Not a myth at all

posted by John Winn

When as a small boy I first began to follow county cricket there were two cricketers whose scores I particularly looked for. One was  C E Winn of Oxford University and Sussex, for obvious reasons. The other was the Somerset wicketkeeper Harold Stephenson who, according to my mother had visited our house, she would point out the very chair he had sat in,  because he was a friend of my dad's. This thrilled me at the time and I was always disappointed that Somerset struggled, they finished last for four consecutive years from 1952 to 1955. Stephenson's career with the west country club lasted 16 years and he was captain for a while in the early sixties. I'm not sure how he came to know my father although he was born on Teesside where my father worked for most of his working life but the explanation for his visit to 91 Hutton Avenue was that he played for N Winn's XI in a competition which is still competed for by teams from the Darlington area, the Eggleston Cup.

During the war, when most village cricket was in abeyance, individuals were allowed to enter teams in the cup and taking advantage of long summer evenings under double summer time the competition gave a boost to local cricket and large crowds attended the matches. Yesterday, whilst looking for something else* in the Darlington and Stockton Times for 1945 by chance  my eye caught an entry for a match between N Winn's XI and NFS ( not sure what that stands for) in this competition which was won by 8 wickets with H Stephenson 27 not out. Over the years a degree of cynicism had built up in me about the verity of  Harold's visit, and despite health warnings I had come to take it with a large pinch of salt,  but in a few moments my doubts were erased and looking further ahead I found a semi final victory over Darlington Corporation Transport and a stunning victory over The Darlington Forge in the final with a crowd of nearly two thousand present at the \Darlington Feethams ground. In case the opposition doesn't sound terrific, teams were allowed a maximum of three NYSD guest players and I assume HWS fell into this category. Not a bad 'ringer' for in 1950-51  Harold was part of a Commonwealth team that toured India and he played in two of the unofficial tests heading the batting averages for the tour as a whole, six not outs in eight knocks helping him to finish above Frank Worrell. Good call, Dad.

* the date of the first year of competition in the Vale of Mowbray League. I didn't find it but am sure it was not 1945.