THE BEGINNING (written by Ron Stevens)
At the Congregational Church in Bramshot Avenue, Charlton, South East London the Grenfell House Youth Club, led by Rev. Samuel W. Smith, met on Saturday Evenings in the Church Hall. Among its members were my old school friends Les Walden, Ted Smith and Cyril Page; others were Fred and Wally Baisden, John Dixon, Ron and Ken Johnson, Reg Webb, Gordon and Malcolm Williams. Table Tennis was the main sport with both internal tournaments as well as inter-club matches but in the summer cricket was played in the Churches Youth Club League, which as best I recall involved twelve weekly matches through May, June and July. The Club was closed throughout August for holidays. This is not to be confused with school holidays, as fourteen-year-olds the youth club members would all have been working men, but with the various shutdowns of the region’s big employers, such as Johnson & Phillips, Siemans and Harveys.
If you wonder why there was no football tournament it is because all of the big employers provided sports facilities for their staff of which football was the most popular and usually included an apprentices XI. There was no need for junior football as we know it today where it is in the hands of private clubs.
Church League matches were played on a Sunday afternoon after Sunday morning church parade. We prepared for these by practising most summer Saturday afternoons at St. Germans Place, Blackheath – batting and bowling among ourselves and sometimes combining with other groups of lads doing the same. Archrivals of Grenfell House Youth Club at this time were Invicta Road Youth Club led by Les Pearce and whose members included Dick and Ernie Heath, “Micky” Shopland and George Wall. However Tom Chipperfield of Fairthorne Cricket Club (drawing its name from Fairthorne Road) would often take his two sons Ken and Ray along with Len Scoley, “Fitz” Fitgerald and Ron “Windmill” Hunt to St Germans Place for a practice. I got to know them because “Fitz” and “Windmill” had played with me in the school team of Charlton Central School.
As Fairthorne was already an established team Grenfell House and Invicta Road would often combine to provide a full eleven in opposition to them in practise matches. Here in embryo is our Club awaiting only evolution and a little organisation.
Apart from the youth matches, the members also played an annual match against the men of the church during the shutdown month of August. In the first two summers it would fair to say they were more of a mismatch with resounding victories for the men. However in 1937 the result was a lot closer; confidence saw us take on Fairthorne in a senior match and Ted Smith arranged for his work colleague at Johnson and Phillips, Bill Ash, to give us a third match against J & P hopefuls (i.e those that could not break full-time into either of J & P’s two elevens).
As time passed with the youth clubs, neighbourhood friends, older relatives and unused hopefuls in the local firms elevens there was now an ample pool of possible players and members. I drafted a few simple rules and invited Les Pearce and his group to a meeting at my home, 89 Troughton Road, Charlton when Grenfell Cricket Club was formally constituted. I think the annual subscription was £1. Among those in attendance were Les Pearce, Micky Shopland, Ted Smith, Wally Baisden, Bill Ash and Reg Webb.
So in 1938, we paid 2/- (10p) for a pitch on Blackheath Common or 2/6 (12.5p) for Charlton Park. I had from Monday morning when the Parks Department confirmed a permit to find an opponent and raise our own team. Among our first opponents – Fairthorne; also Falconwood from whom we recruited Len Ritchie, a work colleague of Reg Webb at Siemans Electrics, and who in turn would introduce his next door neighbour, Harold Tozer – who also happened to be an old school friend of mine. Ted Smith at Johnson & Phillips had already introduced Bill Ash. Bill was a bit older (at twenty-three) than most of us but still too youthful to command a regular place in J & P’s teams. Les Walden introduced his older cousin, Doug. Both Harold and Bill were subsequently to introduce many more members and to play most important roles in the growth and development of Grenfell C.C.
No playing record has survived that first season but certain facts emerged for that 1938 season of occasional matches; Len Ritchie aggregated 29 wickets and scored 54 against Metrogas. Doug “Wick” Walden scored a fifty in a one day match at Sutcliffe Park.
The Youth Club’s enthusiasm for table tennis led to evening matches at the schools against C.D. and A.F.S. crews (who up to then had nothing to do) and against other Youth clubs at church halls. At St. Swithin’s, Hither Green, it was suggested that an adult cricket league be formed alongside the youth (under eighteen) league – and we agreed and joined, finishing runners-up to St. Swithins in its first (and only) season – 1939.
For that year, to my relief, we had been able to pay a registration fee to the L.C.C. (now G.L.C.) as a regular Club and received our pre-season allocation of permits; had arranged and printed our first full fixture list – Saturday league matches and Sunday friendlies. Scores were fully documented in our first full season.
Then the war started and where most of us were nineteen and would not expect call-up until twenty years of age it meant – one year to go.
Well, Doug Walden our wicket-keeper (aged twenty-one), was one of the pre-trained twenty year olds and was called up almost at once. Bill Ash, at twenty-four, was the second to go. The Johnson & Phillips team was generally older and were called up almost en masse; three or four were left and joined us – I remember Tubby Mead, Arthur Hewson and Morry Bass. We played a full 1940 season with a pretty useful team.
As a defence against air-borne landings – open fields, heaths and commons and sports grounds were slashed with trenches or scattered with large cable drums. Games were often interrupted by air raid warnings and we were obliged to take refuge in the ditches or elsewhere before resuming.
But we gradually got sent for and no fixtures were possible for 1941…42…43…44.
In looking back to the origins of our Club we are looking at life and times as they were in the nineteen-thirties.
I lived in Troughton Road, Charlton. It has houses on one side only; on the other is the railway. Nowadays the land between the passenger platform and the road is mostly derelict and overgrown but fifty years ago there were goods yards (e.g. coal, timber, steel), fenced-off to prevent theft. The coal merchant was particularly popular and in the winter nights it was common to see neighbours trying to work a shovelful out under the fencing. At the Church Lane end was the path to the passenger railway station. Everybody rented from from private landlords, mostly the houses were owned by the Church or Friendly or Benefit Societies. Ours belonged to the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society. All the families had been there for many, many years indebted to the steady employment offered by Johnson & Phillips, Siemans and Harveys. It was with these companies that many of my generation found work where they often worked alongside their fathers.
The world was in recession following the American economic depression, evidenced by their Stock Exchange (Wall Street) “crash” of 1929. So the country had huge unemployment and you’ve heard of the shipworkers marching to protest in London from Jarrow-on-Tyne.
You had a very good job at around £5 a week – say a manager, foreman or skilled tradesman. I started, in common with other fourteen year olds, at 7/6d (37p) per week. Apprenticeships generally took seven years. I suppose the average breadwinner, a clerk or working man, earned £3 to £3.50 per week. I recall, but perhaps not reliably, our rent at that time was around 15 shillings (75p) per week.
Henry Ford was starting to mass produce motor cars but only the really well-off could afford one. We rarely saw one in Charlton.
The streets were traffic free.
The streets were playgrounds.
While at play, any of us could be summoned by the nearest housewife at her front gate and sent to the shops on an errand – carried out with great despatch so as to return to our game.
