SOS: The Fight to Save Hatfield CC

S.O.STHE FIGHT TO SAVE HATFIELD CCGRAHAM DEBENHAMHELP SAVE HATFIELD ESTATE CC

GRAHAM DEBENHAM First Published 2025S.O.STHE FIGHT TO SAVE HATFIELD CC

Contents. Introduction 01. Taken by surprise 11. Money (that’s what I want) 24. The nature of reality 34. Revolving doors 44. This Sporting Life 51. Ready, steady, go 58. Give, give, give me more, more, more 66. Money-go-round 76. Rip it up (and start again) 83. Out of town 90. Long Goodbye 95. You’re welcome 103. Appendix: The Move to Ascots Lane, by Tony Foster 112.Hatfield Cricket Club: Severing a Cherished link, by H J Gray and K H Goulding 114.Playlist 123.

Introduction Those familiar with my previous work on Hatfield Cricket Club’s history might wonder why I’m revisiting a subject already covered in two books. The years 1975 to 1979 represent the most traumatic chapter in the club’s storied history. Yet, this was not the first time the club had been forced to relocate to a new ground. While the moves to the Show Field (1923) and the Stonecross Road ‘Oval’ (1928) had required a lot of hard work and been stressful times, they had not been an existential threat to the club’s survival, financed as they were by the 4th Marquess of Salisbury. As interesting as it would be to write in depth on these previous moves, the sad fact is that there isn’t enough source material to work with.What were the earlier attempts to address the move from Hatfield Park to Ascots Lane, and why were they unsatisfactory? The problem was that it straddled two distinct eras of the club’s history and therefore didn’t comfortably fit into either. Consequently, the decision was made not to overexpand on the subject in either volume. When preparing Hatfield Cricket Club: The Ascots Lane Years 1979-2012 for publication, there was no plan to delve deeper into the past with further volumes. As such, a brief resumé of how the club ended up at Ascots Lane made perfect sense for a preface to the book. The decision to take the plunge and write a prequel, Parklife: Hatfield Estate Cricket Club 1946-1978, created a dilemma. It would have been amiss to have ignored the off-field events of 1975-1978, but at the same time, it was a book about Hatfield Park, so it would have been inappropriate to dedicate too much space to discussing Ascots Lane. There was also a desire not to duplicate the first book overly. Fortunately, further research for the second book uncovered a wealth of new material. This allowed for a chapter quite different from the original, warranting its inclusion.Because both chapters had been kept deliberately brief, there was plenty of unused material, which led to a suggestion in the introduction to Parklifethat the period could be revisited and a mini-book produced. Not that this was considered a likely prospect. The first attempt to tell the tale was five pages long, and the second six. While it’s true that my notes for the first two books contained unused information, the question was whether they were sufficient to make this a worthwhile project. The omens were not promising. The first attempt, in early 2024, was halted after just five pages had been written and abandoned in favour of more achievable goals.The major catalyst for taking a second crack at it eighteen months later was simple. Documenting the club’s past had been a thoroughly enjoyable 1

experience, but when I looked for a way to continue the journey, nothing else came to mind. For me, the research phase of a project is more enjoyable than the writing, so I revisited the source material and conducted fresh investigations. While it might not match the length of War and Peace, I hope it’s long enough to be enjoyable.Ideally, this book should have been written forty or so years ago, when the events were still fresh in people’s minds. The challenge of doing so five decades down the road is that the major players are either, sadly, deceased, or have long since severed their relationship with the club. The primary source of information is the club’s minute books. That in itself presented a challenge, as at times Ken Goulding’s handwriting left something to be desired (Mr Pot is calling Mr Kettle black here; luckily for all involved, when I was the club’s secretary, my minutes were typed). On occasion, it is therefore fortuitous that H J Gray, in his tome Cricket in Hatfield Park 1946-1978, with his knowledge of contemporary events, referred to many entries that were difficult to decipher. Newspaper reports were another helpful source of information. Many of these had previously been used by H J Gray and myself, but some will not have been seen for many years. On the positive side, there are occasional eyewitness accounts of events. On the negative side, the eyewitness is me, and I had reached the ripe old age of ten by the time this story ended.But before moving on to the main event, here's a glance at the past, present, and future from a 1975 perspective.Cricket in Hatfield Park When the first game of cricket was played on the North Lawn of Hatfield Park is a question that will (probably) never be answered satisfactorily. Indeed, the answer has been forgotten for over a hundred years. Except for a self-imposed exile between 1923 and 1946, during which Hatfield Estate Cricket Club had filled the vacuum, it was known that Hatfield Cricket Club’s association with the ground stretched back a long way. If the exact age of the cricket club were known, it would likely provide a major clue to the original question. Alas, the understanding of the Club’s year of establishment has been a moving feast. In the mid-1940s, no one actively associated with the Club knew when it had been formed. Even if the club’s official records had not been destroyed by a bombing raid in 1944, it is unlikely that they would have contained this nugget of information. The first clue emerged after the club elected Stanley Coles Hankin as a vice-president in 1947. He was the son of Freder2

ick James Hankin, who had served as an honorary secretary of Hatfield CC in the nineteenth century. Shortly afterwards, Hankin presented the club with scorebooks that had been among his late father’s possessions, the oldest of which dated to 1851. Speaking at the Club’s annual dinner in 1949, Harold Dunham nudged the date ever so slightly forward. Dunham’s grandfather, James Benjamin Dunham, was also a former Hon. Secretary, in office from 1858 until 1865. Speaking at the Club’s annual dinner in 1949, Dunham referred to an entry in his grandfather’s diary from August 1850, in which the sixteen-year-old James wrote ‘entered Hatfield Cricket Club.’ With this evidence arriving conveniently just in time for a centenary celebration, 1850 was adopted as the Club’s year zero. Further corroboration was forthcoming in 1955 when Charles Simpson, who had been 1st XI captain in the 1920s, bestowed the Club with a small book of accounts relating to match expenses from 1851, which corresponded match for match with the scorebooks from the same era.Half a century earlier, the state of affairs was different. A history of cricket in Hertfordshire, as written in The History of the County of Hertford,commissioned during the reign of Queen Victoria, but completed in four volumes between 1902 and 1914, stated that “in 1800, a club existed at Hatfield.” Commenting on the death of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, the publication Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game came up with a compromise. The premise advanced was that the club had formed in 1800 and reformed in 1851. Presumably, the earlier date had come from the same unnamed source, and the latter from somebody aware of the existence of the scorebooks. But what of the suggestion that the club had folded and later reformed? Interest in the club’s past had gained impetus in the late 1960s following the death of its chairman, Walter Whitby, and the creation of a club honours board in his memory. H J Gray picked up the ball and ran with it. Research for his volumes on cricket in Hatfield in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries unearthed details of a handful of matches played between 1818 and 1841. However, although this provided encouraging signs of continuance, there was still a gap of ten years to be filled. This ambiguity remained for decades until a fresh investigation began in the 2020s. Over forty additional matches have been discovered to have been played by Hatfield CC in the first half of the nineteenth century. These include at least one match played in every season between 1842 and 1850, thus dispelling the notion that the club had ceased playing for a period.How much closer does this take us to speculating an answer to the question of when cricket was first played in Hatfield Park? After all, just 3

because it was believed that the Club was established circa 1800, it does not necessarily follow that they had always played in Lord Salisbury’s back garden. In his book The Dawn of Cricket, H T Waghorn mentions a match on 7 June 1797 between Hatfield and Hertford Town, but no indication is given regarding the venue. At the cessation of H J Gray’s extensive work, the earliest fixture found to have been played in the Park was on 24/25 June 1818, against the County of Hertford. By 2022, this date had been nudged forward to September 1814 (the exact date is unknown) when the visitors were plain Hertford. However, H J Gray had found tantalising evidence in the St James’ Chronicle that cricket in the Park had a much longer history. On 23 September 1789, a single wicket contest was “played between two men of Hatfield and two men of Bedfordshire.” Were the two men of Hatfield members of a Hatfield Club? In 2023, this was confirmed. Gray did not have the benefit of access to the archive of The Times (London), whose edition of 26 September 1789 clarified the combatants as being “two of the Hatfield players.” Of greater significance was a report published on 31 August 1789 of an eleven-a-side game between Hatfield and Watford. The existence of Hatfield CC at Hatfield Park can now be dated to 26 August 1789.With The Times reporting on Hatfield’s cricketers five times in August and September 1789, and describing them as “some of the best players in the county,” it is clear that the club’s strong reputation had been built up over time. Unfortunately, as previously intimated, there is no realistic likelihood of accurately dating the Club. It’s not surprising to learn that information on local cricket from the eighteenth century is scarce. Even where newspapers survived, they were unrecognisable compared with their modern-day counterparts, consisting of relatively few pages and requiring short, concise articles. H J Gray quoted a report in the Maidstone Journal, dated 7 September 1790, of a match played at Wades Mill on 18 August 1790 between “Hatfield cricketers and an eleven representing the County of Hertford.” There is a strong possibility that this was Hatfield CC, but it cannot be confirmed. I had become excited to have found a reference to a cricket match involving Hatfield that dated to 1765. Further investigation revealed that this was Hatfield Peverel (Essex), so it cannot be ruled out that they were the ones who had travelled to Wades Mill in 1790.This has been a roundabout way of establishing that the game of cricket and, more importantly, Hatfield Cricket Club, had been associated with Hatfield Park for (probably) more than two hundred years by the time the events described in this book occurred.4

