cricket Lore published it in a hard backed limited edition of 501 copies.

And Hill saved the best till last, Gubby Allen – Bad Boy of Bodyline by Brian Rendell cast new light on the famous 1932/33 series from the angle of an examination of Allen’s letters home during the series. I am pretty sure that the book was the last thing to emerge from Cricket Lore, which would make it 2005, but the publication date is not expressly stated nor, beyond the fact that the attractive hardback is a limited edition, is it stated how many copies there are.

There are three more to mention. The first is a collection of Midwinter articles gathered together as From Meadowland to Multinational – A Review of Cricket’s Social History. Next I will mention Cricket Lore’s only dud, a series of reprints of James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annuals (the ‘Red Lilly’). Quite simply they weren’t at all pleasant. And finally, it is back to Midwinter again for Cricket Lore – The Guide. Published in 2014 by Third Age Press it isn’t, by dint of that, a Cricket Lore publication at all, but is well worth investing in for two kinds of collector; on the one hand those who are contemplating acquiring a set of the magazine but would like to know more, and secondly those who already have a set and want to find it easier to locate specific features.

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Vintcent Van Der Bijl

Voltelin Van der Bijl played for Western Province in their second ever First Class match, in December of 1890, and in total played in seven First Class matches over 14 years. His brother Vintcent, a year younger, played with him twice. It is difficult at this distance in time to discern very much about the brothers, other than that both seem to have been all-rounders and serviceable cricketers. Luckin’s History of South African Cricket contains a photograph of V Van der Byl (sic), but it is not clear whether the image of a man dressed in hunting attire is Voltenin or Vintcent, and it also makes reference to another Van der Byl being involved in the game in the 1860s. It would appear therefore that the family were established in South Africa well before the brothers were born, so Vintcent being educated in England, at Wellington College, would suggest the family must have been reasonably well off. That indication is perhaps reinforced by the fact that Voltelin, invited to tour England in 1894, had to turn the offer down due to the demands of his business.

Vintcent’s son, Pieter, made a First Class debut at the age of 18 in 1925. Also a Western Province player Pieter made a number of appearances over the following three seasons as a wicketkeeper. His batting was modest, only an unbeaten 60 against Eastern Province taking his average as high as 15. He used his time to gain a degree at the University of Cape Town and by 1929 was in England. He spent two years, 1931 and 1932, at Brasenose College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. A very tall man who was not at all quick on his feet in his first year he appeared for the University just once, scoring 16* and 0 against Yorkshire and, despite being a man with an essentially placid disposition, his greater sporting success was found in the boxing ring.

Against that background it is perhaps surprising that the following summer found Pieter a regular in the Oxford side. He was third in the batting averages with 540 runs at 45.00. There were five half centuries and a best of 97* against Essex. Wisden summed Pieter up by reporting that he seemed to play an unnecessarily laboured game for a man of such fine physique. Patient with a very strong defence, he usually took a long time to settle down and seldom allowed himself the luxury of an attempt to force the game. His best known innings is one of just seven, in the Varsity match at Lord’s. Cambridge’s young fast bowler Ken Farnes peppered Pieter with plenty of short pitched bowling which, too slow to get out of the way of, he courageously allowed to repeatedly hit him about the body.

After leaving Oxford Pieter went back to South Africa to teach and eventually, at the age of 29 in December 1936, he recorded a First Class century. It was a big one too, 195, but against a pretty ordinary Griqualand West side. The innings gave him confidence however and he enjoyed a good season in 1937/38. It was only the second time he had played as many as six matches in a South African season but he averaged more than 60. The next summer the MCC were due for a five Test series and the South Africans, who had won in England in 1935, were keen to do well.

The home captain was Alan Melville and the South Africans had a problem with opening batsmen. Melville had skippered Oxford University in 1932 and remembered Pieter’s bravery against the pace of Farnes, and he made sure he was in the side. Pieter showed all the courage he was known for and blunted the threat of Farnes. He played through the entire series and averaged 51.11. In the notorious timeless Test he was in his element, scoring 125 in more than seven hours in the first innings, and in the second being within three of becoming the first South African to record twin centuries in a Test when he was caught at short leg by Eddie Paynter from the bowling of Doug Wright. Two deliveries before that he had tamely patted a full toss back to the bowler.

