Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Year Book 2014

11 www.sheffieldcricketlovers.org.uk Growing up in Yorkshire in the 50’s I suppose it was inevitable that a love of cricket would be ingrained in me, not that I was ever any use as a player mind you. Sunday afternoon drives in the country were always enlivened by the sight of a village cricket match when we’d pile out of the car - Mum and Dad dozing in a deck chair, kids playing round the boundary. Once a year we’d go to the St George’s Road ground in Harrogate to watch our Yorkshire heroes play. Fiery Fred was our favourite of course but I have memories of Don Wilson, Doug Padget, Phil Sharpe (picked for England because he could catch!)Ray Illingworth and others. Of course, the best bit of the day was when we were allowed on the field during the lunch break. The Dads would stare at the pitch and make wise pronouncements about its durability while we kids would pile up our coats for a wicket and get on with playing a Test Match. Am I alone in thinking that some Test Match venues could relax a little about letting spectators on the pitch during the lunch break? If we fast forward 50 odd years I find myself in the happy position of living in a house in London with a cricket pitch at the bottom of my garden. My back gate opens on to mid off - thank god it’s not cow corner! What’s more, for the past four years I have been the Chairman of Hampstead Cricket Club and our crowning glory, having won the Middlesex Cup last year, was to win the Middlesex Premier league title this year for the first time. It cost me some ferocious bar bills I can tell you. Hampstead CC is a club with a proud history much of which we will celebrate in style in 2015 which is our sesquicentenary (that’s 150th anniversary to you and me) and I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I boast about one event in our past. A E Stoddart was a giant of late 19th century cricket who captained England to victory over the Australians in Australia as well as playing for England ten times at rugby union. However, on the 4th August 1886, having been up most of the night playing cards with his friends, he scored and astonishing 485 runs in a single day for HCC a then world record. Hampstead’s total was a scarcely credible 813 for 9 As this was in the days before declarations the opposition never got to bat. The name of the opponents? The Stoics. Rather apt really. Now some of you might know that I play Carson the butler in a TV series called Downton Abbey. At the end of series three we filmed a cricket match- the house versus the village. Of course all my fellow actors , knowing my love of cricket, were expecting great things of me. I kept telling them that I was the Chairman not the captain and that in the same way they wouldn’t expect the Chairman of BA to fly the plane they shouldn’t expect me to be able to play to any standard. Well I’m proud to say that Carson only bowled one ball and that he had Dr Clarkson caught in the covers off that ball and nothing will persuade me to tell you how many times we had to shoot that piece of action till we got it right. Enjoy your cricket and fingers crossed that the weather is as kind to us in 2014 as it was in 2013. Jim Carter An Acting Cricket Lover