The Enduring Power of Thank You

Like me, Alan ‘Oaky’ Oakman was born in Hastings, Sussex.

Unlike me, Oaky played cricket for Sussex & England in the 1950’s & 60’s.

(OK, I know: I should have been selected in the 1970’s !!)

After his playing days, he became a First class umpire & then coach of Warwickshire.

He was the last surviving member of the England team that beat Australia at Old Trafford in 1956, the match in which Jim Laker famously took a world-record 19 wickets. Oaky took five catches at short-leg off Laker’s bowling.

Sadly, Mr Oakman died last September, aged 88.

He will remain an Immortal – one of the Sussex XI who played in the first game I ever saw: Kent v Sussex at the Nevill, Saturday 7 June 1958.

In the Sussex Cricket Handbook 2019 there is lovely obituary written by cricket journalist Paul Weaver, who spoke with Oaky a few years ago.

Oaky talked about the appointment of a new Sussex Captain for Season 1953: Cambridge Blue David Sheppard.

Sheppard & Oaky at Hove Actually

It was an appointment that was to last for just the one Season.

For Sheppard knew well what the Trinidadian Marxist CLR James wrote in the Preface in Beyond A Boundary:

"What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"

David Sheppard would go on to be Ordained, later becoming the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool and  working closely with Derek Worlock, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool.

The Sheppard-Worlock statue, Liverpool

Season 1953 was a good year for Sussex, who under an inspirational captain soared from almost the bottom of the table in 1952 to a best ever second place in 1953.

Some 60 years on, Oaky remembered:

“My best time at Sussex was in 1953, when we almost won the championship under David Sheppard. The Lord was our Sheppard you might say.

At the end of that wonderful season David wrote me a personal letter thanking me for everything I’d done.

That was most unusual.”

We can all say Thank You more often.

I guess the least of us can manage that.

But to say a Thank You that endures for 60 years?

Now that is a trick worth learning !

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own. 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

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