Stumped by names of hospital cricketers
I recently received a telephone call from my long time friend Lynda Laker, once of The Delph, Brierley Hill, but domiciled in Kidderminster for several years.
Lynda had received a photograph from her cousin, Roger Barnbrook whose father, Harold, had played cricket for Wordsley
Hospital in the 1950s and ’60s.
Roger’s request was as follows – did Lynda know anyone who would be able to put names to the cricketers in the photograph? And so Lynda contacted me and asked if I was able to help her.
Although there are only ten players in the photograph the club did field a full side on the day that picture was taken, the eleventh player being Harold
Barnbrook, who was in charge of the camera.
Names
I was able to identify some of the players myself, but I also enlisted the aid of two of my friends, Bob Drake and John Timmins, both of whom played for the club, and between us we have identified eight of the team.
Incidentally football buffs may recognise the name of Eric Jennings. Eric was a brisk left arm bowler but became better known as a Football League referee and officiated in the 1970 FA Cup Final, in which Chelsea defeated Leeds United after a replay.
My own connection with the club goes back to about the time
that the photograph was taken, which I think was 1951 or 1952, when I was nine years old.
My uncle, Jim Hughes, would take me to games along with his wife and my mother, who were sisters, and whose brief was to help with the teas. Uncle Jim often opened the batting and on several occasions was called into action to keep wicket, or as I then knew the role to be, “the stumper”.
Bricklayer
Quite how he managed to carry out his duties during the week as the hospital bricklayer I do not know, as he often sustained injuries on the cricket field to his fingers.
In the present day and age cricket bats are bought “ready to use” but back in the immediate post war period the procedure was very different. Uncle Jim’s bat, dark brown in colour, would stand in a fruit bowl of linseed oil for at least a month before the season started to “harden the face”, this being an annual ritual. In theory the oil travelled up the bat as it soaked into the surface – it certainly disappeared over time.
The hospital itself closed several years ago and the site has since been developed for housing although, pleasingly, some of the more attractive buildings have been retained and converted into apartments to stand alongside the new build.
Before becoming a hospital after World War I it had been a workhouse called Sandfield, built in 1903, and this name continued to be used for many years after the change of use. It was not until the 1970s that the name was changed to Wordsley Hospital.
Forties
The cricket club, then called Sandfield Hospital CC, was formed in the late 1940s and home matches were played on a nearby field, about where Newfield Drive is situated, off Bromley Lane. By coincidence when I became a pupil at Brierley Hill Grammar School in 1953 the ground was used by the school for their matches, with the rudimentary changing facilities being a disused Midland Red Bus.
By then a ground had been provided for the hospital team at the rear of the brick-built hospital wards, with the boundary line bordering the annexes. It was sometime later that a wooden pavilion was erected – until then changing facilities were some of the hospital out buildings. Prior to being developed as a cricket ground, vegetables for the hospital kitchens had been cultivated on the site.
Opponents
The club had quite an extensive list of fixtures which included games against Cape Hill, James Gibbons, Himley, Horseley Bridge & Thomas Piggott, Mark & Moody, Pedmore, Oldswinford, EJ & J Pearson and Stourbridge “A”.
In addition there were a few games which necessitated coach travel to places such as Beaudesert and RAF Cosford where it was a wonderful experience
to witness the immaculately maintained ground and first class facilities at the latter, enjoyed by the National Service conscripts of the day.
Outsiders
Many years later I was to play on several occasions against the hospital side, by which time the composition of
the team had changed from all players working at the hospital to a team made up almost entirely of outsiders. They included Jack and Kenny Bennett, Mike Dainty, Glyn Knowles, Albert Rowbottam, Billy Singleton, John Timmins, George Whiteman and Norman Wilkes.
Sadly the ground was
reclaimed by the hospital and the club folded during the 1970s. Rumour had it that a new site within the hospital grounds would be provided, but unfortunately the alleged promises never came to fruition.
Shown in the photograph are:
Back:
Geoff Lord, Matt
Mason, Geoff Shuck, ? , ?
Front: Bill Davies, Jim Hughes, Eric Jennings, Vernon Ellis, Frank Wells.
Ten years later
The second photograph would have been taken approximately ten years later, around 1962, and the line-up was, from left in the back row: V Shingleton, N Wilkes, A Rowbottam, M Dainty, T Knott, V Wood, G Lord.
Front row: T Deaves, J Timmins, G Whiteman, J Knowles, V Ellis, G Knowles.
Vern Ellis appears in both pictures, and his son Steve later played cricket with Bob Drake and myself at Wall Heath.