A Lesson for Life

 Privilege & Performance 

at the Top of English Cricket

Ahead of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s (ICEC) Report, which is due “soon” …

A Tale of Two Robins, a Don, a Keith, a Straussy and … 

a Young Jim (for once – not that one!).

Travel with me along the Sussex Coast …

From two long-forgotten games at the old Central Ground, Hastings in 1948 & 1951 – via an article in the Sunday Times in 1986 and a Times’ Obituary in 2022 – to cricket at Hove Actually in 2023.

With Odds of 14½ million to 1 ...

     [ No need to shout out Ipse Dixit - there is a Mathematical Proof is in the Appendix! ]

Taking the Long View... from Up in the Deckchairs Ol’ Ric answers the ICEC’s Exam Question:

Do the Best Players get to Play?

PS

In the 1951 game Sussex were playing the Old Rivals: Kent.

A 20 year old was making his debut for Sussex.

When he took his second Championship wicket (the Kent No.4, a very promising 18 year old), the debutant achieved something that if you & I watched cricket for a “Thousand” Years I am ( 99% statistically !! ) confident we would never see repeated …

I know  ... Watching cricket with me & having to listen (yet again!) to my Young Jim stories …

Even a Single Day can seem like a Thousand Years !!

 Hi everyone!

The Times publishes Obituaries six days a week, Monday to Saturday. Over the last half a century I must have read tens of thousands: from those of individuals known across the globe to those who … let’s just say, not known by me!

On Saturday 1 October 2022 the Obituary showed a photo of a man (with his dogs) who had died the previous day, aged 91.

Veteran Sunday Times Cricket Correspondent

As I read the Obituary of a life well-lived, I thought back almost 40 years to the mid-1980s when I worked in Belgium.

Living in Avenue de l’Atlantique in the eastern suburbs of Brussels, my journey to work usually involved walking along Montagne aux Ombres and Avenue Mostinck and then through the Parc de Woluwe to the office at 360 Boulevard du Souverain.

But on Mondays I would vary the route to walk up to the Eglise Notre-Dame Chant d’Oiseau, where Pope John Paul II stayed in May 1985.

Eglise Notre-Dame Chant d’Oiseau

Opposite the Eglise was a newsagent that sold English newspapers, a day in arrears of publication.

On Monday 28 April 1986 I called in to buy the previous day’s Sunday Times.

That lunchtime I read an article in the Sports Section which included this sentence:

 I owe him that special debt of gratitude which comes from being taught A lesson for life.

The Cricket Correspondent, Sunday Times 27 April 1986

What is it about this particular article - now written almost 4 decades ago – that I so, so remember?

Who was the author, the Cricket Correspondent of the Sunday Times?

To answer that question, we need to go back almost a further 40 years from 1986 to the morning of Wednesday 1 September 1948.

That morning a 17 year old boy was waiting for the bus in the High Street at Mayfield, a Sussex village on the A267 about 9 miles south of Tunbridge Wells.

A tale which claims to be about a 17 year old boy standing at a bus stop 75 years ago ... 

When I confess that I have never had any contact with that 17 year old at any stage in his long life, the Classicists & Lawyers amongst you may well be crying out:

Ipse Dixit – Assertion without proof!!

 My Lord, as Evidence I refer to The Sunday Times of 7 July 2007:

With my appetite already whetted by two schoolboy appearances at Lord’s, I caught the bus outside the family farm at Mayfield in East Sussex, changed at Heathfield for the slow old Southdown to Hastings, and joined the horde heading to watch these giants [the Australians] play against the South of England.

Further east in Sussex Jack & Fred (my Grandad and Dad) were also heading to Hastings to watch the game. They too were on a bus; the Dengate bus to Hastings, which they caught at Horns Cross, a hamlet a couple of miles south of Northiam.

By just after 11 o’clock ahead of play beginning at 11.30 Jack & Fred and the 17 year boy were in the Central Ground.

Even though it was a midweek Wednesday, there was huge crowd. As 2007's article in The Sunday Times reported: Thousands sat on the grass.

So, what of the Exam Question: Do the Best Players get to Play?

I can tell you that Wednesday now long, long ago there were some Wonderful Players, some of the Best Ever.

9 were / would be Wisden Cricketers of the Year: 4 for the South of England and 5 for the Australians.

And of the just 25 batters who have scored 100 or more First Class 100s - 2 were playing, 1 for each XI.

 Let’s take a look at the South of England XI:

The Nos 10 & 11 bowlers were quality County Professionals.

