Category: 1990s

John Carr broke the Herts League record in 1991 with 848 runs at an average of 84.8. His last six innings were 55, 157, 105, 121, 63 and 78, and his feat won him the national cricketer of the year, sponsored by The Cricketer, a magazine edited by former England, Yorkshire and Radlett all-rounder Richard Hutton.

Nick Hampton, an Oxford Blue opener, made his debut, and Michael Voss, a compact Western Province left-hander, joined the club for one season from the Maidstone club The Mote at the suggestion of member Eric Howes as an unpaid overseas player. Voss smashed seven centuries, three of those in the league. His 154 not out against Welwyn Garden City provided wonderful entertainment at Cobden Hill, but the highlight was 156 at Hoddesdon in a ferocious run-a-ball partnership of 222 with Carr at almost 10 runs an over. In the penultimate match at Stevenage, Carr hit 63 off 19 balls after the home side had been bowled out for 74.

Edwards started his season with 8-24, demolishing Totteridge for 38 in a warm-up game to accentuate the widening gap between the two old-friend clubs. Later in an all-day club game at Chipperfield, Voss caused a sensation when his wicket was the day’s first to fall – after lunch – for a personal score of 181, watched admiringly by Simon Lloyd, his junior partner in an opening stand of 260, a Radlett record for any wicket at the time. Voss was a fine batsman, though if there were flaws in his armoury, it was a tendency to loft the ball and to fail against the better attacks. His first class career in South Africa was short.

The 1990 season proved to be the hangover year. After an opening home defeat by Berkhamsted, Radlett never really looked like retaining their crown and finished fourth after two losses and too many draws – with North Mymms taking their turn as champions.

John Carr, son of Donald and a future England and Wales Cricket Board official at Lord’s, decided to give up county cricket after losing form at Middlesex in 1989 to start a banking career with Barclays. He became regularly available to Radlett for the 1991 season, and a second Herts League title was secured in overwhelming fashion. Carr, of Upper Station Road, batted so well that he agreed to rejoin Middlesex and resume his professional career. Already one of the best slip fielders on the first class circuit, his new lease of life took him to the top of the national first class averages in 1994 – Brian Lara’s treble year at Warwickshire – and to the brink of England recognition.

Scott Moffat took over as captain for 1999 to lead Radlett into a new elite era. The club had agreed to become provisional founder members of the Home Counties Premier League, due to start in 2000. Finishing second behind Hemel Hempstead was a mild disappointment in the last summer, though the final placing was laudable after the team failed to win any of their first six games as opponents went all out to deny them.

Browne finished with 55 wickets. Nick Fielden, ex Swansea University like Moffat and Warren before him, had become an established opener, winning the ‘most improved’ award three times in a row. Ian Mulholland, a future Herts off-spinner, joined the club for a couple of seasons, but Radlett relied on the trusted faces to take them into the ECB adventure in a semi-professional league.

The second team, under Iain Edwards in his first season as captain, finished second as well after failing in a showdown for the title against Hoddesdon. It was not surprising the seconds did so well because the first-team pool had been widened by players such as Simon Jackson, new arrival from Sunderland, Darren Norman, from Sandridge, Matt Cousens, a rugby player of note, Malcolm Taylor, an Australian banker, Trevor Wolfe and ex-colt Jon Tricker.

The club was going from strength to strength, and bar profits of £15,060 underlined that the Cobden Hill pavilion was the place to be.

Important activity off the field followed the triumphant season. Designed by architect Roy Millard, a club member, an imposing balcony was gouged out of the front of the pavilion and the bar room was stylishly enhanced in time for the start of the 1992 season. An anonymous member had contributed £80,000, though the donor was confirmed as David Taylor after his death. He would never countenance payments to buy on-field success, so this was by far the best way to make a permanent impact on his beloved club.

A highlight of the 1992 season was the brief appearance of Ian Hutchinson, released by Middlesex that winter. He had been invited to join by Blundell through their eton fives connection and, with a first class double-hundred to his name, he hit 178 not out at Barnet on his league debut. But he broke a finger, missed almost the whole season and decided not to commit to league cricket. Hanson missed that season and half the next when work took him to Dublin.

The 1993 season began with a fanfare. Allan Border returned to England with his Australians and they played a tour warm-up match at Cobden Hill on April 30, easily defeating against an England Amateur XI. This was an opportunity for a first glimpse of Shane Warne, though at the time he was merely an obscure leg-spinner, if not for long. That ‘ball of the century’ against Mike Gatting in the Test at Old Trafford was still in the future. At Radlett his figures were 9.2-1-41-2, nothing to write home about.

Matthew Hayden, another big name of the future, hit 151, though Michael Slater’s 41 was a more dashing innings. The Australian batting order: Slater, Hayden, Taylor (captain for the day), Boon, Mark Waugh, Martyn, Zoehrer, Warne, McDermott, Julian, Holdsworth. Their English opposition included Mel Hussain, Nasser’s brother, and off-spinner Rupert Evans, a force in many future league games against Radlett in the Home Counties Premier League.

The match had not been part of the tour schedule, and the Australians wanted some match practice. Radlett, convenient for London, were asked to host a game, and the club rose to the occasion, with Taylor, Blundell, Holland and John Tattersall leading the way. A temporary stand on the bottom ground peering over the hedge was erected, and about 3,500 spectators arrived, including many from Earls Court with strange accents. The media interest was phenomenal, with at least 28 photographers, BBC Radio, BBC Television, Sky Television and writers from the national and local press converging on Cobden Hill. The club made a £9,000 profit.

