posted by Tony Hutton
RAMBLINGS OF A PROFESSIONAL CRICKET
WATCHER
Talk given
to Headingley Rotary Club at Devonshire Hall on Tuesday 19.9.1995
The English
cricket season ended yesterday, so it is appropriate for me to be speaking here
today, especially so as I was born only a few hundred yards away, just across
the main road. In addition I have spent a large part of the last twenty years
watching cricket and rugby league at Headingley.
My talk is
not just about cricket, but about travel, triumph and tragedy, a few attempts
at humour and a great deal about Australia.
The first
major match I saw was just down the road in 1947, when England played South
Africa and my famous namesake, Leonard Hutton, made a century. I have been
hooked on cricket as both a player and spectator ever since.
My business
career was spent in the insurance industry, the last thirty years with one of
the major life assurance companies. Three years ago, I was given the unlikely
title (unlikely to anyone who knows me), of technical manager for north east
England. Some people thought I was the man who changed the light bulbs.
In actual
fact, I spent much of my time addressing seminars and staff meetings on matters
relating to company pensions, so I was a little worried when Kevin first asked
me to speak, thinking that he wanted me to talk about pensions. Fortunately he
asked me to talk about my cricketing travels, as I have probably already
forgotten all I ever knew about pension schemes.
Having in
many ways been cushioned from the real world by my big company benefits such as
company car, cheap mortgage, private health insurance and non-contributory
final salary pension scheme, it was all suddenly brought to an end two years
ago, when following major reorganisation, I was made redundant at the age of
55.
Obviously it
came as a shock at first, but fairly quickly I came to the conclusion that it
was one of the best things to happen to me. A reasonable level of pension meant
that I soon rejected the idea of finding another job. It gave me a new
beginning and the opportunity to do all the things I wanted to do – rather that
what other people had told me to do for the last 38 years or so.
My major
interests have always been of a sporting nature, initially soccer – but now
mainly cricket and rugby league. Add to this an interest in travel and the
scene was set for one of the most enjoyable periods of my life, culminating in
an amazing last twelve months, when many of my boyhood dreams and ambitions
have come to pass.
I have been
involved in Leeds Hospitals Radio sport since 1981 as part of a team which
bring live commentary on all cricket and rugby league played at Headingley. Of
course these days commentators mistakes are so frequent as to warrant books of
‘Colman balls’, such as players having ‘pissed their fatness test’ or the Leeds
United commentator who got their centre forward, Tony Yeboha’s name wrong. It
came out as ‘guide me o thou great Yehoba’.
My best know
contribution to this came one evening when I was booking in at St James’
Hospital reception, where we use a studio for Friday evening programmes. The
man on the reception desk said ‘was it you doing commentary on Leeds rugby
league on Wednesday night?’ When I replied in the affirmative he said ‘do you
know what you said?’ Of course I had no idea.
Apparently
when Hull K.R. scored the match winning try I am alleged to have said ‘that’s
the last coffin in the Leeds nail’.
Despite this
I was able to spend more time as a cricket commentator, particularly in
mid-week and was also able to assist in the recruitment and training of a new
influx of cricketer commentators two years ago. This had put me in touch with
many new friends from varying walks of life, all of whom shared my sporting
interests.
Many of us
(all retired) now travel together to watch often obscure cricket matches, many
of a three men and a dog variety. I think it was the former Archbishop of
Canterbury, William Temple, who once described cricket as ‘organised loafing’.
Some of my friends might agree with this but we found an even better
description of our activities one day last summer at Todmorden, while attending
a Yorkshire v Lancashire second XI match.
A group of
hearty Lancastrians seated nearby greeted an elderly latecomer as follows –
‘Now then, George, what have you been doing with yourself?’ To which came the
immortal reply ‘I’ve been doing nowt at my own pace’.
However
there was a more serious side to all this, as it took some time for my wife and
I to come to terms with our new status. We had quite a large redundancy lump
sum to play with, but thinking ahead (my parents are both still going strong
over eighty), it might have to last us a very long time. What would the
purchasing power of our pension be worth in 20 or 25 years time?
So some was
invested for a rainy day (fortunately not many of those so far), some paid off
a large slice of our mortgage and also bought the company car.
Economies
had to be made but surely we could spend some of it on enjoyment. Having
visited a cousin in Perth, Western Australia, four years ago, a decision to go
again for seven weeks to coincide not only with our silver wedding, but the
opening matches of England’s cricket tour of Australia last winter, was easy to
make.
We would
combine sightseeing with visiting family and watching cricket and carefully
planned our itinerary with the help of specialist sports travel firm Gulliver’s
Travels, who we had travelled with as part of a group on our previous visit
down under.
This time we
would be travelling on our own, but still managed to get various discounts for
both hotels and travel. Our route would take us from Perth to Adelaide, then on
to Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmania before taking a break from cricket in Cairns
to visit the Barrier Reef. Then on to Brisbane for the first test match and
finally back to Perth for day night internationals between Australia and
Zimbabwe, before returning home early in December.
This proved
to be only half the story as having booked this trip early last summer, I
happened to read in the small print of the sports page of the Wharfedale Observer
(hidden away amongst the league cricket scores) details of a competition for
amateur cricket commentators being run by Wilkinson Sword.