Reg Perks played more than 500 matches for Worcestershire. He is the only man to take two thousand wickets for the county: his final total of 2,143 Worcestershire wickets (out of 2,233 in all) is easily a county record, being more than 500 victims clear of second-placed Norman Gifford.

Across his career for Gloucestershire, Sam Cook took 1,782 wickets at an average of 21.

The other two Professionals were:

Charlie Barnett: who had started his career for Gloucestershire as an Amateur. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1937.

Denis Compton: his career of 123 First Class centuries included scoring an all-time record 3,816 runs in 1947. Along the way he also won a FA Cup winners medal with Arsenal!

One of seven Amateurs, Bill Edrich, started as a Professional. His 3,519 runs in 1947 is second on the all-time list to his Middlesex teammate Compton’s 3,816. Bill played 39 Tests for England.

The other six were top Amateurs, all from Private schools.

5 would play for England: Trevor Bailey, George Mann (the first son to follow his father - Frank - as captain of England), Bryan Valentine (7 Tests for at a batting average of 65) and two Sussex Captains Hubert Doggart (future President of the MCC) and Billy Griffith (future Secretary of the MCC).

The other Amateur was Tony Mallett, who played at Dulwich with Trevor Bailey. Wisden considered that "no school has ever possessed two such cricketers at the same time."

All six were Oxbridge Blues.

Where have all the Oxbridge Blues gone in Cricket?

The Australians too had a very strong team.

The bowlers included Bill Johnston: a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, "no Australian made a greater personal contribution to the playing success of the 1948 side", regarded by his Captain that day as Australia's greatest-ever left-arm bowler.

Ray Lindwall, one of five children of Irish-Swedish descent, had a difficult childhood during the Great Depression, with both parents dying before he left school.  With Keith Miller, he formed one of the greatest ever new ball pairs.

Turning to the batters, the Nos. 4 & 5 both scored centuries – Lindsay Hassett: 151 & Neil Harvey: 110.

Hassett would captain Australia on their next tour to England, in 1953. 

His epitaph from Richie Benaud is the one I’d like on my Gravestone:

 There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, 

but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime.

But though there were 21 other tremendous cricketers at Hastings, in truth the huge crowd had come to see just one player: the Australian Captain, the No. 3.

Just 5 feet 7 inches tall, 4 days before the game he had turned 40 years old.

Born in Cootamundra some 240 miles west of Sydney, he grew up in Bowral 75 miles south of Sydney.

He learnt his cricket using a stump and a golf ball, practising against a water tank mounted on a curved brick stand, where the ball rebounded at high speed and varying angles. 

No Private school or Oxbridge Blue for this top batter.

And the crowd didn’t have long to wait to see him… For when the first wicket fell with Australia yet to record a single run (Sid Barnes out for a Duck caught Griffith bowled Bailey), the scorecard records that DG Bradman – The Don – walked to the wicket.

When Wisden came to select its Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, of the 100 experts asked all 100 voted for The Don.

Of the 117 First Class centuries the Don scored, Dad saw two in 1948 - Hove:109 and Hastings: 143.

I grew up hearing - very regularly!! - the stories of those two games …

For some games are never to be forgotten

It really was a day when: … 

the Best Ever Batter played!

By Close of Play the Australians had scored a massive 406 for 3.

As Jack & Fred and the 17 year old boy made their ways back across Sussex, what a tremendous day’s cricket they had seen.

---

And when History came to write their Obituaries, what did it say?

Jack & Fred both led worthy lives, for they were decent working class folk.

And the 17 year old?

7 decades later, his long life would be described in the Times Obituary on 1 October 2022.

It was a Life of Glittering Prizes.

After school at Harrow, he would go to Cambridge, winning Cricket Blues in 1951,1952 and 1953, the latter as Captain.

Three seasons after watching from the grass, he would debut for Sussex against the Old Rivals: Kent at the very same ground - the Central Ground, Hastings.

His first wicket was JGW ‘Jack’ Davies who was bowled for 39. And his second was a very promising  18 year old MC ‘Colin - MCC’ Cowdrey caught for 11.

The first cricketer ever to play in 100 Tests, MCC will be known to most of you reading this Blog.

But even lifelong Kent Fans may not have heard of Jack Davies. He played 99 games as an Amateur for Kent from 1934 to 1951. I’ll let you look him up in Wikipedia  - for Jack led a truly amazing life, full of achievements both in cricket and far, far beyond.

When the debutant had taken his second Championship wicket the two batters:

Had been to same school Tonbridge, where they had captained the XI !

Were Oxbridge Blues … as was the bowler !!

Would become Presidents of the MCC... as would the bowler !!!

If you & I were watched cricket for a “Thousand” Years I am (99% statistically) confident we would never see it repeated !!!

