The Cricket Journal of Geoffrey Webb

There was also general delight that the Nursery, effectively sanctioned at the end of 1934, was now going to start. S. H. B. Livingstone guaranteed a sum of £300 so that the club would not have the burden of financing it. Six young players were selected to be part of it starting in the 1936 season. One of these, Gerry Lester, was involved with the club for the next 30 years, and George Dawkes was one of the best wicket keepers never to be selected for England, though most of his cricket was played for Derbyshire. Geoffrey Webb was originally chosen to be the Nursery coach. (pages 128, 129, 132, 133) Another crisis – The financial problems of 1936 and 1937 The absence of many entries for 1936 (page 133) is indicative of the major problems facing Geoffrey Webb during that year (pages 133A to 133G). Captain Loseby was now starting to exert an influence over the committee with his energy and ideas. At the end of his time with Leicestershire, Webb wrote some briefing notes for his successor, Captain J. A. M. Skinner, and these include some loaded remarks about the activities of Captain Loseby, his 100 club, and the accommodation that needed to be provided for them at Aylestone Road and at out grounds such as Ashby. The underlying tone was that Captain Loseby was probably honest and did not divert funds that should have gone to the club for his own ends, but that his activities and modus operandi were not approved of. Maybe this started with a comment made by Loseby at the general committee meeting of 23rd June 1936. Here it was stated that Lieut. Commander Webb had been originally appointed as ‘Secretary Coach’, but Captain Loseby asserted that the main purpose of the club secretary was to increase membership and obtain donations. It would doubtless have irked the secretary to have the distribution or redistribution of his duties discussed by the ‘office sub committee’, whose members included Captain Ruddle and Captain Loseby. In any event, gate receipts were down in the wet summer and a loss of £2,000 was predicted, and consequently a large overdraft. The final straw for Webb must have been to discover in December that his typist had been stealing: £11-16-0 of Insurance money and £18-12-6 in subscriptions. A letter sent out to members in early January 1937 (pages 135 to 141) had little effect, and on 29th January, 1937, a meeting was held at Winn’s café in the Market Place in Leicester (pages 142 and 143), to discuss once more the committee’s resolution, that the club be closed down. Four hundred members attended as well as 18 members of the general committee, including Sir Julien Cahn The club was fortunate that Lindsay Everard was MP for Melton Mowbray, and he effectively made the alternatives before the members clear; (pages 146 and 147) 1. To pay off the debt of £2,000 and find a £1,000 a year for the next three years. 2. Adjourn for a fortnight. 3. Wind up the club immediately. He said that he did not have the time or the inclination to be involved in fund raising pleas each year. Those present needed to decide whether they wanted a cricket club or not. Happily there were many pledges, the support from the press was quite magnificent throughout, and this was in no small part due to the help that Geoffrey managed to elicit from them. Though the club lost £1376 in 1937 (pages 148 to 152) , it was only £80 in 1938 (pages 153 to 161G), by which time, with the funds from various appeals received in full, there was almost £1500 in the bank, and Leicestershire’s future was as secure as it had been at any time in the past decade.