2012 Season Review
PRESIDENTAL REFLECTIONS
Never can prayers have been answered with such disastrous consequences. At the start of my article in last year's newsletter I wrote: "I am actually praying for rain in the next month. The impending hosepipe bans pose a threat to cricket clubs, which is a worry with the prospect on an exciting summer of SOA cricket ahead of us".
Oh dear! Did it rain? My goodness it did and never b***** stopped. More than twenty matches were washed out in the wettest summer most of us - even Brian Bowden - can remember! My sympathy goes to our superb list of match managers, who took the trouble to raise strong, competitive sides only to see their efforts washed away in the monsoon. Happily, some of the games were rearranged for September - and this I think will become a trend. Already more and more matches are being fixed for late in the season, when the weather is often at its best.
Despite the weather, the SOA played some excellent cricket in 2012. We fielded strong, youthful and vibrant sides, and went close to beating the OU Authentics and Radley College, two of the best games in an excellent 50-strong fixture list arranged by Colin Bedford. The SOA would not run as smoothly as it does with Colin's organisational abilities. .
For the first time in many years, we won the first three games on our cherished Western Tour. My thanks go to Sheena Florey for arranging the first-week accommodation - a task she has undertaken for many year.
One of the most pleasant duties during my year as President was to join Ralph Cobham and Richard Allan in taking Sylvia Edwards out for lunch in the spring. Sylvia, widow of the legendary SOA character John, has generously supported the SOA Bursary Fund, and we were able to update her about the young cricketers who had benefited received tour bursaries. During the year, Ralph stood down as Chairman of the SOA Trustees, who manage the fund. It was through Ralph's drive that the fund was set-up. My thanks go to Ralph, in the knowledge that the chairmanship is in good hands, having been taken over by our 'eminence grise' Richard Allan.
Keeping an eye on the Club's finances is our cycling treasurer Andrew Moss, who in addition to his good husbandry and wise words, raised money for the Bursary Fund with a sponsored ride over part of the Tour de France course.
In my capacity as President, I also attended the funeral of John Wadsworth in Sidmouth. John had umpired for SOA for many years on tour, while his wife Di scored. It was lovely that Di could score for us again at Tiverton and at Sidmouth. We seem to be well off with umpires and scorers. Andrew Smith, our President Elect was a willing volunteer to stand in the middle (along with the President), while among those who scored for us were Sue Hayes, the Hedges, the Mosses and Neil Harris. Thank you one and all.
The Club also recognised the long service of Tony Lurcock, who stood down from the Committee after more than 30 years, but happily continues as scribe. At the Club Dinner, I was privileged to present him with a collectors item Conway Stewart Bubble Pen, suitably inscribed. The Dinner, hosted for the first time at Cumnor Cricket Club, was a most enjoyable affair, in which we were superbly entertained by the former New Zealand captain Jeremy Coney.
There was some talk recently about resurrecting the Club's fixture with Amersham on the charming Shardeloes ground. This set my mind wandering back to the 1960 fixture with Amersham, the first SOA game I remember attending. Such luminaries as Freddie Nunn, John Bush and Tony Pickering - later to teach me - were in the SOA side along with my father Stuart and brother Jim. My abiding memory is of my father getting his boot stud caught in the chainlink fence in front of the pavilion and taking a purler as he went out to bat. The laughter had barely subsided by the time he returned to the pavilion!
I have countless happy memories of my half-century association with this wonderful club - characters, incidents and anecdotes. They invariably bring a smile to my face. I am sure there will be many more to come. In the meantime, may I wish my successor Steve Wilson (who is also our hard-working Secretary) a great year as President and hope he has as an enjoyable time as I had in the role.
Michael Knox
SEASON 2012
If, among the 244 SOA players who had a day off rather than a day's cricket last 'summer' there were philosophers as well as cricketers, they might well have been imagining parallel universes. In one of these, the twenty-two matches which were rained off were all played in fine weather, and the twenty-six which were completed were rained off. Another possibility, the dream option, would have been one where all fifty were played to a finish.
In the real universe the purpose of the SOA Report is to provide accounts of the matches which were actually played. There were notable encounters with Radley College, the Hampshire Wayfarers, the (Oxford University ) Authentics, Marlow Park, and Tiverton Heathcoat on tour. T20 cricket is now established in the SOA, and it is gratifying to note that the players come from, let us say, all age groups.
Two games were not played for managerial reasons, and one of these was perhaps the opposition's failure. Half a dozen newly established managers seem now well bedded-in, and they are bringing the pleasures of SOA cricket to their own cricketing friends and contacts. Greg Pearson's account of the match against the Authentics gives a clear indication of the range of clubs which now represent the SOA. The same could be said of Iain Campbell's side against Radley College.
The score-book was quite well-kept during the season, and seems not to have gone off-piste at any point; this is remarkable, considering how many matches were cancelled. We obviously owe a lot to our scorers as well as to our umpires; there is a space in the score-book for their names, and it would be good to know these, so that they may be properly acknowledged. Perhaps the collective term should be 'an acknowledgement of scorers'.
Never a season passes without a manager describing the nightmares of his team evaporating as fast as he replenishes it. It used to be a gentleman's – and an amateur's - understanding that if you dropped out you provided or offered to provide an acceptable substitute. Is it perhaps time to renew this? Or should we have a 'name and shame' column? I recall an all-day fixture in the 70s when I had a drop-out on the morning of a whole-day game, the player phoning to say that his wife's cousin had died. An elder of the club pronounced on that occasion that no death, except, possibly, that of the player himself, was a valid reason for a last-minute drop-out. In recent years several managers in distress been rescued by Colin Bedford; Richard Clapp (Match 19) speaks for many in his appreciation. Jeff Higgs writes ruefully about accepting a poisoned chalice: 'Always be careful when offering to assist a Match Manager as you can never quite be sure how much help will be required! In this instance it involved getting the team together, finding an umpire, liaising with the opposition and arranging for the diplomatic bag to be at hand. ' Is there anything else to be done I hear you ask!'
