22. "The Gaffer" of Limpsfield - by EM "Ted" Rose

John was seven years older than me, so when I was playing for Limpsfield as a schoolboy, he was away doing his national service and then managing a farm in Chobham. I was away in Malaya doing my own national service in 1956/7 and managed to play a few games at the end of the 1957 season. One of those was against Sevenoaks Vine 2nd XI up on the Downs at Knockholt and I have a vivid memory of John being in charge then, though he says he became captain in 1958.

What made John such a good captain was simple, really. He approached all aspects of life with completely open honesty. So, he was scrupulously fair and straightforward with people. He just said it like it was. It was up to you if you didn’t like it, but he would never hold grudges. What he couldn’t stand was pomposity.

Added to this, he committed himself heart and soul to the things he held dear: his family, the farm and Limpsfield cricket; the farm included his milk round customers; cricket included the ground and the British Legion. The cricket club benefited from all of these.

He had been inwardly disgusted by the set-up of the immediate post war years where the rich people played for the first XI and their gardeners for the 2nd. So, when he took over the captaincy from Gavin Bell, who had started to improve matters, he selected the two best balanced sides we could muster each Saturday and one on Sunday.

Balance entailed ensuring as far as possible that people played for the sides where they were most comfortable and most useful. Bob Neve had a huge input in achieving this. It wasn’t long before people found they were enjoying themselves. He was also lucky that from about the start of his reign, we were allowed to play cricket from 12.00 noon on Sundays.

What spoiled cricket for him? Being selfish; batting to long; boring draws; games where nobody seemed to care. So, he was very clear sighted about the ways to take the best advantage of any particular situation and clear about communicating them. Bat first, score quickly, declare early: most batsmen bat and most bowlers bowl. Bowl first, bowl them out, knock off the runs: everyone understands how the game dictates that not everyone could have a big part to play that day.

The same with his field placing: don’t waste people contributing nothing to the state of the match. Are we winning, or losing? What is actually happening? Do we need fielders clustered round the bat, or saving boundaries, or desperate to save singles? So, let’s commit to that.

I wrote a book called, How to Win at Cricket: it was all formulated by John.

John notes in his matter of fact way that he phoned local schools to tell them he was arranging children’s cricket. They seemed to arrive in their droves, several of them eventually able to have a go at first class, or even test cricket.

What is perhaps not recorded about "The Gaffer" is that he had the outfield limed, so that it became grass covered and spent hours rolling it. Then he persuaded Rob, the golf club green-keeper, to mow the outfield regularly. He was the driving force behind the move from changing in a tiny, splintered corner of the British Legion to having our own pavilion whilst happily drinking there after matches.