The young boy from Mayfield would become Sussex Captain from 1955 to 1959. Including v Kent at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells in June 1958 - the first game I ever saw.

After his playing days, he would become President of Sussex.

And … from 1970 to 1996 the Cricket Correspondent of the Sunday Times was... Robin Marlar.

---

So what did Robin write about in the article in 1986?

Just a few days earlier two of the Greats of English Cricket had died.

The article told a Top Tale about Bill Edrich; the one whom as a 17 year old Robin had watched almost 40 Seasons before.

But the heart of the article was about Jim Laker, a Professional who bowled off-breaks for Surrey and England.

At first sight, Laker and Marlar might well not have been close friends.

Jim Laker was born in Shipley in Yorkshire, brought up along with his 4 sisters by a single mother, a primary school teacher who was a cricket enthusiast.

Starting with cricket in the back garden with his sisters, he progressed to play cricket for his State school and the local club in Saltaire in the Bradford League.

In 1946, aged 23, he found himself playing for Catford Cricket Club in SE London, just off the South Circular.

By huge, good fortune, the Club President Andrew Kempton, a prominent Surrey member, saw Jim’s potential and introduced him to Surrey.  He made his first appearance against Combined Services later that Season. Within 2 years he was playing for England.

Jim would end his career with 1,944 wickets at 18, including 193 Test wickets at 21.

In 1956 at Old Trafford v Australia - immortalised as Laker’s Test - he took 19 wickets for 90 runs, a record that will surely never be broken.

Jim Laker at Old Trafford 1956

Marlar too was an off-break bowler and a good one: 970 wickets in 289 matches at an average of 25. But, as a City headhunter, he would have quickly spotted that there was a glaring gap in his own CV:

Never played for England.

Kept out of the team for the best part of a decade … by Jim Laker.

Almost 4 decades on from my first reading the article, I can well-remember what Marlar wrote:

As a player, as a commentator, as a coach, as a friend, Jim Laker was a special person, shrewd, funny and as dry as a Yorkshire twig.

He went on:

As one who bowled in his long shadow, I owe him that special debt of gratitude which comes from being taught A lesson for life.

Many people, thwarted in an ambition, come to take the view that the world is against them and, if the conviction feeds on itself, warping of personality is almost inevitable.

Any spin bowler trying to get into the England team when Laker was at his peak could have no argument with the selectors, no chip on the shoulder.

Marlar knew from his own personal experience that in England selecting Laker

The Best Player got to Play

--- 

Seven decades on … how would a Young Robin and a Young Jim fare in Cricket?

For Young Robin, school at Harrow will provide excellent facilities:

Surrounded by acres of sports fields, astroturf pitches, a golf course, a swimming pool, a sports centre, and numerous tennis, rackets and fives courts, we offer a breadth of sporting opportunities to match every interest and ability. 

And to match the facilities, boys benefit from the guidance of some of the country’s leading coaches, alongside Harrow's own beaks.

The Master in Charge of Cricket is Robin Martin-Jenkins, RMJ. He is very well-connected:

RMJ’s father was CMJ, Christopher Martin-Jenkins (Marlborough and Cambridge), doyen of Test Match Special and formerly Cricket Correspondent of both the Daily Telegraph and subsequently the Times.

RMJ was in the same year at Radley and then at Durham University as Andrew Strauss. Straussy is a double Ashes winning England Captain and the England and Wales Cricket Board’s go-to eminence grise.

RMJ had a distinguished playing career with Sussex. He was key member of all three of the Championship winning XIs in 2003, 2006 and 2007.

And in his early Seasons he played along alongside Keith Greenfield … who is the current Director of Pathways and Partnerships for Sussex Cricket.

A quick call from RMJ to his ol’ chum Keith …

Well, I’d have a thought a Promising Player at Harrow who is from Mayfield, Sussex would have a pretty decent chance of making his way into the Sussex Pathway. Waddya Reckon??!!

And as for Young Jim …

Perhaps...  growing up in much more challenging circumstances somewhere along the Sussex Coast.

Perhaps...  his Mum will be keen on cricket.

Perhaps… his school will play cricket.

Perhaps… he will find a welcome at the local cricket club.

Perhaps… someone somewhere will have a connection to Sussex Cricket.

Perhaps… there will be an outreach day by the Sussex Cricket Foundation.

Perhaps… he will be spotted by the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA), the State school partner of Sussex Cricket.

Perhaps… …

Perhaps… …

But you’ve got to be Optimistic … haven’t you?

After all, in 2023 England is a country where (even) the King recognises the importance of Opportunities For All.