The milkman, baker, coalman, rag-and-bone man, dustman were all horse drawn; Walls’ ice cream was served from boxed tricycles (slogan, “Stop me and buy one”). The muffin man carried a big wooden tray on his head and rang a handbell. Shrimps and Winkles pushed a hand cart and shouted “All fresh from Gravesend”. All we were urged to do was keep off the main road (Woolwich Road) away from the buses, trams and lorries. Generally these were drawn by teams of horses (rather than one horse) and unlike today’s cars had no braking capacity or stopping distance. Brakes were applied only when vehicles finally came to rest. Surviving being run-over (or trampled on to give a better description) was highly unlikely. For this reason cars were considered safer; the fastest only went at 20 mph (but that would be on open country roads); in London they mostly they drove amongst horse drawn traffic at about 6mph. At that speed, if you were knocked over, it could stop quick enough for you to either, roll out of the way or get straight up and run out of the way – or it passed harmlessly over you!!
In the thirties, the cricket world was in turmoil over the “body-line” tour of Australia in 1932. Before and after, Don Bradman reigned supreme. The County Championship was dominated by Yorkshire who won it every year from 1931 to 1939 except 1934 (Lancashire) and 1936 (Derbyshire).
In football, Arsenal, under Herbert Chapman , who introduced the “stopper” centre-half, were the leading club. This had its reverberations in Charlton and Woolwich as many of our parents were Arsenal supporters from the days of Arsenal as a South East London team. The move North of the River Thames was an acrimonious one; many supporters felt that the move was unsustainable, that Arsenal would always, at heart, be a South London team and it would not be long before they returned to their native roots. These days fans might choose to follow their team in such a move but in the nineteen-thirties that was not possible. Most football crowds were made up from workers finishing work at 1pm and making their way to the football for a 2pm kick-off.
For us, however, living on their doorstep, the greatest excitement was Charlton’s “straight through” from third division to first. Look in your London A-Z atlas and see just how close is Troughton Road to the Valley.
Radio was a new thing. In our gas-lit houses the “wireless” was powered by a dry battery (lasting about a month) and an accumulator requiring recharging weekly or more. Sports commentators were a new breed who described football matches – Cup Finals, Internationals and so on – using a background assistant announcing the particular number of the eight imaginary squares into which the pitch was notionally divided to position the flow of play for the listener.
Being “on the phone” was a rare and definite status symbol, and so was a hoover, as gas was the predominant power although gradually being replaced by “the electric”. Records were played on a hand wound portable gramophone; either 12 inch or 10 inch diameter and made of black shellac records were played at 33r.p.m.
Two of the commonly held opinions of the time- interesting now to recall: One – that continental footballers may all be very clever but they could not shoot. Two – that mass produced articles (to throw away and replace) were all very well for America but we would always prefer things more solidly made – built to last.
In recent times there has been a bemoaning of the loss of “British” industry but in actual fact the then fledgling motor industry was created by the American Ford Motor Co and other big employers were all American; Heinz, Singer, Kraft, Siemans and Woolworths.
Towards the end of the thirties we read in our newspapers and heard on the wireless of events in Spain, Italy and Germany; civil war; air-raids; dictators; anti-semitism; and other nasty and ominous happenings. In 1938, with Czechoslovakia under invasion threat by Germany, we were caught up in war preparations.
Evening institute classes were suspended. The schools were given over to Civil Defence and Auxiliary Fire Service posts and we went and filled sandbags; we went to Charlton’s ground for physical training: some joined the Territorial Army – the then official civil part time reserve army. There was a Government Order that reaching age twenty all men were “called-up” for a period of military training, thus rendering them the first to be mobilised should war actually break out. Subsequently this same age point was kept as the “call-up” age for conscription into the Forces when war was declared in 1939.
The thirties ended: from “bodyline” in 1932 to real war in 1939 and a last look back to the Oval where in the final Test Match for many, many years Len Hutton scored a record 364 in the “timeless” Australian Test. England 903-7 dec. Australia 201 and 123.
THE PRE WAR YEARS (written by Harold Tozer)
In the summer of 1938 my neighbour Len Ritchie told me that he had joined a cricket club run by one of my old school friends, Ron Stevens. We had been good friends at school but I had not seen much of Ron since we had left at age fourteen and gone our separate ways into work. Ron had been our best cricketer and one of the best footballers in our school teams.
I happily accepted an invitation from Len to come and play for the newly formed Grenfell C.C.. It also renewed my acquaintance with another old school pal, Ted Smith. Ted had kept wicket at school and was also a useful bat but probably was a better known as a footballer than a cricketer.
Having played under-eighteen matches in the early season as Grenfell House Youth Club, we played some eight matches as Grenfell C.C. where the side was strengthened by some older players, among them Len Ritchie. Others included Doug Walden, the first in a line of quality wicket-keepers which has since become a feature of Grenfell, Bill Ash and Ron’s older brother Alf. Alf was a steady left handed batsman who had struggled to make an impression in the cricket teams at Harveys Sports Club but at age twenty-six brought a welcome touch of maturity to a youthful side as well as variety, often opening the batting.
Although full records were kept at the time, what has survived is only a partial record. We know that Ron Stevens topped the batting averages with 137 runs at 17.12, Alf made 72 at an average of 12 with a top score of 27* against Metrogas in partnership with Len Ritchie who made the first fifty (54) for the club. Doug Walden scored the second fifty (51) for the Club a week later and both Len (104) and Doug (102) both made over one hundred runs in all matches. I made 93 at an average of 15.50 and took 15 wickets (7.66). Len was the top bowler with 29 wickets for 180 runs and George Wall and Les Pearce took 11 and 9 wickets respectively.
George Wall was an exceptional sportsman. As a cricketer he was a hard hitting batsman and an aggressive fast –medium bowler but he also excelled in athletics, principally as a sprinter, was an amateur boxer and played good class football. Tragically he was the first of our players to be killed in action. A sapper in the Royal Engineers he had not long celebrated his twenty-second birthday when his motor-cycle hit a mine circa September 1942 and he was killed instantly.
In 1939 we were skippered by Wally Baisden a good right handed batsman who had got a lot of runs for the youth club but, like Ron Stevens, whilst providing solid top order runs did not make any individual big scores. Wally enjoyed an amusing rivalry with his younger brother Fred who was a good left arm fast bowler. The side was strengthened by two new “older” players, Doug Gibbs and Will Wallace who were talented cricketers. They were also the first married players; Will was introduced by his brother-in-law Les Walden (having married Les’s sister Phyllis). Although he did not join until the end of the summer it was enough to show the first signs of the class that made him such a valuable player in 1940 (until his call-up). Doug was a very good batsman and more than useful bowler.
Sadly Will, who had transferred from the Royal Artillery to the R.A.F.to become a Flight Sergeant, was killed in a bombing raid over Germany sometime in 1943. By then he and Phyllis had had one daughter.
The 1939 season was a success; Saturday matches were played in the Lewisham Churches League where Grenfell finished runners-up and all-in-all twenty-one matches were won. Len Ritchie was an immense presence with most runs (278) and most wickets (85). George Wall and Fred Baisden mostly shared the new ball with Len leaving Les (Pearce) and I to operate at first or second change. Les had an excellent habit of cleaning up when few wickets were left. For someone who was destined to fail his military medical he was also an outstanding fielder as was his close friend Micky Shopland. Over the years the club has recruited many players for whom cricket was not their first sport; Micky was among them; a great footballer Micky would always be cajoled by Les into helping out whenever we were short – but he never played without enthusiasm. Doug Walden excelled as wicket-keeper/ batsman before being the first to be called up.
