RE-UNION at the piano in 1979 with Ivor Golby on piano and Radlett member Chris Smith, a trombone professional, in support.
Singers (clockwise). P Lord, J Tattersall (at rear), D Hickman, A Hubbard (half-obscured), M Cornell. C Dexter (in suit], M Homan (rear), J Newton, E Torrens, A Renwick, A N Other (obscured), D Cowper, D Murley (front), C Randall (front), M Gillingham (boy) P Cook (drinking), N Draper, A N Other (obscured), C Burton (in suit), A Thornhill
The following are excerpts from the Newsletter
The most successful side this season has been the 3rd XI. To produce four 3rd XI sides – and occasionally five – over a weekend is in itself a remarkable achievement. On top of that, to win 32 matches out 67 – and only lose 15 – is even more remarkable. The Club is indebted to our laughing policeman Bruce Hensleigh in particular, and to John Kemp, Roy Nicholls and Paul Roxan for all their hard work.
Notable Performances
1st XI
Charley Randall 116* v Letchworth & 102 v Welwyn GC
Tony Murley 103 v Watford Town
Ian Holland 6 for 36 v Hitchin
2nd XI
Chris Dexter 113* v Leighton Buzzard
John Gunn 101* v Southill Park
Michael Dexter 100 v Watford Town
Richard Doughty 8 for 47 v Ickenham
Justin Court 7 for 43 v Broxbourne
Chris Hawkins and David Mundy got Hat-tricks
3rd XI
Paul Woollard 133*
Richard Hardy 120*
Barry Constable 99*
Chris Barnes 87*, 83*
Don Mason 6 for 25
Mark Smith 6 for 27
Richard Doughty 6 for 30
Ivor Golby 6 for 33
Graham Barnes 6 for 33
Bruce Hensleigh scored 1015 runs at an average of 50.75, and Ivor Golby took most wickets (48).
A Newsletter was started ahead of the 1977 season, the task of editing it being in the capable hands of John Tattersall. Here are some excerpts.
From Mr F.G. Taylor – President. Radlett Cricket Club
Your Committee has decided that at least two Newsletters a year should be sent to all Members, and has invited me to write this introductory note to you.
This I have great pleasure in doing. Our Club has a Membership close on 400, and it is right and proper that Members should know what is going on, and what are the Club’s future plans, particularly for this coming season.
I hope you find this first Newsletter informative and entertaining and that we shall see you during this 1977 Season.
From David Taylor – Captain of the Club
As we rapidly approach another Season, I would like to invite you to support the Club again both on and off the field.
There are no first-class visiting sides this year. (We hope to have two next year), but the two league sides should give a very good account of themselves again and perhaps this year take the top honours.
The new ground is slowly beginning to take shape and we hope it will be playable in 1978.
I hardly need remind you that our bar facilities are second to none and at the same time ask you to make a note of the opening of the Season Cocktail Party which is on Saturday, April 23rd, 1977.
In 1979 it snowed during the summer, and Radlett failed to win a single league game, despite two centuries from Randall. They enjoyed little luck, but dominated enough draws to stay two places off the bottom.
Letchworth won a run-chase by one wicket off the last ball, and Watford Town, the eventual runners-up, were completely outplayed in a draw at Cobden Hill, with Radlett declaring at 245 for two. Tony Murley had hit 103 and put on 166 for the first wicket with Randall (86). Murley proved to be better than his dynamic brother David and narrowly missed a Blue at Cambridge, as 12th man at Lord’s, though he achieved a golf Blue.
The third team were well served by Borehamwood policeman Bruce Hensleigh, who grafted to 1,015 runs at 50.75, and Ivor Golby, now in his mid-60s, took 48 wickets.
The Club again won the Herts Advertiser 20-overs knock-out competition.
Nick Draper played five games for Hertfordshire.
In June, Radlett played Yorkshire in a Chris Old benefit match.
Geoff Bird took over the first team captaincy from Hubbard in 1978 while many gifted players were moving away – or retiring, as in Carr’s case. The exodus caused a sharp decline to eighth place, though it became a summer of glory for Nick Draper when he took 10-18 against that year’s champions Bishop’s Stortford, the club’s first bowler to take all 10. He made his Hertfordshire debut the following season with five wickets in the first innings against Bedfordshire at Bedford School.
The batting became very fragile, with a 62 all out against local rivals St Albans at Cobden Hill. The Herts swing bowler Alan Garofall took 7-32 in 27 overs, and even Yeabsley could not dig Radlett out of that one. Few could have imagined then that Radlett would hand St Albans some terrible beatings in the 2000s. A total of 58 at Cheshunt represented another bad day, though Radlett did win the local 20-overs competition, the Herts Advertiser Trophy, and retained it in 1979. Yeabsley took 5-26 in 31.2 overs to dismiss Cheshunt for 112, but the batting failed yet again. The 58 all out remained Radlett’s lowest league total for at least 30 years.
