Rhubarb

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14 St Edward’s rhuba rb
The Corfe Cricket Club
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
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 rh ubarb, 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
f e a t u r e s