Although we all anticipated call-up in 1940 a full fixture was organised. Difficulties were to emerge at the start of the season though as many sporting facilities were denied by the installation of anti aircraft defences. Some were concrete blocks but where cable drums were used we could sometimes roll them away and play.
Les Pearce was elected captain as Wally Baisden got his call-up just before the season started (being almost a year older than Ron Stevens (who managed almost the whole season)). Will Wallace was called up halfway through as was George Wall, Ted Smith, Ron Johnson and Gordon Williams. Len Ritchie and Bill Ash were already in uniform but both were able to play some games during their leave while Doug Gibbs and Doug Walden were only able to come back for a couple of matches. However Johnson & Phillips had lost nearly all their players to call-up and we were luckily reinforced by the handful remaining who were directed to us by Bill Ash. It actually made us a good side and only seven games were lost all year.
Harold “Spud” Hayter proved a useful recruit. Genuinely quick he led the attack in Len’s absence and took 66 wickets. It was to be his only season as a year or so later he was posted “missing in action” and sadly we were never to hear any more of him.
In 1940 the standard of cricket was consistently higher than it had been in the Churches League. The performance of Ron Stevens was therefore of great significance. He scored over three hundred runs (326) and achieved the highest individual score for the Club of 74 not out. Len Ritchie again made a substantial all round contribution; second in the batting and top of the bowling (with 41 wickets in just ten innings). Maurice Bass, on loan from J & P, was a class bowler who chipped in with 23 wickets while Les Pearce, ever dangerous, took 24 although he was now developing a steadier approach.
After a short spell in the Home Guard I eventually got my papers and entered the RAF where I became a dog handler. For me, that meant I was stationed in UK for the duration. With the exception of Les Pearce who was in a reserved occupation at Redpath Brown making munitions we were all now in the services. For the first couple of summers the expectation was that war would soon be over and we would be back in action “next summer”; neither did it occur to any of us that we would not all be back.
The first shock was the news in June 1942 that Ron Stevens was “missing in action”, then we heard that George Wall had been killed before learning that “Spud” Hayter was also reported “missing in action”. Eventually it emerged that Ron who was captured at the fall of Tobruk had been shipped to and was a prisoner-of-war in Southern Italy. However by the summer of 1943 he had escaped and we were to hear nothing from him for over a year – during which time we expected the worst. 1943 became another summer lost and the year was darkened further by loss of Will Wallace in a bombing raid over Germany and then on the 23 October 1943 RAF Flight Sergeant Roy Hand was killed in a bombing raid on Essen. Young Roy was a year younger than the rest of us and cricketwise was still undeveloped. In 1939 he had played in the senior friendlies while still playing for the youth club on Sundays. He always turned up with his girlfriend, Wyn Jerome, to whom he was utterly devoted and they married as teenagers in 1940. There were no children and, as far as I know, to this day Wyn has never considered another man.
After a brave and harrowing experience Ron Stevens finally made it back to England. Excused from further overseas duty Ron was stationed from 1944 at Roehampton from where he joined Les’s list of Grenfell servicemen who would guest from time to time for Redpath Brown. Throughout Grenfell’s missing years Les had been working away at putting together a Redpath Brown XI against whatever opposition he could muster. In 1945, through his involvement with the local ATC cadets, Les was putting together the opposition sides as well – and which he played under the name Grenfell.
THE WAR and YEARS UP TO 1954 (written by Les Pearce)
Come the summer of 1941 the blitz was not over. Everywhere you looked was damaged. Bomb raids were still happening and Charlton, while not a target, was in the firing line. Too close for comfort to the Artillery HQ and Barracks, the Dockyards and the Arsenal.
We had come to regard Charlton Park as our home. Situated behind Charlton House and Gardens it offered a seclusion on three sides. It is estimated that six bombs fell on the pitch (but none in the park). Charlton House itself, which had been utilised as a hospital in WW1 was badly damaged although the basement was still used by the air wardens as their HQ and the summer house as an air raid shelter. For those of us not conscripted it was an equally perilous existence at home. A parachute mine had landed on my old school in Invicta Road, which at the time was being used as an Auxiliary Fire Service Station and killed about 20. Among them was John Dixon’s older brother, Harry and Rosie Johnson, only twenty-one years old, the wife of one the Johnsons, Bert. They had only been married a month. Fortunately, all of us residents of Invicta Road had been evacuated by then. I had been commandeered in a reserved occupation by the MOD to work at Redpath Brown, structural steel engineers. I can tell you now that we were responsible for building landing craft, although it was supposedly secret at the time. Anything armoured was probably built by us.
Our works were Thames side next to Norton’s Barges and a group of us from Redpaths together with a couple or so from Nortons would take on a group from Delta Metal in lunchtime football matches in their yards. Over the war years these matches got bigger and bigger – there was a lot of companies along this stretch of the Thames that were in exempt occupations and a lot of young men with energy to burn. Talk began of playing structured matches, football and cricket but the reality was that there was no facilities. All the parks and sports grounds or any stretch of land such as Blackheath Common had been barricaded against air attack by a spread of cable drums, courtesy of Johnson & Phillips mostly, concrete blocks and mutilated by trenches.
It sometimes felt that normal life would never return. If it did it would not be same for me. I found myself something of a focal point for news or get togethers for returning servicemen but some would never return and their loss was deeply felt. George Wall had been my friend from five years old and surely would have become one of our best ever cricketers. He was gifted at all sports and a great competitor. Forty years on from his death his cheery presence is still missed. Young Roy Hand so enthusiastic about playing and just as committed to helping out. Will Wallace married to a Walden, Phyllis was already an accomplished cricketer. He and Phyllis had an eighteen-month-old daughter, Sharon when he was killed. Neither Roy’s widow, Win, or Phyllis remarried. Spud Hayter was reported “missing in action” and never returned. Twice we were told Ron Stevens was missing in action. After the first occasion he was discovered as a prisoner of war and Harold Tozer would visit Ron’s mother and write him a letter sending him his chocolate and tobacco ration. Dear old Harold, we all told him it was a waste. In 1943 Ron went missing in action for a second time and we all thought the worst when we heard nothing for more for a year. Harold’s surprise is unimaginable when in 1944 Ron knocked on his door in McArthur Terrace asking Harold if he knew what had happened to his family. Ron didn’t know they had been evacuated, fortunately Harold had maintained contact with them.
I had kept in touch throughout the war with Harold, an RAF dog handler who was stationed in London, sometimes at RAF HQ at Lord’s cricket ground, Bill Ash, Len Ritchie, Reg Webb, Les Walden and Ted Smith in particular. Ron was enthusiastic on his return to resurrect the Club but it wasn’t going to happen for a while. Redpaths had played Delta Metal in some makeshift games in the summer months but these were often impromptu although we took scoring and umpiring seriously. However, things were to get better. Sieman’s Social Club, next door to the The White Swan in Charlton Village High Street had been bombed in 1940. Rather than restore it Siemans built a new clubhouse at their sports ground neighbouring Charlton Park and began restoring the sports fields for the benefit of their employees. Exempt occupations had seen Siemans double their employees from 5,000 to nearly 10,000 and with air threat long over it was felt organised sport could return. I’m not sure whether it was in 1944 or 1945 I first put together a Redpath’s team for a fixture against Siemans. We played them quite frequently but we couldn’t keep playing them so in 1945 I started to find other fixtures. There weren’t many other clubs, so I started to put together opposition teams as well. We had a young apprentice, Johnny Long, at Redpaths only 14 years old but a member of a local ATC. Not only were his friends keen to play they were useful cricketers, Pete Cocklin, possibly the best we’ve had, among them. Others were Frank Cambridge, Bill Miller, Cliff Chard, Frank Hassett and Len Mason. Fortunately, Doug Gibbs was out of uniform and catching on leave some of the other pre-war players like Len Ritchie and Ron Stevens I cobbled together a useful side and for want of a name for this assembled bunch we played as Grenfell. I would also play for this side against Redpaths and in the absence of any formal structure since I captained in 1940 I skippered this lot.
