Guest Speaker: Huw Turbervill

Huw Turbervill is the editor of The Cricketer Magazine, after previously being deputy editor then managing editor. He joined the magazine in 2015 after 15 years at the Telegraph and was a sidekick for Scyld Berry of the Telegraph on several Tours. Huw started his career in Ipswich at the East Anglian Daily Times. Huw has also written football match reports for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, and Daily Express.

Huw is the author of ‘The Toughest Tour: The Ashes Away Series Since the War’, ‘The Cricketer’s Anthology of the Ashes’ and ‘The Greatest Ahes Tests’.

He captained Woodbridge CC in the 1990s for five years, earning a couple of run-outs for Suffolk 2nds. He now opens the batting for Beddington 4ths in Surrey. According to Huw, there was no way he was out when run out by Mike Gatting in a charity match.

Huw turned out with his son at Broadhalpenny Down on New Year's Day 2022 in the match that began the 250th celebration of the first First-class game.

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Hugh began by recalling how he had come to Hambledon in 2022 and played in the match on Broadhalfpenny Down celebrating the 250th anniversary of the world’s inaugural first-class match. 

He proceeded with some memories of his life as (mainly sports) journalist which began at a very tender age when he made his own ‘newspapers’ for the neighbours. After his schooldays he worked initially for local papers in East Anglia, where he learned the art and craft of journalism - especially from the regular Ipswich Town reporter who would some times create appropriate quotes for the players (“it was very nice to score against my old club, I felt very happy” etc.). He one point his Sports Editor was also secretary of Suffolk CCC – in later years he claimed the Minor Counties side had invented ‘Bazball’ around 50 years earlier.

Eventually, the lure of London enticed Hugh and he began working for the Daily Express, in the days when it was the best-selling newspaper (overtaken now by the Daily Mail). The Express was bought by Richard Desmond and Hugh wrote some cricket reports including tours to Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. At one match in Sri Lanka the packed crowd suddenly parted and there was a Cobra snake. Hugh filed his copy including a sentence suggesting “with a cobra in the crowd England needed Rikki-Tikki-Tavi but alas all they had was Rikki Clarke”. Sadly, the sub editor deleted it. On one occasion, members of the Sports Desk were watching Wimbledon as Goran Ivanisivec was serving on match point when Mr Desmond walked in and announcing “I don’t pay you to watch television” switched it off. Someone later made a cardboard TV with a tennis picture stuck on the ‘screen’ and it hung in the office for some time.

Hugh also worked at the Telegraph, greatly enjoying his time as Scyld Berry’s news and quotes man. In those days in the cricket press boxes, younger reporters were meant to be seen not heard but on one occasion, Hugh arrived and announced that Nasser Hussein’s body language suggested he was likely to quite as England captain – comments that were met with derision from the older, more experienced cricket writers. That evening, Hussein announced he was indeed standing down which gave Hugh a “delicious sense of vindication”.

Hugh had got to know Hussein when working as his ghost writer - not always a smooth path. Nasser broke a finger in the Ashes series of 2001 and while sidelined told Hugh that when fit again he hoped to continue as England’s captain for a year or two. Hugh wrote this up but after publication a Channel 4 discussion with Dermott Reeve, Ian Smith (Mark Nicholas?) was very critical, suggesting the captaincy was not Nasser’s to choose. On the following day he went public, denying he had ever said it.

At one point Nigel Lawson’s son was writing a column for the paper and Dominic Lawson likes cricket to the extent that he took to critiquing Hugh’s pieces – he picked him up once for using the same word in consecutive paragraphs but while he sometimes alarmed Hugh by reading over his shoulder as he wrote, he praised Hugh’s piece about the pace bowler Sajid Mahmood.

