Ramblings of a professional cricket watcher

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 27^th 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.