A History of Oxted & Limpsfield Cricket Club
  1. Two Hundred Not Out and still Batting !
  2. A Limpsfield love affair
  3. Before 1850
  4. Early First Class Cricketers : William Martingell and Charles Payne
  5. The MacNivens of Perrysfield
  6. 1850-1900
  7. Limpsfield - A High Street of Cricketers
  8. The Brasier's of Limpsfield
  9. A Memorable Innings from Evelyn Marmaduke Leveson-Gower
  10. HDG Leveson Gower
  11. Before you in the order - The Cricket “Giants” at Limpsfield
  12. Oxted's Cricketing Corinthians
  13. 1901-1950
  14. Neville Knox, Surrey & England
  15. Reverend Marten’s Catch
  16. Leonard Moulding : Headmaster and Cricketer
  17. Strolling out from Limpsfield
  18. The Limpsfield Cricketer , the Actor and the Plot to kill Churchill (The Mystery of BOAC Flight 777)
  19. 1951-2000
  20. Tony Lock - Limpsfield, Surrey and England
  21. The Case of Errol Holmes and the Friendly Antipodeans
  22. "The Gaffer" of Limpsfield - by EM "Ted" Rose
  23. The Memories of John Davies
  24. Ted Rose's Limpsfield Jottings
  25. 3 Oxted Cricketing Legends (George Jarrett remembers)
  26. Gruesome Gesticulation, and crafty 24-yarders : George Jarrett remembers.... Norman Higgs and Vic Farmer
  27. When Imran Khan didn't play for Limpsfield : George Jarrett remembers...
  28. George Jarrett Remembers...The Sherjan Brothers - Limpsfield's Bowling Stalwarts
  29. 2001-Present
  30. Cricket across Four Generations : The Powell Family
  31. From Over There to Over Here : Some of our Overseas Players
  32. The Battle of Crockham Hill
  33. In Memoriam .... Those who have been finally given out
  34. In Memoriam - David Adamson 29 December 1939 to 6 October 2021
  35. In Memoriam - Les Brown (27 November 1936 – 28 January 2021)
  36. In Memoriam : Richard Gracey (with thanks to Ted Rose)
  37. In Memoriam : Nick Heroys (with thanks to Ted Rose)
  38. In Memoriam - Colin Smith
  39. Comments and additional notes
A History of Oxted & Limpsfield Cricket Club
  1. Two Hundred Not Out and still Batting !
  2. A Limpsfield love affair
  3. Before 1850
  4. Early First Class Cricketers : William Martingell and Charles Payne
  5. The MacNivens of Perrysfield
  6. 1850-1900
  7. Limpsfield - A High Street of Cricketers
  8. The Brasier's of Limpsfield
  9. A Memorable Innings from Evelyn Marmaduke Leveson-Gower
  10. HDG Leveson Gower
  11. Before you in the order - The Cricket “Giants” at Limpsfield
  12. Oxted's Cricketing Corinthians
  13. 1901-1950
  14. Neville Knox, Surrey & England
  15. Reverend Marten’s Catch
  16. Leonard Moulding : Headmaster and Cricketer
  17. Strolling out from Limpsfield
  18. The Limpsfield Cricketer , the Actor and the Plot to kill Churchill (The Mystery of BOAC Flight 777)
  19. 1951-2000
  20. Tony Lock - Limpsfield, Surrey and England
  21. The Case of Errol Holmes and the Friendly Antipodeans
  22. "The Gaffer" of Limpsfield - by EM "Ted" Rose
  23. The Memories of John Davies
  24. Ted Rose's Limpsfield Jottings
  25. 3 Oxted Cricketing Legends (George Jarrett remembers)
  26. Gruesome Gesticulation, and crafty 24-yarders : George Jarrett remembers.... Norman Higgs and Vic Farmer
  27. When Imran Khan didn't play for Limpsfield : George Jarrett remembers...
  28. George Jarrett Remembers...The Sherjan Brothers - Limpsfield's Bowling Stalwarts
  29. 2001-Present
  30. Cricket across Four Generations : The Powell Family
  31. From Over There to Over Here : Some of our Overseas Players
  32. The Battle of Crockham Hill
  33. In Memoriam .... Those who have been finally given out
  34. In Memoriam - David Adamson 29 December 1939 to 6 October 2021
  35. In Memoriam - Les Brown (27 November 1936 – 28 January 2021)
  36. In Memoriam : Richard Gracey (with thanks to Ted Rose)
  37. In Memoriam : Nick Heroys (with thanks to Ted Rose)
  38. In Memoriam - Colin Smith
  39. Comments and additional notes
A History of Oxted & Limpsfield Cricket Club 26 of 39

26. Gruesome Gesticulation, and crafty 24-yarders : George Jarrett remembers.... Norman Higgs and Vic Farmer


One of the great joys of looking back to cricket playing days is the warm recollection of the oddball characters who jock-strapped beside you often.
Two of these were Norman Higgs, who played for Oxted IIIs in the mid 1960’s when the team had great fixtures with Kent village sides, and Vic Farmer, who had played for Limpsfield seconds for some years before I joined in the early 70’s.
Norman was a teacher at Oxted, and a wonderfully affable Australian who loved the after-game drinks and chats in the bar seemingly more than being hit for a few fours, or knocking a few singles. He was a gesticulator supreme, often thumping his hand on the bar to emphasise something he held important to jovial life. His pupils must have seen the same, but safer gesticulations.
In every club bar and public house, we all watched and feared that he would smash his hand on a glass, but he always seemed to just miss them. And when we asked him to wave in windmills, and not smash his hand down on the bar, he laughed it off. But yes. It did happen.
Norman got carried away and flat handed a shorts glass with great force. It was an ugly and heart-breaking scene. We all felt it was our fault.
Vic Farmer resembled a St Trinian’s schoolmaster. He could poke fun with the best of them, but was at core the club’s Mr Serious. A lovely slow bowler to field to, he had a cunning plan. Once or twice in a spell he would bowl a delivery two steps early, hoping to catch the batsman by surprise.
If he ever got a wicket from this, it was because the wicketkeeper warned the batsman, who then tried to slog Vic over the legion, only to be caught or stumped.
Vic became a very good circuit umpire, but my abiding memory of him happened on one of the old schoolboy grounds, when he was parked dangerously at extra cover when a batsman was thrashing the ball to all parts of the ground.
On about 40 he smashed one that looked sure to be a flat six straight over Vic. But he snatched it, pocketed it, and turned as if to run to the boundary. The batsman may have been disbelieving when the umpire gave him the finger - we were chortling !
Vic's service to the Cricket Club continued as a long-serving club treasurer (until 1978) and he remained on the committee for many more years beyond that.