Goodbye to All That
Played: 25. Won: 20. Lost: 5.
The 2024 campaign began, as is now customary, with the
Strollers in Exile buckling on their whites in the depths of the English
winter, which translates as the height of glorious summer in New Zealand.
Tim Swan (3-21) led the charge at Bottom Paddock where the
Strollers youth policy frolicked in the overnight camping while a 112-run
victory was only marred by Glen Scanlon’s broken wrist.
Seven days
later and the real action took place at The VUWCC quiz at the Waitoa bar on the
Saturday night. It proved to be a tight, nerve-jangling, affair. James
Timperley, Hamish McDougall, Jono Addis and Piers Ovenden led the whole way,
only to drop a point in the final round, and then lose the quiz on a tie
breaker.
For future reference, construction of the colosseum
in Rome began in 72AD under the emperor Vespasian (and was completed in 80AD
under Titus). A quizzical eyebrow remains raised at the Quiz master’s decision
that James Cook’s visit in 1769 was to observe the transit of Mercury (IT WAS
VENUS!).
The answer to the most important quiz question
was…we lost, despite half-centuries from Addis and Timperley. No disgrace in
that, as the opposition fielded three ex-first class cricketers.
But before the UK domestic season was due to start
came the sad news that Chris Locke had died. Emmanuel College Cambridge-educated Chris served a total of 11 Evening
Standard editors and was latterly production editor of the Standard business
pages.
More importantly, Chris was an
important Strollers in the early days, playing some 53 games between 1992 and
2013. He set up and masterminded his own team, The Bricklayer’s Arms, based
around his beloved pub in Putney.
His wry smile and unfailing
good humour meant he was loved by many friends. He sported a pair of
prehistoric wicketkeeping pads which will now be on display at the Lord’s
museum.
Five days later, the season should have got under
way at Great Missenden but weeks of spring rain meant that play was impossible.
The deluge continued, wiping out the April 28 game at Bledlow Ridge. Would the
sun ever shine?
Simon Brodbeck’s cat peed on the scorer’s bag,
which meant a new one had to be provided for the start of the season, which
came at windswept Royal Ascot where, by some miracle, a full game was possible.
Match reporter Alastair Macaulay noted:
Blair Travis seemed to be quite agitated at the
incompetence from the scorer's table when he was on 13, but it turned out that
it was his 2000th run for the Strollers (average 43.2).
Travis and Rowan Smith (36) put on 78 for the third wicket
and that proved decisive as the Strollers ran out winners by 62 runs. Ben
Mangham claimed his bottle of bubbly to mark his 100th appearance,
which took him a little matter of 31 years. He promises to break the 200
barrier a little quicker…
At Coleshill (now the home of Jordans Taverners) the
Strollers assembled to be greeted by the charming Robin Yolland, now retired
from active service, but an ever-present for Jordans Taverners since our first
game in 1985. Since you ask, the Strollers recorded a thumping win 39 years
ago, declaring on 173-3, then bowling out the Taverners for 49. Since then
honours have been pretty even.
[In early September, sad to say, came the news that Robin
had died. Ever cheerful and hospitable, Robin has been there to greet
us every year since 1985. Our thoughts and condolences go to Robin’s family and
his beloved club.]
This time – in 2024 - the game went our way. Reporter Jim
Hodgson said:
George Love was run out for five with the total on 39. He claims he was
‘barbecued by Pittams’, but as your scribe wasn’t watching, this can’t be
confirmed. Blair Travis joined Mike and that was pretty much it. We were
treated to a fine display of aggressive batting from Pittams, ably supported by
Travis. Victory was achieved in the 21st over with Mike finishing on 86 not out
and Blair 35 not out. 70 of Mike’s runs came from boundaries.
More melancholy news came when Evan Samuel reported that
former Strollers stalwart Steve Pryer had collapsed and died on May 12.
Steve played 171 games for the club between
1984 and 2010 and was a big presence during that time. With a highest score of
83 against Pat Stoddart’s Fullerian All Stars in 1994, he ensured that
everyone’s Strolling days were sociable and cheerful.
He leaves wife Jenny plus
children Harry, Georgia, Sophie and Ben. Our thoughts go to them.
At Winchmore Hill we came up against one Harry Balakrishnan,
who kindly retired after explosively hitting 150 not out. That proved enough to
bring the Hill victory.
The midweek programme began with a poignant game against
The Bricklayer’s Arms. Reporter Richie Stubbs noted:
Spring has really arrived once the midweek
Strollers emerge from hibernation, several weeks after their weekend brethren.
