Serendipity

posted by John Winn

Serendipity: 'making fortunate discoveries by accident' Chambers Dictionary

Earlier this week, having about fifteen minutes left before my parking permit expired I popped into the excellent Local Studies Room at Darlington Public Library where there were several displays relating to World War 1 and on a side table the bound volume of copies from January to June 1919,  of  The Northern Despatch, a local evening paper first published in 1914 'to bring you news of the war'. Latterly known as The Evening Despatch the paper ceased publication in 1986.

Access to back copies of this and its sister papers, The Northern Echo and The Darlington Stockton Times, is normally via micro film, a somewhat fiddly process. especially when we have become spoiled by the search engine,  and I opened the volume with the intention of looking at the state of local cricket in the first summer of peace. It fell open at the edition of Saturday March 1st and my eye was immediately arrested by this headline

 

HIS INNINGS ENDED AND HE PLAYED IT WELL

 

Death of a Brilliant Local Cricketer

 

 

 

The cricketer in question is seated on the grass, padded up, in this 1906 photograph of Haughton Le Skerne CC, his name was Albert Watson. The other player on the grass is my paternal grandfather, John Winn and the scorer is Roland Winn, my father's eldest brother, and captain of the club in the 1920s. Albert, despite long standing poor health was indeed a 'brilliant cricketer' for in age when outfields were mowed by grazing livestock and wickets were at best unpredictable, he headed the batting averages for six seasons out of seven and at a time when team scores often failed to reach three figures he regularly averaged twenty. In 1913 his aggregate was 404 with a top score of 53 and on a memorable day in 1907 he scored 113 not out of Haughton's total of 224 for 7 declared. Opponents Manfield and Cliffe were dismissed for 60. Cliffe CC ( and Haughton) continue to play in the Darlington District League to this day. When Cliffe parted company with neighbouring village Manfield is not known.

 

Cliffe cricket ground

Albert's reputation and performances were known to me and I was aware that he had 'met a premature end' and given his absence from the village war memorial it was unlikely that he had been a casualty of the war. As the report of his funeral describes his poor physical condition had made him vulnerable to illness and his death on Thursday February 27th aged 39 was from influenza. Tragedy is heaped on this sadness by the fact that his wife, also suffering from 'flu, had given birth to a still born baby just a day before her husband's death. Not surprisingly she is not amongst the list of mourners who were led by his father, sister and two brothers. Five of the other listed mourners are on the above photograph and amongst the pall bearers are Herbert Buckton, a Darlington footballer and standing next to the umpire in the picture, and my Uncle Roland, listed as Sergeant R Winn after war service in Mesopotamia.

 

The Despatch reports that 'Amongst the floral tributes was a beautiful wreath, 'In remembrance of Albert,from the Cricket Club-His innings ended and he played it well'. Nearly a hundred years on we might think this a bit corny, but not a bad way for cricketer to be thought of. And for me another piece in the jigsaw that makes up the history of the village were I was born.