CRICKET MATCH The return match between the Marchioness of Salisbury and the Countess of Essex began playing in Hatfield Park on Wednesday morning and ended the following evening. Notwithstanding one of the Hatfield men were in the early part of the game disabled by an unfortunate accident, and no “lost ball” occurred to assist them, their style of playing was so superior to the Cassiobury Club as to beat them by the following majority of notches. 1st Innings HATFIELD 2nd innings J Evans b Donythorne 0 b E Capel 19J Mawe c Donythorne 9 b E Capel 0T Hickson b Donythorne 7 c E Capel 24T Huggins b J Capel 8 b Donythorne 10G Sibley b Donythorne 1 c Lomas 18 Pallett b Donythorne 0 b Donythorne 15Chambers c Jones 5 b E Capel 30G Field run out 40 b E Capel 2J Lowden b Donythorne 20 last man 0Pacy last man 34 c Grover 4G Evans b Capel 1 b Donythorne 0Bye runs 13 9Total 130 Total 1311st Innings WATFORD 2nd innings Lomas c Sibley 10 b Evans 1E Capel run out 7 b Pacy 14Careless b Evans 0 b Pacy 14Groves last man 1 b Pacy 4Belch c Sibley 25 c Chambers 0Harcourt c Field 1 b Pacy 11Grover b Evans 2 c Chambers 3Donythorne b Evans 4 c Huggins 20J Capel b Pacy 2 c Sibley 6Swannell b Evans 2 b Evans 0Jones c Huggins 0 last man 2Bye runs 3 5Total 57 Total 77The Times - 31 August 1789 41a Park Street The facilities available to Hatfield Estate CC within Hatfield Park were, to say the least, rustic. What was life like for the club in 1975? The largest building available to the club was used as the home changing room, kitHatfield 261Watford 134 Majority in favour of Hatfield 1275

chen, and tea room, and from 1956 to 1963, it also served as the club’s bar. In a previous life, it had been a stable. Interestingly, when the club first occupied the barn, it still had horse feeding troughs. The complex had separate outbuildings that provided changing facilities for visiting teams, including toilets and showers. Hatfield Park may have been a picturesque setting for a cricket ground, but the major drawback from the club’s point of view was that its clubhouse was situated in the Old Town. Officially opened on 23 July 1971, 41a Park Street was the club’s third home in eight years. Originally a single property, 41 Park Street was divided into two to accommodate the club. The ground floor had initially been earmarked for use by the British Legion; however, it was ultimately occupied by the United Services Club, or the “unruly neighbours” as they were often referred to in the club’s minute books. The first floor was handed over to the cricketers, with, for obvious reasons, a bar cellar on the ground floor. A manually operated dumb waiter was installed to transport crates from the cellar to the bar. As with the previous clubhouses at 19 Great North Road and 3/5 Park Street, there are no photographic reminders of 41a Park Street, so we will have to rely on the forty-seven-year-old memories of a nine-year-old boy. Today, it is tightly hemmed in by adjoining properties; however, the buildings to the south and west are recent additions, and in the 1970s, it stood isolated. How times have changed. I can recall walking unaccompanied from the Park to the clubhouse and back on more than one occasion. Also in the memory bank are journeys to the clubhouse over the wall behind the Old Palace and through the graveyard of St Etheldreda’s. It was regarded as a shortcut at the time; however, looking at a map today, I’m no longer convinced this is true. In years gone by, it had been more useful. In the days when the club had a bar inside the Park, and players parked their cars at the top of Fore Street (access to park in those days was via the Fore Street Gate), it was a handy exit for those who remained in the bar later than permitted and after the gates to the park had been locked. This behaviour was one of the reasons the club had been forced to move its clubhouse outside.Upon opening the front door, you were immediately greeted by a narrow, steep staircase which led directly to the first floor. Opposite the top of the stairs was a door leading to the space behind the bar, a threshold I never crossed.. A right turn led to the bar room, which filled the entire length of the premises. When the clubhouse first opened, the honours board had pride of place in the centre of the room, but this did not last long. In 1973, it 6

was necessary to extend it to accommodate more names, which meant it could no longer fit between the windows overlooking Park Street, so it was moved to the end wall on the right-hand side. The club’s preferred brewer was Trumans (formerly Truman, Hanbury & Buxton), whose ales had been brewed at the Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane, East London, since 1666. I was too young to have sampled its delights, but the feedback I received was not positive. That said, this does bring to mind an occasion in 1978. I shall not name and shame the culprits as they are all still alive and kicking. Two of the players and their partners decided to offer me a taste of each of their drinks, one of which was gin and bitter lemon, and to this day, I still can’t touch gin!Turning left at the top of the stairs, you would be facing the fire escape. Before reaching the emergency exit, on the right-hand side were the toilets, while to the left was the darts room, where I was generally exiled. In reality, my time spent there was more likely an escape from adult supervision. This appears to be an extension of the original building, especially when viewed from above. Substantial alterations were made to the property when it was split in two; however, I can’t say whether or not this was one of those. A Brief History of Ascots Lane The history of the surroundings of Hatfield Cricket Club’s old ground in Hatfield Park is well documented, but what of its current location? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it cannot boast the same rich tapestry of a stately home, but it is not a barren landscape.Step into a time machine and return to 1900, and although Ascots Lane and Gypsy Lane had been in situ for some time, a 360-degree panoramic vista from the cricket square would provide you with an uninterrupted view of farmland. In the distance, you would have been able to see the Beehive Public House, one of the few buildings in the area. This may come as a surprise to those of you who would expect the landscape to the east to be dominated by Common Wood. As you walk through it, you might not guess that it is man-made, yet it is a product of the early twentieth century, although exactly when it was planted remains a matter of speculation. Another unanswered question is who was farming the land at this time. Woodhall Farm cannot be ruled out; however, if forced to guess, I would plump for either Howland’s Farm or Lower Holwellhyde Farm. The two farmhouses were adjacent to each other, a stone’s throw from the Beehive, and one of them likely farmed the land that became Common Wood. On safer ground, it can be said that by the 1930s, the field that was to become 7

the cricket ground was a part of Ascots Farm, with the farmhouse and outbuildings erected across the road from where the concrete cricket net and car park now stand. Owned by Lord Salisbury, the land was farmed by Sydney Hollier, who also ran Goldings Farm, which consisted of much of modern-day South Hatfield. The outbreak of the Second World War shattered the tranquillity of farm life. In the early days of the war, it was recognised that specific capabilities in airfield and road construction would be needed to meet the growing demand for additional bomber and fighter stations. No. 2 School of Airfield Construction, within the Royal Air Force No. 24 Group Technical Training Command, was established at a camp at Mill Green in 1942. By 1943, the camp known as RAF Mill Green had become the 5351 Airfield Construction Workshop. The main site was located between Ascots Lane, Hertford Road (A414), and Gypsy Lane, while the accommodation units were situated in what is now the caravan park, but was then part of Common Wood. Although the site of the cricket ground, sandwiched in the middle, was not specifically used by the RAF, drains from the accommodation huts were laid beneath it.RAF Mill Green closed in April 1948, and the site was handed over to the Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield Development Corporation, who used it to house construction workers building the two new towns. The buildings were still standing in the 1960s, but the main site is now part of the Mill Green golf course. 8

9An aerial shot of RAF Mill Green, taken in 1947. Ascots Lane Farm is in the top right corner, and the present day cricket ground is in the field below it. Ascots Lane is the road running from the left-hand side to the top right corner, with Gypsy Lane running south from the farm buildings.

10The beers on offer at 41a Park Street.

Taken by Surprise The events of Monday, 3 February 1975, did not pan out as the Hatfield Estate Cricket Club had expected. As will become clear, the cricket club and Gascoyne-Cecil Estates were working towards very different agendas. The Club’s facilities, which had been perfectly adequate in the 1940s and 1950s, were no longer fit for purpose by the summer of 1974. A major issue was the bar. From 1956 until 1962, the Club had been granted the right to operate a bar, with restrictions, in its clubroom within Hatfield Park. Allegations of after-hours drinking (it should be stressed that these related to the Park’s opening hours rather than the licensing laws) had led to this privilege being withdrawn. This caused an acrimonious situation between the Club and Lord Salisbury (the 5th Marquess), with the cricketers threatening to disband or find another ground. A compromise was reached, allowing cricket to continue in the Park while the Club’s social activities moved to the Old Town. It was, however, a turbulent decade with a nomadic existence. From 1963 to 1967, the clubhouse was located at 19 Great North Road. After that, the Club was based at 3/5 Park Street, before finally settling at 41a Park Street in 1971. There was nothing wrong with the clubhouse itself; its main drawback, though, was that it was not adjacent to the ground. This arrangement inevitably led to occasions when visiting teams’ players didn’t stay for post-match drinks, a traditional aspect of club cricket now sadly lost, which deprived the Club of essential income.The roots of this tale can be traced back to 20 May 1974, when the minutes of the general committee noted:Future development in Hatfield Park. Hon. Secretary to contact Lord Cranborne seeking the possibility of a meeting. Nothing else was remarked on the matter until a meeting of the Committee on 12 August 1974, when it was suggested that the present ground and accommodation in Hatfield Park did not compare with the requirements of modern cricket. It was agreed to establish a subcommittee to examine the Club’s future needs and determine what actions to recommend. This subcommittee consisted of Tony Foster, Terry Quinlan, Roger Bardell, Ken Goulding, Ted Springham, and David Hurley, whose importance to the club, along with that of all the other major participants in this story, will be addressed later. By a happy coincidence, it was rumoured that the Estate was considering developments of its own, and the Club was keen to take advantage and be incorporated within any such improvements. To this ef11

