Plus ça change, Rodney

Plus ça change, Rodney, plus ça change!

Give the lady her change!

Del Boy to his brother Rodney in Only Fools and Horses

Hi everyone!

Our story starts on the morning of 1st September 1939.

A moment or two after 08.00 the Dengate bus left Northiam, a village about 10 miles north of Hastings, down in 1066 Country.

Heading south, a few minutes later the bus stopped at Horns Cross, a hamlet on the A28. 

Jack & Fred hopped onboard and bought two return tickets to Hastings.

What can I tell you about Jack and Fred?

Well, Jack and his adult son Fred lived a couple of hundred yards from each other.

They both loved Cricket. Fred played for Rye CC, where he captained the XI.

Lifelong Sussex Fans, they loved to watch at the Central Ground, Hastings and at The Saffrons, Eastbourne. And at Hove, where they were heading this Friday, now long, long ago.

The bus passed through Broad Oak, Brede and Westfield. Soon over The Ridge and down to the sea, Jack & Fred alighted at St Leonard’s Warrior Square station.

There was time – as there always is time – to buy Pork Pies for their picnics at Swincoes the Butchers in Kings Street.

And a Newspaper … to catch up on Thursday’s cricket scores.

The Southern Railway steam train took them along the coast - via Eastbourne and Lewes – to Brighton.

A 25 minutes’ walk up to the hill to Seven Dials, along Goldsmid Road and (briefly) Cromwell Road and then into Palmeira Avenue.

By a few minutes after 11.00 they were seated … in the Deckchairs up at the Cromwell Road end.

Not everyone travelled by Dengate bus and steam train!

In those far off days County Cricket started at 11.30, so there was plenty of time to savour the atmosphere and look ahead to what promised to be an enthralling day’s play.

I’ve often wondered why Jack and Fred had chosen to go along that particular day…

Of course

Nobody ever looked back over their Life

And wished they had spent less time Watching from the Deckchairs

The visitors Yorkshire were a very strong side. They won the Championship in Season 1939.

Day 3 of 3, it was the Last Day of the Season … so, perhaps, it was a case of: If not now, then when?

And finally - though Jack and Fred would have had no idea – there would be no more cricket at Hove until 1946.

For on 1^st September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

And two days late on Sunday 3^rd September Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was speaking to the country on the wireless:

This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received.

And that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

Unknown to Jack and Fred, across England other county games elsewhere were called off. But Sussex and Yorkshire decided to carry on - mainly because it was Jim Parks Senior’s Benefit Match.

As Jack & Fred looked at the scorecard, they would have believed that Sussex seemed well-placed.

In their 1^st Innings Sussex had scored 387.

A total dominated by George Cox Junior’s 198.

A professional footballer for Arsenal and Fulham, and son of former Sussex player Geroge Senior, George scored 22,949 runs for Sussex. 

He was the Reverend David Sheppard's best friend in cricket.

Next time you are at Hove and wandering by the side of the players’ Nets towards the players’ Pavilion, look at the George Cox Memorial Garden.

Yorkshire reply of 392 included centuries from two future England Captains, Len Hutton and Norman Yardley.

With only 5 runs between the teams, it was even-stevens going into the Final Day.

But in cricket you just can never tell …

In their 2^nd Innings the Mighty Sussex scored … … 33 !!

Harry Parks and George Cox each “top scored” with 9.

In the last First Class game he ever played, Hedley Verity took 7 for 9.

Four years on in July 1943 - and now Captain Verity of the Green Howards – he died from wounds fighting near Catania in Sicily.

Losing just one wicket, Yorkshire soon knocked off the 29 runs required to win.

 

After Close of Play & feeling rather dejected ... 

As Jack and Fred made their way east across Sussex back to Horns Cross, what did they talk about?

Had news reached them of the invasion of Poland?

Were they anticipating Britain being at war before the weekend was over?

They certainly would have discussed that day’s play and the Sussex team.

All these Seasons later… there are plenty of familiar and much-loved names.

As well as George Cox Junior, they were six other Professionals:

John Langridge (who scored 70 centuries, more than anyone else not to play Test cricket) and his brother James (the first Professional captain of Sussex and father of Richard, who played for Sussex in the 1950s and 1960s).

Harry Parks and his brother Jim (father of Young Jim and grandfather of Bobby).

John Nye and Jim Wood, the Nos. 10 and 11, took a total of 518 wickets for Sussex.

Amateurs were a regular feature of County cricket in the 1930s. In the this game Sussex fielded four high quality Amateurs, all Privately educated and all of whom had been to Oxbridge.

Bob Stainton was an Oxford Blue at both cricket and football. 

In WWII Bob was a Navigator, flying in Mosquitos out of RAF Ford along the coast near Chichester.

Captain Jack “Sherlock” Holmes went to Repton School, as did two other Sussex Legends: CB Fry from the 19^th century and Chris Adams from the 21^st.

If the MCC tour of India had gone ahead in 1939-40, Jack would have captained England.

Jack’s son Rodney played for Sussex in the early 1950s.

Future Sussex Captains Hugh Bartlett and Billy Griffith were friends from school at Dulwich College. Seven decades on Chris “CJ” Jordan would also be a pupil at Dulwich.

Billy would become MCC Secretary, including at the time of the abolition of Amateurs and Professionals at the end of Season 1963.

