John Winn's recent story about Somerset set me off quite easily on my own memories of this county's cricket history. I first saw the county play during a holiday spent with my family in a caravan at Watchet on the Somerset coast in 1952. To escape the rather claustrophobic family atmosphere, which included my young brother (eleven years younger than me) and a very energetic younger cousin, I took myself off for two days of cricket watching at Weston super Mare and Taunton.
The game at Weston was Somerset v Lancashire which was badly affected by rain. However I managed to see a good day's play on the first day during which Lancashire bowled the home side out for 141 and had made 48-1 by the close. Looking back at the scorecard of the day's events the star performer was one of the many amateurs who at that time came into the Somerset side during the summer holidays to the consternation of the lowly paid professionals. They were sometimes described as a cast of strolling players and the Somerset side of the thirties and forties was full of men with striped blazers and hooped caps.
I was aware of Micky Walford as a very good batsman who was a schoolmaster at Sherborne School, Dorset and only played first class cricket during the summer holidays. He was good enough to top the Somerset batting averages for several seasons. In this match he made top score of 61 and put on 50 for the first wicket with the county's star man of the time Harold Gimblett. However the rest of the side subsided rather quickly against the bowling of off spinner Roy Tattersall, who took 7-32 for Lancashire.
I am fairly sure this is the only time I saw him bat, as in the next match at Taunton Somerset were in the field all day against Hampshire whose runs were also compiled by two amateurs. Skipper Desmond Eager made 101 and the Reverend J.R. Bridger 97. So par for the course in those days, the amateurs scored all the runs and the poor old professionals did all the bowling.
However it was certainly Walford who took my eye and I was curious to read up on him recently to find out what an excellent all round sportsman he was. He was born at Norton, Stockton on Tees in 1915, went to Rugby School and then on to Oxford University, where he excelled not only at cricket but at both rugby union and hockey. He won 'Blues' in all three sports and had a trial for England's rugby side, playing at centre alongside the famous England winger Prince Obelensky. He did even better at hockey playing centre half in the Great Britain side which won a silver medal in the 1948 London Olympics.
Walford's highest score for Somerset was 264 against Hampshire at Weston super Mare in 1947. It was an innings which included forty fours and was only 28 short of L.C. Palairet's 1896 county all time record. In 1948 the Olympics restricted his appearances but on his return he put on 180 with Gimblett for the first wicket before his partner went on to score a triple century at Eastbourne. In that same season he was involved in a controversial run out of Len Hutton at Taunton.
Hutton left his crease to avoid impeding the wicket keeper as he attempted to take a throw in. The ball bounced out of the keeper's gloves and rebounded off Hutton's pads onto the stumps. Walford alone appealed and the umpire gave Hutton out. Apparently this incident remained on his conscience for many years. The following season, 1949, he made 763 runs in just nine games. 1950 saw yet another century at Weston, which must have been his favourite ground. In fact six of his nine centuries were scored there.
Just two more seasons before his time with Somerset ended but he carried on playing minor counties cricket for Dorset from 1954 to 1962. He had started his career in Minor Counties cricket with Durham back in 1937. He continued to coach the boys at Sherborne School in cricket, rugby and hockey and eventually became the school's second master. He died at Sherborne at the age of 86 in 2002.
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