Hugh recalled the Edgbaston Saturday of the 2005 Ashes as “just about the most joyous day of my cricket life” and mentioned the famous occasion in that series at Trent Bridge when Durham’s Gary Pratt, on as ‘sub’ for the injured Simon Jones, ran out Ricky Ponting. At the press conference that evening Hugh, Justin Langer was clearly still upset by England’s use of ‘specialist’ fielders and Hugh asked him whether the upset wasn’t perhaps over relatively “little things”? Langer responded angrily, “that is the dumbest question I’ve ever been asked in my life”. After the conference Hugh and Langer met in the corridor and the Australian apologised and later phoned Hugh to repeat the apology.

Hugh was on the Zimbabwe tour of 2001 for the Telegraph and because it was his first tour he was expected at the tour dinner to make a speech but unlike a BBC debutant he had not been warned. He passed initially but then agreed and related a story from that afternoon when he and his photographer had played a doubles tennis match against Paul Allott and Angus Fraser which the cricketers won. Hugh recounted the tale concluding “I never thought I’d be beaten for pace by Angus Fraser”. He has found that some cricket journalists are better at not taking themselves too serious – others less so.

As a Telegraph ghost writer he nominated Chris Cairns as his favourite but related how with another subject Alan Donald Hugh accidentally sent him a romantic message intended for his wife. He found working with Geoff Boycott particularly unusual because Boycott’s method is to dictate to his wife who types and prints it out. Then Boycott phones, reads it out, Hugh types that out and sends it back after which Boycott might deny ever saying some things. Despite that, Hugh found him OK -  “a quite compassionate chap” and OK. Andrew Flintoff by contrast was “rather prickly”.

On one occasion Hugh contacted Ray Illingworth to work on a feature about the Ashes tour of 1970/71 when Illingworth as captain regained the Ashes, lost ‘down under’ 13 years earlier. Illingworth was very willing to talk and they spent two hours on the phone until Hugh had to call a halt with his writing hand cramping! Hugh called him back and they talked for another hour but when Hugh wanted to discuss the less successful Test series that followed, including the 2-0 defeat to the 1963 West Indies side, Illingworth declined a conversation. He told a tale also about his deputy editor Simon Hughes (one of the few Hambledon bookings who failed to appear). Hughes interviewed Jimmy Anderson and wrote up one quote which was queried by his sub-editor asking “did he really say that?” to which Hughes replied “no, but he would have done”.   

Hugh also spoke about the 2021 centenary of The Cricketer magazine which had been started by Sir Pelham (‘Plum’) Warner and was then situated in Fleet Street. He noted that among the early writers were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, AA Milne, and C Aubrey Smith of Sussex, England and subsequently, Hollywood. Warner remained connected with the magazine until his death in 1963 although he had a problem when he managed the Bodyline side in 1932/3 - ‘Plum’ disapproved privately and The Cricketer tended to turn a blind eye.

In the 1920s HS Altham connected with Hampshire, Winchester College and Broadhalfpenny Down published the first version of his famous ‘History of Cricket’ as instalments in The Cricketer. It was subsequently published in book form and revised and developed with the help of EW Swanton who arrived at The Cricketer  in the 1930s. In more recent times it was owned by Somerset farmer and cricketer Ben Brocklehurst  who ran it with his wife Linda and son Tim from their home. Brocklehurst invented the Cricketer Cup, competed for by the ‘old boys’ sides of the Public Schools and still running today. Then in 1972 the magazine created the National Village Cup also still running and with its Final held at Lord’s.

There are Cricketer Tours also and a succession of Editors including Christopher Martin-Jenkins, David Frith, Reg Hayter and Richard Hutton. When the former Nottinghamshire spinner Andy Afford joined the staff he advised always to be “positive”, observing that readers of Caravan Weekly don’t want to be told how rubbish caravans are.

Things are changing of course with the inclusion of more women’s cricket, the Hundred etc. but a survey of the readers confirmed that what they want more than anything is county cricket – and the most popular writer is another man who came to the Bat & Ball, Vic Marks.

The afternoon concluded with a Q&A – probably most significantly if least conclusively about the future of print journalism and the impact of the internet. And since it was immediately pre-season there were predictions, with The Cricketer backing Lancashire for the Championship. They finished fifth.