Due to a last-minute cancellation by Simon Hughes, The President thanked Dave Allen for standing in. Dave has devised a quiz for the membership which will take place after committee elections.
Before our Chaplain, The Reverend David Brown, said Grace, a few moments silence for the passing of GRAYSTON BURGESS in the spring. Travelling from London, he had been a regular supporter at our lunches over many years. The membership were also informed of MARTIN DAVEY – a recent but enthusiastic member of our club – who is seriously ill and, sadly, without the prospect of recovery. He has therefore resigned from the club. Martin asked his wife to pass on his best wishes to the membership and to the continuing success of the club.
Apologies for Absence: Geoff Willis, Derek & Frances Sherratt, Andrew Callender, Terry Johnson, Peter & Jane Parsons, Barrington Lawes, Joe Stansbury, Nick Bailey, Keith Ebdon, David Buckland, Brian Phillips, Robert Brooke, Nick Coletta, Roger Treherne, Mike Gordon, Richard Griffiths, Guy Curry, Nick & Gillie Twine, Brian Scrimshaw, Tony & Marilyn Roberts, Stephen & Dudley Green, Mike Coeshott, Ian Duke, Mike Beardall, Keith & Anthony Mayson, Charles Wilkinson, Keith Howell, Mike Woof, Hugh Cocke, Roger Gibbons, Steve Toogood, John Fingleton, Margaret & Peter Jenkins, Elizabeth Lloyd, Alan Rayment
The President:
1. The President welcomed all members and their guests. Due to a last-minute cancellation thanked Dave Allen for standing in. Dave has devised a quiz for the membership which will take place after committee elections.
2. Patrick Eagar will be the Speaker at the next autumn meeting.
Prize Draw: Members were reminded to put their place names in the jugs provided for the prize draw for collection by our Steward.
Other Administration: 1. Outstanding cash subscriptions and payment reminder for lunch, with cash or card, was requested by the Steward.
2. The prize draw (in support of Hambledon Youth Cricket) was won by Michael Knox. The raffle raised £170. Administration fees and quiz prizes to be deducted.
The President:
Brian Ford announced he will be stepping down at the next lunch on 21 March 2020. As dictated in the club’s constitution, the role of President is normally held for a period of three years. Brian asked members to make nominations for his successor, with the agreement of the individual put forward. To this end, the secretary will send all members the relevant nomination form which should be returned to Brian before 31st December 2019 (postal members before 12th January 2020). Brian can be contacted on: 01425 472 749.
The Toasts: The President asked members to be upstanding for the traditional Toasts:
The Queen’s Mother, The King, Hambledon Club, Cricket, The immortal memory of Madge, The President: (Terry Crump asked members to toast the President).
Club Quiz: Report on the day from Dave Allen:
We met on that historic day in mid-October, rather more glorious for English rugby than the Palace of Westminster. Sadly, our expected speaker had pulled out pretty much at the last minute and despite our best efforts, none could be found. As a consequence, or in some cases, because of sickness and long-distance travel, some members voted ‘leave’ and we ‘remainers’ were down to 34 in number. Lou and I therefore became joint ‘concussion substitutes’ (full playing rights) and organised a quiz which depended relatively little on the kind of knowledge usually expected of cricket congregations, and rather more on an acquaintance with examples of cricket inserting itself into the worlds of the arts, theatre, literature and popular culture. It was a T20 Quiz with Twenty questions and 20 prizes of framed cricket cartoons from the pages of Punch magazine between the wars.
As we hoped, the event seemed to be good fun and with a few extra unframed consolation-prizes we were able to ensure that all who hoped for one would take away a prize. Below are the original questions with the answers so that if you were unable to attend you can have a go, although it is worth adding that they were dealt with table-by-table so there was much discussion, and in some cases I added a spoken clue here or there. Lou meanwhile had assembled a selection of relevant on-line recordings, although this part of the project was not helped when the external speaker – in fine working order when we left home – took against the Bat & Ball and refused to function!
To get people going, we began with the following example (no prize!):
Q. Second wife returns from hurried wedding and honeymoon on the Riviera to be advised by her husband to read The Times at breakfast, to discover “what is wrong with English cricket” ... We added the information that this was a book and then a film … one of Hitchcock’s…
A. Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. The book incidentally, while much darker than the film, has quite a few references to cricket.