As has become typical in recent seasons, the opening midweek fixture was
against old friends and rivals The Bricklayers, who were very sadly without
their founder, manager and secretary (and longtime Stroller) Chris Locke, who
passed away a few weeks earlier, having set the fixture up in January. Tom
Poulter has picked up the reins and The Brick are playing on in Chris's memory.
A seven-run victory went in our favour this
time before glasses were raised in The Red Lion to dear departed Chris.
On Putney Heath we beat the overnight rain…and
Roehampton.
It was a pleasure to see the Strollers youth policy in
action with Peter Wood (Sloane) and Rob Wall (Siena) bringing their daughters
along to watch some action-packed Sunday cricket. Special mention to Wall, who
swiftly identified that a massive six from Ben Mangham was heading
uncomfortably close to the viewing families and saved the day with an athletic
leap to parry the ball away.
Mangham celebrated his first 50 and with Scott Findlay (58)
put on 108 for the seventh wicket, which proved to be the match-winning
contribution.
Reporter Steve Rogers noted:
Mangham, not content with a match-turning 50, started
loosely before honing in on the “Mangham Channel” around off stump. Wickets in
his third and fourth over meant he returned very tidy figures of 2-29 from five
overs - “You’re owning that No 7 spot” claimed skipper Blair
Travis in a clear indication that the “Strollers All-Rounders Club” (which 95%
of Strollers belong to) had a new leader.
The midweek men ventured into deepest Dulwich to take on Tilburg
Regents. But reporter Freddie Broster-Turley was not happy:
After a win last time out against the
Bricklayers, the Strollers were keen to build on the good form. This
anticipation equated in a full XI turning up on time prior to the match start
time, a midweek rarity!
It is fair to say emotions over the midweekers
are somewhat mixed amongst the Strollers membership. At one end of the spectrum
are the T20 enjoyers like George Love, who can be quoted as 'frothing' the
midweekers. At the opposite side, are the cricket purists such as Simon who
described the midweekers as 'not proper cricket' according to onlookers
[Editor’s note: Simon, who just happens to be the editor, strongly denies ever
having expressed such opinions. On the contrary, he is an avid and supportive
follower of the Notts Outlaws and the Strollers T20 Army]
It is difficult to disagree with Simon's
position having witnessed the following in last week’s midweeker:
*A severe lack of whites on
display;
*An abundance of black socks and shoes;
*A field set-up with one singular fielder on the legside coupled with two
fielders quite literally holding hands at silly mid;
*Some spin bowling which was so high in trajectory it was reported by NASA as
an incoming meteorite;
*A team member still wearing pads in the pub circa one-hour post match.
To add to the black socks
and trainers blemishes the side fell short by four runs. Would white shoes have
made the crucial difference?
On to the beautiful ground
at Bray. Their president, Michael Parkinson - who would occasionally come along
to check on the representatives of Fleet Street - died in August 2023 at the
age of 88.
This time we struggled to
178-8 thanks largely to Glen Oliver, who was bravely bearing the pain of a
broken toe - the latest in a long line of curious injuries. This one came when
he decided to kick the stairs.
Glen powered his way to 61 but the total proved a comfortable chase for M &
Bray.
Down to deepest Sussex and
the annual battle for the Marshall Trophy in memory of John and ‘Dave’
Marshall, who first hosted us there many years ago.
Ben Van Noort (128*) and Alex Tatchell (74) gave West Chilt
an imposing total of 306-4. Rob Wall was not at his best as match reporter Mike
Pittams was quick to point out:
The music the Salt & Pepper Princess
[alias Rob Wall] was playing from the Houses End was slightly out of tune – as
though he was blowing on a corroded trombone (which he does have form for).
Coming off an all-too-rare golfing victory over Mike Pittams the previous day
perhaps His Princess-ship, in contrast to Broster-Turley, was feeling a little
too smug from his golfing success to find his best bowling form? Or perhaps,
with Puss’s parents Ian and Tania Porter visiting from NZ and on hand to cast a
shrewd eye over proceedings from the sideline, he had performance anxiety.
I didn’t offer Ian a penny
for his thoughts on the boundary, but if I had to guess the pensive look on his
face indicated a train of thought very much along the lines of ‘I’m yet to
understand what my eldest daughter and apple of my eye sees in that man, but
perhaps it’s his ability with the new ball?’ Anyone would struggle to perform
under such pressure!