When War broke out later in 1939 Pieter soon enlisted with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Rifles. He saw active service North Africa on a front that waxed and waned in the early years of the war. In 1942, then a Lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross. His best known act of gallantry arose from a rescue mission. Pieter spotted, after a confrontation in which the Allies had been thoroughly defeated, a number of casualties lying on the battlefield. Despite their vehicle thereby being an easy target Pieter and his driver went out and gathered in the wounded before, despite shells exploding all around them, managing to return to safety. The Military Cross had been awarded a little earlier in the campaign and arose out of Pieter, accompanied by the same driver but, this time without a vehicle, volunteering to go behind enemy lines to capture a prisoner for interrogation. Needless to say the mission was successful.

By the end of 1943 Pieter had risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was leading his men into Italy. Unfortunately there his war ended when he was injured in an accident that meant he was invalided back to South Africa. His injuries meant he never played cricket again, but he went back to teaching and, with the wife he met during the war, had three children of his own. A fierce opponent of apartheid it is worth noting that in the 1950s he joined a number of marches protesting at the actions of the Nationalist government, and specifically their removing the right to vote from the non- white population.

Pieter died peacefully at home from a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 65. He had lived long enough to watch his son, another Vintcent, rise to the top of the domestic game in South Africa and, although the opportunity never came for the tour to take place, gain selection for the South African party that was due to visit Australia in 1971/72. To this day with, perhaps, a little competition from Australian Cec Pepper and the Philadelphian Bart King, Vintcent Van der Bijl remains the finest cricketer never to have played a Test match.

As with any white child of professional parents in South Africa Vintcent had a privileged upbringing, which included every opportunity to play sport. A big man like his father (he ended up at around 6’ 7’’ in height with size 14 feet) as a youngster he was keen rather than showing any great talent. On the Rugby field his size meant he was a popular choice as a lock forward, and he had a formidable reputation as a place kicker. He was also a talented athlete and showed considerable ability at putting the shot and throwing the discus. Despite all that cricket was his first love, but following in his father’s footsteps as a batsman he gave no indication that he would ever aspire beyond club cricket.

It was around the age of 15 that Vintcent finally began to take his bowling seriously. His height and the lift that enabled him to generate immediately made an impact and whilst he didn’t, to start with, run through sides his promise was obvious and progress was swift. He had much assistance from many coaches but in particular, once he got to University, from former Springbok skipper Trevor Goddard.

Aged 20 when he made his Currie Cup debut in 1968 Vintcent had the unpleasant experience of being reported to the South African Cricket Board for ‘irregular tactics’ during the match, in other words cheating. What happened was that Vintcent had taken some lip ice onto the field with him after lunch having been advised by his skipper, Barry Versveld, of its usefulness in returning shine to the ball. Versveld assumed, quite wrongly as things turned out, that Vintcent was aware that use of the ice was illegal. He wasn’t, and shortly afterwards proceeded to produce the lip ice from his pocket and start polishing the ball. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on your point of view, Vintcent did this whilst standing next to the horrified umpire and so his only real punishment was embarrassment.

As a bowler Vintcent was unusual for a paceman in that he did not rely at all on any sort of intimidation and indeed was a friendly figure on the field. He lumbered in over around fifteen yards from the direction of mid off and seldom bowled short. He was a genuine fast medium, but no more, although his height meant he hit the pitch very hard and extracted whatever bounce and movement there was. Metronomic accuracy also had the effect of frustrating batsmen who found him very difficult to score from.

Between 1968 and 1972 Vintcent was at Natal University in Pietermaritzburg, and after he graduated he went straight into teaching at Maritzburg College. He had the time off he needed to play in the limited number of Currie Cup matches that were played in those days and was largely content with that. He carried on his record breaking ways and by the end of the 1979-80 season he held most of the more important South African domestic records. He was the leading wicket taker in Currie Cup history (420), and for Natal (458). No one had taken more than his best (65) wicket haul in a season. He had also turned himself into a sound fielder, and whilst he never quite managed to bat with sufficient consistency to be considered an all-rounder he developed into a very dangerous hitter in the lower order with seven First Class half centuries to his name.

There were plenty of top quality South African cricketers plying their trade in the English game in the 1970s and whilst county supporters, save those who dug around the closing pages of the ‘Overseas Cricket’ section of Wisden, had no cause to have heard of Vintcent his was a name that was mentioned to county headhunters from time to time. Occasionally enquiries were made, but none that ever tempted Vintcent, and he certainly seems not to have had an offer from Kerry Packer to join World Series Cricket.

