LCS Meeting Thursday 27 th October The guest speaker for this meeting Tim Jones Librarian and Archivist at New Road home of Worcestershire County Cricket Club (Many thanks to Tim for allowing me to take photos of his slides for this report) Tim is one of those people that you cannot help but be impressed by their enthusiasm and their depth of knowledge on their subject, and boy did this guy have them both in spades, talking about Worcestershire CCC. Last Thursday night about 120 members and guests came along to hear this interesting talk, about another county cricket club, and who would have thought that the audience would have been so appreciative. Tim is entertaining as well as informative; he s also got the right accent for me anyway, living closer to my neck of the woods. Not only did we get this fascinating talk. We got a custom made slide show as well to illustrate Tim s presentation.
This is one of those meetings that no amount of words could ever really do justice to. Tim had so many facts and figures, at his fingertips. It would be impossible to give a real feel of how well this talk was presented. For me the slides made the evening, I think that without these visual additions, just the breadth of his subject matter would have been difficult to keep up with. Start of our meeting Howard reading out the parish notices. (Many thanks to Mike Williams at Edgbaston; I pinched / borrowed his parish notices catch phrase) At the start of this meeting, Howard once again asked how many members would be interested in joining a trip to Old Trafford test ground; there were less than 20 people who showed an interest. The cost of coach hire and the stadium tour fee, meant that we would need a bare minimum of 40 people, to make the cost affordable and cover all the expenses. With this in mind the committee have decided that we cannot make a trip viable, and have cancelled the coach. Howard had been asked to announce the winter programme for the Friends of Grace Rd, http://www.friendsofgraceroad.co.uk/ please use this link to go to the Friends web site where you can get all the details. Howard was also asked, to tell our members, about the County Clubs annual Christmas Dinner, the county are looking for a pianist and an MC for this event; this amused the audience, as Howard had asked if anyone could help, there were no takers. However if any of our members knows someone who can play the normal Christmas carols and general party type music, I know the club would be very grateful. If you can help please contact Dan Nice on 0116 283 2128. The front row lads enjoying the evening.
Start of the evening and everyone is still unaware of how good a presentation this would be. Howard, told the audience in his introduction, that Tim s, love affair with cricket started by reading, listening and seeing pictures of the 1971 Ashes Tour of Australia. Glen Turner became Tim s schoolboy hero, after scoring over 1000 runs before the end of May; his fate was sealed as a lifelong supporter of the PEARS. This is a slide depicting the original ground that Worcestershire played on, donated by the Isaac family. Worcestershire CCC started life 1861, Tim told us that the great and the good of Worcestershire gathered together at the Star Hotel in Worcester, he said that illustrious names such as the Cobham family, the Coventry family, Roland Hill who was involved with the penny post, George Martin of Martin s Bank and The Marquis of Queensberry were all early patrons of the club, Tim said that the club was very well connected in those early days. Tim said that the County Crest of the 3 pears and a blue band across the middle, represent, three black pears that were presented to Queen Elizabeth 1 st when she visited Worcester in 1564. The blue band represents the River Seven. A very early item from Tim s collection, this ticket from 1896, allows a carriage and four people to attend four days of cricket. Now you pay to gain entrance and then again to park your car for one days play.
Worcestershire applied for first class status in the late 1890 s this is when the move to New Road took place. Tim told us that in those early days, the church owned the land, and the field was just that, a rough piece of ground. The county acquired the gentleman above, in the centre, Fred Hunt as the groundsman, from Kent. Tim told us about the counties tours this one to Australia in1903, When Reginald Erskine Foster scored more than the opposition on his own. Tim talked about the need for a new pavilion at New Road because of the flooding, and then showed us this slide. Tom Graveney pulling the first pint in the Tom Graveney lounge.graeme Hick formally opened this new pavilion in 2009.
Tim told us the Australian touring side to England always started there tour at New Road, he said that Don Bradman had played on the ground several times. The DON in 1934 and the Bradman Vase made in the Worcester Porcelain factory Tim told us a lot about another one of his hero s Basil D Oliveira. And of course no talk on New Road would be complete without something on the flooding. flooding, one showed people ice skating on the field. Tim showed lots of slides about the
One interesting fact that Tim told us about, when the ground is flooded, the groundsmen open a sluice gate at the far end of the ground, put on chest waders and agitate the silt with chains, so that most of that silt drains away through the sluice. Then the groundsmen get down to work, putting the square and the outfield back into a playing condition. I spoke with Tim at the end of the evening; he was very impressed by the number of people who came to the meeting. Many thanks to Janet and Phil I press ganged them into selling raffle tickets, and my thanks to Ken Schofield for his continued help, Ken always sells the winning tickets or so he would have you believe. The raffle this month took 115.25 thank you everyone for your generosity also thanks to all those who brought along items for me to use as prizes. It was Christmas present time for this month s Raffle
Just end with one last photo The memorial plaque on the right hand side was renovated by local school children. If any other society events secretaries are reading this, and haven t had Tim to speak. Then please add him at the top of you most wanted list, you or your members will not be disappointed. The next cricket society meeting is on Thursday 17 th November, when Richard Tomlinson, will be the guest speaker. Richard has written a book Amazing Grace: The man who was W.G. Please remember the PCA play on Tuesday 22 nd November; tickets can be purchased from the county office. PLEASE ALSO MAKE A NOTE THE DECEMBER MEETING IS ON WEDNESDAY 14 TH Phil Veasey On behalf of the LCS committee