1965 – 1974 by Greg Stevens

In 1965 I holidayed at  an Isle of Wight  holiday  camp with Eddie  Brownlow  and  my  brother where we met Ken and Dave Angelo and, later that same summer, their sixteen year old friend Keith Finch. The significance  of this  was  not  to  be apparent  for  another  three years, except that Eddie and I joined their football team.

By the time I started to play regularly in 1964 the club was beginning to struggle, a number of players from the fifties had retired or moved on while the survivors were past their best and at the tail end of their careers. Only Alan Coupland and Joe Sitch were in their twenties and bore the brunt of the bowling along with “Taffy” Holman. The batting was held together by the trio of Stan Chisnell, John Strelley and Ted Gorham.

In 1965 twenty-four year old Alan Mansfield and teenagers Chris Long and Pete Bowers were given opportunities but the selection policy still preferred established players. The following season (1966) was more of a turning point when John Duffel! and Barry Vernon were introduced; Barry by Les Pearce as he was going out with Les’s daughter Pam and John by Len Johnson who worked with John’s father. Both these players were to have noteworthy impact on the future of the Club although perhaps Barry’s was the most immediate affect. For more than a decade Grenfell’s attack had lacked any spearhead, now with Mansfield, Bowers and Vernon it had three genuinely quick bowlers. 1967 saw the debut of fifteen-year-old Phil Blake who the following year became the youngest player to score a fifty since Harold Tozer in 1939.

Despite all this new blood it barely kept up with the loss of established and regular players. In 1966 Pete Cocklin was persuaded out of retirement but the dwindle continued. Taffy Holman emigrated to Australia in 1967; in early 1968 Ted Gorham,  who had moved to  Wembley  a couple of years earlier, now, with a young son, was finding  the travelling  too demanding  and time consuming and called it a day. Frank Cambridge and Alan Cartwright were both carrying injuries and played, against their better judgement, when they could – but not regularly.

Consequently it was becoming harder and harder to put a side together and in August 1968 secretary Harry Pearce rang me on a Thursday to say they had only six players for Sundays fixture at Old Erithians; could I find another five or should he call it off? He did not rate my chances but in the end I got  the  five; Eddie Brownlow, my brother Rog ,  Alan Wild (who had just started work with me) and Dave Angelo and Keith Finch . This quintet was to play in the subsequent weeks and in the last match of the season was joined by Ken Angelo.

The attempt over the previous three years to introduce new young players had faltered, the committee reluctant to accept the aging and decline of its members. It had almost left it too late but now had to accept the need to persist with a selection policy in favour of its new, young players. In 1969 Alan Wild introduced his close friend Pete Emmison who it turned out was a primary school friend of Ian Curle introduced from our football club by me and Ken Angelo. Bizarrely it proved to be the best season to date; leading bowlers Pete Cocklin and Alan Coupland found themselves relegated to a supporting role to a new fiery and fast opening attack of Ken Angelo, Finch and Curle. So successful was this five man combination that other regular bowlers like Joe Sitch and Len Johnson barely got a look in.

Throughout these changes the Club’s social traditions were maintained and a strong sense of camaraderie prevailed which helped to smooth the transition. After touring the Isle of Wight in 1966, the club successfully toured again, in successive summers, from 1970 to 1974. In 1970 we were based in Ashburton, Devon and the other four years at Totnes, Devon.

Throughout the decade Annual Dinner and Dances were held, moving from the Old Bailey Restaurant in the City in 1968 to the New Hackwood Hotel, Widmore Road, Bromley and on to Bromley Court Hotel for 1974. This festive occasion was supplemented by two or three winter get-togethers held on Saturday evenings at various venues like The Jolly Fenman at Blackfen,

The New Tigers Head at Lee Green, The Blue Anchor at Bexley and The Rose of Denmark at Charlton.

Events such as these were also supported by past players like Bill Ash and Harold Tozer. Harold, in fact, was a welcome and committed supporter throughout the summers as he umpired week-in week-out.