By 1979 however Vintcent had become restless and despite still enjoying his teaching job decided that he wanted some financial security for his family, so he decided to take a job with the multinational paper company, Wiggins Teape. At the same time Middlesex were looking forward with some trepidation to a summer without their talismanic overseas fast bowler, Wayne Daniel, who they confidently expected to be party of the 1980 West Indies tour. Committeeman and former England wicketkeeper John Murray was tasked with the job of making an offer to Vintcent.

Initially Vintcent was reluctant, feeling he needed to commit himself to Wiggins Teape rather than join the company and then take five months off. Middlesex were nothing if not resourceful however and, the company’s managing director being a Middlesex man through and through, he was persuaded to agree an arrangement that enabled Vintcent to play a full season for the county and spend some of his down time at Wiggins Teape’s UK base in Basingstoke, and the deal was done.

It has always been known that Middlesex skipper Mike Brearley was deeply unhappy about the signing, something he only heard about as a fait accompli whilst leading England in Australia. In large part that was undoubtedly due to his irritation at not being consulted at all, but the low profile that Vintcent had despite his outstanding record did not assist. Add in the fact that Vintcent was, at 32, approaching the veteran stage for a pace bowler together with Brearley’s long standing objection to apartheid and the problem becomes an entirely predictable one.

Meeting Vintcent would doubtless have given Brearley some reassurance on the latter point, the genial giant’s views on that subject rather mirroring those of his father. Brearley would however have been concerned about his new overseas player’s form, as in three pre-season club matches Vintcent took just a single wicket. Not totally familiar with English conditions Vintcent had visited England on just one previous occasion when he had toured with a strong Wilfred Isaac’s XI, although no First Class matches were played. As a result of these disappointments Vintcent decided to take to the nets with county coach Don Bennett, and spent several days regaining his fitness and, with Bennett’s help, his outswinger.

In 1979 Middlesex had finished fourteenth in the Championship. Twelve months later the famous pennant was fluttering over Lord’s, and the county had also won the premier List A tournament, the 60 overs a side Nat West Bank Trophy. In the other two competitions they had finished third in the 40 over John Player League and were losing semi finalists in the 55 overs a side Benson and Hedges Cup. At the end of the season Brearley, by now both a friend and an admirer of Vintcent, described him as the biggest single factor in our success.

In the First Class game Vintcent took 85 wickets at 14.72 to finish second in the First Class averages. The only man in front of him was Richard Hadlee, whose season was restricted to seven matches by injury. There was plenty of competition in that Middlesex side for the wickets as well, spin twins John Emburey and Phil Edmonds both enjoying productive seasons and, much to their delight, the county also had Daniel available, the West Indians having decided they could do without him. None of them however took as many wickets as Vintcent nor at as low a cost.

By modern standards Vintcent’s performances in the List A season are just as impressive if not more so. He took only 25 wickets in 26 matches, but his economy rate was a mere 2.79. By way of example in the Gillette Cup final victory over local rivals Surrey his spell of 12-0-32-1 was one of the decisive contributions. With the bat there were also useful knocks, in particular in a Championship fixture at Lord’s against Nottinghamshire. The match followed Middlesex’ only real wobble all season after they had lost two consecutive matches. Asked to bat on a damp pitch they slumped to 86-6 before Vintcent joined Graham Barlow. To start with the big pace bowler presented an atypical dead bat to the bowling, but once the partnership became established he hit the ball hard and straight and ended up on 76 before getting out unselfishly in trying to get the score to 300 within 100 overs in order to get an extra bonus point. Twelve wickets for Emburey then brought an innings victory – Vintcent never did get a First Class century.

Having a full summer in England meant that when he got home to South Africa for his own domestic season Vintcent was already fit and raring to go and he had an extraordinary summer as he took 54 wickets at just 9.50. Much effort was put in by many to try and persuade Vintcent to return to Middlesex for a second summer in 1982, but although he was tempted he decided to stick to his original promises to Wiggins Teape. There was therefore just one valedictory appearance in the traditional season’s curtain raiser at Lord’s between the Champions and the MCC. On a personal level the match was not a great success for Vintcent, but he greatly enjoyed the farewell.