fect, on 16 September 1974, the General Committee approved the wording of a letter, drafted by the Development subcommittee, to be sent to Lord Cranborne. And then a waiting game began.When the committee met for the first time in 1975, there had still been no constructive response from the Estate. Conscious that the cricket season would be fast approaching, John Lance (Hon. Secretary) agreed to try and tie Cranborne down to a date for a meeting to ascertain the medium-term development plans for Hatfield Park, which could involve the Cricket Club. Following months of inactivity, events were soon to move forward at an alarming speed. On 20 January 1975, Ken Goulding informed the General Committee that a meeting had been arranged for 6.30 pm on 3 February at the Lodge House, Hatfield Park. This was not a particularly helpful description, but it presumably referred to the lodge adjacent to the gates opposite Hatfield station. Goulding, Tony Foster and John Lance were to represent the Club, with a three-man team representing the interests of the Estate.The team lined up by the Estate included the big guns of Lords Salisbury and Cranborne. Robert Edward Peter Gascoyne-Cecil, DL (1916- 2003), had become the 6th Marquess of Salisbury in 1972, taking his seat in the House of Lords until 1999, when his seat was abolished. Ironically, the loss of his place in the Lords was partly the responsibility of his son, Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil (b.1946), who, as shadow leader of the House of Lords, had brokered the deal abolishing the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. Beginning his political career as Member of Parliament for South Dorset from 1979 until 1987, although known by his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne, in 1992, John Major issued a writ of acceleration to summon him to the House of Lords as Baron Cecil, of Essendon in the County of Rutland (his father’s most junior dignity). This was the last occasion that a writ of acceleration was used. Completing the trio was William Henry ‘Harry’ Clegg (1932-2017), a nominee of Humbert & Flint, a firm of surveyors and estate agents appointed to manage Gascoyne-Cecil Estates. This had previously been an in-house appointment, and historically, the club had had a good relationship with the Estate Agent. Clegg was an outsider, and this may have been a factor in what happened next. Upon his appointment in 1969, he followed timehonoured tradition and, as his predecessors had done, became a vice-president of the cricket club. Perhaps the club should have been concerned when precedent was broken two years later, and his membership was not renewed.12

In the event Salisbury did not attend. The main idea from the Development subcommittee was for a new pavilion, with a new kitchen and tea room as a minimum requirement. A general committee meeting had been scheduled to take place immediately after the one held at the Lodge House, and the minutes of that provided what could at best be described as an understatement.5. Future of the Club. The delegation reported on the meeting with Lord Cranborne and Mr Clegg held at 6.30 pm that evening. What had transpired at the meeting was of seismic concern to the future of the Club. In the absence of Lord Salisbury, rather than obtaining encouragement towards improving its lot in Hatfield Park, notice had been served for the Cricket Club to quit the Park and find a new ground. The Estate argued that, with a projected rise in Park visitor numbers, playing cricket would pose a safety risk. For as long as I can recall, the common perception has been that the cricket club was asked to leave to make way for a car/coach park, which presumably stemmed from a newspaper article that appeared shortly afterwards. The club’s minutes only ever refer to visitor numbers as the reason for eviction. It is difficult not to draw comparisons with events in the 1920s, when proposals initiated by the Cricket Club ultimately led to its move to a new ground. In both cases, the Club, deep down, knew that it had outgrown the restrictions imposed on it by playing in Hatfield Park. As recently as 1972, it had expressed an interest in a rumoured sports development near Mill Green/Chequers, and now it would have an opportunity to design a ground to its chosen specifications. On the downside, unlike in 1922 when the 4th Marquess had bankrolled the move to the Show Field Ground, this time the Club was on its own.It is evident that the Estate had not been idle in the four months it had taken to agree to the Club’s request for a meeting, and the decision to turf the Club out of Hatfield Park had been taken some time before the day of the meeting. The Estate had prepared by identifying three possible sites for a new cricket ground, all of which were on land they owned. All of the proposed sites were technically within the boundaries of Hatfield but well away from the town centre. Two of these were to the south of the town; the first (Marshmoor) was at the junction of the A1000 and Dixons Hill Road, near what is now Welham Green Station (a site which had been offered to the club previously in 1962), and the other was between the A1000 and Travellers Lane, a site now occupied by Mitsubishi. The third was located 13

to the north, on the outskirts of Welwyn Garden City, between Ascots Lane and Gypsy Lane. The two options to the south of Hatfield, which Tony Foster described as essentially marshland, do not appear to have received serious consideration, as a week after the meeting, John Lance was tasked with contacting Harry Clegg to arrange for Eric Simson to view the site at Ascots Lane. While it is perhaps unsurprising that an area christened Marshmoor may have been a touch on the marshy side, the Travellers Lane site perhaps less so. Maps as recent as the early 1970s show that this area was the sports ground of the Mowlem construction company. Maybe it had been abandoned for some time? Simson, a former Hon. Treasurer of the Club, would prove to be an important figure in the move to the new ground, working as he did for the Louis de Soissons firm of architects. It was also hoped that Bert Brailsford would be able to attend. Brailsford, who had previously advised the club on pitch preparation, was the head professional groundsman at the City of London College and had formerly held the same role at Northamptonshire CCC.Although Ascots Lane was the only site on offer from the Estate under active consideration, the move was not necessarily a done deal. As can be seen above, John Lance wasn’t given to keeping expansive minutes, so there is an element of reading between the lines. At the General Committee meeting of 17 February 1975, Ken Goulding referred to communications with Welwyn Hatfield Council in general and the Leisure Facilities Committee in particular. It is believed that this concerns a proposed council sports ground at Angerland Common in South Hatfield, which would include a cricket pitch. The following week, Ken reported that he had received a letter from the council’s chief executive, Leslie Asquith. Fortuitously, Asquith was also a vice president of the cricket club, and he was writing in his capacity as a friend of the club. It’s always useful to have friends in high places. This was likely the first time Asquith had heard of the club’s predicament, as news of the impending eviction had not yet been made public. The announcement had been delayed by the Estate’s insistence on approving the press release before it could be issued. Agreement on the wording was received from Lord Cranborne and Harry Clegg at a meeting with the club’s representatives, Tony Foster, Ken Goulding, Terry Quinlan (Press Officer), and John Lance on Saturday, 22 February. It was fortunate for the club that they had a professional journalist, Quinlan, among their ranks at such a time. No time was wasted in issuing the press release, and the club’s 14

plight was made public the following Friday.TOURIST ATTACK HAS THE ESTATE ON THE RUN THE OLDEST cricket in the Hatfield area has got to pull up its stumps and roots because of tourists. Hatfield Estate Club, which has played in the shadow of Hatfield House since 1850, has got to find a new pitch and give way to park sightseers. The club will shift from its ancient pitch within the next two or three seasons. Discussions are ongoing between the cricketers and Gascoyne Cecil estates about an alternative site which has been offered. The new site suggestion is being kept secret, but further meetings are expected soon to look into the club’s future. Mr Terry Quinlan, the club’s spokesman, said: “When members were informed that we have to move, they were extremely disappointed. “However, we can see the reasons for the decision. With coaches and cars milling around, it is not good to have cricket balls threatening to break windscreens.” He added, “We had a friendly talk with the estate management, and we will be cooperating fully over this problem.” Whatever the outcome of talks, the club is to face a bill of perhaps £50,000 for new facilities. The building of a clubhouse and laying a new table will be the costliest jobs. “We have a subcommittee recently established, which looks into the raising of the needed cash.” He explained that the estate club, born in the last century, joined forces with the town cricket club just after the Second World War. To his knowledge, there were no longer any true estate workers in the present club. Mr Harry Clegg, agent for the estate, said: “It was reluctantly decided that the club would have to move. And it was agreed upon by all parties.” He would not name the alternative site because the area has a current tenancy and because of planning application implications. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 28 February 1975 OUR HERITAGE ON THE CRICKET FIELD SIR – I was disturbed to read (Times-Advertiser February 28) that Hatfield Estate Cricket Club are going to have to move and find a new pitch. To me, the sight in front of Hatfield House has become a part of our heritage. There must be few more attractive and historic settings in the land for our national summer sport. But what I find amazing is that the Gascoyne Cecil Estates’ business is dealing in our heritage in the form of Hatfield House itself, and it is they who are making the cricketers move. 15

To me, the move seems heartless from both an aesthetic and a cricket point of view. The estate should think again. However, if the Estate cannot do so, they should feel duty-bound to offer the club more than just a plot of land elsewhere on the estate. From your report, a substantial monetary aid seems essential. C JOHNSON Great North Road Welwyn Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 14 March 1975 On the same day that the news embargo on the club’s eviction was lifted, its members sat down for its annual ‘stag’ dinner. What had been planned as a celebration of its 125th anniversary turned into a more sombre affair, as the players attempted to digest the dire situation they now found themselves in. A report of the evening appears to be the source of the rumour that persists to this day, that the cricket ground was to be replaced by a coach park. Could it all have been the result of a comment made by an illinformed reveller after a pint or two too many?ESTATE’S CRICKETERS LOOK TO THE FUTURE HATFIELD ESTATE Cricket Club sat down to their 125th anniversary dinner last Friday – ironically in the same week it was announced they would have to vacate their Hatfield Park ground. So it was a night for discussing the future rather than the past for the diners at Campus West, Welwyn Garden City. The news that their attractive pitch would have to make way for sightseers’ parking space within the next two or three years set tongues wagging among the worried club members. Certainly, on the face of it, it seemed faintly sacrilegious to encroach in that way on the district’s oldest cricket pitch, where the sound of leather on willow has been heard since 1850. A costly and less attractive replacement ground or even extinction after so many years seemed the grim alternatives to some members. That grim ‘scoreboard’ of the club’s future hung over the celebration dinner, attended by over 120 members and guests. The bright, cheerful after-dinner speeches contrasted with the more serious discussions that followed among the diners themselves. The speakers during the evening were Mr H J Gray, MBE, followed by Ken Davies, a vice-president and member of National Westminster CC, Secretary John Lance, Roger Bardell, and finally Frank Crozier of the BBC. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 07 March 1975 16