Although first class cricket had resumed in 1945 club cricket was still in disarray. Hopes to reform the club for 1946 foundered because the old members were all still conscripted for 1946 and Pete, Frank Cambridge, Cliff, Bill Miller and Frank Hassett were all called to National Service.
We were well organised for 1947 even if we didn’t know what players we would have. I took on the Secretary/Treasurer role and Ron Stevens was elected captain. We had a hard core of players, me, Ron, Harold and Bill Ash. There was good support from pre-war members Len Ritchie, Reg Webb, Ted Smith and Les Walden (although poor Les had the kind of season that bedevils the best of players from time to time). It would be fair to say that all of us had played very little or no cricket for seven years and Les was not alone in struggling to find form. Doug Gibbs, one of our best players, wasn’t able to play very frequently but did introduce a workmate, Arthur White who, in his mid-thirties was an experienced and useful acquisition. Other than that, we scraped an eleven together by calling on a number of non-cricketers from our friends or families to help. My football team-mate, Micky Shopland, was a lively fielder but a much better footballer than he was a cricketer despite eventually playing over 100 games for us. My brother-in-law,Ted Peake did alright as did Bill Ash’s brother in law, Denis Staples but Ron Stevens’ brother in law, Sid Fisher, was generally regarded as the worst player we have ever had. However, credit to them all for turning out when we needed them. Of the ATC crowd, twenty-year-old Frank Cambridge showed immense talent in finishing second in the batting averages with a maiden fifty. Sadly though, his appearances were restricted by his National Service. We saw nothing of Peter Cocklin who was stationed overseas and little more from Cliff Chard, Frank Hassett and Bill Miller who were also still in National Service. Bill Ash introduced us to a work colleague, Alan Godbehere who looked and subsequently proved a good proposition. At this time the youngster, Johnny Long was often in the team and we had high hopes that he would become a good cricketer. Time has taught us we probably didn’t give him enough opportunities. The following year, at just eighteen, he was opening the bowling with Harold Tozer and topped the averages with 41 wickets. He missed 1949 with National Service but returned much stronger and faster and formed a formidably genuinely quick opening partnership with Peter Cocklin. The two taking 92 and 97 wickets respectively. He was also developing as a batsman.
Ron Stevens did an admirable job as captain in managing often ramshackle elevens (sometimes not even eleven) and drew out many good performances none more so than his own, culminating with the club’s first century and setting a club record with a remarkable 443 runs for the season. He and Harold Tozer formed a reliable opening batting partnership; Harold also enjoyed an excellent season and was his chief ally with 355 runs and 82 wickets.
The first five seasons after the War were a glorious testament to Harold who took an astonishing 369 wickets in that time. He thought he was not as quick as before the war, maybe he wasn’t but he was too quick for many batsmen. A brute of a bowler and a real workhorse alas the demands took their toll physically. His knee cartilages wore out and the early onset of arthritis afflicted his performances from 1952. He rarely bowled after 1954.
Until 1951 it had been a matter of putting an eleven together with no thought beyond the next game. Ron Stevens was our best bat, Harold Tozer our best bowler and with Pete Cocklin it was like two players. If they were playing we always stood a chance. In 1951 Harold introduced a quartet of young players, Derek Dennis, Len Johnson, Keith Newton and Pat Harris all of whom worked with him at the Post Office. Bill Ash introduced a J & P colleague, John Strelley all of which heralded a promising future. The Post Office connection was soon to also bring us Stan Chisnell, Gus McAllister and Jack Foster.
YEARS OF TRANSFORMATION 1955-1964 (written by Harry Pearce)
PREFACE by Ron Stevens. Originally, we wanted Frank Cambridge to summarise this decade but because he was such a significant figure in this period and unlikely to give due credit to himself, Harry offered to report having been Assistant Secretary to Frank for 5 years from 1961 to 1965
Stan Chisnell was my best friend from boyhood and our time in the Boys Brigade. That’s where we knew Derek Dennis from. Stan was a good cricketer but football was my game. Derek had got Stan to play in 1955 but I wasn’t interested. Then in the following summer Stan invited me to join their tour to Isle of Wight thinking I would enjoy the hospitality. Too right I did and, of course, I got roped in to play when they were a player short. It has since become a way of life for me. I discovered this was a club that enjoyed its social life as much as cricket. After every game they would go to a pub and wives and girlfriends were included, my wife Jean among them and who thought the whole thing better than my football. Those with children would make a match a family day out. We had a couple of fixtures that were organised as days out for the families.
One was against Westgate in Kent which was first played in 1952 when the club had a tour there. In 1959, a really hot summer, on the way back the coach broke down. It was after 11 but the coach limped along until the driver, looking for a telephone, found a pub that although not open still had a light on. To our good fortune the landlord was accommodating and put us all into a large lounge bar area. He also agreed to serve us beer under the counter which was another good result. It didn’t take long for a card school to start up. All the children were asleep except Pauline Strelley and Greg Stevens so, using the pub’s crib board, Bill Ash taught them to play cribbage to keep them occupied. After about two hours or so the driver came in to tell us that a replacement coach had arrived only to find that the sun and beer had got to us and the only people still awake were two 12-year-olds playing cribbage.
There were plenty of the team that liked their drink, Bill Ash, John Homer, Frank Cambridge, Cliff Chard, Len Johnson, Keith Newton, Pat Harris, Gus McAllister, Freddie Bush, Stan and Derek to name a few! None more so than Big Bob Farley who also played rugby for J & P. The 1957 tour to the Isle of Wight provided some outrageous moments when this lot were around. In the early hours of one morning Bob together with his rugby pal, Dave Tredidgo, somehow scaled the flagpole at the Isle of Wight Zoo and removed their flag. That was a spectacular feat for a 6’4” second row forward. If climbing the flagpole wasn’t difficult enough it needed all their strength as the flag turned out to be much bigger and heavier than it looked from the ground. But as souvenirs go it was impressive.
On the same tour, the hotel manager was a misery and moaned about having to keep the bar open for us, sometimes well into early mornings. On the last night, led by Bill Ash and John Homer we held a mock funeral for the death of enjoyment. In those days the club gear was kept in a large trunk. We draped it in a bedsheet and paraded it around the hotel lounge bar as a coffin. In his fiery welsh accent Dave Tredidgo delivered an irreverent eulogy.