The Strollers’ reply was led
by a scintillating 101 from Blair Travis in his finest knock to date. Against
top quality bowling Blair proceeded at a blistering pace:
This was a heck of a ton. Let
not the record not be ambiguous on what a magnificent innings this was – one of
the best this reporter has seen in Strollers colours (although were they
Strollers colours? Blair’s brand-new cricket boots were a lovely clean white,
which was nice but only served to accentuate just how beige his batting pads –
passed down from father to son of the Travis family since they were originally
purchased in 1934 – are. One of the opposition mistook the heavy beige for
bright orange, outlandishly, and was overheard speculating that Blair must
usually turn out for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL).
But sadly nobody could stay
with him for any length of time and the Strollers’ reply fell well short by 45
runs.
At Hurley Ben Mangham summed
up the side’s efforts with a teacher’s report card and concluded:
The FSSCC 1st XI have shown glimmers of improvement
during the early part of this term, a move in the right
direction that continued at Hurley Cricket Club last Sunday. The fielding has become rather unstroller-esque! Keep up
the spectacular effort.
The midweek crew took on The Dodgers
and inched home in a game which saw President Maggie Patston make her midweek
debut after 48 years. And Rob Wall forgot his shoes…
The Cotswolds tour nearly began with a
calamity when a late text came through from Cricklade that, with a flooded home
ground, they could not raise a side. Disaster!
But a note on thefixturelist.org
brought divine intervention from Dave Lester at the beautiful West Berkshire
village of Inkpen. They saved the day on the Sunday…and the sun shone.
The day before was notable for the
squad being in recovery. Reporter Neale Mulholland noted:
The pre-match is where we
should start. For half the touring 11 this was Friday night where some craft
beers in a Bath industrial estate opposite a Topps Tiles that had seen better
days was the logical place to limber up before the tour. A distinct lack of
mid-strength beers and a food stall offering only vegan meze proved a catalyst
for liquid refreshments, drunk at pace. With Electric Bear going into
hibernation at 10pm that evening, the parties were left wanting. A night cap at
Maggie Patston’s for half of the group and a cocktail bar for the rest, led to
an evening ending in the early hours of the morning much to captain Alastair
Macaulay’s displeasure.
But the late night shenanigans
had no effect on the mercurial Freddie Broster-Turley.
Let Mulholland tell the
story:
Broster-Turley opened with
great speed and set the intent early with just two singles. Love at the other
end was a little loose but got into the swing of it. End of the second over,
8-0.
Broster-Turley fanged it in
repeatedly with a lovely maiden for his second over and Love followed suit with
a few singles. The Strollers were looking sharp.
Broster-Turley opens the
fifth over conceding two. His second ball is edged and caught! A great first
wicket. His third, edged again…but there is no appeal and the batsman remains.
His fourth, the lucky batsman’s luck runs out and he walks with a plum lbw the
ump had to call. Fifth ball and Broster-Turley’s lovely delivery trims the
bails. 2-2.
The Strollers converge on
the batter like vultures to a cadaver. With a full set of slips and all the
WAGs upright and watching, the hat-trick was there for the taking.
The final ball from
Broster-Turley and he lines up and fires down a screamer. Broster-Turley’s
effort sends the bails flying and the visiting crowd wild.
TIMBER! HAT-TRICK!
For his efforts,
Broster-Turley has to resign from bowling with immediate effect. End of fifth,
13-4.
So another hat-trick enters
the Strollers records. Travis’s usual ton, achieved earlier in the day, somehow
got forgotten…
London Transport had their
tickets clipped, courtesy of Parfray Street’s finest. Scribe Pete Robertson
noted:
The surprise call, however,
was the skipper throwing the ball to one Michael Pittams for a spell of who
knows what will come out. Oliver openly told the batsman to watch his teeth and
toes simultaneously, but it was the batman's edge and the stumps themselves
which needed to watch out - Pittams bowled superbly and finished with
2-10.
Demijohns were dispatched at
Pinkneys Green where England’s game against Slovakia in the Euros was
overshadowed by the fare:
A magnificent and surprise
tea came courtesy of Mr Waitrose and Simon Brodbeck – his only positive
contribution to the game.
Agricola ploughed the
Strollers under with a shameful 32-run defeat. John Low saw the team slink away
to the pub:
Bloodied, but unbowed after possibly our worst evening
result in years, the team repaired to the Red Lion, along with Glen’s mother
Jan, who had graced the match as part of her regular tour of
duty in the UK to make sure the proper standards of cricket expected back home
were being properly maintained in the Old Country.