CRICKET CLUB STUMPED A CRICKET CLUB which is searching for a new ground has approached Welwyn Hatfield Council in the hope it can offer land or money. Hatfield Estate Cricket Club was told recently that it would have to move within the next two or three years from its ancient home in Hatfield Park, near the palace. Tourist expansion at the park meant that it was not possible for cricket to continue there. A meeting is to be arranged between club representatives and the council’s leisure facilities management team. Herts Advertiser - 21 March 1975 A further meeting between members of the club’s Development Committee and Harry Clegg to inspect the Ascots Lane site (or the QEII field as it was initially referred to in the minutes, presumably as the QEII Hospital was the only notable local landmark) at 11.30 on Saturday, 1 March. At the following week’s committee meeting, Quinlan reported on the first setback to the proposed venture. Aware of the potential costs of maintaining the new ground, the club recognised the need to develop a multi-sport venue. The original request of the club, which had received unofficial approval by the Estate, had accommodated a football pitch to the south of the cricket pitch. The initial offer was to be reduced by approximately 40 yards, which meant that the two pitches would have to overlap. This was a disappointment as it would have repercussions for the quality of the outfield at the bottom end of the ground. It wasn’t all bad news, though, as the Estate agreed to meet any conditions required for development aid, grants, etc. It was also confirmed that buildings would be made available for the storage of equipment as and when required. Also of some importance, the Estate was able to confirm that ‘services’ were due to be installed in the vicinity in the foreseeable future.It is difficult to envisage what it must have been like for those in the eye of the hurricane. You could forgive a sense of disbelief that it couldn’t possibly be happening, coupled with a fear of what was to come. (Most) clubs are run by ordinary people rather than by hard-nosed businessmen. They have no real-world experience of dealing with such a situation, and there must have been a lot of winging it. Therefore, the club could count itself lucky for Eric Simson. After twenty-six years of active duty (twenty-five as treasurer), he was no doubt looking forward to the relaxing life of an honorary life vice-president. As a partner in an architectural firm, Eric made an 17

invaluable contribution. Just over two months after the eviction notice was served, he was able to provide the club with plans for a proposed pavilion. Alas, no record of these plans survives, nor are there any comments in the minutes of the meeting at which they were presented.Once again, John Lance’s minimalist approach to taking minutes has left us to try to fill in the blanks. On 21 April 1975, Ken Goulding announced that Lord Salisbury had requested a tripartite meeting on 16 May between the Estate, the Club, and the Council. No agenda was mentioned. Two weeks later, it was announced that Club Chairman John Gray had been invited to be a member of the club’s delegation. Gray later claimed that he was invited to the meeting at the behest of the Estate. This may or may not be true. Gray had spent twenty years as Hon. Secretary of the club, so was without doubt a face that the Estate had been used to dealing with. It’s plausible, but on the other hand, it is unlikely that the club would have submitted the names of its party in advance of the meeting. The two-week delay in inviting Gray lends credence, but we will never know the truth.The minutes of the General Committee meeting of 19 May 1975 suggest that the club was not enamoured by the council’s proposals, with agreement that they should reply, “summarising our objections to the scheme.” The result was that the club convened an Extraordinary General Meeting for Wednesday, 11 June 1975, to determine the club’s future. Ken Goulding’s response to the council, dated the day after the committee meeting, was read to those assembled at the EGM; however, unfortunately, its contents were not disclosed in the minutes, nor was the letter retained in the club’s records. Another option – using the cricket pitch at St Audrey’s School – was discussed, but it was not a realistic proposition. Following much discussion, Roger Freeman proposed, and John ‘JV’ Williams seconded, that “the Ascots Lane site should be pursued as the one to be used for the future development of the club.” The motion passed by a vote of 26 to 2.Despite the overwhelming majority in favour of the move to Ascots Lane, the decision resulted in one casualty. The day after the EGM, the club’s chairman, H J Gray, sat down and typed an exceedingly long letter of resignation, which was circulated at the committee meeting of 16 June. It was agreed that Eric Simson should be offered the position, an offer that was duly accepted. “Langley” Old French Horn Lane 18

Hatfield Herts J Lance, Esq. Secretary Hatfield Estate Cricket Club 13 Fore Street Hatfield Herts 12th June, 1975 Dear Secretary, For some many months I have been disturbed about my occupying the role of Chairman of Hatfield Estate Cricket Club. As you know, the title of Chairman of Club was created in 1968 as a sinecure position to accommodate, and keep within the organisation, my predecessor, Walter Whitby, who that year resigned after nearly twenty years as our annually elected Chairman of Committee. He undertook the office on the understanding that his brief was simply that of titular head for the purpose of conducting General Meetings and Public dinners, etc, and that he would play no part in any policy-making, decision-taking, or the day-to-day running of the club. When he died, I was invited to assume this title and was pleased so to do, but on the same brief and terms as agreed for Walter himself. Arising out of the totally unforeseen requirement for the Cricket Club to vacate its occupancy of the North front in Hatfield Park it has become clear to me that I am regarded by the Gascoyne-Cecil Estates Co, members of the Welwyn/Hatfield Council, and many of our own vice-presidents and members, as the executive head of our club, having normal influence and responsibilities which one ordinarily expects a Chairman of an organisation to exercise. You will know that throughout the seven years of my holding the title of Chairman of Club, I have not attended any committee meetings or played any part in the policy-making or decision-taking of our club, neither have my views been officially solicited on any issues of importance. This 19

is all in accordance with the brief attaching to the holding of the title, Chairman of Club, and entirely satisfactory in so far as I have been concerned up until the present time, when the issue of alternative ground has arisen. It is, however, implicit in anyone’s holding titles, however innocuously, that one remains in general agreement with what is happening, or that if one disagrees with any particular point that it is not one of sufficient importance as to conflict with one’s willingness to accept majority decisions democratically taken. I feel a new situation has arisen from last night’s Special General Meeting when I was invited to nail my colours to the mast regarding the Development Subcommittee’s recommendations to persist in the pursuit of acceptance of the Gascoyne-Cecil Estates offer of the Ascots Lane site and my declaring unequivocally against it, in favour of the alternative possibility put to us at the meeting with Welwyn/Hatfield Council - which meeting I attended as a cricket club representative only as a result by Gascoyne-Cecil Estates that I should count as one of our number - which illustrates the point I have made, about being identified as one able to exercise executive responsibility on behalf of the cricket club, which is not so. The club declared overwhelmingly in favour of supporting the Development Subcommittee’s recommendation at its Special General Meeting. I cannot identify with this view and have no wish to be regarded by any external bodies as having any responsibility for, or playing any part in, the pursuit of this policy, as I do not believe it is one which can be successfully brought to a conclusion. I do not want to appear to be lending my support or encouragement to the steps which will be necessary if Ascots Lane is to be acquired, such as “change-of-user”, the annexation of some part of the tenant farmer’s land, the raising of money’s from private individuals (as distinct from public sources), with the attendant risk of all, or some part of it, being expended in the early stages of 20

the development on such things as laying of square, provision of mains and services, with no short term guarantee that we can successfully bring such a project to eventual fruition. For me, the whole scheme savours too much of a speculation and affords no way in which money subscribed in good faith could be reimbursed of once spent, and the project falls apart at any stage short of completion. I would not care to have to say to any such subscribers in two years time, as Chairman of Club, “I am sorry, but we have nothing to show for your money save a level, unused field.” I must, therefore, ask the Club to accept my resignation as Chairman of Club forthwith, as there seems the probability that several meetings may take place within the Club and with external bodies in the coming weeks which ought to be attended and/or presided over by someone who at least has confidence in what is being attempted, and is not one, like myself, who is against it. In the latter context, I am even against it on the grounds of where it is, in that I do not see it as the right place for HECC. I shall, of course, remain a full member of the club and help in whatever ways seem open to me. I wish the Development Sun-Committee and the whole Club committee every success in anything it may attempt. I regret I cannot be a party in any shape or form as a title holder of our club to the Ascots Lane scheme - although I shall do what I can as an ordinary member to help it succeed if we become committed. As soon as I have confirmation that the Committee of the Club have been told of my decision, I shall advise our President of Club and Club Captain that I have resigned as Chairman of Club Yours sincerely,H J Gray John Lance’s handwritten reply on the cricket club’s headed paper was more succinct.21

22. 6. 75.Dear John, Many thanks for your letter of the 12th in which you tendered your resignation as Chairman of Club. This was naturally received with regret by the Committee last week, but in view of the fact that you feel so strongly about the whole concept of the move to Ascots Lane, realised that, in the circumstances, you were left with little alternative. A pity some of the figures in public life in this country are not as honest as you! The committee have asked me to let you know that, in recognition of all the immense service you have willingly given the club over so many years, they would like to offer you a Life VicePresident status. Please let me know if you are prepared to accept this honour - such as it is. Not many privileges attach to the position, I’m afraid, but at least it retains your connection with the club without being regarded as an ‘official’ position in any way. Yours sincerelyHon. Secretary History was not on John Gray’s side. The club was due to vacate Hatfield Park following the end of the 1977 season, and a basic facility at Angerland Common was not completed until 1980. The club’s third XI had the 22

unfortunate experience of playing a couple of matches at the ground in the late 1980s. It was an inhospitable place, high up and exposed to the elements. Even in the height of summer, it was prone to biting winds. I can only imagine what it would have been like in April. Hatfield Town FC became tenants after the closure of their ground at Stonecross Road, and within four years of arriving, the club had fallen into debt and folded. A fate that could have easily befallen the cricketers had they followed suit. With the decision made, the club was now ready to focus on the important task of raising the funds necessary to facilitate the move.23