Here then are the original questions, followed below by the answers. People were asked to “Explain”, which meant not necessarily having every part of the answer in place – and in many cases the clues were in the (non-cricketing) parts of the question. Why not test yourself before looking at the answers?
Questions:
1. On which beach did the lady hit the winning runs?
2. Author dismissed WG, but it was not elementary?
3. Which Gentleman Player ‘nicked’ the jewels?
4. Which ordinary copper played his final Test Match at the Oval?
5. Odd couple return from an exciting European journey to learn Manchester Test rained off
6. Warwickshire bowling valet, killed at the Somme
7. Retired High Court Judge plays street cricket with kids then ‘home’ to?
8. Why was Bill Martin an unusual Test Match batsman?
9. Which two teams, at close of play, “won’t go home till morning”?
10. Fred frightened them – but managed just one ball
11. Director’s googly does for dad
12. Substitute Leo held the crucial catch, but is caught carrying messages
13. Country folk discussing whether batsmen should ‘walk’
14. Family solicitor took a hat-trick for Gents v Players at Lord’s
15. Arlott commentates on comic’s half-hour beating Australia
16. The Major delights in Hampshire’s faultless victory
17. Harold’s party wonders who watered the wicket
18. Cricket, but not in Neverland
19. 1950s Championship match: Norshire v Hampshire in Portsmouth 20. “It could be Geoff and it could be John, with a new ball sting …”
Answers:
1. It happened on the beach at ‘Sanditon’ the final (unfinished). Hampshire ‘lass’ Jane Austen; completed and shown recently on television.
2. Arthur Conan-Doyle dismissed Grace in the 2nd innings of the match, MCC v London County Crystal Palace 1900. It was not “elementary’ because Grace had scored 110 - it was the author’s only first-class wicket.
3. This is the gentleman-thief ‘Raffles’ created by EW Hornung; literature also in films and on radio and television.
4. Jack Warner (‘Dixon of Dock Green’) starred as Reg, an ageing England batsman in the 1953 film, The Final Test, written by Terence Rattigan, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring among others, Robert Morley as a cricket-loving poet, plus Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Alec Bedser, Godfrey Evans and Cyril Washbrook.
5. The ‘odd couple’ are the cricket-loving Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott, caught up in a European thriller in the film, The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock 1938). The characters were created by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder and were played by Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne.
6. Warwickshire bowler Percy Jeeves after whom PG Wodehouse named Jeeves in his novels about Bertie Wooster.
7. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011). Tom Wilkinson as Sir Graham Dashwood who was brought up in India, returns and walks familiar streets, joining in games with the Indian children.
8. Dave provided a reading of two short extracts from this 1958 children’s novel, which proved important since it was not known to anyone else.
9. The two teams: Muggleton and Dingley Dell in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
10. This was an episode of Dad’s Army with Fred Trueman playing against the Home Guard.
11. John Boorman’s Hope and Glory 1987 (nine-year-old Bill).
12. The Go-Between 1953, novel by LP Hartley; 1971 film (Alan Bates and Julie Christie).
13. The Archers (Stuart Broad).
14. DWH Curry, The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan.
15. Hancock dreams he plays and beats the Australians.
16. Fawlty Towers, “Hampshire won Fawlty”. “Did it? Oh good.”
17. Pinter, The Birthday Party. 1954/5 Hutton - Tyson 7-27
18. JM Barrie’s book, The Little White Bird (1902). Peter Pan.
19. Arlott, “Cup of Cold Tea” / “It Ain’t Half a Bloomin’ Game”, initially in the Lilliput Magazine.
20. Roy Harper, “When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease”. 1975. Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters); For he today that does this quiz with me, Shall be my brother, And gentlemen (and ladies) elsewhere in England
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here:
Hugh de Selincourt, EM Forster, John Galsworthy, James Joyce, AG Macdonell, Wolf Mankowitz, Iris Murdoch, Siegfried Sassoon, Dorothy Sayers, CP Snow, WM Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, HG Wells and PG Wodehouse, Edmund Blunden (1932), Mary Russell Mitford (1824–1832), and JB Priestley (1973).”
The President: Through applause and laughter, the President thanked Dave and Lou Allen for their efforts in saving the day!
AOB: None
The President thanked the management and staff for looking after us and reminded everyone not to forget to pay the pub before leaving.
Newsletter 42: 19 October 2019