Speaker John Watson talked about cricket

John said that from memory he had played 174 for ???? and more for wool Secretariat taking his total games to over 200 although he said that he was only a mediocre player.

He had been given a book by Henry Blofeld which had caused him to reminisce about some of the cricketing greats: -

Firstly Geoffrey Boycott now sir Geoffrey. He had heard it claimed that whilst playing a match at the age of 16 he was told that he had been called up by Yorkshire and so he walked off the field mid match saying I’m not playing for you lot anymore. Another rumour was that his favourite sport was golf and that one day at the age of 18 he was in shop buying golf equipment. The shop owner recognised him and persuaded him to buy 2 cricket bats instead. This was when he realised that he was becoming famous.

John said that one day he was coming back from London when he personally bumped into Geoff at Wakefield Station. Geoff had been doing book signing and he was struggling with 3 bags. John offered to take one over the bridge across the railway. It turned out to be a very heavy one as it was full of unsold books.

Although many people have said that Geoff’s style of cricket wouldn’t suit the modern game Blofeld felt that he would in fact have been a very good player at Bazball.

John then showed a group photograph of several players and commentators including Fred Trueman, Brian Johnston, Henry Blofeld, Bill Frindle and Christopher Martin Jenkins. Of these John said that Brian Johnston was all upfront with his 2 tone shoes and a very cheerful disposition in the commentary box. He loved cricket and was always doing crazy things. One time he dug a trench by side of the track where the Flying Scotsman was due to pass and then laid in it. As it passed he was commentating from the trench and said “somebody has just gone to the loo”.

He talked a bit about how relatively little Freddie Trueman was paid. It is said that fast bowlers are not usually found in the modern quick games of cricket such as 20 20. But 2 Australians are in the Indian Premier League being paid £2million per season which equates to around £7,000 per ball.

John Waterhouse said that he once organised a computer conference to which he invited Fred to speak – he wowed them but was only paid £100.

John said that many believe that the current revenue sharing model in the game is broken. He gave the example of the West Indies spent who recently spent $2 million going to Australia but got nothing of the money raised on their tour. He asked is that fair?