Gentleman & Player by Andrew Murtagh

Author:Andrew Murtagh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

6

Man of Kent

Kent CCC 1950–76

‘Cricket without fun...well, it’s just no fun at all.’

Colin Cowdrey

‘KIPPER – he’s a god here among the hop-pickers.’ I gave a wry, sidelong glance at my driver as he negotiated the high-hedged lanes of Kent. I was amused by the fact that he had combined the image of a fish, a deity and a seasonal industry, all in one short sentence. Mike Taylor, my friend and team-mate at Hampshire, had a rich lexicon of expressive idioms, including a whole glossary of Cockney rhyming slang. He also had an encyclopaedic knowledge of his fellow pros.

He was right about Colin Cowdrey. I noted that when he came in to bat – it was at Tunbridge Wells – the members stood to applaud him to the wicket. When he went out to bat, mark you, not when he came back; it was as if he was making his farewell appearance. He was not. There was plenty of life in the old dog yet but clearly he enjoyed an exalted position in the affections of the Kent faithful.

Kent is a bit of an odd county, I have always thought, and this is from one who lived there for a time. For the most part, people drive through it, on their way to the continent, rather than stop off in it, as a destination. Despite the fact that road and rail links with London are second to none, the place always felt a little cut off. I am reminded of a bizarre exchange we had with our opponents in a Second XI Championship game between Kent and Hampshire at the Crabble Ground in Dover, a quite beautiful and spectacular arena carved out of the side of the hill. The cause of the dispute between the two teams escapes me, so it cannot have been very important, probably something to do with a breakdown in communications between the captains about a declaration. The conversation went something like this:

‘Typical. How can you trust a county that plays at nine different venues?’

‘To paraphrase Winston Churchill.’

‘Eh?’

‘He was being rude about the French. He said, how can you trust a nation that has 300 different types of cheeses.’

‘That was de Gaulle, not Churchill.’

‘Whatever. Didn’t know the Frogs played cricket.’

‘What’s cheese got to do with it anyway?’

The point was – I think – that Kent had no home. Well, they did, it was Canterbury, but they played so many of their home games at other places that they seemed to lack a base, a focal point, a fortress. Most home games to their own players must have felt like away matches. Not that the Kent members worried much about that. What was indisputable was that the support for their team around the county was as passionate and as vociferous as anywhere.

And at the apex of their veneration was Colin Cowdrey. County members always hold a special place in their hearts for one of their own, a loyal and dependable member of the team who is born and bred in their midst.

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