Reg who?

posted by John Winn

'It all started with Denzil Batchelor' are the opening words of Harry Pearson's introduction to his book 'The Trundlers'. And so it did for me, for Denzil's was a name that struck a chord and on finding that he had died in 1969 I reached for the 1970 Wisden to search for his obituary but disappointingly found he only merited three lines yet his bibliography includes a biography of CB Fry, for whom he was secretary, and titles like 'A Gallery of Great Players from WG to the Present Day' and 'Great Cricketers', the book that had inspired Harry Pearson, and which was published posthumously in 1970.

In addition to his cricket books Batchelor also reported on cricket and rugby for The Times and was sports editor of Picture Post. Described at one time as 'the wittiest man in London' he also wrote on boxing and football and gained fame as a wine expert, broadcaster and novelist. Described by Pearson as a bon viveur it is perhaps not surprising that a heart attack brought about his death at 63.

Disappointed as I was not to find out more about DB my eye strayed to the opposite page and alighted on an obituary much longer than that written about  my original target. And if you thought Denzil Stanley Batchelor had something of a ring to it how about Reginald Henshaw Brindley Bettington? To me an unknown but one whose  life covered more than half a page in Wisden,

How does your cricketing cv compare with that of Reg?

• four years in OUCC XI, 1920 to 23,
• captain in his last year, the first Australian to captain Oxford
• blues for rugby and golf
• captain of New South Wales
• Australian amateur golf champion
• played for (amongst others) Middlesex, the Gentlemen v the Players*, Free Foresters (v Canadian XI 1922) 

As the above might suggest Reg was born in Australia and he went to Oxford from school in Sydney. For the dark blues his greatest hour came against Cambridge in 1923 when he took 11 wickets on a 'sticky' including 8 in the second innings. A leg spinner he took 54 wickets in the County Championship for Middlesex and in all first class cricket in England, over 300 wickets. Throw in over 3000 runs including five centuries and  a six into the Press Box at The Oval and RHBB seems to have been a fine cricketer.

After Oxford Bettington trained as a doctor at Bart's Hospital and at the time of his death he was the ENT specialist in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The life of this fine all round sportsman ended dramatically and tragically in June 1969 when his car fell 100 feet onto a railway line at Gisborne,  New Zealand. His older brother Brindley (Cecil John ) was also a leg spinner and played first class cricket for OUCC and New South Wales before his early death aged 32.

Finally a reminder that Jim the Cat will be licking his whiskers at Pudsey St Lawrence this Friday at 12 noon for 1:00 when the speaker will be Andrew Smith. Why not join us for a bit of pre Christmas cheer? Might be just the tonic you need after Adelaide.

* Including a trip to Scarborough in 1920.