Money (That’s What I Want) It was going to be a massive challenge to generate the necessary income, but in theory, the club was in a position to get going quickly. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go according to plan. With the expectation that the Future Development Committee would identify areas for improvement, a fundraising subcommittee was established in September 1974 to raise the necessary funds. Albeit its remit had increased exponentially, it was handy that such a body was already up and running before the club had been cast into a well of uncertainty. The club needed to raise a substantial sum of money if it was to successfully navigate the choppy waters ahead, so this body of men was going to play a significant part in proceedings. It was anticipated that grants and donations would significantly contribute to financing the move; however, any such endowments were contingent on the club raising a comparable amount through its own efforts.So far, so good. But then, following an act of self-sabotage, the wheels of the bus fell off in spectacular style. The events of May 1974 will be detailed in a later chapter (Revolving Doors). Suffice it to say that within a couple of months of the club receiving its eviction notice – and for reasons related to neither cricket nor fundraising – this vital subcommittee imploded when half of its representatives resigned. So much for hitting the ground running, then. Momentum had been lost, but thankfully, it was not long before a reconstituted set of fundraisers was chomping at the bit, and the campaign was up and running again. What followed was three years of blood, sweat and tears.The first event that the new-look committee was tasked with organising was a six-a-side cricket tournament and barbecue to be held on August 30, 1975, in Hatfield Park. History has shown that the previous resident of Hatfield House, Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, KG (1893-1972), the 5th Marquess of Salisbury, not wanting to set a precedent, had staunchly refused the cricket club permission to use his park for fundraising purposes. At the risk of maligning his successor, the 6th Marquess (also Robert), it is possible that, like father, like son, permission to stage the event was withheld, as no such tournament or barbecue materialised. In fairness to the late Marquess, it is possible that he was not to blame and that the cancellation occurred because the club had received an alternative offer.With a Little Help From my Friends Club cricket in Hertfordshire has changed a great deal since the 1970s, 24

and not necessarily for the better. No matter how fiercely competitive the on-field action had been, the away team would stay for an hour or so after a game to socialise in the opposition’s bar. Aided by the fact that you played against the same teams year after year, a familiarity would develop, and there was something of a cricketing togetherness. The first club to respond was Totteridge CC, which contributed a £10 (equivalent to £78 in 2025) donation in May 1975. [From this point forward, the bracketed figure will be adjusted for inflation as of 2025.]Seven days after agreeing to stage an event in Hatfield Park, the General Committee found itself discussing an offer from North Mymms CC to run a barbecue on 9 August 1975 on their Home Farm ground, with all profits from the sale of food to be donated to the Ascots Lane development fund. Keen for the evening to be a success, it was suggested and agreed that Hatfield’s 2nd XI fixture away to Vauxhall Motors would be cancelled. To allow the club to assist North Mymms with preparations on the day, and to avoid issues with players travelling from Luton in time for the event, this arrangement was put in place. Although the number of attendees is unknown, the evening was a success, generating a net profit of £67 (£521).North Mymms were not alone in offering to stage events on the club’s behalf. In September 1975, Harpenden CC approached the club with the proposal of a 20-over match to be played one evening in early June 1976, offering to donate the proceeds of a raffle for a cricket bat. By the time the fundraiser was next mentioned in dispatches, it had evolved into a cricket/darts match. A date was eventually fixed for 30 June, with the raffle adding £20 (£135) to the development fund. To provide an indication of the rate of inflation in the mid-1970s, the £20 donated by St Albans in September 1975, also from the raffling of a bat, is the equivalent of £155 today! This, of course, added to the club’s woes, as by the time it was ready to spend the rewards of its fundraising efforts, it wasn’t worth what it had been when it had been collected.As far as the efforts of local cricket clubs went, as much as it pains me to say so, the biggest contribution came from Knebworth Park CC. This is all the more surprising because Knebworth were not one of Hatfield’s traditional opponents, with the clubs meeting for the first time in 1974. (It is not impossible that the C Johnson who sent a letter to the Welwyn Times, reproduced in the previous chapter, was Chris Johnson, a KPCC stalwart of many years.) The club from Old Knebworth Lane held a disco on 10 July 1976 for Hatfield’s benefit, the result of which was that the club’s coffers were swollen to the tune of £100 (£675). 25

Closer to home, it would have been understandable if Hatfield Hyde CC had been slightly perturbed by the thought of a rival club moving into their backyard, but they were quick off the mark to offer assistance in June 1975. Unfortunately, there is no record of what form this assistance took. There may have been further donations that went undocumented; however, it was noted on 30 May 1977, that Bushey CC had generously contributed £25 (£150) towards the fighting fund. The final word on the contribution of rival clubs relates to the Herts Advertiser knockout competition, a 20-over cup open to clubs within the newspaper’s distribution area. The organisers wrote to the club in September 1975 to propose that the entry fees for the 1976 competition be donated to the new ground fund. Funnily enough, the club was agreeable to this idea. Additionally, it was later proposed that the final be staged at Hatfield Park, providing extra bar revenue for the club. When Hatfield qualified for the final, it looked like the stars were aligning, but, alas, it wasn’t to be, and Redbourn went on to lift the trophy.Ticket To Ride An article written by John Gray and Ken Goulding for publication in the magazine Hertfordshire Countryside in May 1978 mused that “the history book of Hatfield Cricket Club, in years to come, might well record the car competition as one of the most significant events in the club’s annals.” Goulding also described it as “a momentous [decision] in the history of the club,” adding that it “brought our problem to the public’s attention and convinced many people, both the public at large and most importantly officers in local authorities, etc., that here was an organisation prepared to help itself.” It is an unfortunate quirk of fate that the volumes on the club’s history are divided in such a way that it has been relegated to little more than a footnote in the two volumes that straddle the events of this book. If the club’s history were ever condensed into a single volume, it would receive greater prominence.It began as a simple idea to organise a raffle, which the General Committee first discussed on 7 July 1975. The proposed ticket price of 50p (£3.50) was considered too high, and it was suggested that it should not exceed 20p. At this point, the Fundraising Committee was showing limited creativity, and the meeting also proposed increasing the value of the prizes to £100 (£775). Two weeks later, Tony Paulson, the chairman of the subcommittee, returned with a more ambitious plan that would require significant effort from the club’s members if it was to achieve the rewards he envisioned. The new proposal was to sell 15,000 tickets for a Grand Draw 26

at 20p each, which could potentially generate a profit of £2,000 (£15,500). This suggests that the prize fund had increased tenfold, although no details concerning potential prizes were provided.They say that a week is a long time in politics. In the case of Hatfield Estate CC’s Grand Draw, a lot could happen in a week. Between 21 July and 28 July, the momentous decision alluded to by Ken Goulding was made. Without fanfare, it was recorded in the minute book by John Lance, thus:Fundraising. Grand Draw. The prize changed to Vauxhall Chevette. 20p a ticket, 20,000 to be printed. The Chevette was a ‘supermini’ car manufactured by Vauxhall in the UK from 1975 to 1984. Between 1975 and 1978, it was the UK’s best-selling hatchback. As a non-driver, this means nothing to me, but for the record, “The Chevette's 1.3-litre engine and relatively small bodyshell allowed for good performance. The Chevette had light steering, clutch and gear change, as well as good visibility, and was spacious inside. The Chevette’s success was probably due to its versatility, which compared well with larger cars.”This was a huge task for the club to undertake, and it involved a significant risk. The brand new Chevette, with a discount, would cost £1,450 (£10,000), so to cover the cost of the car, the club would need to sell 7,250 tickets. All the ticket buyer needed to do was guess how far the car would run on a single gallon of petrol in miles, yards, feet, and inches. At this point, there will be a generation of people asking What’s a gallon? [Answer, 4.54 litres (unless you’re American, in which case it’s 3.78)]. Reporting to the General Committee on 1 September, Tony Paulson delivered a detailed report concerning the draw, with particular emphasis on advertising. The club went public with an announcement in September 1975:CAR BOOST TO CRICKET CLUB FUNDS A Vauxhall Chevette was handed over by a WGC garage to Hatfield Estate Cricket Club last week. The club is moving from its traditional ground in Hatfield Park after the 1976 season, and the high-economy Chevette is to be the first prize in a raffle organised by club members to help finance the new ground in Ascots Lane. The car was supplied by Graham and Comrie, of Lemsford Lane, WGC, at a generous discount, and the club hopes to sell 20,000 tickets in a publicity campaign for the raffle. Entrants will have to guess how far the Chevette will run on one gallon of pet27

rol when it is driven by a rally driver in March. The winning guess will have to be accurate because the organisers want to know the distance exactly in miles, yards, feet and inches. The competition will run throughout the winter, and the winner will be announced at a grand celebrity ball in March.Pictured above are Graham and Comrie sales manager Brian Matthews and general manager Terry Peffer. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 19 September 1975 It was a tough slog. Many cold, often wet, Saturdays were spent during the winter months in Hatfield’s market place and on a site next to Welwyn Department Store (now John Lewis), selling tickets. I was very young at the time, but one thing I remember from this period was the pale blue, “Help Save Hatfield Estate CC” t-shirts worn by the ticket sellers. Unfortunately, John Lance had terrible handwriting (not that I am in any position to criticise), and it is impossible to determine from the minutes the name of the shirt manufacturer that paid the club £43.20 (£335) for advertising, which hopefully covered the cost of the shirts.These were stressful times, and the Fundraising Committee underwent significant personnel changes, which will be discussed later. It is sufficient to say for now that shortly after the launch of the Chevette Draw, David Hurley replaced Tony Paulson as the chair of the Fundraising Committee. Paulson was still a member of the committee, so it can only be assumed that he was feeling the pressure of spearheading the campaign. A month after becoming the head honcho, the General Committee minutes for the 28

meeting held on 10 November 1975, Hurley had discouraging news to report:David Hurley reported that car tickets are not going as well as would be liked, and this is to be pushed in the next few weeks. Although not recorded in the minutes, it seems this was the stage at which the decision was made to expand the ticket-selling operation into Welwyn Garden City. This turned out to be a successful enterprise. At the next General Meeting, it was announced that almost 500 tickets had been sold in Hatfield’s neighbouring town. At the same time, it was revealed that, contrary to the press release, the Chevette would not be driven by a rally driver. It must be assumed that the Fundraising Committee had hoped to secure the services of a local celebrity; however, they had to settle for the wife of the former Arsenal and Scotland goalkeeper, Bob Wilson, who had recently hung up his boots to begin a broadcasting career with the BBC. Hurley was a passionate Arsenal supporter, and it has been said that had his third-born child been a boy, he hoped to name him Charlie George in honour of the club’s 1971 double-winning hero. To the probable relief of his wife, Gill, she gave birth to a daughter, Penelope Kate. Margaret ‘Megs’ Wilson would later make a more substantial contribution to charitable work when she and Bob set up the Willow Foundation in 1999 as a tribute to their daughter, Anna, who died after being diagnosed with malignant schwannoma, a cancer of the nerve sheath.A common refrain from now until the competition closed at the end of February 1976 was a plea for volunteers to man the ticket stalls at the sites in Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City. When the dust had settled, all the volunteers’ efforts, along with the organisers’ stress and anxiety, had been worth it. Megs Wilson’s journey from the forecourt of Graham & Comrie Ltd’s showroom on Lemsford Lane, Welwyn Garden City, on 29 February 1976, lasted for 43 miles, 32 yards, two feet, and eleven inches. Given the technology available at the time, it would be interesting to know how accurate this measurement was. After accounting for all expenses, £875 (£5,930) had been raised, which was a significant contribution towards the project’s overall cost.29

