The Twelfth Man 2019

Above: John Arlott – Society Patron and supporter from the 1950s until his death in 1991. Below: Front cover of the 1981 Twelfth Man magazine that contained a special tribute to the Society’s senior Patron and glowing words about John Arlott’s final visit to Wombwell in April that year. Ten years later and barely months before his death, John penned a tribute to WCLS for the 40th Anniversary celebrations. He wrote: ‘I convey my best wishes to those of the Womb- well Cricket Lovers’ Society who have been so faithful and behaved in such good taste, in pur- suing their aim of loving the game of cricket and spreading its gospel as far as they can.’ John Arlott had been a Society Patron for 21 years when he passed away on 14 December 1991. In the spring of 1992 WCLS dedicated one of their youth coaching classes awards in his memory – that would have pleased him. The John Arlott Memorial Scholarship had joint winners that year: Christopher Horbury and Blake Ker- shaw. The John Arlott Memorial Award remains a part of the annual coaching class presentations evening to this day – an enduring tribute to one of Wombwell’s great supporters and friends. The waves hold back from Alderney’s shore The gulls keep their silent vigil overhead The umpires confer about the light The microphones still say: John Arlott is dead Now claret gathers more dust in his cellar And all the vintage years have gone He took his best bottles with him For he drank deep in everything he’d done The waves resume their commentaries The gulls begin to cry again In easeful glide, their fly-past salutes Cricket’s voice and cricket’s pen He is here. Pen poised above paper Swirling the rhythms around his tongue His poems are wanting to be read And his hymns are waiting to be sung He is here. Microphone at hand His unique voice in the sound archives Getting the message of cricket So lovingly across the waves In closing this reflection it is worth reading again the poem by Colin Shake- speare (another WCLS visitor in the 1980s and ‘90s) who was moved to write his own tribute after Arlott’s death; it appeared in the 1993 Twelfth Man. 08 09