Radlett finished third in the Herts League, captained by Ian ‘Oz’ Edwards. Campbell Horlock, an Australian greenkeeper from Melbourne, finished as leading run-maker with 823.

Radlett finished fifth in 1998 under Nick Hampton and would have taken the league for a fourth consecutive year if they had won a couple of key games, allowing Langleybury their maiden title. Browne made his Hertfordshire debut and equalled Cheshunt left-arm spinner Ray Kingshott’s 1990 league record of 59 wickets, with Oz Edwards taking 46. Radlett reached the last 32 of the national cup for the first time, going out disappointingly at Stanmore. In an earlier round Horlock hit 186 at Ickenham.

Radlett stormed through several rounds of the Evening Standard Trophy, and their 286 (Jahangir 110) would have been enough against Banstead at Cobden Hill if David Ward had not hit a majestic century in reply. The former Surrey batsman had signed for Hertfordshire the previous year to start a prolific minor counties career that lasted until 2008.

Even such a strong Radlett batting side had the occasional mad day. For example, five top-order batsmen made six runs between them in a heavy defeat at Hoddesdon as Moffat, Jahangir, Chippeck and Mike Yeabsley all made ducks and Horlock was run out.

With wicketkeeper David Hanson as captain in 1997, the side topped the table for the third time in a row. Radlett became the first club to do the league and cup double, and the second team, under Richard Haxell, won their championship after three runners-up finishes in a row to complete a sensational season for the club as a whole.

Browne took 54 league wickets, and Campbell Horlock hit the winning runs at Hoddesdon to seal the title the day after Princess Diana’s funeral, but it was the cup that took the headlines.

The awe-inspiring 186-run victory over Bishop’s Stortford was a record margin in a final (until 2006). Horlock’s 249 not out in a 45-overs total of 358 for one was naturally Radlett’s highest individual score in the club’s long history. This was the first time Radlett had produced a 300-plus score in a competitive match and the second time in any match, passing the club’s previous highest score of the 347 at RAF Henlow in 1934. Amazingly, the 300-plus list was rise to 28 by the end of 2013.

Dave Robinson’s 64 passed unnoticed as the powerful figure of Horlock caned the Stortford attack for 19 sixes and 21 fours at Heath Park, the usual Hemel Hempstead venue. Club member Bryan Thompson described his early experience as a spectator. He had taken a bus and was walking along Station Road to the ground when he saw a white-clad figure in the distance crossing the busy road evidently to retrieve the ball. Thompson had walked only a little further when the hapless fielder visited the road again – and yet again before Thompson finally reached the match. ‘Something odd is going on here,’ he thought, by now recognising it was a Stortford player.

Stuart Browne, a durable, accurate in-ducker bowler, would stitch up an end for often an entire innings, and he took 50 wickets as Radlett retained the title in 1996 when 10 of the first 11 league games were won. He was backed by the durable Edwards, Jahangir and Blundell. There was a hiccough at Bishop’s Storford when last man Forbes ran what he thought was the winning leg bye until the umpire correctly affirmed that he had forgotten to play a shot and called dead ball. That meant Radlett were denied points for a win or a ‘certain’ tie. One result that season could not have happened in the 1970s was: Hertford 120, Radlett 124-0.

In 1995 Radlett won their third Herts League title, the first season that Stuart Browne played. Though the Browne family lived at Folly Close in Radlett, they had belonged to Polytechnic CC in London. Blundell finished top the club’s league wickets with 36, having taken over from Oz Edwards as captain halfway through after a mediocre start to the season. Six of the last eight games were won as Radlett snatched the title from Hoddesdon.

Hampton, Chippeck, Robinson, Jahangir, Moffat and Blundell formed a very strong batting line-up. Jahangir, a seam all-rounder, was an England Schools international while at Aldenham before joining Southgate and soon switching to Radlett for some golden years.

Radlett reached the quarter-finals of the Evening Standard Trophy in 1995, before losing to Wanstead with a much under-strength side. In an earlier round Chippeck swept his way to an unusual century without hitting a boundary on a slow, turning Uxbridge pitch, but the Wanstead defeat did hurt. Chippeck said: “It took me a while to get over that actually. The fact we had beaten some damned good teams in some tough matches – Dartford springs to mind that year – to get to a winnable quarter-final against a team we knew we could deal with from previous encounters.”

Radlett finished only eighth in 1994 after four of their first five games were washed out, but they won the Herts Cup for the first time, defeating St Albans by seven wickets in the final at Hemel Hempstead. The Aldenham School product Scott Moffat took three wickets, and Kaf Jahangir top-scored with 62 not out, though he had to be informed by his batting partner with six balls remaining that it was a 45-over game not 50.

In an earlier round Nick Hampton and Campbell Horlock scored centuries in a thrashing of Cheshunt – this was possibly only the third time in history that the first team had had two centurions in an innings.

Moffat, now a formidable all-rounder, had added off-spin to his repertoire while captaining Swansea University to the British universities title that summer, an extraordinary feat in a competition utterly dominated by Durham and Loughborough. He made his Herts debut in 1993 and turned professional for two seasons at Middlesex in 1996 and 1997.