Len Newbery (see Newbery bats) used to bring his Grey Nicholls side to play us. He usually had a star or so, Leonard “Jock” Livingston being on his staff. One year, I rolled up on Sunday morning ready to unlock the pavilion, have a bit of a clean up and then give the pitch a roll. To my surprise the pavilion was already open. A couple of cricket shirts were spread on the bank, drying in the sun. The guy holding a broom greeted me: “I’ve put a crate of beer in each changing room. Hope that’s OK?” That guy was no ordinary opponent. He had played in the match the year before. He happened to be the only man at the time, in the whole history of Test cricket, to have made a double hundred and then taken five wickets in an innings in the same match: Denis Atkinson. Humble, or what?

David Halfyard of Kent was another for whom cricket and bowling was as essential as breathing. He hobbled about, playing for us after his horrendous car accident. “The only club I’ve ever played for without being paid, “ he moaned. Fearfully strong, he bowled endless overs for Kent, hitting the splice hard. As he recovered, he rediscovered his old control of the seam: “Wasted on him,” became his cheerful comment. As a young tear away fast bowler, he’d been chased out of the ground at Dulwich by the batsman after bowling a beamer at him.