Old Hilmians

At Cricket I captained the Old Hilmians for a number of seasons and loved the friendships that I made there. RH and I always joked that if I did not let him have a bowl on the Saturdays then he would not let me bowl in the Staff matches, but it was all very good natured. Staff Cricket was a great leveller and allowed the tensions of the day to dissipate. In one Staff match v the School First XI the principal batsmen of the day were doing well. One Frank Morley was scoring well until George Pacy produced some corking bowling removing him and one or two others, but one batsman Geoff Boycott was proving more than a match to whatever we could produce. So George Pacy decided on a leg theory plan. He would bowl at G.B.'s leg stump and aim at his legs. He moved me to leg slip saying that GB would not be able to deal with fast bowling aimed at his legs. It was true for about 2 balls but then this slip of a boy started to move his feet and clipped the ball past me at leg slip at speeds rather like a bullet from a gun. Needless to say George didn't succeed and he blamed me for not catching possibly two chances. However, for us the Captain declared with a very respectable total for the school which I don't think we matched. Perhaps Terry McCroakam will find the details in an old score book. But such games were highlights and the boys enjoyed defeating the Staff team that year. We had great respect for the skills of the lads.

A final cricket anecdote comes from a match with the Old Hilmians CC when we were a man short and had to call upon the services of Les Tate's young brother Norman, who was about 16, fast and lively in the outfield amongst these relatively ancient players. The opposing team had scored about 120 runs. When we batted they took wickets regularly and I was left with No 11 one Junior Tate with 40 or 50 runs still to get to win. I told him to block everything and run like a hare when I called him to. He played like a hero, frustrating the opposition and slowly we overhauled the opposing team's score. That was a famous victory for us, and as we left the field, I put my arms around his shoulder and let him take the applause, for he had done us proud that day.
Ken Sale, HGS Staff 1956-61