Open Writing

During 1953 I enjoyed playing under Matt Smith on Monday evenings and watching Nayudu demonstrate his skills on a Saturday afternoon. When available, I also turned out for Reyrolles Juniors, under 18's, which were then managed and captained by the father and son team of Alf and Malcolm Brown.

It was here that I met Jack Chapman, who was one of the main batting successes of our mediocre team. During the next forty years, he went on to play for Leslies, Shotley Bridge and Blaydon. After eventual retirement, Jack demonstrated that his research and journalistic skills were equal to his batting skills by writing a detailed history of club cricket in County Durham. (Perhaps as a writer, Jack had a distinct advantage over me, being Head of English at a local secondary school.)

At the start of the 1954 season, after much thought, I decided to terminate my membership of South Shields Cricket Club. I enjoyed my four years there and had been given every opportunity on the field, but had simply failed to score many runs on a regular basis. My criticism was that during those four years, nobody had offered one word of coaching or advice. The motivation was there but only with a basic ability. The shame was that, like several others, nobody seemed interested in developing that ability. So with Andy Landell's promise from 1952 still ringing in my ears, I decided to join Reyrolles Cricket Club.

Andy made me very welcome, kept his two-year-old promise and I went straight into the first team. The standard of cricket in the Tyneside League was not up to the level of the Durham Senior League but there were some very good teams and a variety of fine grounds. Gateshead Fell, North Durham and Consett set high standards; works and colliery teams such as Hawthorne-Leslie, Vickers Armstrong and Seghill had first class grounds, while village teams like Greenside and Burnopfield provided a community atmosphere.

Reyrolles had a first class team just after the war and monopolised the Tyneside Senior League championship from 1948 to 1950. Jack Chapman (2003) describes the personnel mainly responsible for the firm's success.

In 1954 the team was of more average ability. Even so, I found going straight into the First XI a big jump from South Shields third team. Worse still, Andy Landells asked me to open the batting with the well-known Tim Masarachi. I didn't last long. After about six games, without making a major contribution, I found myself in the second team. Here I felt the standard of cricket more in line with my ability.

The next two years with Reyrolles second team, with only an occasion game in the first team, were undoubtedly the happiest of my short career. I even took up wicket-keeping and recall Andy Landells coming looking for me in the factory one Friday afternoon and saying, "We want you to keep wicket for the first team tomorrow."

The second team was captained by Bob Smith, and our young teenage bowlers, Louden and Martin, played havoc with opposing teams. In two successive games, they dismissed opponents for less than twenty runs. There was an excellent team spirit in the second eleven, and wives and girlfriends came along to watch and help with the teas. Angela was very impressed when she and others got presented with a large box of chocolates at the end of the season.

Two games - one in the first team and the other in the second - I recall with ease. The second team game was at Burnopfield, when we scored over 200 on their small ground and thought we were in a winning position. That was until a 13 stone, 13-year-old came to the wicket and effortlessly knocked off our score with shots to all parts of the ground. His name was Colin Milburn, later of Durham, Northampton and England. He didn't seem to like Reyrolles because a few years later in May 1958, he scored a century against our first team - this time on our own ground!

The second game was North Durham v Reyrolles at Gateshead on 16th July 1955 when, due to holidays, I was recalled to the first team. North Durham was no mean team and much of their success was due to the opening attack of professional Bill Coverdale and Pat Robson, who unconventionally bowled off the wrong foot. The home team batted first and amassed a total of 191 for 4 - their professional falling only six short of a century. Again I had the privilege of opening our reply with Tim Masarachi.

I remember the next forty-five minutes so well. Never before had I faced a bowler so fast and furious as Robson, or anyone who swung the ball so much as Coverdale. I survived several confident LBW and 'caught behind' appeals and scored so many runs off the edge of the bat, it caused the wicket-keeper to ask, "Have you not paid for the middle?"

Tim and I struggled proudly to see off the deadly opening attack, and then facing the first change bowler named Gordon Kennedy and thinking 'we are alright now', I was immediately bowled by an unexpected medium paced straight delivery. I had scored 12. An hour later the whole team was out for 78.

Works teams like Reyrolles were often short of players during the factory's two weeks annual holiday, and retired employees often returned for an annual outing. This happened in 1954 when the firm's personnel officer, Wilf Pollard, who had played for South Shields from 1922 to 1937, turned out for the works' team.

We travelled back from an away game in North West Durham, sitting together on a Northern Bus and it is a journey I will never forget. He knew I had spent some time at South Shields Cricket Club and his personal and interesting account of cricket at Wood Terrace between the wars, made it a very memorable journey. I wish I had had a tape recorder!

Reyrolles had a variety of professionals during the nineteen fifties, but the one I recall the best was Doug Ferguson. He was a tall, likeable guy with a more than average ability with both the bat and the ball. Reyrolles in 1955 was his first season as a professional and he was keen to succeed. As a result, for the first time in my short career, someone attempted (perhaps much too late) to analyse my faults and improve my batting ability by coaching. This never happened at Wood Terrace.

Doug went on to a very long and successful career with many different clubs before finishing his career as a national M.C.C. Coach. Thirty-five years later, I met him again when he was conducting an evening coaching session for potential cricket coaches in the West Yorkshire area. We had a pleasant chat and shared memories of cricket at Reyrolles in the fifties.

Unfortunately I left Reyrolles Cricket Club on an unhappy note. It was in 1959 when I hadn't played many games and Bob Smith's Second eleven won the League Championship (I don't know if there was any connection). A special presentation dinner was arranged at a Newcastle hotel and although not attending I recommended to Bob a new private bus company to pick up those going from Shields, Jarrow and Hebburn. To cut a long story short, the bus didn't turn up and the evening was spoilt. Bob Smith was furious, and my name was mud within the Club.

South Shields Cricket Club still exists, but unfortunately Reyrolles Cricket Club is no more. Along with many other factory, shipyard and colliery teams, it ceased to exist as the close of the twentieth century reflected the changing economic structure of industry in the north-east. At the same time, the much-respected Jarrow and District J.O.C. Football League has had to merge with another league, due to the falling number of junior teams. Will this wind of change stop local teams from producing such outstanding sportsmen as Colin Milburn, Malcolm Scott, Raymond Wood and John Dixon in future years? I sincerely hope not.

In my case however, it was clear that motivation was not enough!