But Bob Farley was important to the club in other ways. In 1954 he was assistant secretary to Frank Cambridge but, as luck would have it, at the same time was secretary of the rugby club of J & P where he worked. At Frank’s instigation they worked together to secure pitches at the J & P sports ground. Only Sundays but it was a start. Access to such facilities brought a significant change to the quality of our fixtures. The following year Frank secured pitches for Saturdays at another private venue, the Cambridge University Mission (CUM) in New Eltham.
Frank compiled a much stronger fixture list. Now we could offer reciprocal hospitality we could entertain company teams and the old boys network. Teams like United Dairies (who provided a full cream tea with scones and clotted cream), Peek Freans, Suburbagas, Met Police, Old Colfeians, Old Wilsonians, Old Brockleians, Blackheath Wanderers and Dagenham Dock. Through shared after-match hospitality, we became especially close to clubs Suburbagas and Dagenham Dock. Dagenham Dock was our first all-day match. In later years some of their players joined our tour parties.
Frank Cambridge was secretary from 1953 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1965 in which time he had dramatically raised our profile and we were playing quality opposition in superb surroundings all thanks to his efforts.
We had the team to rise to the challenge. Derek Dennis and Stan Chisnell were an almost telepathic opening partnership. They could steal quick runs with no more than a nod and a wink. John Strelley was a prolific and classy number three who pretty much topped the batting averages throughout the decade. Ted Gorham, another recruit from the Post Office Services, was a hard-hitting batsman on joining in 1958. He gave us 500 plus runs a season. Pete Cocklin was a great all rounder and if his runs weren’t enough, he was invariably our leading wicket taker. Keith Newton, Frank Cambridge, Vic Mason and Cliff Chard were terrific batsmen but with different styles. We also had a phenomenal left arm spinner, Clyde Cartwright, another old Boys Brigader who joined the same year as me. He failed by just three wickets to take 100 in one season. Clyde’s brother Alan was a fast bowler in partnership with Pete. We were to lose two good bowlers in Johnny Long and Jack Foster but gained Alan Coupland (1959), David Sitch (1961) and Taffy Holman (1962). Taffy was an unusual acquisition. He was goalkeeper in my football team and knew nothing about cricket when I persuaded him to play just to make up the numbers. As expected, he proved agile in the field but had played some six games before finally being given a chance to bowl by his skipper, Bill Ash, anxious to break a deadlock. He was surprisingly successful and took five wickets He had no measured run up – it was different with every ball – and he held the ball with three fingers on top and the seam in whatever it angle it came into his grasp. In explaining his unerring accuracy he said his aim was simply to make it bounce in front of the batsman!
Derek Dennis left after the 1959 season, persuaded by his brother-in-law, Brian Fisher, to try his luck in the Surrey League with Streatham Wanderers but as we lost Derek, Ron Stevens returned and went straight to the top of the batting averages.
In this period, we had arguably three of the best ever captains for Grenfell in Derek Dennis, Bill Ash and Stan Chisnell.
Our first dinner and dance was held at the Chiesmans store in 1960 to celebrate our 25th anniversary. It was to become an annual fund-raising event held at Bailey’s Restaurant in Old Bailey but designated a ladies festival with gifts for wives, daughters and girlfriends. Dagenham Dock invariably made up a table of twelve or more and we similarly supported their events. We also held two other social get-togethers in the winter months with them.
In 1960 the committee under Frank Cambridge drew up our formal constitution. I became assistant secretary to Frank in 1961 eventually taking over from him in 1966.
1965 – 1974 by Greg Stevens
In 1965 I holidayed at an Isle of Wight holiday camp with Eddie Brownlow and my brother where we met Ken and Dave Angelo and, later that same summer, their sixteen year old friend Keith Finch. The significance of this was not to be apparent for another three years, except that Eddie and I joined their football team.
By the time I started to play regularly in 1964 the club was beginning to struggle, a number of players from the fifties had retired or moved on while the survivors were past their best and at the tail end of their careers. Only Alan Coupland and Joe Sitch were in their twenties and bore the brunt of the bowling along with “Taffy” Holman. The batting was held together by the trio of Stan Chisnell, John Strelley and Ted Gorham.
In 1965 twenty-four year old Alan Mansfield and teenagers Chris Long and Pete Bowers were given opportunities but the selection policy still preferred established players. The following season (1966) was more of a turning point when John Duffel! and Barry Vernon were introduced; Barry by Les Pearce as he was going out with Les’s daughter Pam and John by Len Johnson who worked with John’s father. Both these players were to have noteworthy impact on the future of the Club although perhaps Barry’s was the most immediate affect. For more than a decade Grenfell’s attack had lacked any spearhead, now with Mansfield, Bowers and Vernon it had three genuinely quick bowlers. 1967 saw the debut of fifteen-year-old Phil Blake who the following year became the youngest player to score a fifty since Harold Tozer in 1939.
Despite all this new blood it barely kept up with the loss of established and regular players. In 1966 Pete Cocklin was persuaded out of retirement but the dwindle continued. Taffy Holman emigrated to Australia in 1967; in early 1968 Ted Gorham, who had moved to Wembley a couple of years earlier, now, with a young son, was finding the travelling too demanding and time consuming and called it a day. Frank Cambridge and Alan Cartwright were both carrying injuries and played, against their better judgement, when they could – but not regularly.
Consequently it was becoming harder and harder to put a side together and in August 1968 secretary Harry Pearce rang me on a Thursday to say they had only six players for Sundays fixture at Old Erithians; could I find another five or should he call it off? He did not rate my chances but in the end I got the five; Eddie Brownlow, my brother Rog , Alan Wild (who had just started work with me) and Dave Angelo and Keith Finch . This quintet was to play in the subsequent weeks and in the last match of the season was joined by Ken Angelo.
The attempt over the previous three years to introduce new young players had faltered, the committee reluctant to accept the aging and decline of its members. It had almost left it too late but now had to accept the need to persist with a selection policy in favour of its new, young players. In 1969 Alan Wild introduced his close friend Pete Emmison who it turned out was a primary school friend of Ian Curle introduced from our football club by me and Ken Angelo. Bizarrely it proved to be the best season to date; leading bowlers Pete Cocklin and Alan Coupland found themselves relegated to a supporting role to a new fiery and fast opening attack of Ken Angelo, Finch and Curle. So successful was this five man combination that other regular bowlers like Joe Sitch and Len Johnson barely got a look in.
Throughout these changes the Club’s social traditions were maintained and a strong sense of camaraderie prevailed which helped to smooth the transition. After touring the Isle of Wight in 1966, the club successfully toured again, in successive summers, from 1970 to 1974. In 1970 we were based in Ashburton, Devon and the other four years at Totnes, Devon.
Throughout the decade Annual Dinner and Dances were held, moving from the Old Bailey Restaurant in the City in 1968 to the New Hackwood Hotel, Widmore Road, Bromley and on to Bromley Court Hotel for 1974. This festive occasion was supplemented by two or three winter get-togethers held on Saturday evenings at various venues like The Jolly Fenman at Blackfen,
The New Tigers Head at Lee Green, The Blue Anchor at Bexley and The Rose of Denmark at Charlton.
Events such as these were also supported by past players like Bill Ash and Harold Tozer. Harold, in fact, was a welcome and committed supporter throughout the summers as he umpired week-in week-out.