In September, 1978, the incredible happened. In a second-team game against Broxbourne at Cobden Hill opening bowler Copley took 10-19. Before this season no one had take all 10, and now it had happened twice. Unlike Draper, Copley needed two separate spells.
Test cricket in 1977 welcomed an influential newcomer when Ian Botham made his debut against Australia at the age of 21. Radlett remained hard to beat without forcing enough victories. Oxford Blue Robin Topham, an Aldenham maths teacher, joined the club, and the season produced 18 wins, 20 draws and only five defeats, with Geoff Bird hitting his only club century, at Southill Park.
The second ground was given a try-out on Sept 24 before its official opening the following season in 1978. A steeply sloping meadow, owned by Aldenham Parish Council, had cost some £18,000 to level and prepare into what is today a magnificent cricket facility. Teams of volunteers spent many hours picking up stones.
The 1976 season was similar to the previous one. Yeabsley took 7-46 in 30 overs against Tring at Cobden Hill, and in a non-league game he returned 7-13 off 15 overs in vain at Bedford after Radlett had been bowled out cheaply. Several batsmen had arrived late thinking the game was sure to be rained off.
Radlett’s strategy was based on fast bowling on a true but bouncy pitch that eventually developed a ridge and had to be relaid in the early 1980s. Opposition opening batsmen were usually given a torrid time, including Martin Sutcliffe, a robust and much-loved Letchworth character. He became renowned for scoring a league century in 55 balls against Barnet, having emerged from a convivial lunchtime in a pub. He liked to take on Draper each year and received at least one nasty hit in the face. Letchworth once had to suspend him for slugging a team-mate in their club bar, and the league reprimanded him for a furious incident at Sawbridgeworth, where he was run out while assuming the ball was being returned to the bowler.
Fortunes improved dramatically during the next three years under Arnie Hubbard’s captaincy. He took the game very seriously and generated a lot of enthusiasm. He had a great ability to learn and get the maximum out of his players—on and off the field.
His strong side included Doug Yeabsley, a fine all-rounder who had played for Devon since he was a schoolboy. He regularly played for the combined minor county sides against visiting Test sides, and his long economic bowling spells are legion.
Donald Carr also played during this period and topped the bowling in 1975 — a season of 17 wins, 19 draws and 10 defeats, and third position in the league.
Radlett was only the third British team to bowl out Sri Lanka (195) — the Australians could not do it. The side was over for the World Cup tournament and was the first national side for over 50 years to play cricket in Hertfordshire. Radlett’s opening bowlers, Nick Draper and Peter Smith, took eight between them, although Radlett only managed 105 in reply.
Unlike the build-up to Hertfordshire’s first league in 1968, when the idea was deemed almost abhorrent, Radlett – and Taylor in particular – were instrumental in founding a proper all-play-all league of the best clubs in 1974. There were smirks around the county when Radlett, pre-season favourites, had a dreadful season and finished third from bottom, despite 1,024 runs from Dawson and 20 catches from Geoff Bird. Nick Draper tore through Hertford’s top order in an early match, but Stuart Cradock and Mike Eldred put on 104 for the ninth wicket, and a routine victory became an uphill struggle and defeat. The first champions were Berkhamsted. In a September friendly match against HAC, off-spinner Corbett took eight wickets for seven on a good pitch in The City. This return might never be beaten by another spinner.
In the next three seasons Radlett then finished third as results and confidence picked up under the lively personality of Hubbard, a former semi-pro footballer with Ware Town and others, but Hertford were exceptional. They won five successive league titles from 1975 and supplied the nucleus of a Hertfordshire team who won the minor counties championship twice.
Richard Hutton, formerly Yorkshire and England, rejoined in 1973 for a second season while working as an accountant in London, and schoolteacher Steve Walford, a recent Durham University captain, arrived on the suggestion of his brother Chris, a former player. These two classy all-rounders strengthened the team considerably, and the presence of off-spinner Chris Corbett from Sevenoaks Vine was another happy coincidence. Dawson took over the captaincy.
Hutton and Walford were not available frequently enough to carry the bowling, but there was depth to the seam attack, usually led by the former Letchworth bowler Howard, accurate off a short busy run.
Taylor, now chairman and retired player, was enthusing about Radlett’s forthcoming season at the Duke of York in Harrowby Street, his Marylebone local, and the landlord said he would buy the entire team a foreign holiday if they won every match. As this would be virtually impossible, he assumed he was on safe ground, but when Radlett started the 1973 season with victory after victory, he began to get worried and Taylor’s smile grew wider. After rare successes over Hampstead and Stanmore, the winning sequence rose to 13 straight games before rivals St Albans ended the fun at Clarence Park with a three-wicket victory in the final minutes.