The Prestcold fixture fell by the wayside:
Our original opponents Prestcold – some of whose lads were
away on a stag do – were unable to field a team. Simon Brodbeck worked his
fixture magic and quickly arranged for Chessington to host us at their very
convenient Sir Francis Baker recreation ground instead. That turned a long
drive into a much more convenient journey for most…although not for Tom
Salvesen, who commendably still agreed to the three-hour trek each way from
Northampton to join in the recreation.
Victory over Chessington was followed by a similar result
against Tadworth where an unbeaten Oliver ton sealed the deal – with a little
help from evergreen Low:
Low, proving that class is indeed permanent, shrugged off
the minor inconvenience of only having bowled two overs – total – in the last
four seasons combined. He dispatched Harrison with his very first ball via
a simple catch in the deep, bamboozled the new batter into missing a straight
one several balls later, and completed the demolition job via another catch in
the deep with his last to finish with 3-1 off his single over.
The Ministry of Justice were sentenced to defeat and AI
made his first appearance as a match reporter with his rather stilted
observation that:
Superb wicket-keeping and enthusiastic appeals from our
bowler-turned-keeper George Love made the innings even more enjoyable.
Pittams’ 84 not out saw the target chased down at Chenies before
we entertained Bledlow. There:
The Strollers hosted their second home match of the season,
welcoming Bledlow to Pinkneys Green. The team WhatsApp was opened with a flurry
of messages early in the week in response to the news that tea would be
supplied.
To the toss and there was a statistic of significance that
may need triple checking by Maggie (and supports more games being hosted by the
Strollers). Captain Glen Oliver boldly claimed he was 100% in tosses where he
does the flipping of the coin as the home captain! The record remains intact as
Glen correctly induced an incorrect call by the opposition and elected to bat
in a 40-over match.
Claygate saw Mike Pittams narrowly miss out on a ton with 98
not out but the icecreams and the café offerings of our new opponents made it a
splendid day while Ben Mangham’s 5-20 at Ripley proved the decisive
contribution.
On August 22 we said goodbye to Patrick Stoddart:
In the mid-1970s the office raised a cricket team for John
Marshall (a former Evening News editor) to do battle against West Chiltington
in faraway Sussex. That became the Northcliffe Strollers and very soon the
Fleet Street Strollers.
Peter Patston and Simon Brodbeck, Danny John, Stan
Slaughter, John Low, Steve Pryer, Barry Miller and Patrick were the key players
in those early Strollers days.
The curious thing was, as club president and statistician
Maggie Patston will testify, is that Patrick’s contribution on the field was,
to put it kindly, somewhat limited.
He made 131 appearances between 1976 and 2004. That’s a lot
of games. He scored 52 runs in 81 innings, at the scarcely believable average
of 1.04 runs per innings. I was there at Peppard when he snicked the ball
through the slips for the only boundary of his long career. And I was there for
his highest score of six not out in Bromley. And, don’t forget, he bowled one
over in 1978.
But never was it more true that statistics do not tell you
the full story. They may be astonishingly unremarkable figures but they hide
the enormous contribution Pat made to our summers. He sometimes protested that
he was not much value to the club but he could not have been more wrong.
In those early days, we did not win many games, a narrow
defeat was often the best we could hope for. But having Pat in the team and
particularly on tour made a tremendous difference.
Forever cheery, very funny and great company, Pat lifted
our spirits.
Stan Slaughter recalls one occasion when Pat walked out to
bat as our number 11 with quite a few runs needed for victory.
The bowler he was about to face was young, tall, broad
shouldered and unreasonably fast. As he pawed the ground before starting his
long and intimidating run-up, Pat stepped smartly away from his crease and
demanded that the sight screens be moved.
The opposition skipper politely asked Pat if he wanted them
moved to the left or right. “No”, Pat explained, “I want them moved to between
me and the bowler.”
At Concorde Jack Le Serve took three wickets to help us to
victory but it was the tea that took centre stage:
The tea was lovely - a special shoutout to the hosts as it
greatly improved the stats of the season. Tea-master James Dela Rue has used
his summer hours to collate the tea figures for the campaign, with some
interesting observations. As of early August there had been 11 games played. In
four games (36%) tea had been provided, six games (55%) tea had not been
provided, with the remaining game being self-provided (9%). A lovely spread
only helped improve those stats, with many sandwiches being enjoyed by all.
Off to the Three Counties Tour (actually just two these
days), where things began with a few problems:
As skipper Alastair Macaulay arrived at the ground he was
feeling confident that all was well - accommodation booked, meals had been
ordered, a batting order firmly in his head. However, it was announced that
Rowan Smith had missed the train that he was supposed to be on (Richard Skinner
did manage it), the following one was cancelled and that he would be at Rugby
waiting for the next train to Lichfield. Nonetheless Alastair won the toss and
elected to bat, figuring that Rowan could bat down the order a bit on arrival.