As Second-in-Command of the 6^th Airborne Division, he took part in the D-Day landings and the Battle of Arnhem (commemorated in the 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far), where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His son Mike (a Cambridge blue at Cricket, Hockey and Racquets) would captain Sussex between 1968 and 1972 and become President of the MCC. 

In WWII, Hugh Bartlett served in the Glider Pilot Regiment and later served as the second-in-command to Billy Griffith.

He commanded the 'A' squadron and took part in three major operations - the airborne assault at Normandy on the D-Day, the Battle of Arnhem, and the Rhine crossings.

In August 1945, Hugh Bartlett was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for serving as a glider pilot in Arnhem.

 

Looking back, I like to think that Jack and Fred would both agree that 1^st September 1939 had been an Extraordinary Day watching Extraordinary Cricketers.

---

84 Seasons on … in April 2023 on I too was in the Deckchairs watching Yorkshire at Hove.

Looking out across the ground I thought of Jack and Fred.

Back in September 1939 Grandad Jack was about 10 years younger than Ol’ Ric is now.

And Fred – my Dad – about 40 years younger.

And as play started on Day 3… like them, I thought Sussex were well-placed.

Little did I know that by the end of the day Sussex would be hanging on grimly. And, but for the weather on Day 4, probably would have lost.

As I glanced at the scorecard, what might I tell Grandad and Dad about the Sussex XI in Season 2023?

As Del Boy said:

Plus ça change, Rodney, plus ça change!

Give the lady her change!

Of course, the Mrs Malaprop of Peckham Market had rather mistranslated the French.

Plus ça change,plus c'est la même chose

The more it changes, the more it's the same thing

In reviewing the Sussex Team of 2023, what (if anything) has changed in the last eight decades?

Two of the players started their professional careers at other Counties:

Ollie Robinson was coached by his step-father Paul Farbrace – the current Sussex Coach – before private school at King’s, Canterbury and then playing for Kent 2^nd XI, Yorkshire and Hampshire.

Tom Alsop was educated at Lavington School, a comprehensive in Market Lavington, Wiltshire. He played First Class cricket for Hampshire from 2014 to 2021.

Two of the players are from Overseas:

Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Nathan McAndrew attended university. Nathan is (probably) the first Civil Engineer ever to play for Sussex.

But unlike the XI in 1938 there are no Oxbridge Blues to be seen.

If you want to discover an Oxbridge Blue at Sussex Cricket, you will need to go to the CEO’s Office, where you will find Rob Andrew, who got Blues at Cambridge for both Cricket and Rugby. 

That leaves seven players who have come through the Sussex Pathway.

Compared with a UK average of 93% (13 in 14) of children being educated in State schools , all seven were Privately educated.

The mathematical Odds on that happening are 1 in 121 million. 

Sussex’s Equality, Diversion and Inclusion (EDI) policy starts with:

We want our communities to say, “I feel part of Sussex Cricket.”  

The Founder and Chair of the Aldridge Foundation and former Sussex President, Sir Rod Aldridge (who went to a secondary modern school in Portslade and started work at 16 as a post boy in the Treasurer’s Office at East Sussex Council), wrote an excellent article on Levelling Up:

It is not where you come from that matters, it is where you want to get to that counts.

All young people irrespective of their backgrounds, should experience both a skills-based and knowledge-based education and enriching experiences that equip and enable them to raise their expectations, improve their academic outcomes and create the rewarding and productive lives they choose.

Every young person deserves an equal chance at life. 

The Sussex Treasurer and Chair of the Cricket Committee, Fiona Richards, responded in a LinkedIn post:

This [Levelling Up] lies at the heart of any conversation on diversity and talent.

How can anyone claim to be building the best team possible, picking from across the entire talent pool, when that talent pool is formed only from certain parts of our communities?

Back in 1939 4 of the Sussex team were Privately educated. By 2023 that had increased to 7 (excluding one "import") of the 11. 

By comparison; in the 1930s around 8 in 10 Oxbridge undergraduates had been to Private schools. By the 2020s that was down by over two-thirds to 3 in 10.

I’m sure that much fine work is done by the Sussex Cricket Foundation, the Aldridge Cricket Academy and many others … 

But Really …

All seven Sussex Pathway cricketers from Private schools?

 

As I sat in the Deckchairs pondering just how much change there actually has been in Sussex cricket in the last eight decades…

I thought of what Karl Marx ( almost! ) wrote:

The Capitalist society has two social classes:

(i)                 the Ruling class bourgeoisie (capitalist class) who Play professional cricket; and

(ii)               the Working class proletariat who Watch

 

The Sussex EDI policy ends with:

We believe we have already made some progress on and off the field.

However we will continue to be better, challenging ourselves and each other to be accountable for our actions and behaviours.

 

Jack, Fred and I all think … There is a long, long way to go !!

Ol’ Ric

Pondering in the Deckchairs

 

PS

After Close of Play and feeling rather dejected ...  

As I caught the train back from Brighton to East Croydon and then Tram and Bus across South London to Bickley, it was a time for Reflection.

I thought of what the 35^th POTUS said:

“All of us do not have equal talent.

But all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.”

JF Kennedy

 

With the current Odds of 1 in 121 million … Is that yet the situation in Sussex Cricket?