Friendships blossomed, wives and girlfriends included, and the Club was the centre of a lot of socialising. A Christmas disco was organised for 1972; needing only fifty-five people to break­ even more than eighty tickets were sold making  £30 for  the  club.  Another  was held the following summer with one hundred and twenty  attending  making even more  money.  Two discos a year were held until 1975.

In 1966 a Single Wicket competition was inaugurated but after three years has since only been contested intermittently.

Whilst 1969 was a turnaround of fortunes for the Club, some players were not  able to share it. Pete Bowers missed most of 1969 with a football injury but when finally recovered  found it  too late to get back in. Chris Long, after a disappointing 1968, left half way through that year to try his luck at Bexley C.C. and Barry Vernon, a banker, started a three year tour of duty in South Africa.

In 1970 I guested for  a select AKCC XI  organised  by Derek Dennis against the SE Division of the Royal Mail. Playing for the opposition was Alf Laroche, who was known to most of us as a Johnson & Phillips player, but more significant was the performance of his fifteen-year-old son Kevin who impressed with an innings of 37. I think  Alf may have  had greater  plans  for  Kevin but, after lengthy pursuit, by the end of the season both Alf and Kevin had played for us.

Kevin was to go on and become the finest player  we have ever had.  He scored his  first fifty aged sixteen and was only seventeen when he scored a remarkable 160 not out at the end of the 1972 season. His score was made out of a  total  of 201 with Hector  Mullens making  the next highest score, 11.

The death of Eddie Brownlow in a tragic road accident on 23 December 1970 was a sad loss for the Club but sadder personal one for me and John Garner who had been his friends since schooldays. Eddie would have become Assistant Secretary at the next AGM and probably Secretary in the years beyond that.

“‘—-   In   1971 Harry  Pearce  and  Len Naylor introduced  Derek  Leeks, a fellow  retailer  who ran  a  shop in Eynsford. This meant Derek could only play Sundays but he endeared himself to members by showing up most Saturday evenings for  a  drink. The  following  year  (1972)  Barry  Vernon was welcomed back from his overseas stint and brought  back  with him South  African,  Bill Davies. Bill came as a bowler but had little opportunity as such and made his mark, initially, as a batsman.

That same year Joe Sitch’s old club Lamorbey folded and we gained Hector Mullens who at thirty-six years old thought his best days were  behind  him. We also gained Howard  Stephens from rivals Lamorbey  Park  (not  to  be confused  with Lamorbey)  when his  father, John, saw more opportunity for his son, a young fast bowler, with a young club rather than his own aging team. The committee had in fact received an approach from Lamorbey Park for a merger but it was rejected. Finally after having made his debut in 1968 (aged just thirteen) young Graham Strelley, still only seventeen, was given encouragement to play on a regular basis.                                                                  ,

Considering the success of previous years 1972 was strange for the loss of form for almost all the batsmen. John Duffel! who had scored  924  runs in 1970, 547 in 1971 now  only  mustered 164 at an average less than ten. Amidst all this Kevin Laroche became the first player to score

1000 runs in a season. In this oddball season Alan James, boyfriend  of Lesley  Cocklin, got  his first bowl; he had made his debut in 1969 and played the previous two years. It now proved his had been a sadly overlooked talent but his career withus finished when he and Lesley broke up.

For 1973 Hector Mullens persuaded his ex-Lamorbey  team  mate Mick  Way out  of  retirement and even aged over forty Micky showed his class in a number of cameo innings. My cousin Rog Marshall also joined when he was posted from Derby to London by his employer, HM Customs. Thanks to them. To assist my cousin to settle in Kevin (Laroche), Phil (Blake)  and I  would take him out on a Thursday night. Quite often  we  were joined  by others, Pete Emmison  and  Alan Wild springing to mind.

Needing support for the Devon Tour I turned to two of my closest friends Chris Cockram and Brian Kingston, stalwarts of Sunallon C.C. Successful both as cricketers and communally it was to lead to Chris joining us permanently.

Ian Buck and Brian Jones were already known to the club through various social activities when they put on their whites for 1974. Ian is a friend of Phil and Brian was a workmate of Barry Vernon.