Decade

The Amazing Journey of the Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club

A complete record of The Gents’ first ten seasons

1988 - 1997

With thanks to, in order of meeting them; West XI, East Harrow Cheetahs, Enterprise, Old Cubbonians, London Owls (Sheffield Wednesday FC Supporters), New Barbarian Weasels, London Saints (Southampton FC Supporters), FC Chad, Lager Louts (Chelsea FC Supporters), North East London Probationers, Urban Associates, 12 Angry Men, Wandham, Rotherham FC Supporters, Virgin Casuals and Sunderland FC Supporters plus the members, guests and supporters of The Gents.

Dedicated to the memory of Bob Ashton, Stefan Meininger, Ian ‘Marty’ Renvoize and Simon Lloyd

Contents

Here we are in the years - Review by Season 1988 - 1997

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

Losing it - a gallery of strange incidents

Career records and major achievements of Gents' members

Current Members, key facts and their records

Former Members, key facts and their records

Career records of Gents' guests

Be my Guest

Summary of Results

Miscellaneous records

Match batting records

Partnership Records

Gents' individual batting records

Opponents' individual batting records

Gents' bowling records

Opponents' bowling records

Top All Round Performances

The Commitments

Games of Shame

Games of Glory

Why we Play

 thoroughly warm welcome to Decade, a review of the first ten years of The Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club. Come in, why don't you? You might as well. In these pages, the weather is always fine, the pitch, a good one with a bit of help for the bowlers, has not been double-booked and there is a Bank Holiday tomorrow. Nobody thought that The Gents would last ten years, but they have, and they will go on for many more yet. Many of you will know that it has been the habit for several years to issue a statistical almanac at season’s end. This year, you are getting something different, a far more comprehensive publication, with caps doffed to everyone who has ever played for The Gents. Let it be acknowledged here that a similar exercise by Steve Bignell on behalf of his beloved West XI CC was the inspiration for the volume you are now reading.

                For this writer, Cricket Heaven incorporates several elements; friendly oppo, a close game, a tea (a paper plate piled low with crisps, perhaps, or a Jaffa Cake), a sunny day, at least one Authentic Dismissal (e.g. a slip catch), a reasonable finish time and nobody killed or mutilated. An anarchic spirit will be afoot. All 22 players will end the day a little wiser, although eleven will be a little sadder when the game is won, or lost, in the final over with a brilliant catch or a brave and unlikely boundary. This Heaven was denied him for many years through various brief and unsatisfactory cricketing romances, but became glorious reality in 1988 when The Gents started. The mainstay of his summer, and much of his winter, life since, the club has grown and developed a personality all its own. And a very odd one it has sometimes been. Had The Gents been a person, it would have had a Care Order slapped on it some time ago. Over the years, the club has been described by respected commentators as “a shower,” “humourless,” “amiable,” “abject,” “crap,” “awesome,” “the most sporting side we’ve ever played,” “dodgy,” “bastards,” “macho” and plenty of other things. Remarkably each adjective has at some time been quite correct, for the mix of personalities has been wide and their mood swings great. We are talking about human beings, not robots.

                In the ten seasons from 1988 to 1997, The Gents have played 144 games, against 16 different teams at 32 different venues, winning 87 of them. The club has had 34 members, while 54 guests have also helped out. The fixture card of The Gents has never seen myriad opponents tumbling on and off each summer. Instead, it has seen the stability of a few much-liked teams recurring each year. The Gents’ policy has always to been to play reliable oppo, home and away, with new teams added by recommendation from that same oppo, a policy which has been vindicated with much ebb and flow, some superb contests and, not least, a constant stream of guest players to The Gents when eleven members could not be found. It is therefore right to thank all the opponents of The Gents, especially those brave people who have furthered the cause by editing their clubs’ fanzines, chief of which are Kitbag (New Barbarian Weasels) and Yes..No..Sorry! (West XI), lovingly compiled by Jez Owen and Steve Bignell. Admirable is the correct adjective to describe the prose and egg-ducking ability of these two.

                The four Gents scorebooks (the blue one, the red one, the wallpaper-covered one and the giant scarlet ring-bound one), together with those of West XI and Enterprise, have provided the source material for the averages, but annoyingly one match has escaped the attentions of The Gents’ scorer completely, while three catches will forever remain sloppily unrecorded. What you will get in this volume, however, is not just statistics, although the essential ones are naturally included, and certainly not a rehash of old editions of The Gent, which were of their time and dealt with the here and now. As befits a club entering maturity, we have chosen a more considered approach. With new material (as the Christmas annuals of our childhood said) we have tried to give you some new perspectives on the legendary club and a balanced review of those ten years. Decade includes a summary of every game with major performances (defined as more than twenty runs or three wickets, so most of you get a mention), who played for The Gents as members or guests, with a sometimes fine line between the two, how the club evolved, the humour, the tragedy and much in between. The Gents, like most amateur sports teams, have had over the years many representatives, of diverse ability and personality. The teams’ performances have ranged from the appalling to the brilliant and all points in between but all bar a handful of games have been enjoyable, win or lose. It is hoped that even the numerically-challenged of you will find some of the early averages and match results interesting, as many of you did not play then. The Blunder Years of the club, 1988 to 1991, saw many performances which only the most generous commentator could even call “patchy.” Frankly, they were awful, but those early days were important as well as being good fun. They are featured in equal measure to the generally more successful years of 1992 to 1997.

                There are certain guiding stars of brilliant magnitude who have inspired The Gents and, by extension, this volume which you are now reading. Chief of these is the club’s captain over most of the period, colourful supremo Mark Wynford Harvey Ashton, who towers above everyone else in statistical, if not physiological, terms. It is mainly due to his boundless energy that the club has thrived as it has. He has dominated the averages year after year and taken on far more than his fair share of organisational duties. The members and supporters have been loyal and cheerful over the years, well done all of you. The officers of the club, too, are to be congratulated, particularly in the treasury function. The club receives no external funds, unlike some of its rivals.

                Ten years on, The Gents thrive. With largely different personnel, certainly, and not without the help of many guests, but the word “thrive” is a just one. The club can be proud of its achievements on and off the field. The game of cricket thrives at the grass roots. So, enjoy Decade, every run, every wicket and every wobbler! If any Gent oppo reading this thinks it one-sided, an opportunity for celebration like this only comes along, well, about every ten years. Apologies for any errors of fact, which are bound to creep in to a project of this size. Good reading.

Andy Burman

©The Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club 2006