Early Days
Treliske and Truro School
My first organised game of cricket took place here at Treliske School a preparatory school for Truro School. My parents forked out for me to spend two years here so I would get into the main school in Truro where we lived. It was a rude awakening from my friendly primary school where they called you by your first name and there was no threat of the slipper or cane from masters dressed in gowns.
However sport was high on the curriculum two afternoons a week at Treliske and not excelling particularly at the winter sports of rugby and football cricket was a game I that suited my size and frame at the time.
In rugby I was normally stationed out on the wing which was a cold and lonely place rarely visited by the ball which would have required the unlikely scenario of several passes being completed before arriving there. Occasionally kicks would come in my vicinity which involved trying to gather in the wet and heavy leather ovoid and making sure I wasn’t in possession of it once the other participants of the game arrived. Once I got to the main school rugby was divided up into abilities allowing me to play at fly half in the second string games which was a much more enjoyable experience.
Football was played during the term after Christmas meaning very muddy pitches and a heavy leather ball with 20 boys chasing after it. I remember our matches during games when Kenny ‘Pumbles’ Pelmear would be in charge acting as master, referee and commentator which was enjoyable. He was friendly man and more renowned as a composer and musician with Hail to the Homeland being his best known composition. I remember David Mitchell, who joined this particular games group being a promising player from a lower form, being a prolific goal scorer in these games and probably emulated his subsequent hero Ted MacDougall getting a hatrick of hatricks on a few occasions. Kenny Pumbles would says “It’s that man Mitchell scoring yet again” as he left several players in his wake before planting the heavy leather spheroid past the reluctant custodian literally glued to his spot in the glutinous goalmouth.
I was very keen on football nevertheless having been taken to the 1963 FA Cup final by my father to see Manchester United beat Leicester City 3-1. Winning the 1966 World Cup was very exciting to an 11 year old at the time. I could never quite make the 1st XIs at Treliske or Truro School being reserve on many occasions. I remember sitting on the sidelines in an U15 match v St Austell Grammar School, the top dogs at the time in the persistent pouring rain watching us lose 0-6 once. In those days you had to be close to death for a a substitute to be allowed to replace you so I never actually got on to play in any games. I turned to hockey at the age of 15 playing for Truro Hockey Club which then became my main winter sport until I retired from it 30 years later. It was a much more sociable sport than football rather akin to rugby where you socialised with your opponents after the fray even though they had put your life and limb under threat earlier whilst on the field of play. It stood me in great stead for my subsequent batting in club cricket as a bat had a much bigger area on which to stop the ball on and the cricket playing surfaces were largely much better than muddy grass hockey pitches in the winter months.
Cricket however was more suited to those of a more diminutive stature and was played in warmer and drier conditions. I’d played family games of cricket and French cricket so bowling and catching a ball were already developing skills which could be used in the more organised form of the game. I can’t recollect many details of the matches apart from coming on to bowl in a house match with the score on 93, which would then become my lucky number as a result and getting a couple of wickets. As with other activities at the school cricket was played in a character forming format where you played to win not to give everyone a game and you might only be closely involved for one ball of the match. I watch our Under 11s and younger age groups at our club today and am envious of all the fun they now have and also don’t have a hard leather ball making it’s mark on soft young hands and other delicate parts of the human anatomy. Everyone gets an equal go at batting and bowling and its seems a lot more fun than the games I took part in at that age. Cricket at school was largely dominated by fear of that ball hitting you as there seemed to be a lot of fast bowlers around terrorising their opponents. One of those quick bowlers at the time was a certain Howard Treweek Nicholls a feared opponent from Athens house at the time and now a good friend having toured together and been fellow imbibers at the William IV in Truro a few years later. He tended to dominate games in those days as the caption below shows. My successes as a bowler were in the game where we dismissed Athens for 101 but were then skittled by Howard. I can’t recall my innings that day must it must have been a very brief affair.
At that time the West Indies 1966 touring team were doing the same to English batsman with Hall and Griffiths being the main protagonists. My hero was Lancelot Richard Gibbs as he dismissed batsman with flight and guile rather than fear and I decided I wanted to be an off spinner as a result. It did mean that in many games I wouldn’t be needed as the fast bowlers dominated school cricket and even beyond that spinners were used by some of my captains only if all else had failed.
When I started playing at Truro School I got into the first XI at Under 12½ level and had great encouragement from the master in charge a Mr J. L. White who had great hopes for me as a spinner once I got taller. As the fast bowlers got bigger and quicker the need for flight and guile to dismiss batsmen was rarely required and once I reached Under 15 level my batting prowess was not enough to get me into the school first XI.
I was still very keen on the game and watched the test matches and even scored some of them in a proper cricket scoring book. The statistics of the game held a fascination with all the possible things that could happen and many a game of ‘Howzat!’ was played out where you only needed a six sided pencil to play out a whole two innings match.
In an Under 15 house match I once had the figures of 4-4-0-5 for my house appropriately named Wickett against Vinter who were dismissed for 7. We were in trouble at 0-2 in reply with our legendary opening partnership of J. Blakey and T. Gerry both back in the pavilion but a match winning stand of 8 gave us the victory. The Vinter team comprised of several members of the Under 15s 1st XI including my great school friend Paul Berryman who I seem to recall was rather harshly adjudged LBW that day. The officiating masters tended to make their decisions on whether the appeal was against one of their not so well behaved or academic pupils rather than the validity of the appeal. Other factors also had an influence on their decisions such as the proximity to their tea time at home or that they would rather be in The Navy Arms meeting their colleagues for refreshment at the end of that particular academic day. It wasn’t enough to alert the selectors of the U15 school XI and eventually I turned to tennis for my summer game at school as you tended to always get a game and be in the action all the time. It was a good move as I got school colours for being tennis captain in my last year at school which were very difficult to achieve in the other sports.
Another great attraction of the game of cricket was the commentators particularly on the radio. John Arlott acheived cult status at school with his unique style of commentary. Many of his expressions found there way into our own vernacular and I still have several taped recordings of some of his his commentary including one archive recording of Jim Laker taking the final wicket of Maddocks in his all 10 at Old Trafford v Australia in 1956.
Many years later I managed to get a mention on TMS after I’d sent in a gaff from Brian Johnson to Private Eye which got published in the Colemanballs section. Recording below.
In my schooldays went to many games of cricket with my father who was a good cricketer and all round sportsman and was lucky enough to see some of the great players of the time. The international cavaliers used to tour Cornwall in September and play the local clubs who were loaned a few players for the games to even things up a bit such as G. St A Sobers, C. Lloyd and G. Boycott. In the game illustrated on 21st September 1968 my maths school master ‘Joe’ Church stumps John Edrich off Garfield Sobers probably his most illustrious dismissal if not his most difficult as the England opener walked off to give others a bat.
We also went further afield to see The Minor Counties v The Australians at Torquay in 1968 a two-day game which ended in a draw. The Australians, captained by Bill Lawry, included Ian Chappell, Neil Hawke, Doug Walters, Graham McKenzie, Ashley Mallett, Paul Sheahan and Bob Cowper.
When we stayed with relations in Poole we went to see Hampshire games at Portsmouth and Southampton where I was lucky enough to see Barry Richards play for Hampshire against the touring New Zealanders and score 132.
We also went to The Dell in Southampton once in 1967 to see the home club play Fulham where the visitors included the great Johnny Haynes at the end of his distinguished career. Chivers and Paine both scored 2 for Southampton in a 4-2 victory but enough about that game which John Arlott once described as breaking out during the cricket season.
Fifty Five Years of Cricket Memories 