But Steve Rogers’ masterly 70 not gave us a defendable
score on a tricky wicket. Victory looked inevitable until young Faisal Yasdan
came to the crease:
Bankenhally was bowled by Alastair and this brought Faisal
to the crease. He took a liking to the bowling of the unfortunate Simon
Brodbeck with three consecutive sixes and with five overs to go, suddenly Wall
had a glimpse of victory. Bryson and (mainly) Yasdan put on 51 for the 8th
wicket before Hodgson bowled Bryson.
The canny David Craig came at 11 and resisted all efforts
of Oliver to winkle him out. Jim had the unenviable task of bowling the last
over with 10 needed. Yasdan then smote the first two balls out of the ground to
see Wall home by four balls. He scored 49 not out off 25 balls including
five sixes.
Defeat by one wicket – but what a game! And what a tea –
Rae-Ann had seemingly been baking for weeks as a wondrous spread was laid out
at the Burntwood ground.
On to Stanton where Steph Turner and her helpers produced another
banquet to greet the Strollers and
Travis took advantage of fourth helpings to help himself to another ton.
After the new-look Three Counties Tour [Wall and Stanton are
on the weekend after the bank holiday now that Sutton on the Hill are sadly no
longer in business] came the visit to the lovely ground at The Lee.
The weather looks highly dubious but play was possible and
Steve Rogers’ 55 set us up for 210-9. Freddie Broster-Turley continued what has
been a fine season with a match-winning burst of 6-3-18-3.
To Marlow Park and another Oliver century.
Richard Skinner reported:
Tensions were high, and Glen Oliver — still hung over from
Friday’s golf outing and having not slept a wink the night before in
anticipation of the match — attempted to stall proceedings by instructing the
fielders to move the sight screen a foot to the right, resulting in a fielder
pulling a hamstring. Mike Pittams was equally unlucky a few overs later, as he
returned from his trip to the Mr. Whippy with two soft serves lacking
sprinkles.
After posting 237-6 Jack Le Serve, Tom Salvesen and Richard
Skinner took wickets to put Marlow on the back foot.
Then:
Having snatched their fair share of wickets, Le Serve and
Salvesen were told to have a rest, with captain Wall employing himself,
Skinner, and Pittams to take the Strollers’ foot off the throat and keep Marlow
in the game.
Pittams took this instruction literally, as his solitary
over took a pounding from the Lower Pound Lane end; starting with
extreme-effort pace and ending with looping leg spin, with a few wides,
no-balls, and dead-balls along the way. After contributing 15 to Marlow's
total, the captain realised Pittams’ skills were far more valuable in the
outfield and brought himself on in an off-spin capacity.
Victory came by 29 runs…and so on to what is usually the
final game of the season, our visit to Pinkneys Green.
There looked zero chance of play with Sam Brodbeck (on a
rare outing and at the ground early) reporting that it was “torrential”. But
the rain stopped, the skies cleared and groundsman Phil Avery generously gave
the go-ahead.
And a tight battle it was. Runs were hard to come by but 50
from Oliver [during which he gloriously passed the 1,000-run mark for the
season], 37 from Travis and 30 from Love gave us a chance with 154-8.
The high spot of the game was another Brodbeck/Waitrose tea
production which gave both teams added fuel to keep the tension high. Macaulay’s
key spell of 7-0-38-3 and Oliver’s contribution of 5-3-6-3 meant Pinkneys were
always just behind the rate. When Pinkneys skipper Ben Purchese fell after a
high-class innings, that was that.
And we actually got a game in. Something of a miracle.
Glen Oliver was determined to keep the season going….and
Watford Town came to the rescue with a ‘last day of the summer’ fixture. Travis
fell just 25 runs short of his 1,000 for the campaign but a belligerent Pittams
was the architect of the 13th consecutive Sunday victory with 89.
The 2024 season saw some golden days: just five defeats and
often a hatful of runs.
Thanks to everyone who appeared; thanks to the real heroes,
the match managers, and to the match referees who ensured that everyone caught
the 1105 from Paddington.
We said a sad farewell to Chris Locke, Steve Pryer, Patrick
Stoddart and Robin Yolland.
Jim Hodgson’s armada sets sail soon to conquer the French
with two games in Bordeaux. The autumn leaves are falling but Piers Ovenden has
already sent out his availability call for the Strollers Exiles in February.
The 2025 season is that distant speck on the horizon… All corrections and additions to match reporter Simon
Brodbeck.
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