Friendships blossomed, wives and girlfriends included, and the Club was the centre of a lot of socialising. A Christmas disco was organised for 1972; needing only fifty-five people to break even more than eighty tickets were sold making £30 for the club. Another was held the following summer with one hundred and twenty attending making even more money. Two discos a year were held until 1975.
In 1966 a Single Wicket competition was inaugurated but after three years has since only been contested intermittently.
Whilst 1969 was a turnaround of fortunes for the Club, some players were not able to share it. Pete Bowers missed most of 1969 with a football injury but when finally recovered found it too late to get back in. Chris Long, after a disappointing 1968, left half way through that year to try his luck at Bexley C.C. and Barry Vernon, a banker, started a three year tour of duty in South Africa.
In 1970 I guested for a select AKCC XI organised by Derek Dennis against the SE Division of the Royal Mail. Playing for the opposition was Alf Laroche, who was known to most of us as a Johnson & Phillips player, but more significant was the performance of his fifteen-year-old son Kevin who impressed with an innings of 37. I think Alf may have had greater plans for Kevin but, after lengthy pursuit, by the end of the season both Alf and Kevin had played for us.
Kevin was to go on and become the finest player we have ever had. He scored his first fifty aged sixteen and was only seventeen when he scored a remarkable 160 not out at the end of the 1972 season. His score was made out of a total of 201 with Hector Mullens making the next highest score, 11.
The death of Eddie Brownlow in a tragic road accident on 23 December 1970 was a sad loss for the Club but sadder personal one for me and John Garner who had been his friends since schooldays. Eddie would have become Assistant Secretary at the next AGM and probably Secretary in the years beyond that.
“‘—- In 1971 Harry Pearce and Len Naylor introduced Derek Leeks, a fellow retailer who ran a shop in Eynsford. This meant Derek could only play Sundays but he endeared himself to members by showing up most Saturday evenings for a drink. The following year (1972) Barry Vernon was welcomed back from his overseas stint and brought back with him South African, Bill Davies. Bill came as a bowler but had little opportunity as such and made his mark, initially, as a batsman.
That same year Joe Sitch’s old club Lamorbey folded and we gained Hector Mullens who at thirty-six years old thought his best days were behind him. We also gained Howard Stephens from rivals Lamorbey Park (not to be confused with Lamorbey) when his father, John, saw more opportunity for his son, a young fast bowler, with a young club rather than his own aging team. The committee had in fact received an approach from Lamorbey Park for a merger but it was rejected. Finally after having made his debut in 1968 (aged just thirteen) young Graham Strelley, still only seventeen, was given encouragement to play on a regular basis. ,
Considering the success of previous years 1972 was strange for the loss of form for almost all the batsmen. John Duffel! who had scored 924 runs in 1970, 547 in 1971 now only mustered 164 at an average less than ten. Amidst all this Kevin Laroche became the first player to score
1000 runs in a season. In this oddball season Alan James, boyfriend of Lesley Cocklin, got his first bowl; he had made his debut in 1969 and played the previous two years. It now proved his had been a sadly overlooked talent but his career withus finished when he and Lesley broke up.
For 1973 Hector Mullens persuaded his ex-Lamorbey team mate Mick Way out of retirement and even aged over forty Micky showed his class in a number of cameo innings. My cousin Rog Marshall also joined when he was posted from Derby to London by his employer, HM Customs. Thanks to them. To assist my cousin to settle in Kevin (Laroche), Phil (Blake) and I would take him out on a Thursday night. Quite often we were joined by others, Pete Emmison and Alan Wild springing to mind.
Needing support for the Devon Tour I turned to two of my closest friends Chris Cockram and Brian Kingston, stalwarts of Sunallon C.C. Successful both as cricketers and communally it was to lead to Chris joining us permanently.
Ian Buck and Brian Jones were already known to the club through various social activities when they put on their whites for 1974. Ian is a friend of Phil and Brian was a workmate of Barry Vernon.
OUR FIFTIETH YEAR (1975-1984) by Hector Mullens
The decade leading up to our fiftieth anniversary was overshadowed by the untimely and tragic death in 1979 of Kevin Laroche who was killed in a train accident while out celebrating his twenty fifth birthday. There is not anybody who does not think Kevin was the best player the Club has ever had. In his last season he topped both the batting and bowling averages with a staggering 999 runs at an average of 76.84 and 38 wickets at 12.73.
I had been persuaded to resurrect my modest cricket career in 1972 having first been sucked into the community of Grenfell by my close friends Joe Sitch and Micky Way. I refer to it as a community as it is much more than a cricket club. Unlike most sports club wives and families and friends were welcome in a social whirlpool that keeps us together even away from the cricket. The friendships were immense and deepseated and if many of the social activities raised money for the club it was also indebted to the ongoing and financial support from its Life Members.
In each of the seasons 1970 to 1975 we toured South Devon. Stories will abound as to the success of these trips and some might even mention that cricket was played. As interest in touring waned Greg Stevens, while assistant secretary, inaugurated a cricket week in substitution. The springboard for this was an invitation to put out a side in Old Brockleians cricket week. My role as Fixture Secretary at that time was to arrange other games around it. Both Greg and Mike Blake provided valuable contacts and assistance and I will attest to their efforts later. It was anticipated that to be a success we would have to invite guest players but it turned out to be sufficiently popular with and supported by our own. The cricket week lasted another five years. Again stories will attest to the fun evenings that followed as our hosts made extra efforts to entertain us. Fixtures included Medway Police (played at Frindsbury), Maidstone Police, South Suburban Co-op (Beckenham) and the University of Kent (Canterbury). One year, Medway Police took us back to their Chatham station canteen and bar for late drinks and buffet where Alan Coupland decided that discretion demanded that he should not attempt to drive. Asking if it was alright to leave his car in their compound he was assured that it was and that moreover they would be happy to give him a lift home; Alan’s face was a picture when he found out he was to be delivered home in a squad car!!
I was first introduced to the Club through its annual Dinner and Dance and I am glad to say that not only has it continued throughout this period but it has thrived. In April next year we expect over 150 to attend and the guest speaker will be Kent and England’ s Derek Underwood.
The other highlight of 1985 is a tour to Devon. Secretary Colin Stone ably supported by Mike has booked us preferential half board terms at a Seaton holiday camp. Response has been immense and with friends and families it is anticipated that we will be forty strong. The tour will begin with a Champagne reception.
Cricket-wise we had been steadily improving and were very capable performers in a very strong fixture list when Phil Blake took on the captaincy in 1976 from Greg Stevens. Kevin was his vice captain. Along with the ever reliable Clyde Cartwright, Phil, Kevin and Greg were the last remaining two-games-a-weekend players. With a diminishing number of players unable to make this sort of commitment there was an ever growing need to expand our membership and in 1975 the club benefited from the demise ofDulwich Rosebery C.C. We had always enjoyed a close relationship with them, the Angelo brothers and Keith Finch having briefly played for them as
youngsters, now it seemed a natural progression for Colin Stone, Dave Golding, Pat Bresnett and Mike Blake to join us. It also brought us the highly promising eighteen-year old Andy Thomas whose parents became our most fervent supporters regularly attending matches.