 And, perhaps most importantly of all, my father [King Charles] has always understood that people of all faiths, all backgrounds, and all communities, deserve to be celebrated and supported.

Prince William, Coronation Concert, Windsor, 7 May 2023

Fingers Crossed, Young Jim !

Shine Brightly !!

Ol’ Ric

Watching On from Up the Deckchairs

 

PS

I know, Dear Reader, you’re thinking…

Come on, Ol’ Ric. Fine words butter no off-breaks 

You’ve been giving Advice the whole of your Life … Whether it was asked for or not!!

You must be able to offer Young Jim something more specific.

Well … funnily enough, there is something that might help you, Young Jim!

In Sussex’s latest game at Hove Actually, Two of the XI began their careers in other Countries:

Nathan McAndrew in Australia and Cheteshwar Pujara in India.

And Two with other Counties:

Tom Alsop with Hampshire and Ollie Robinson with Kent/Yorkshire. 

The other Seven all came through the Sussex Pathway:

All Seven completed their education in Private schools.

For the Odds of that happening:

See http://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2023/04/plus-ca-change-rodney.html

 

Of the Seven: 1 went to Ardingly, 2 to Hurstpierpoint and … 4 to Bede’s !!

With around 150 Secondary Schools in Sussex, the Odds of 4 players out of 7 coming from 1 single school are:

14½ million to 1 

[Dear Reader, could these really be the Odds?

See Appendix for the Mathematical Proof]

There’s no need to overly dwell on Binomial Distribution theory.

Over the Years, whenever I faced up to Odds of 14½ million to 1  ... I've known that it is time to deploy Bayes Theorem.

From your O Level maths half a century and more ago … You do remember Bayes, don’t you?

The conditional probability of an event, based on the occurrence of another event, is equal to the likelihood of the second event given the first event multiplied by the probability of the first event.

Simply put: We need some additional information to get a (significantly) modified outcome.

 

Young Jim, you’re tremendous young cricketer.

Full of the potential to be one of the Best who’s ever played.

Might I suggest that – the additional information we need is - I can help you with an application for a Scholarship at Bede’s!

You’ll really like Bede’s.

The website states:

"We no longer compete just at County and Regional level but are currently considered to be one of the top cricket schools nationally."

As the Bede’s CEO Peter Goodyer says:

Every child is unique, each possessing hidden talents which wait, like treasure, longing to be unearthed.

And if we all want to be confident that the Best Players get to Play whatever they aspire to achieve

Surely … We all want every child’s hidden talents to be unearthed.

=====

Appendix

Mathematical Proof

Note: Excel spreadsheet (including Data Table) is available on request.

Calculate the probability of 4 out of 7 people going to one school out of 150.

The Binomial Distribution is a probability distribution that models the number of successes in a fixed number of independent trials, where each trial has the same probability of success.

Let P be the probability that any one person goes to the school that the other 3 have already gone to, and Q be the probability that any one person goes to a different school. Then:

P = 1/150 (the probability of picking the same school as the other 3)

Q = 149/150 (the probability of picking a different school than the other 3)

Using the binomial distribution formula, the probability of 4 out of 7 people going to the same school is:

P(X = 4) = (7 choose 4) * (1/150)^4 * (149/150)^3

Where (7 choose 4) is the number of ways to choose 4 people out of 7 

7 choose 4 =

7 * 6*5*4 = 7*6*5*4 = 35

1*2*3*4      1*2*3*4

(1/150)^4 =    0.00000000197531

(149/150)^3 = 0.98013303703704

35 * 0.00000000197531 * 0.98013303703704 = 0.00000006776228

0.00000006776228 = 14,757,472

               1

For those who like Pictorial Representation:

 

And Finally …

For Fans of Bayes Theorem, time for a Data Table !!

For the Odds to be shortened from 14½ million to 1 to 8 to 1 …

Then Bede’s needs to be 50 times (150/3) better at producing cricketers than the average school.

Perhaps it really is!!

---

I felt it appropriate for my Schoolboy Maths to be Peer Reviewed.

You are probably thinking that I chose a Young Boy with Potential.

Perhaps someone at a Comprehensive in Sussex - where the Maths Department is struggling to attract & retain qualified teachers - who nevertheless has done really, really well & is heading into Years 12 & 13 (the old Sixth Form) with aspirations to get to Oxbridge.

But the Sad Truth is I don’t actually know a Young Boy like that.

So in the end I used my Connections  … and went for two friends who - 40 years ago and more – both studied and excelled at Maths at Oxbridge.

Which all goes to show …

Connections do matter !

&

Selection is far from easy !!