The Cricket Journal of Geoffrey Webb

The cricketing side of Webb’s role is shown by the matches that he played (page 105). Leicester Town and Leicester Ivanhoe played home games at the county ground, with ex public schoolboys gravitating towards the Ivanhoe. Victoria Park, heart of the Leicester City League was the most important public ground in the city. If the county needed an extra player, then they would normally turn to the Ivanhoe for an amateur. The Shepshed match was another fund raising idea by the Vicar of Shepshed, the Rev. Harold Mack. Webb also played regularly for the Gentlemen of Leicestershire, who played mainly midweek games, with a tour of Cambridge Colleges and a week at Loughborough being the highlights, and also the Leicestershire Club and Ground side. Apart from helping him get to know Leicestershire, these cricketing commitments also gave him the chance to get to know other members of the Leicestershire committee. Of these, G. B. F. Rudd, C. J. B .Wood and A.T. Sharp all played for the Ivanhoe, T. B. C. Thorneloe and W. S. N. Toller for the Gentlemen and H. E. Clark was a prominent City League cricketer . (pages 106 and 107) Also in July 1933, Webb played against the West Indian touring team (pages 108 and 109), a match in which he also kept wicket. A severe injury to the only wicket keeper on the staff, Paddy Corrall, had caused the emergency. He took three catches and only conceded one bye in the West Indies first innings, but because Corrall’s injury was so severe they needed to sign a wicket keeper for the rest of the season. Fortunately, Tommy Sidwell, Corrall’s predecessor was able to join them and so Webb did not need to play again. It seems providential that in June 1933, Webb had been deputed to explain to Sidwell that he had been sacked because the club had no money. In other circumstances he would have been retained. Tommy Sidwell, it should be stressed was a 100% committed cricketer, who played his final games for his club, Leicester Nomads, only months before his death aged 70 in 1958. It speaks volumes for a club committee that it could disillusion such a passionate cricketer. The accounts for 193 3 (pages 109A to 109H) (the first year for which Geoffrey Webb was ‘responsible’) appear to show a profit of £2,303-1-0. This however includes £4,400 in donations, as well as deferred payments of £338 to professionals relating to 1932, and perhaps even more curiously, catering income of £349 relating to the same year. Though it is never mentioned, maybe S. C. Packer’s book keeping and control of the club’s finances were not as efficient as might be expected, or maybe the events towards the end of his tenure in office were difficult to control. The donations of £1,000 were from Sir Julien Cahn. Cahn, it must be said, passionate cricket aficionado that he was, had difficulty in being accepted by the cricketing powers and especially by the MCC. Leicestershire, which unlike the county of his first choice, Nottingham, could not be so particular, suggested that Cahn should become the county’s representative on the Cricket Advisory Committee. This he agreed to do. There was perhaps the sub-plot that in time he would become the club’s president. C. E. de Trafford, the club’s captain when they became first class in 1894, agreed to stand down. Cahn’s role on this august body is perhaps worth investigating: in fact there is no record of him ever having effectively represented Leicestershire’s interests at all. The nadir was probably the 1937 fixture list. Sir Lindsay Everard complained bitterly, at the meeting in December 1936, that there were too many home fixtures in May (five out of a total of thirteen), and he wondered if ‘their representative at Lord’s had fulfilled his undertaking’. In 1942, Sir Julien was repeatedly asked for a report on the CAC meeting at Lord’s, with no reply. In desperation (or so it would seem) he was asked whether he would be attending the meeting on 18th January 1944, to which he replied that he was too ill to attend. From that point onwards, these meetings were attended by Gordon Salmon. Cahn’s attendance at meetings of the committee also makes interesting reading. The accounts typically include the data on meetings to which he was ‘summoned’ and which he attended. He failed to attend any of the twenty- six meetings in 1937 and 1938 to which he was summoned. Perhaps more regular attendance would be expected when he became president in 1940? Alas, no. The meetings in early 1940 express the hope that he might attend one at some point, and indeed he does, on June 14th 1940, an event uniquely held at the Grand Hotel in Leicester. He expressed the view that he would support Leicestershire’s participation in the county championship when hostilities ceased, it would have been extraordinary if he had, as club President, supported any other course. During his early months as secretary, Webb also ensured that the county club paid for his membership of the County, Leicestershire and Constitutional clubs, seeing the networking opportunities being worthwhile.