HOW FAR THE MYSTERY of the exact distance a Vauxhall Chevette will travel on a gallon of petrol has been solved. But the mystery must remain a mystery until tonight (Friday) when Hatfield Estate Cricket Club announce the name of the person who has won a new car. Thousands of people have bought tickets and guessed the Chevette’s exact mileage to raise money for the Club. The competition has been organised with the help of WGC Garage Graham and Comrie.Pictured before the run are, left to right: Roger Bardell, the competition promoter; Terry Peffer, of Graham and Comrie; Tony Paulson, who also promoted the competition; and Megs Wilson.Welwyn & Hatfield Times - 5 March 1976 30

VAUXHALL VICTOR A VAUXHALL CHEVETTE does 43 miles, 320 yards, two feet eleven inches to the gallon – and no one is more pleased about it than John Breen. For John paid 20 pence for a competition ticket with that length printed on – and won a car worth over £1,000. The competition was run by the Hatfield Estate Cricket Club, and they raised £900.Mr and Mrs Breen, of Great Heath, Hatfield, are pictured with Mr Terry Peffer, general manager of Graham and Comrie, the company which gave the car.Welwyn & Hatfield Times - 12 March 1976 31

32The Vauxhall Chevette. Nobody could accuse 1970s cars of being sexy.

33The site of Hatfield Market Place before its relocation in the 2010s. Rag Records on the righthand side has happy memories of my youth, while three units to the left, the Greek Olympic Restaurant was the scene of possibly the most excruciating annual dinner in the club’s history. If you were there, you will remember! The pre-meal drink at the White Hart before a committee dinner at the same venue also provides lasting memories…

The Nature of Reality Of the sites offered to the club by Lord Salisbury, the two in the South Hatfield/Welham Green area were immediately dismissed, as the pair were seen as little more than marshland. This may have been a hasty judgment, since, in the club’s July 1992 Newsletter, Tony Foster noted that they had both dried out. However, this does not necessarily mean that either was a viable option in 1975. They must have been in a poor condition, as the Ascots Lane field was far from ideal. In 1975, it was an undulating, weedcovered horse field with three or four raised manholes. Research revealed that these were surface drains from the RAF Mill Green camp, and many of the drainage runs were still intact. The only visible remnant is the cover near the water point, next to the cricket table, but at least two runs can be observed during dry spells by the patterns of grass growth. For many years, I kept a Google Maps screenshot from one such dry spell, but unfortunately, I recently deleted it. From memory, one of the drains runs from the bench on the Caravan Club side of the ground to the south-west corner, while another runs from the far side of the machine shed towards the same point.While the fundraising effort was the public face in the early months of the campaign, behind the scenes, the Development Committee, under the stewardship of Ken Goulding, was hard at work with the less glamorous tasks of form-filling and letter writing, the MCC, National Cricket Association (NCA), Eastern Sports Council, and the Lord’s Taverners, to name but a few. The remit of this committee was twofold. Firstly, it was responsible for planning the works necessary to convert the Ascots Lane site into a cricket ground. Secondly, and of equal importance, it was targeted at securing the necessary funding. Both aspects of this remit would require extensive work for the project to succeed.Ken Goulding was quick off the mark. In March 1975, he attended a seminar at Biggleswade organised by the NCA, which offered advice on grants and other matters. This led the General Committee to recommend that the club apply for membership (15p per member per year) in the hope of securing funding further down the line. This prudent decision echoed events in 1925, when, upon learning it would have to vacate the Show Field ground on St Albans Road and relocate to Stonecross Road, the club suddenly became eager to join the National Playing Fields Association.As for Ascots Lane, before any work could commence, there were legal niceties to complete. The first of these was to secure a change of use for the 34

site from agriculture to leisure. During a meeting between the club and the Estate at Lodge House on 17 July 1975, it was discussed that the application could be submitted before the end of the month. Eric Simson handed Harry Clegg the proposed site plan to help accommodate this endeavour. The club hoped this would allow them to have the field rotavated and graded by the end of September, enabling seeding. This was an optimistic timeframe, and although the application was submitted to the council as hoped, it was not realistic to expect to receive an answer early enough for work to commence until the following spring.When, on 21 July 1975, the General Committee was updated on the meeting with Harry Clegg, it also learned of an innovative proposal for the club to save money on a new pavilion; however, on the face of it, it would surely have been no more than an ad-hoc solution, before a permanent resolution when the financial position allowed. Tony Paulson reported on a temporary building in Hoddesdon, formerly utilised as a bank, that was available to purchase. It wasn’t insubstantial in size, measuring at 2000 ft2, which, coincidentally, is, give or take, approximately the same floorspace as the current pavilion. Compared to the cost of constructing a building from scratch, this was a bargain at £1,000 (£7,780), saving at least 90%. However, the club would still need to pay for dismantling, transportation, storage, and re-erecting the structure. The club’s membership was kept up to speed with developments through a series of newsletters. It has already been noted repeatedly that minutes of the club’s meetings were economical in detail, so it is unfortunate for historians that no record of these newsletters has been preserved. It is clear, however, that the idea of utilising the temporary bank building was under active consideration. The building’s dimensions had been provided to Eric, who attended the general committee meeting on 8 September 1975 to present plans for the proposed layout. The most pressing aspect of the plan was that of pre-construction storage, and the Development Committee was instructed to meet as a matter of urgency; however, it is unclear whether they reached a satisfactory conclusion.It was paramount that the club drew attention to its current plight to as wide an audience as possible, and a minute from 8 September’s committee meeting read:Local MP. Ken Goulding to acquaint her with our problems at a convenient meeting. 35

Dutiful Servants & Political Masters The parliamentary constituency of Welwyn Hatfield was in its infancy, created following the second periodic review of Westminster constituencies, undertaken between 1965 and 1969 by the four boundary commissions for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The information must be out there somewhere, but it isn’t easy to find a list of constituencies before the Third Reform Act and the subsequent Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, which placed Hatfield in the St Albans seat. It remained here until 1950, when a significant redistribution of seats under the Representation of the People Act 1948 led to its transfer to Barnet. This was a short-lived state of affairs, and as a consequence of the first periodic review of Westminster constituencies, carried out by the boundary commissions, which had been created by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. The commissions reported in 1954, and their recommendations took effect for the 1955 general election, with Hatfield shifting to Hertford. Hatfield’s MP since 1955 had been the Conservative Robert Lindsay (Lord Balniel), who served as Minister of State for Defence (23 June 1970 - 5 November 1972) and Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (5 November 1972 - 4 March 1974) in Ted Heath’s administration. Following the abolition of his Hertford constituency, Lindsay opted to stand for the new seat of Welwyn Hatfield at the election of 28 February 1974. By a narrow majority, he became its inaugural MP, but it turned out to be a pyrrhic victory, as, when Harold Wilson went to the polls on 10 October 1974, he was defeated. By way of compensation, he was given a life peerage and sent to the House of Lords as Baron Balniel in January 1975. A fairly pointless act, as in December of that year, he succeeded his father as Earl of Crawford and sat as a hereditary peer until his retirement in November 2019.Despite its strong roots in the area (in local elections in Welwyn Garden City in the 1930s, the Conservative Party didn’t bother putting up any candidates) and the close nature of the February election, the Labour Party’s plans for the October election suggest they may not have been overly confident of success. Not that she was a complete unknown, having appeared as a member of a television panel on programmes in 1972 and 1973, and unsuccessfully contesting the Wolverhampton South West constituency in the February 1974 election. The point remains, however, that, aged 25, Helene Hayman was the youngest MP of the 1974-79 Parliament. Narrowly defeated in 1979, Hayman had to wait a bit longer than Lindsay to sit on the red benches, taking the title of Baroness Hayman, of Dartmouth Park, on 2 January 1996. Hayman held three positions in Tony Blair’s govern36

