Flying down to Egypt

posted by John Winn

When it comes down......heads.

In a recent posting Brian mentioned an eleven taken by patron of cricket Hubert M Martineau to Egypt. If the name seems familiar and you are a long serving reader of the blog it may be because as recently as October 2017 I posted the above photograph and have written about Martineau on several other occasions as far back as 2013. The photograph dates back almost 100 years and it was taken at Martineau's private ground in Berkshire, a ground where cricket was first played in 1886 and where the facilities were good enough to attract touring teams including Australia, New Zealand and West Indies. The man looking into the heavens is thought to be Australian captain Herbie 'Horseshoe' Collins and the man on the right Norfolk legend Michael Falcoln, on this occasion captain of the Minor Counties. Given that Collins is padded up the toss looks something of a formality although it may give greater credence to the explanation for Collins' nickname being the result of his good fortune with the toss. 

On this occasion Herbie's luck held true and Australia batted first in what was their first match of their 1926 tour, a two day match reduced to one by rain. Collins made only 13 out of Australia's total of 179 all out and Minor Counties replied with 115 for 4. 

I first came across HM Martineau when researching cricket in Swaledale for he was President of the Swaledale Cricket League when it was founded in the 1920s. Last year I pushed the boat out and purchased a copy of his biography 'My Life in Sport' which proved something of a disappointing read at least for a cricket enthusiast.The cricket section does stretch to nearly 200 pages but nearly 150 pages of that are  given over to scorecards for Martineau's own XI, The Water Martins who played against teams like Devon Dumplings, Hampshire Hogs, Eton Ramblers and Butterflies. 

Martineau's other sporting interests included Bobsleighing at St Moritz, Ice Skating, Horse Racing and Shooting. He owned large estates in Swaledale, hence his connection with cricket in that most lovely of dales, and there is a page in the book  listing the number of grouse shot on Reeth Estate 

every year from 1858 to 1967. 

Back to the cricket section and the trips to Egypt. Martineau's XI was not the first to go that country, I Zingari had played there in the nineteenth century. Hubert first took a side in 1929 and the spring time excursions lasted until 1939. Until that last trip journeyswere always made by ship, a week each way, and with four weeks devoted to cricket the teams were away for six weeks. To overcome this Martineau decided in 1939 to fly his team out, the first time any cricket side had flown. This reduced the journey time to 36 hours including an overnight in Brindisi. A benefit of this was that 'Pops' as Hubert was known was able to assemble a stronger side including two England captains, Bob Wyatt and FR Brown, TN Pearce and a number of Oxford and Cambridge blues. 

The last tour finished with a match against All Egypt, who from the scorecard appear to have been all English, at Alexandria. Despite a heavy first innings deficit Water Martins won by 125 runs bowling out 'Egypt' for 50 in their second innings. On their last night in Egypt celebrations went on until their 4:00 am flight so that when they reached Rome FR Brown 'happiest of party-goers' thought that they were still in Alexandria.