The 2012 season provided the usual mixture of good finishes, easy wins, and severe defeats. It is often difficult to raise a side at all; to raise one suitable for the occasion is an added burden. One match manager used to have only one question while recruiting his players: 'Are you able to walk unaided?' SOA can produce an unnecessarily strong side – how was Luke List to know that the Stowe Templars would be so weak in 2012? Fixtures like this (Match 26) can simply get out of synch: next year both clubs might over-compensate, and SOA will be rolled over. And so on.
Unusually, no SOA batsman reached three figures, the closest being Jeff Higgs, stumped for 95 at Warborough in the President's Match (presumably going for the big one). Familiar names are there among the bowling figures, Steve Wilson with 5-46 against Tiverton Heathcoat and Anthony Prior-Wandesford with 5-59 against the Hampshire Wayfarers. Then, among the up-and-coming players there were Francois Vainker (5-37 v Radley College), Fred Price (5-37 v Chulmleigh on tour), and Shaun Miler (5-40 v Stragglers of Asia).
Not all members realise that the western tour has in the last few years been, if not on the danger list, a likely subject for special measures. Why, the committee has wondered, is it easier to get players to go to Australia than to Devon? 2012 has marked, one hopes, the turn of the tide, with good, younger cricketers on board. Let's hope that they will stay on board for the next forty years, like 'some of us'.
The extra-cricketing activities were as curtailed as the cricket itself in 2012. The Downs Cricket Week was almost completely washed away, and on the Friday only a few overs were possible before the return of the rain, so the usually convivial get-together and the Paul Collins presentation were lost. The President's Game at Warborough was played, but in the sort of weather which did not invite spectating. Unaffected by the weather was the Annual Dinner, where Jeremy Coney gave what was agreed one of the most entertaining speeches ever heard at a cricket dinner, and which was enjoyed by many club pensioners, and ladies, a few playing members, and even several match managers.
ARCHIVE CORNER
SEASON 1963
President S. Pether Esq.
The Club played 37 games during the 1963 season, winning 20, drawing 8, and losing 9. Three matches were not started owing to bad weather. Although only two centuries were made for the S.O.A. there was a lot of high scoring during the season, and twice we made 270 to win. The end of the season was badly affected by the weather which seriously upset the tour...
Five new fixtures were played during 1963 with the Gentlemen of Worcestershire, Northants Amateurs, Abingdon, King Alfred's School Wantage, and the Trojans...
Charles Connery, our oldest playing member, born the year the record first class innings in England was made, continued to take an active part in on the field as well as off the field activities.
Looking back from fifty years later there are perhaps fewer changes than one would expect. The were nine fixtures against Oxford colleges; now there are none. King Alfred's School joined Bloxham and Pangbourne as the third school fixture. There are plenty of familiar names – Shrivenham, Amersham (returning in 2014), Witney Mills (Manager P J Florey), Old Bloxhamists, Bledlow; and on tour Wiltshire Queries (on the way down, in those pre-motorway days), North Devon, Somerset Stragglers (on the County Ground at Taunton), Sidmouth, and Devon Dumplings. Several of these were two-day matches. The tour party numbered 23, plus 10 guests.
Some details from the 1963 Report catch the eye. Against Old Redingensians; 'the introduction of Charles Connery resulted in the removal of Chadwick, who had frequently held us up for long periods in previous years. The exact siting of Whitehead for this catch was a nice matter for a committee decision... SOA's team, collectively, were 457 years old.' Against Witney Mills; 'when the sixth ball of the last over had been bowled the scores were level with 9 and 10 at the wicket, no 10 having hit 12 runs in the course of the over. The umpire, overcome by the excitement of the occasion, allowed a seventh ball to be bowled, off which, fortunately, Pat Florey took a catch.' Against University College SOA chased 269 to win by eight wickets, Peter Frankenburg making 138*, and John Edwards bowling unchanged (28-3-109-5); among his victims was a certain T. Lurcock, c&b for 2.
OBITUARY
Alan Pickford, who farmed for many years at Woodperry Farm, Stanton St. John, passed away peacefully on May 3rd last year, aged 90. Several older SOA members have contributed memories of him. He was a farmer and typical mid-week SOA cricketer from the late 1940s. His resident club was the Oxford Downs, where he played on Saturdays. He succeeded Jimmy Walwin as captain, before handing over to his younger brother Colin. He was a hard hitting RH opening batsman and favoured the aerial square hook to anything short. He was a straightforward, and wonderfully amusing character: at Keble College, against a prodigious leg-spinner on a soft wicket, with the ball not coming on, he adopted a 'switch hit' and belted the ball between a terrified slip and gully. 'I always does that to them,' he remarked. He was an extremely fearless and dangerous batsman, and playing for a draw was not in his vocabulary. Brian Bowden recalls a game against Douai Society (16 July 1968) when SOA chased 235; he and Brian put on 124 for the first wicket and he was first out for 92 having taken on Douai's fierce opening bowler. After the third bouncer Alan remarked 'It ain't too safe out here', took out his false teeth, and gave them to the umpire, who put them in his top pocket. Alan retrieved and replaced them, unwashed ans coated in sawdust, as he returned to the pavilion. Above all, he was an old fashioned sportsman in the true sense. He loved the game and was fortunate to play – on and off the field - amongst many like-minded friends.