ments before serving as Lord Speaker from 4 July 2006 until 31 August 2011.Given the inconsistent nature of the club’s minutes, it’s difficult to determine with confidence whether the meeting occurred, but you would probably assume that it did.Nous Vous Demandons Pardon In September 1975, a media blitz began with a double-page spread in the Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser, accompanied by several historical photographs, some dating back to the nineteenth century, and also appearing in the Appendix of this book.HATFIELD HOUSE and cricket go together like leg before wicket. MCC records show that a game of sorts was played there in 1789, and the Hatfield Estate Cricket Club, to give it its full title, is still going strong within the shadow of the Cecils’ stately house. If enthusiasm could guarantee a club’s future, you could bet on Hatfield aficionados fielding a side in the year 2000. But other factors have to be taken into account, and the club faces a problem through its unique association with Hatfield House. These days, the Elizabethan palace seems to be on the itinerary of every tourist, homegrown or otherwise, and the simple fact is that the house needs more car parking space to accommodate them. The club’s cricket pitch has been earmarked for asphalt, but things are not as gloomy as they appear to be. The present Lord Salisbury seems to be as keen as anyone to continue the family's link with Hatfield cricket, and the club has been offered a new site on Cecil land at Ascots Lane. The club has one season to run in Hatfield Park, and then it faces the challenge of a new ground. Members are saddened at having to move, but, on the other hand, are looking forward to making a new future for the club on the other side of Old Hatfield. The move entails a great deal of planning and more than a few financial headaches. The figure of £10,000 has to be raised, and members have a number of ingenious schemes that will hopefully enable them to achieve it. The Times-Advertiser will detail the fundraising schemes and progress in the coming weeks, but on these pages, we show something of which the club is justifiably proud – its varied and colourful history. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 12 September 1975 LENGTHY INNINGS NEARS A CLOSE NOBODY knows when cricket was first played at Hatfield Park, but it’s a fact 37

that on September 23, 1789, two local men played two picked men of Bedfordshire at single wicket for 50 guineas. Three matches were played in 1818 against a county XI. In the last two, Hatfield were assisted by Rev. Lord Frederick Beauclerk, son of the fifth Duke of St Albans, who helped the team to win in the park by 46 runs. Lord Frederick, the greatest amateur cricketer of his time, and the Hon. Robert Grimston, son of the Earl of Verulam, were both regular members of the Hatfield team. Grimston, who was a founder member of the MCC, played for Hatfield in 1855-56, soon after the Crimean War, during which cricket was played in the park by the Herts Militia. Countless teams from Lords were brought to the park throughout the latter half of the 19th century under the leadership of Ben Warsop, the bat maker. Reciprocal games were played at Lords with Hatfield players competing against such renowned names as Walter Brearley and Albert Trott, who remains the only batsman ever to have hit a ball clean over the present Lords pavilion. In a latter-day context, Lord Salisbury’s XI, in 1956, played a charity match in the park, which aroused nationwide publicity as it was the first game in which Denis Compton played following his knee operation. The knee stood the test, for he both bowled successfully and scored 82 for the Hatfield side. The club has played cricket in the park since the 18th century until the present day, except for the period 1923 to 1946, when the 4th Marquis of Salisbury’s own employees played there as Hatfield Estate Cricket Club and had sole use of the ground. The Town Club revived the dwindling Estate Club in 1946. Non-estate members were able to join, and the club has stayed the same ever since, though it is still a rule that estate workers can only be charged 2s 6d (12½p) to join the club. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 12 September 1975 SELF-RELIANT CLUB IS A PART OF HATFIELD The present club boasts a healthy playing pool of 50 members and fields three full teams and a Colts XI for aspiring young cricketers. It has a packed fixture list every year, playing teams as varied as those from Vauxhall Motors, North London Polytechnic, and British Rail. The club also faces teams like Northampton Exiles and London New Zealand, and a feature of every season is a final match between married and single members. The club is founded on members like Mr John Gray, MBE, Secretary for 21 years and the local cricket historian, and Mr David Pickhaver, who has been playing for 20 years, and captains the Sunday XI as well as being in charge of looking after the pitch. “We’re a very self-reliant club and members know that it will be up to them to make the move a success,” said Mr Pickhaver, 35. “I’m sure they will do their utmost, and we hope the public will want to help 38

us maintain what really is an integral part of Hatfield,” he added. Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser - 12 September 1975 Exposure in the Welwyn Times & Hatfield Advertiser was all well and good, but news of Hatfield CC’s predicament had somehow found its way to Fleet Street. Margaret Allen, the features editor of The Times, made contact with the club requesting information on the club’s history, and H J Gray duly replied on 9 September 1975. A week later, on Tuesday, 16 September, a lengthy article, penned by Phillip Howard, appeared in the national broadsheet newspaper. With a circulation of over 300,0000, this was useful publicity.BAILING OUT AT HATFIELD Village Cricket is supposed to be an immemorial part of the English summer landscape. The erratic fast bowler, off a run twice as long as Lillie’s, shakes the ground like a jelly, as well as the pallid batsmen waiting in the pavilion. The runstealers flicker to and fro, to and fro, shouting coarse rusticisms at each other. Beer flows. Rain drips through the slips. Patient wives make tea. At least football does not go on for so long. One of the oldest and most distinguished local cricket sides is going to have to leave the stateliest cricket ground in all England at the end of next season. For two centuries and probably much longer, the men of Hatfield have been playing the game in front of the spectacular if distracting sightscreen of the north front of Hatfield House, the Jacobean palace of the Cecils. Hatfield House and park, at present, attract about 100,000 visitors a year, and the cricket on the ancient lawn in front of the house has been advertised in the past as an additional attraction. However, if Hatfield House is to survive as an economic industry, it now needs to attract twice as many visitors. Lord Salisbury and the managers of his estates have decided, sadly, that the traditionally violent cricket of Hatfield will imperil such large crowds, which have to approach the house down roads that act as boundaries and targets for the cricketers. They have asked the cricketers to take their bats and balls somewhere else by 1977, in order to make way for the anticipated influx of visitors. This will bring to an end a tradition of cricket at Hatfield that has been going on for so long that the early records are lost in the bad light stopped play of Time. The scorebooks go back nearly two centuries, to the evolution of cricket from the primal ooze of more primitive ballgames. Hatfield House was built by Robert Cecil, the second Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury and James I’s chief minister. Cecil employed as a tutor Giovanni Florio, the son of an Italian Protestant who had taken refuge in England. Florio published World of Words, which defines “sjittare” as “to make a noise like a cricket; to play cricket-a-wicket; to make merry.” 39

The Italian may have used an idiosyncratic Mediterranean spelling, more like the noise the batsman makes when struck in the stomach by the village fast bowler than the stiff-upper-lipped, crisp duo-syllable that evolved. But he seems to have grasped the rudiments of the game. His Garden of Recreation of 1591 shows much knowledge of all English games. If Cecil's tutor, an Italian, knew about cricket, it is not too great a leap into hypothesis to suppose that other members of that original Hatfield household knew and played the game on their spacious lawns. However, the first statistical record of cricket at Hatfield that has survived dates from September 23, 1789, when two men of Hatfield played two picked men of Bedfordshire in front of Hatfield House at single wicket for a purse of 50 guineas. The score was: Hatfield 29, Bedfordshire 4; and there is an intrinsically probable tradition that the purse was put up by the 7th Earl of Salisbury. In the next year, Hatfield cricketers are recorded as playing the county of Hertfordshire. And by the nineteenth century, there are frequent records of fast and furious cricket at Hatfield House. Cecils often appeared high on the batting order, and, perhaps more surprisingly, high among the runs. Some of the top cricketers of England, in skill as well as blood, played regularly for Hatfield. For example, the Rev Lord Frederick Beauclerk, who combined the offices of vicar and 5th Duke of St Albans, played for Hatfield against Hertfordshire twice in 1818. He went on to become President of the MCC. So did another Hatfield star, Robert Grimston, son of the Earl of Verulam. Household names from those golden nursery years of cricket turned out for or against Hatfield; Ghostly batsmen today, playing to the bowling of a ghost: Harvey Fellowes, William Nicholson, and the celebrated seven Walker brothers, all of whom played regularly for the Gentlemen versus the Players, if they did not have a previous engagement for Hatfield. When the Eton Ramblers were founded in 1862, one of their first matches was against the patriarchal side, Hatfield, in the park where cricket had been played for the previous century. Regular Elevens from Lord's came down to Hatfield throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, led by Ben Warsop, the great bat-maker. Hatfield played return matches at the headquarters of cricket, where Walter Brearley of Lancashire turned out for Hatfield, and G F Hearne and A E Trott (Australia, England, and Middlesex) were numbered among the opposition. Trott is still the only batsman ever to have hit a ball clean over the present pavilion at Lord's. In recent years, the internationals have not played for Hatfield as regularly as in the past, but the cricket has always been fierce. The most recent notable match was in 1956 when Denis Compton played his first game after his famous knee operation. He bowled successfully and scored 82 for the fifth Marquess’s side. Now the glory, or at any rate the risk of broken glass, is about to leave Hatfield House. Hatfield Cricket Club is looking for a new ground and money to equip it. The club’s honorary life vice-president, Mr H J Gray, says wistfully and poetically: “We are sad to abandon Hatfield’s much-eulogised greensward, which for 40

more than two centuries has borne the tread of our forebears who have wielded bat and ball in defence of the honour of Hatfield and its cricketing prowess”. There will scarcely be a dry eye among the loyal spectators and the phantasmagoria of cricketing ghosts around the boundary next summer. The Times - 16 September 1975 More locally, the club’s predicament was also picked up by the Watford Evening Echo, which placed an ‘interesting’ (or bizarre, depending on your point of view) angle on the story. Somehow, the Echo had turned it into a feud within the Cecil family, pitting Lord Salisbury against his son, Lord Cranborne. The minor flaw in this was, of course, that not only was Cranborne a party to the decision to evict the club, he also delivered the blow personally. But then again, when has the press ever allowed facts to get in the way of a good story? Amusing as it may have been, it didn’t do the club any favours.LORD’S CRICKET BOYCOTT STUMPS A VISCOUNT A VISCOUNT has been stumped by his aristocratic father, who is to ban cricket on the front lawn of his stately home. Viscount Cranborne is the club captain of Hatfield Estate cricketers who play in the grounds of Hatfield House. But the team will bowl its last over on the stateliest ground in England next season – their home for 125 years. For Lord Salisbury wants to bring more visitors to the Jacobean mansion, the home of the Cecil family since the 17th century. He and the managers of his estate have decided that cricket could be a danger to the expected large crowds, who approach the house along roads that act as boundaries and targets for the players. And now the club has been asked to bail out by 1977, bringing to an end a cricketing tradition at Hatfield stretching back at least two centuries. The first record of cricket at the house dates back to 1789, when two men of Hatfield played two men of Bedfordshire at single wicket for 50 guineas. “Naturally, we will be sad to leave, but we have to accept changing times, said club secretary John Lance. “We haven't any option but to move – cricket has been played there for about 200 years on a grace and favour basis.” Mr Lance said plans to increase attendances at the house for economic reasons meant the cricketers would probably be in the way, and there was concern about the possibility of accidents. Lord Salisbury has found the club another ground in a field on his estate in Ascots Lane, between Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City. But now members face the daunting task of raising £10,000 to have a pitch laid 41

