As we approach the beginning of another cricket season, a date for you to note is Sunday 6th May. That is when Reed Cricket Club officially names its Clubhouse the Howard Marshall Pavilion.

During the afternoon, a Reed XI will play a match versus a Howard Marshall XI starting at 1400hrs followed by a short naming ceremony at approximately 1830hrs. There will be a Hog Roast afterwards. We would like to see as many past & present members, their families and friends as possible during the day. Please keep the date free.

We passed the 40th anniversary of the original opening of the Clubhouse last year. Although in use prior to the official opening, Reed played an Invitational XI made up of cricketers from cricket clubs in the Royston and surrounding district. The match was played on the 5th June 1977 and the “cutting of the ribbon” ceremony was performed by Mrs Joy Reffell. She was the wife of Norman Reffell, a prominent member of the Club. The photographs show the combined teams and along with the history of the construction of the Clubhouse these are displayed inside the lounge area. Images of the relevant pages form the scorebook are also attached. I appreciate they may be faded because they are written in pencil but here is a brief summary. It was an All-Day match.

Fred Flack (9) and David Ford (6) opened the batting. John Raven top-scored with 33 and Peter King made 11. Neville Bird at number 5 scored 12 followed by useful contributions of 26 by Steve Dunn and 24 by Clive Collins. Number 8 was Peter Lawrence who was out for 4 then Howard Marshall hit 3 boundaries in his 19. Mike Taylor bolstered the innings with 26 not out including 2 sixes from number 10 and Andrew McCulloch was also not out on 1. With 20 extras, Reed XI scored 188 for 9 in their 57 overs. Attritional stuff!

Trevor Glasscock took 4 of the wickets off 19 overs for 55 runs. Bob Lee conceded only 10 runs off 8 overs. David Searle took 1 for 42, David Collins 2 for 35 and Russell Brown 2 for 27.

The Reed bowlers managed to claim only 4 wickets as the Invitation XI “raced” to their target in only 42.1 overs. Freddie Flack conceded 38 runs but took 2 of the wickets off successive deliveries by having Tony McKeever LBW then Glasscock stumped by future President, Steve Dunn, first ball. Neville Bird took 1 for 31 and Mike Taylor 1 for 53. Clive Collins (0 for 20) and McCulloch (0 for 22) were unsuccessful and it appears that another of our future Presidents, Howard Marshall, was invited to bowl just one delivery as the Invitation XI skipper, David Searle, hit it for four to win the match.

The Invitation XI in full comprised:
Chis Dowler (Aspenden) ct Taylor b Bird 25.
Mick Hawkes (Therfield) b Taylor 48.
Richard Banham (Royston) 63 not out.
Tony McKeever (Gentlemen of Herts) LBW Flack 8.
Trevor Glasscock (Aspenden) st Dunn b Flack 0.
David Searle (Whittlesford) 21 not out.
Alf Sheehan (Barley), Neil Marsh (Reed), David Collins (Reed), Russell Brown (Bassingbourn) and Bob Lee (Therfield) were not required to bat. Their total of 190 for 4 included 10 extras.
Keith Collins wore the white coat.

Going back to 1977, let me remind you what was going-on that year. The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee; the Ford Fiesta was seen on our roads for the first time; there were violent clashes between National Front and anti-fascist groups in Birmingham and London; the original Star Wars film was being shown at the cinema; and the Sex Pistols burst on to the scene.

On the cricket field, Ian Botham made his Test debut at Trent Bridge on 28th July and following his self-imposed Test exile, Geoff Boycott returned to the England team to score his 98th first-class ton in the same match. Later, he scored his 99th for Yorkshire versus Warwickshire, then on the 11th August Boycott recorded his 100th century in the Headingly Test match against Australia to great fanfare. Less well publicised a day later was John Edrich’s 100th century in a “dull draw” of a county match for Surrey at Derby.

And just to cheer you up, in 1977 beer was 38p per pint and cigarettes were selling at 55p for a packet of 20.

We can’t promise to match that price for a pint on the 6th May, (and we don’t sell tobacco products), but we do wish to see you on the Green at Reed for the naming of the Howard Marshall Pavilion. Play begins at 1400hrs and who knows, we may be seeing some of those same participants from 1977 take the field once more!

PGB
Hon. Sec.
Reed CC.