On his own admission success in England had rather gone to Vintcent’s head and he had developed a degree of arrogance and unpleasantness he had never shown before his time in England. The issue came to a head in the List A final for the Datsun Shield in early 1982. Playing for Natal against Western Province at one point in the Western Province innings, as Vintcent turned to return to his mark, he saw the non-striker Allan Lamb out of his ground and threw down the stumps and appealed. The ball was not technically dead, and Lamb had to go. In the end it mattered little as Western Province ran out winners by two runs, but not before they themselves had perpetrated a not dissimilar run out on Natal. It is clear from the post match photographs that the players on both sides were less than happy at the way the match had been played. In fairness to Vintcent it should perhaps be pointed out that in the autobiography he published in 1984 he accepted his run out of Lamb had been wrong.

Vintcent’s final season of First Class cricket was in 1982/83. He was 35 at the end, but he helped Traansvaal to win the Currie Cup that season and with 52 wickets at 18.76 was the pick of their bowlers. Perhaps with his advancing years he was beginning to struggle with the limited overs game? Certainly not is the answer to that one,  30 wickets at 15.53 and economy rate of 2.92 providing further evidence that he could surely, had he so wished, have played on for a few more summers despite his fondness for the tobacco products manufactured by Alfred Dunhill Limited.

As he aged Vintcent did eventually come back to cricket and took up administrative roles with South Africa and then, in 2008 being appointed as the ICC’s umpires’ and referees manager. His most recent employment, and surely his most challenging, has been as a consultant to Zimbabwe Cricket

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‘Googly’ of The Daily Express

The name Pollock is a famous one in cricket, courtesy primarily of three members of a well known South African family. But there is also an English Pollock who has contributed to the folklore of the game, albeit not a player but a writer, William Pollock. There are no classic volumes of cricket literature that bear Pollock’s name, and indeed he authored only three cricket books, but his story is still an interesting one.

Pollock was born in Eastbourne in 1881. His was a large family as he was the eldest of seven children, but his father was a doctor so no doubt the Pollocks enjoyed a good lifestyle. Someone must have stimulated young William’s interest in cricket, but it is not entirely clear who. We do know that his love of the game was fuelled by the week each summer that he spent at his godmother’s home in Hastings that coincided with the cricket festival there, but nothing I have read suggests that either that lady or Pollock’s parents had any interest in cricket.

Was Pollock a cricketer of any note? He tells a story of once having bowled the mighty Sammy Woods in the nets at Hastings, but as a schoolboy at the time it seems likely that Woods was simply encouraging a youngster whose ambition that afternoon had not initially stretched beyond fielding out the booming straight drives that escaped the net. When he moved to London as a young adult Pollock was a member of Hampstead Cricket Club, but he tells no stories of his cricketing prowess, and observes that at the time the club had as many as 150 playing members.

I have not been able to find out where Pollock was educated, but he seems to have gone straight into journalism after leaving school, his first job being with the Daily Mirror, perhaps at the very beginning of that title’s life in 1903, at which time it was aimed at a female audience. No doubt because of his father’s occupation Pollock was initially charged with finding medical stories.

From medical matters Pollock moved on to the theatre, and it was as a writer and critic on that subject that he made his name before, for the duration of the Great War, serving with the Royal Navy. Back in Fleet Street after the war to end all wars he was to become a cricket writer, although I am not entirely sure at what point or with whom. Certainly he was with the Daily Mail for a time, but as a cricket scribe it was with the Daily Express that he made his name, usually writing under the byline of ‘Googly’.

It was 1934 before Pollock’s work was seen in anything other than the ephemeral medium of newsprint. The Cream of Cricket is notable in particular for two things, those being firstly its splendid period dust jacket, and then the delightful dedication that graces the page before the book begins; To all the good cricketers who keep the game alive and all the bad ones without whom it would die.

The book is not a bulky one, perhaps 40,000 words and there are twenty chapters altogether. It is not a technical one, and there are no match reports or pen portraits of players. The style is informal and chatty and subjects range from childhood memories of the stars of the golden age to more contemporary themes although, in the main, Pollock looks backwards rather than forwards. Years later Irving Rosenwater, not always an easy man to please, expressed the view that Pollock wrote most entertainingly and without the smallest hint of uncharitableness.

One of the feature of Pollock’s writing is his occasional forays into verse, something he seems to have viewed as a kind of trademark, and he was particularly impressed when CB Fry inscribed a copy of his autobiography to Pollock referring to him as ‘The Poet’. There is however nothing highbrow about what amounted to an occasional piece of doggerel such as one referencing a man who Pollock greatly admired, as do many today, Douglas Jardine:-

The Woodfull and the Bradyman

Were hoping for a stand

They wept like anything to see

The ball in Larwood’s hand.