All that was
initially required was a tape of two overs cricket commentary to be judged by
David Gower and Jonathon Agnew, who would select twelve semi-finalists. I sent
off my tape and to my surprise got a letter a few weeks later asking me to
report to Edgbaston for a county match between Warwickshire and Notts. This was
to take part in a recorded commentary session with Messrs Gower and Agnew as
summarisers and judges to select three finalists. The final would be held at
the one day international between England and South Africa at Old Trafford.
Now here
comes the interesting bit. The prize for the winner would be a ten day holiday
for two at the Sydney Test starting on New Year’s Day 1995 plus two nights in
Singapore on the return journey.
Thanks to
some knowledge of the Notts team, some of whom had played league cricket in
Yorkshire, I managed to get selected for the final. By this time the
competition had started to receive media attention and on the night before the
final I was interviewed by John Inverdale on Radio 5, by Kevin Howells on Radio
Leeds and the one and only Syd Waddell guesting on Hospital Radio.
The three
finalists were kept on tenterhooks all day at Old Trafford and our times for
commentary kept changing and in the end it was all done in rather a rush. I
cannot say I did myself justice, but in the tea interval the winner’s
commentary was played live on Test Match Special and to my amazement and my
wife’s listening at home, my voice was heard.
We now faced
a serious problem – should we stay in Australia after our seven week holiday or
should we come home for Christmas and go back again. After some deliberation we
decided to come home for three weeks in December for a family Christmas and to
return for our free trip on 27th December.
Our first
trip starting in October was amazing, starting with ten days at my cousin’s
home in Perth, with their own swimming pool in the garden. Apart from lot’s of
sightseeing, we saw England’s warm up match at Lilac Hill, with some of the
stars of the past like Lillee and Thompson and the Chappels, as well as a young
19 year old Ricky Ponting. One of the
Aussie fans sitting near us had a long drainpipe with him. It took a little
while to work out why, then we saw him extracting tins of beer from the pipe
which was packed with ice.
We also saw
England play Western Australia at the WACA ground in Perth in marvellous weather
and with excellent facilities. Then it was time to move on to Adelaide, one of
our favourite cities and certainly the most picturesque of the Test grounds
where England beat South Australia despite cold temperatures, rain and strong
winds blowing from the Antarctic. We deserted the cricket on the last day to
have a trip to the Barossa Valley wineries, but on our return mid-afternoon I
studied the scoreboard with the aid of my binoculars from the hotel bedroom to
see that England were in a winning position.
So a quick
jaunt across the park and the Torrens River enabled me to see Darren Gough hit
the winning runs. The Adelaide ground was a picture with views of the cathedral
from the Don Bradman stand and managed to visit the ancient wooden scoreboard,
which is in fact a listed building.
No cricket
to watch in Melbourne, but did the tour of the Melbourne cricket ground, which
is huge and more like a bull ring than a cricket ground. It is the home of
Aussie Rules football and the museum reflects that as well as a great
collection of cricket memorabilia.
We
celebrated our silver wedding with dinner on the fortieth floor of our hotel in
Melbourne, together with a long lost uncle from Leeds. Enjoyed travelling round
the city centre by tram, just like Leeds in my boyhood days.
Then on to
Sydney for our first ever visit where we did all the tourist things, the
harbour cruises, the wonderful beaches and trips to the Blue Mountains. A great
place to visit and we were so happy to be returning in January.
Next,
another first, this time to Hobart in Tasmania where England were playing a
four day warm up game against an Australian XI before the first test.
Tasmania is
another fascinating place to visit and we fitted in a lot of trips around the
cricket at the Bellerive oval, which is almost surrounded by the waters of the
Derwent River estuary and approached across the Tasman Bridge from Hobart. Here
I flashed my Yorkshire membership card and was not only allowed access to the
members’ pavilion, but presented with a free yearbook and allocated two lady
members to look after me all day, including a lift back to the hotel.
I had
already discovered that nearly every Australian of a certain age has a Don
Bradman story. One of my lady minders told me of her experience as a girl in
1948 when, before travelling to England, the Australians played on the old
Hobart ground. She left school at four o’clock, raced up the hill to the ground
only to discover that Bradman had just been out. She never saw him bat.
I
sympathized and said I saw him field at Headingley in 1948, but also never saw
him bat.
Next, we
flew north again, via Melbourne to Cairns and the tropical heat of Queensland.
We stayed at a beautiful resort hotel, with lots of pools and the highlight was
our not to be missed boat trip out to the Barrier reef, as well as train and
coach trips into the rain forests.
On to
Brisbane, a very attractive city along the banks of the river. One of the most
amazing sites was a sweating Father Christmas in the shopping precinct
surrounded by Christmas decorations in the heat of the day.
The first
test set the tone for the whole series, when the first ball was hit for four by
Michael Slater. England were totally outplayed with Slater, Taylor, the Waugh
brothers and Shane Warne just too good. Enjoyed talking with spectators from
both sides, including an 80 year old Australian solicitor, who had seen all the
great players of the past, including of course Don Bradman.
A large
number of elderly Englishmen and women, with Gulliver’s tour, called themselves
the ‘Sanatogen Army’, greater in numbers than the Barmy Army, but certainly a
lot quieter.
Finally back
to my cousin’s in Perth for more excellent hospitality and some relaxing
cricket between Australia, Australia A and Zimbabwe. Other memories involve
fish and chips on the tram in Freemantle and watching the sun go down over the
Indian Ocean.
Then back to
the English winter for three weeks before we did it all again and set off back
to Sydney for what turned out to be Gough’s test match and the day when
Atherton declared with Hick on 98 not out.