professionally and build a temporary pavilion ready for use in two years' time. “Hatfield is undoubtedly the most attractive ground in the south of England, and it will be a sad day when we go. Cricketers, more than any other sportsmen, have memories and nostalgia,” said one player, Tony Paulson, who heads the fund-raising operation. “I don't see the logic in separating cricket, which is part of English heritage, from the park. “But we have now got over the shock, and everyone is enthusiastic about the new ground, which has tremendous potential.” Plans for collecting the money are already underway, and the club has launched its first fundraising venture. It is a competition to guess how far a Vauxhall Chevette can go on one gallon of petrol, with the new car as first prize. “We regret very much having to take this decision, but it was unavoidable,” said Mr William [sic] Clegg, Lord Salisbury’s agent. “Thousands more people are visiting Hatfield House than before. Last year, we had about 125,000 visitors, and the cricket is just too much of a risk. Watford Evening Echo - 19 September 1975 Lord Salisbury was not amused, and evidence of his displeasure, conveyed through his agent, can be found in the minutes of the general committee meeting held on 29 September 1975. Future of the Club. Ken Goulding read a letter received from Mr Clegg complaining about the text of an article in the Evening Echo. KG to reply in suitable terms. As per usual, neither the contents of Harry Clegg’s letter nor Ken Goulding’s reply, in suitable terms, are known. In an act of damage limitation, in addition to Goulding’s letter, Eric Simson, the club chairman, also wrote a pacifying response. Fortunately, no lasting damage was done to the club’s relationship with the estate, and shortly afterwards, amiable discussions resumed between the two parties as work towards the move to Ascots Lane continued.Lastly, the club received a brief mention in the Cricketer Internationalmagazine issue dated December 1975; if issues were dated then as now, it would have been on sale in October.NO FURTHER CRICKET AT HATFIELD HOUSE Cricket is unlikely to be played at Hatfield House after next season, as Lord Salisbury and the managers of his estates have decided that matches played there by Hatfield CC endanger passing visitors. About 10,000 people visit the Jacobean palace of the Cecils each year. Cricket was first recorded at Hatfield House in 42

1789. The Cricketer International - December 1975 The assumption expressed in the Cricketer that cricket in the Park would likely cease following the 1976 season proved to be premature. As of 13 October 1975, the “change of user” application for Ascots Lane had still not been approved, making it impossible for work on the new ground to begin before spring 1976. Consequently, the General Committee instructed Ken Goulding to write to Harry Clegg, advising him that it would be at least two years before the club could move to its new home.43The Cricketer International: December 1975 issue.

Revolving Doors In the Beginning It should be stressed that all of the club’s officials and the members of the various committees mentioned within these pages were volunteers. They all had day jobs, and the countless hours of work necessary to ensure the club’s survival were carried out in their spare time. It’s hardly surprising that tempers flared and immense stress was placed on individuals at times. The Fundraising Committee bore the brunt of the pressure and consequently the largest turnover of personnel. Some of what is to follow has already been touched upon; however, as the events are not described in an entirely chronological order, it is useful to describe the dramatis personae in one place.The logical starting point is Monday, 12 August 1974, the date on which the Future Development Subcommittee was established. At this stage, the officers of interest were as follows:Club Chairman: Herbert ‘John’ Gray (1917-2003). H J Gray had a long association with the club. He joined in 1946 and was elected Honorary Secretary in 1948, a role he held until 1967. His ‘retirement’ didn’t last long, and in 1968, he replaced his late friend Walter Whitby as chairman. A keen local historian, he wrote several volumes relating to sport in Hatfield.Hon: Secretary: John Lance (1927-2005). Lance, who replaced H J Gray as secretary, began playing for the club in 1962. He wasn’t a gifted player, but he was a good clubman, along with his wife, Jean, who was secretary of the catering committee from 1966 until 1972. Employed by the Prudential Assurance Company, work commitments required frequent extended absences for overseas visits.Hon Treasurer: Edward Charles ‘Ted’ Springham (1927-1996). A local government officer, he joined as a non-playing member in 1966, was co-opted to the general committee in 1968, and became treasurer of the social committee the same year. In 1969, he was elected as one of the club’s umpires.Chairman of the General Committee: Roger Ivor Bardell (b.1940). Born in Surrey, Bardell held a senior position at Lloyds Bank and, as committee chair, oversaw the coordination of the club’s campaign. He had first played in 1971 but was not elected as a playing member until 1972. He quickly became ingrained in the club, first serving as secretary of the social committee in 1973, then being elected chairman of the general committee in October 44

1974.Future Development Committee: Secretary: Kenneth Henry ‘Ken’ Goulding (1942-2019). A Phd biology graduate from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Ken was to play a pivotal role in the move to Ascots Lane. A lecturer at Hatfield Polytechnic (now the University of Hertfordshire), Goulding joined the club in 1971 and became 3rd XI captain in 1973. Committee members: Anthony George ‘Tony’ Foster. A player since 1956, 1st XI Captain since 1965, and soon to become the club’s all-time leading run-scorer. His wife, Ann, had replaced Jean Lance as secretary of the catering committee. Terry Quinlan. A journalist who at some time edited the house magazine of ICI (Welwyn Garden City), Quinlan began his career with Hatfield in 1972, captaining the Sunday 2nd XI in 1973 and 1974. Of more importance, he was elected as the club’s Press Secretary in 1973. Ted Springham (see above). Roger Bardell (see above). David Charles Hurley (1944-2025). Married to Gill, a niece of club legend Eddie Wakeling, Hurley, an employee of Rank Xerox, joined the club in 1967 and in 1969 was elected as 2nd XI captain. In 1970, he took on the additional role of Bar Secretary. His responsibilities expanded further in 1971 and 1972, when he also served as manager of the Colts Section. The next significant moment came on 30 September 1974. A football section of Hatfield Estate CC had been formed in May, and an application to play in the St Albans Sunday League had been accepted for the 1974/75 season. It was hoped that the section would be self-funding, and to this end, it was given a target for raising cash. Perhaps because one of its number had been one of the club’s prime fundraisers, it was decreed by the General Committee that the cricketers and footballers should combine resources and the fundraising subcommittee was born.Fundraising Committee: Peter Tyler (1946-2025). A product of the club’s Colts Section, Tyler was a tireless fundraiser, and among his initiatives was the creation of a 100 Club Draw in 1969 (first winner P Tyler!). Despite his young age, he managed the Colts in the 1969 and 1970 seasons, and captained the Sunday 1st XI from 1971 to 1973. Thomas Richard ‘Tom’ Walters (b. 1944) was an occasional player who joined the club for the 1973 cricket season. At the next General Meeting, he was elected to the Bar Committee and became Bar Secretary a year later. Peter A Clark (b.1951) was a halfbrother of Terry Driver (they shared a mother, Winifred Burgess), and despite being elected as a club scorer when eighteen, there is no record of him playing cricket before he was twenty-three. In 1973, he was voted onto the Bar Committee. Barry Percival Hugman (1945-1997). Hugman had returned 45

to the club in 1971 after a solitary season in 1964. In Autumn 1971, he was voted onto the General Committee (for one year) and became treasurer of the Social Committee, the forerunner of the Fundraising Committee. David John Lawrence (1948-2023). Another former Colt, Lawrence, had been playing with the senior elevens since 1966. Co-opted to the General Committee in May 1972, his position was confirmed at the Autumn General Meeting. He also captained the Sunday 2nd XI in 1973. Roger Bardell completed the complement.Changes In an ideal world, when the club was still coming to terms with the enormity of the situation it found itself in, it would have chosen stability behind the scenes. Life has a nasty habit of not turning out as you would like, and before Auld Lang Syne received its annual airing, there had been monumental changes to the club’s hierarchy. Indeed, there had been many changes before the summer solstice.With impeccable timing, it all went horribly wrong in May 1975. A conflict had arisen between the General Committee and the club’s Football Section. Once again, the club’s minute book fails to provide much detail, and the bad blood caused by the incident was so deep that even decades later, it was impossible to have a civilised conversation about it. From what I can see in the minutes, the club had issues with the footballers in general, and one member (a non-cricketer) in particular. It appears there was an accusation that money had gone missing from behind the bar. The result of the dispute was that Tyler, Hugman, and Lawrence resigned from the cricket club, and at this critical point, the fundraising subcommittee was severely weakened.On 19 May, at the same meeting where the Committee was informed of the fallout with the footballers, Terry Quinlan further complicated the club’s situation by announcing that he would be unable to continue as Press Secretary from mid-July due to work commitments. Fortunately for the club, he was still able to sit on the committees. Quinlan’s replacement, who took office on 16 June, remains an enigma. Alan John Hulks (1937-1999), from St Albans, was listed in the 1975 fixture card as a vicepresident. For how long he carried out his new duties is not recorded; however, he had left the club before the 1976 card was sent to the printers.The circumstances behind John Gray’s resignation as Club Chairman on 12 June 1975 have already been dealt with at length, but what of his successor, who has already been named? Of all the people featured in this 46