Rhubarb

14 St Edward’s r h u b a r b

The Corfe Cricket Club

f e a t u r e s

Chris Nathan - Archivist (G, 1954-1957) from an idea by David Nash (F, 1960-1964) The summer of 1955 marked the foundation of the Corfe Cricket Club within the School. The leadership and driving force behind this new and experimental venture were three well respected and admired members of the Common Room, namely the late Fran Prichard, whose obituary may be found in the Obituaries section of r h u b a r b , Brian (‘Gusty’) Gale and Duncan Williams. The aims of this new venture were to ‘combine members of the Common Room, staff and senior pupils, who for the most part could not find places in the first two Cricket XIs’. The whole purpose was to play a series of relaxed and enjoyable cricket matches, while at the same time breaking down some of the social barriers then normal in school life. Fran Prichard placed on record at the time that ‘the club tries to play a good many games away and to give amusing cricket to interested boys’. A small charge would be made (three to four old shillings per season) to help with the costs of transport, teas etc, - ‘The Corfe Exchequer is a minor department in a Benevolent Despotism with sides playing here as well as on their own grounds don’t usually charge for tea’! Once the club was underway, fixtures were usually arranged for the following year ‘over this year’s pint of beer’ - careful planning was needed so not as to upset the School’s own cricket itinerary, A Levels and the Martyrs matches. It soon became a common sight to see ‘cars outside Mac’s at appointed times which swallowed up a gaily dressed crowd of cricketers’. Old school colours came out of moth balls (including preparatory school attire) with elder members ‘in all their June finery - one dressed virtually from the waist

up in Cheltonian black and red with a pork-pie hat on top and another in the blazer which Uppingham so carefully designed not to resemble the Free Foresters’! Such was the variety and diversity on view, one nervous village side felt it necessary to state that they were only a small side and not a club! Regular opponents included Dorchester- on-Thames, Shipton-Under-Wychwood, The Baldons and Minster Lovell to name but a few. The locations were picturesque with the village pub and church usually in close proximity. Between 1955 and 1977, 30 members of the teaching staff (including one Warden), 156 pupils (including a later Chairman of Governors), seven OSE and 14 non-teaching staff and friends took part in matches. At a time when day to day school discipline was very buttoned down with penalties for deviation very severe, the Corfe Cricket matches provided a time of relaxation including turning a blind eye to such matters as having an after-match beer, usually ordered and paid for by one of the fraternity who, at other times, would be the very people dealing out retribution for breaking school rules such as these. It was a team of players and that was what mattered not the position they held at other times. The mix of the Corfe sides was a good and harmonious one and outstanding individual achievements were played down ‘in case the school stole them for the 3rd XI’ - one Common Room member was universally congratulated when scoring his first run in four years. By the second summer season the Club was obviously thoroughly enjoying itself and ‘with regards to results we broke about even which was satisfactory’ - this hides a multitude of sins including the open question ‘which member of the Common Room forgot to take his white flannels to one match’? The answer was ‘the same individual who had to play in

black shoes in another game, and then left his batting gloves behind on another occasion’! In a key match against Sandford, the ball was lost in the long grass which nearly resulted in a run-out when it was suddenly found and rapidly returned to the opposing wicket keeper! By their fifth season the club was able to boast that ‘we are on our second scoring book’! If the matches themselves were even half as entertaining as the reports of the games then it must have been a joy to play this kind of cricket in the 1950s. Their regular opponents were friends off the field but this did not detract from the cut and thrust of the games themselves. By 1960 the standing of the Corfe Cricket Club had reached a point where their score cards were being printed in the Oxford Times - including one match when the opposing captain hit sixes in all directions ‘necessitating prolonged searches along the river bank’ and another