There is no doubting this heralded our strongest formation. Between August 1977 and June 1979 the Club lost only five matches!! However it could not last. Our 1980 captain Tony Haylock could not commit to another season and, indeed, with his wife Jean very ill he made no appearances in 1981. Chris Fisher overlooking his estimable batting felt, at thirty-five, that he was past his best as a fast bowler and retired at the end of 1980. Phil agreed to resume the captaincy but with the loss of these players and that of the irreplaceable Kevin still deeply felt 1981 proved a disaster. It was time to recall Greg Stevens.
I must mention two very influential contributors in this last decade.
First, Greg Stevens. My close friend Mick Way, a very distinguished cricketer, who played under many captains, regards Greg as the very best. Greg took on an under performing side in 1973 and in the next three years gradually raised performances and results. He reads a game well and reacts quickly but most importantly he makes sure that we as players recognise his tactics and play our part. Like all captains he has his trademark strategies such as he will usually start out with really aggressive fields, sometimes with seven or eight fielders within five yards the batsmen. He likes to rotate his bowlers before batsmen settle and will turn to spin early, always looking to take wickets. Opening bowlers are often told “if they get to thirty you’ re offl”. He unremittingly plays to strength and the best players can expect to bear the biggest burden but his real knack is getting cameo performances from bit part players (like me) and his development of young players. He is an astute judge of players’ capabilities and potential and wise in giving opportunity.
Second, Mike Blake. Mike currently works on the Olympic committee and before that was Secretary at Leyton Orient F.C. Since taking over as Fixture Secretary in 1982 to allow Greg to take the captaincy he has worked tirelessly . The loss of our “home” facilities at Delta Metal’s sports ground and the advent of league cricket decimated our established fixture list and it has not been easy to reconst ruct, especially as wanderers. No doubt his experience as a professional
administrator stands him in good stead but he is equally committed to the amateur game, simultaneously serving his old school, Old Askeians and recently joining our Ron Stevens and Len Johnson on the A.K.C.C. committee. Despite this workload he has been instrumental in finding us new ground facilities at National Dock Labour Board in Sidcup after two seasons wandering. He is ambitious for us. One of his first initiatives was to replace winter nets by entering us in the Indoor League and he currently presses us to join the Metropolitan League. He believes that induction into League cricket is irresistible for the future despite our own reservations that we are an aging and declining side that needs refreshing before we can contemplate such a move. In Mike’ s view recruitment will be impossible unless we have league recognition. That said, the decade ends with the introduction of Keith Secrett, another precocious talent – perhaps to match that of Kevin or John. There is also plenty of hope for the future in the young hands ofmy own son Mark Mullens, Mark Haylock (Tony’ s son), John Connell, Bruce Wheeler, Mick Bullard, Barry Feist and Martin Secrett (Keith’s brother.)
1985 -1994 (written by Len Johnson)
In 1985, our fiftieth year, we elevated Ron Stevens to Club President and I was appointed Chairman .
The first thing that comes to mind on reflection on this decade is the cricket tour to Seaton in Devon as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations . 18 players, 8 wives, 11 children and 3 other guests supplemented with visits from Ron and Teena Stevens who were holidaying nearby. We were accommodated in the Warners Holiday Camp with five fixtures arranged from Sunday to Friday and a rest day on the Tuesday. Sadly, poor weather intervened and the first two fixtures were cancelled. Nevertheless, far from downhearted, the players threw themselves into the Camp’s various sports activities and tournaments. If I correctly remember the men’s doubles tennis was won by the Angelo brothers, Ken and Dave beating John Heinson and Greg Stevens in the final.
Tuesday was gloriously hot but we had no game. Sod’s Law. As a result we all participated in the Camp swimming gala and club members made a clean sweep of all the men’ s events. The most remarkable of which was Hector Mullens who at the age of 49 when we had no contenders for the underwater race entered himself and won it, even to his own surpris e. Chris Angelo, Dave’ s son won all the junior races and young Matt Stevens won the under 10s novice width.
One morning saw the most robust of football matches with our players divided between two teams from which campers outside our group soon dropped out once the game was under way. After all, they were on holiday but for our lot this was serious competition and even at a veteran stage there was a lot of good footballers and no quarter given. Jim Waddell, Mark Mullens and Mark Haylock were still active players.
We may not have done so well in the intellectual competitions but we were still winners when Jan Finch at 35 and nearly twice the age of the other contestants was crowned Miss Warner for the week. Mrs Warner as her husband Keith reminded everyone.
The tour was not the only celebratory success of the year. In April our annual dinner and dance at the Widmore Hotel, Bromley was expanded to a 2am finish and England cricketer, Derek Underwood was a guest spea ker. Greg Stevens gave a witty toast to our founders. I gave a response. Trophies were handed out by Derek Underwood, perhaps the most deserving of all time the Jean Pearce Trophy to Clyde Cartwright. We had 154 guests including Derek Leeks who came all the way up from Wales. A cabaret act interspersed the dance and Life Members were invited out to the middle to cut a commemorative cake and partake of champagne.
Another anniversary event we staged during the season was a fixture against a representative AKCC eleven selected by George Fowler (Fledglings CC) and led by Bob Easton of VCD Elmstead. The game was preceded by a beer and ploughman’s lunch for Life Members, ex -players, wives and children in the wonderful upstairs ballroom of The National Dock Labour Board with its balcony view of the pitches.
Our term as Lord Harris’ s tenants at the now privately owned National Dock Labour Board was soon to end. We needed a new home for 1987. Again, thanks to Mike Blake, his ear, as ever, close to the ground we learned that the old Molins Sports Ground off Avery Hill Road, New Eltham had been bought. It had fallen into disuse for a couple of years but its new owners, Brooksbys, had done a good job in restoring it.
It was as well we had a good committee because this was a difficult period with regard to players. We had joined the Metropolitan League for 1986 but it was with an aging side. Two of the younger players, John Heinson and Phil Blake had already left in 1985 to play league cricket with Metrogas (although John stayed with our Sunday team) which exacerbated the problem. There was no doubt Andy Thomas was a very good captain, popular and with strategic nous but he felt constrained by league rules which limited bowlers to ten overs. He did not feel he was in control, complaining that such regulations dictated match tactics. He was not alone and many were sympathetic when he stepped down from captaincy at the end of the 1986 season. Keith Bishop was keen to take it on but the club surprisingly re-elected the admired Tony Haylock with Keith as vice-captain. Keith was eventually elected in 1988 and 1989.
Tony’s selection was to lead to a change in the constitution. If he was to skipper the League team he would not be available on Sundays. We had only once, in 1950, had a separate Sunday captain but now we were to bring back a split in captaincy and Jim Waddell was elected captain of the Sunday side. This early separation was symptomatic of the divide that was League cricket versus Friendly cricket. A divide that was not just in our club but in cricket generally .
At this time I was also on the AKCC (Metropolitan District) committee as were Ron Stevens, its treasurer, and Mike Blake. The introduction of league cricket had devastated most fixture lists, lists that had taken many years to establish and Frank Gilder who ran the AKCC fixture bureau struggled to keep up with demand. The fact was that individually none of us was whole-heartedly in favour of league cricket. But it was the impact on the game itself that was the basis of many hours of discussion. Maybe we were too old on the committ ee, Mike Blake in his mid-forties was the youngest, most, like me, were mid-fifties and Ron was over sixty-five. However, our every attempt to each stand down was thwarted by a lack of new, young aspirants to replace us.