‘If only Jardine took him off’

(They said) ‘It would be grand’

In common with most of the regular English cricket correspondents Powell had not been in Australia in 1932/33 to follow the ‘Bodyline’ tour. The inevitable reaction to that was that a bevy of journalist followed the next England team down under in 1936/37. Powell was one of them. Others included Neville Cardus, Bruce Harris (who had been on the previous trip) and Fry.

Following his return from Australia Pollock’s second book was published, So This Is Australia. The book is a true tour account rather than simply a record of a series of Test matches. Those wanting to read about the series will generally, unsurprisingly, opt for Cardus’ Australian Summer but Pollock’s is also a decent read with a many and varied selection of digressions from the purely cricketing business of a series which England led 2-0 before Australia won the remaining three matches in order to retain the Ashes.

Prior to his trip to Australia Pollock seems never to have met Donald Bradman. When the pair were first introduced Pollock found the Australian captain and master batsman defensive, and explained that for a while they fenced with each other before, by the end of the trip, being on good speaking terms.

Between the wars sports journalists earned good money. I don’t know what Pollock’s deal with the Daily Express was, but he was the paper’s cricket correspondent and therefore surely only one step down from the Chief Sportswriter, Trevor Wignall. According to Pollock Wignall was paid more than one hundred pounds a week in the 1930s, the equivalent now of around £300,000 a year.

In the late 1930s there were very few cricketing autobiographies around and, Jack Hobbs and WG Grace apart, no cricketer had published one before the end of his playing career. That a cricketer should write such a book less than three years after his debut would be a bit of a stretch today, but in the inter war years it must have seemed absurd. But Bradman spent most of his life being the exception that proved the rule, and the autobiography race was no different.

Don Bradman’s Book appeared in 1930 after that remarkable English summer in which Bradman scored 974 runs in seven Test innings. It is true that there was some technical advice as well, but in addition Bradman also wrote the story of his life to that date and, largely, refused to allow any editing of the text he provided.

Did Pollock have a further autobiography in mind all along? I would be surprised if not, but in any event so well did Pollock and Bradman eventually get on that towards the end of the series Pollock was invited to Bradman’s home and left with a gentleman’s agreement that Pollock had two months in which to put together a book contract.

In the event Pollock had no trouble in putting a deal together. The News of the World wanted to serialise the story and Stanley Paul to publish the book. The newspaper agreed to pay Pollock £1,000 to write the book, presumably plus expenses. Today’s equivalent would be around £70,000. Bradman, naturally, negotiated his own price and all that Pollock would say on that subject was that it was a lot more than I got, and quite rightly too. Part of the reason for that comment was, no doubt, because when Pollock arrived in Australia in the 1937/38 summer he was greeted by a Bradman who had already written a large part of the book. My Cricketing Life was published in July 1938, part way through that summer’s Ashes series.

In 1938/39 Pollock spent a third English winter in the southern hemisphere when he accompanied Walter Hammond’s England side to South Africa. In recent years two books have emerged on that series, which culminated in the infamous ‘timeless test’ that had to be left drawn after nine days play in order to facilitate the English team being able to rendezvous with the ship due to take them home. Before 1997 however there was nothing on the last cricket tour of the inter war period other than Pollock’s final book, Talking of Cricket which, published in 1941, contained amongst its nineteen chapters one entitled Nine Days’ Wonder. It was, by a distance, the longest of the nineteen and for once Pollock’s writing was a straightforward report of a game of cricket, and a very good one as well.

As for the eighteen briefer chapters in Talking About Cricket the clue is in the title. Conversational in nature there are many anecdotes from Pollock alongside his impressions of the game over a lifetime of watching the all time greats. There are also a few autobiographical snippets, although those are always incidental to the main thrust of the essays in which they appear.

Despite being 57 when the Second World War broke out Pollock still joined up, this time being a Squadron Leader in the RAF Reserve whose role was in public relations at the Air Ministry. Sadly he did not live to see peace return, and died at home in Worthing in October 1944. The only obituary I have found that gives any insight into his personality appeared in The Stage, and described Pollock as though outwardly grave, he was a warm hearted companion, rich in humour and humanity, and a loyal friend. Cricket was not merely a game with him but a faith, as readers of his charming book Talking About Cricket will know before adding, perhaps not surprisingly given that The Stage was the weekly journal of the entertainment industry; his theatrical work was more professional, but he was a sound and kindly critic.

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