Clubs appealed to us to have bowler limitations removed and other rules changed. Some clubs were against any regulations and could not see why games could not be conducted on the same basis as “friendlies” with an award of points.
Leagues set out their own regulations and despite all the pleas from clubs for us to consider alternatives we could not intervene. The emphasis in League cricket is based on a win/lose result. Its drawback was that if a team was in an irrecoverable losing position capitulation was all that was left to them. Consequently, teams felt margins of defeat were not an indication of their capability.
These conflicts are the same that afflicted Grenfell. League or Non-League. Saturday or Sunday.
One player seemingly unaffected by all this was Keith Secrett. A gifted cricketer he blossomed into, in my and many others opinion, the finest bowler the Club had ever had, arguably the fastest at his peak. When called upon he could moderate his pace to bowl seam or swing or adapt to bowl off spin. Added to that he was a talented batsman and swift outfielder with very safe hands and a long, long throw.
He spearheaded the bowling with no discernible long term support although we had high hopes of Barry Feist another young quick bowler, Alan Coupland’s son-in -law who joined in 1985 – but he played only three seasons. We saw the first of Keith’s older brother Martin in the same year. Steve Perry, an old team mate of Keith Bishop’s from Paxton Park was introduced by him at the same time but Steve did not make his presence felt until later seasons.
Simon Walsh, Neil Quinton and Matt O’Donoghue joined in 1987. Simon and Neil were already established batsmen and made an instant impact but were not with us for very long. Matt, a work colleague of Colin Stone, was a promising young fast bowler, very quick but a bit raw but who progressed and became a mainstay for another ten years.
Del Babi was a Pakistan under – 19 player. A left -hand bat, left arm spinner who played 9 games in 1988 and another 4 in 1989. An outstanding talent, eventually he was enticed to Kent League club, Bickley Park as their overseas player. He was probably destined for bigger than us but his move highlighted another unwelcome aspect of League cricket where the best players get headhunted by the bigger clubs.
In the past, clubs were community based, e.g., company, school or village and that common interest is what bound teams together . Players generally did not move between clubs except for employment or residence changes. Having said that we benefitted from an influx of players from Kemnal Manor CC in 1989. The circumstances were different. Kemnal Manor had reached the point where they could not put out a team. Dave Demarzo, Mike Sage and Ray Brown were in their forties and were probably just looking for a game but there was some younger blood, Richard Tull, a wicket keeper/batsman, Andy Littlechild, Lee Pepper and Dave’s sixteen year old son, Danny who wanted to progress. The best of them all was Dean Johnson, a nineteen-year-old batsman.
In anticipation of so many new players I had a letter from Greg Stevens and John Duffel! volunteering to run a second League team . I advised the committee that if John and Greg were prepared to run it it was worth a try. It went ahead. It was a success and went some way to obviating the obstacle that occurred in 1988 and resulted in careworn, put – upon Colin Stone resigning from the Club. The captain, Keith Bishop, had constantly selected his best choice from availabilities without regard to putting together a reasonable Sunday eleven. Players like Tony Haylock, John Duffel! and Keith Finch who might have played either day were constantly chosen for the League game . Consequently, some who could only play Saturday never got a game and the Sunday team was left scratching around to make an eleven making Colin’s job difficult and time-consuming causing disagreement between him and Keith. Keith’s position was understandable but it made Colin’s untenable. With a second team Keith had the pick from 22 without resorting to the Sunday players.
As well as the ex-Kemnal Manor squad we were generating some younger players of our own – Hector’s nephew Brian and Brian’s school friends, Gary Willson and Nick and Neil Shah . Alistair Newman, another ex Kemnal Manor player, joined in 1990 and was a useful all-rounder who was to become Player of the Year in 1995. Darren Barlow was another good all-ro under who turned in good performances over five seasons.
It would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to John Heinson for his contribution throughout this decade. Unarguably, apart from Kevin Laroche, the best batsman in the history of the club. Not a big hitter but a languid and skilful stroke maker with a solid defensive technique. His prolificacy, consistency and reliability put him at the top of the averages every season. A competent wicket keeper, probably our best available at this time but more often required as a bowler at a tidy medium pace that was a useful change . His statistics are a testament to how good a cricketer he was but in 1992 he took on the captaincy for a second time, the first was in 1984, and proved a good tactician and leader as well. He skippered for five consecutive years.
He assumed responsibility at a time when we were forced to play sixteen and fifteen-year-olds to make up a team for League fixtures. That was the impossibly absurd position we were in but there was no doubting the exciting promise of these youngsters, Jon Jones, Paul Angelo and Matt and Simon Stevens when added to that of Danny Demarzo, Brian Mullens and Gary Willson. Jim Wilson, Danny Doyle and Graham Charles also came onto the scene before the decade was up.
More upheaval was to come when we were served notice that 1992 would have to be our last at Brooksbys . Its owners had sold to Metrogas but afforded us the courtesy of letting us fulfil our arranged fi xtures . Timely, Ron Stevens, now a member of Bellingham Bowls Club, alerted us to a rumour that the once derelict sports facilities opposite Bellingham Station in Randlesdown Road were being reinstat ed. Owned by the City Parochial Foundation they were funding a Bellingham Community Project (BECorp) to establish a sports and social amenity. Andy Littlechild was our secretary at the time but it was Dave Demarzo and Greg Stevens who took on the task of investigating its possibilities for us. The project was being managed by the Rev Bob Wallac e, the vicar of St Dunstans church at Bellingham Green . The last tenant there had been Fisher Boys Club and they had let go the cricket table in favour of foot ball. However, at a meeting with Dave and Gr eg it emerged Bob Wallace was a very keen cricketer (he would play a few games for us) and our interest was paramount in him convincing his committee to establish a cricket pitch. They took it seriously and no less than Keith Pont the director of development at the ECB and tasked with encouraging the unification of clubs’ ground preparation (with Surrey Loam) was approached and oversaw the creation of a brand-new table to a top grade specification . We had a new home for 1993. It may have taken a year for the wicket to settle but it was perfectly friendly.
I write retrospectively and I know what the future holds but I think in 1994 I would have been worried about our future. An age gap had appeared, we were mostly over forty or under twenty. The generation that should have been at its peak was missing. That is the dilemma that League competition poses for small clubs; how to hold on to its prime players and how to nurture new, young players. What I’ve learned over the years is that it is very difficult to hold together a team of the very best players. In an afternoon not everybody will play a part and really good players will become dissatisfied. What we’ve had and have is some outstanding players supported by a lot of good players but for me the heart of the club is the bits and pieces players, in which group I class myself, who can take pride in a smaller contribution but enjoy the success of the team.
It has been a privilege for me to be involved with this club. I did eight seasons as secretary, eight seasons as fixture secretary, four as treasurer and I think just one as assistant secretary. From 1964 to 1981 I was never off the committee and became chairman in 1985. It has been like an extended family to me. My closest friends are all associated with club but it has never just been about the cricket and the club, the friendships were about life. We socialised away from cricket, knew how to relax, put aside the problems from work and relationships in favour of anything that involves joking, laughing, partying and overall having a good time. We held events and had tours . What marks the members of Grenfell is that through the generations they have all been honest, upright, hard working men of integrity and fair play. That is our culture, those that couldn’t subscribe to it didn’t belong and didn’t stay.