We are sad to have to say farewell to one of our most popular of all players. A decent, kind and gentle person he was passionate about cricket, playing 756 games for the club. It seems unlikely that any team picture taken between 1956 and 1989 will not have Clyde in it. I am slightly dumbfounded when I now contemplate that our respective playing careers overlapped twenty- five seasons, a quarter of a century. I had, of course, known him before I began playing and he continued an involvement as an umpire after his playing days. But it was not just as a player that he made his mark. He was a committed member of the club, involved in all its activities and events; generous with his time and support although he never took office. He was the epitome of a good club man and much appreciated and respected for it by all his fellow members. One of the earliest car owners in the club it was inevitable that he would give lifts to matches, his little four-seater invariably squeezing in five passengers as well as transporting the club gear. It seems likely that the club bag with all the bats, pads, gloves and other equipment would also have resided in the boot of Clyde’s car for the best part of twenty seasons (and throughout the intervening winters).

It was jointly with Keith Newton that Clyde, in 1959, set about compiling the club’s history – the very records from which I will draw for this tribute. It was in his capacity as unofficial club historian (there is no official one) that he wrote the obituaries for Stan Chisnell, Pete Cocklin, my brother Rog and Graham Strelley.

Born in London 3rd September 1932 the middle brother of three sons. His younger brother, Alan, also played for Grenfell. All three boys were encouraged into cricket by their father who had only played a limited amount himself but loved the game. Older brother Percy showed little interest but Clyde and Alan played interminably in the street, school playground and public parks in between air-raids during the war years. During this time Clyde discovered that he could seriously spin the ball and did so to wind up his little brother who cajoled him to bowl straight “so I can hit it”.

Aged 12 he joined the local Boys Brigade where he first met an older Deptford lad, 15 years old Stan Chisnell. Although they played some organised matches these were dominated by the older boys and Clyde got few opportunities to show what he could do.

At age 15 he left school and began a printing apprenticeship with publishers, McMillan & Co with whom he remained all his (50 year) working life eventually qualifying as a photo typesetter operator and finishing his career as a proof reader.  His apprenticeship was interrupted in 1951 with two years National Service with the Royal Artillery and Ordinance Corps stationed in Germany.  In these years attempts were made to play cricket matches between the various military units but being in Germany no facilities were readily available and they spent longer preparing patches of ground for play than they could make the matches last.

On leaving the army he joined the Boys’ Brigade Old Boys Association where he renewed his acquaintance with Stan Chisnell and met fellow old boys Harry Pearce and Derek Dennis. Some prearranged cricket was played and Derek Dennis, who was captain of Grenfell, having successfully introduced Stan Chisnell  to Grenfell in 1955 invited Clyde to join in 1956.

Tall for his generation, maybe 5’ 10” and slim built Clyde was a genuine left hander who bowled and batted with an easy, fluent style and ran with a loping, long-legged action with an air of nonchalance that belied the swiftness of his reactions. He was a reliable catcher, specialising in the gully where he would position himself to make the most of his left-handedness. Invariably among the leading fielders, he excelled in 1963 with 17 catches for the season. A slow left arm bowler equally at home whether bowling over or around the wicket he didn’t offer variety, a single, repetitive action, almost monotonous, simply delivering in a high arc pitching around middle and off stump and spinning it big, turning away from a right-handed batsman.

It was Clyde’s good fortune to start under the captaincy of Derek Dennis who was experimenting with turning himself into an off-spinner and had become a keen advocate of the value of spin bowling. Clyde with 170 overs and off-spinner, Stan Chisnell with 105 were the most used bowlers and the leading wicket takers with 51 and 30 wickets respectively.

If his impressive debut season was aided by a sympathetic skipper it got better in his second season under the leadership of Bill Ash. Bill, himself, was a wily leg-spinner who brought both guile and boldness to his captaincy. Early in the 1957 season, on 2^nd June, Grenfell having only posted a modest score against strong opponents Cyphers Bill chose to open the bowling with himself and Clyde daring them to chase what should have been an easy target. Clyde responded brilliantly taking six wickets for just three runs as they collapsed against an unexpected opening spin attack.

Using Clyde as opener or early first change was a tactic Bill would resort to frequently and in a summer which saw Clyde bowl a mammoth 309 overs and take 73 wickets (av. 12.37) only Peter Cocklin matched his wicket haul.

His 1958 season got off to a tremendous start when in the third match on 11 May, opening the bowling, he took 9 -27 against Sirius C C. It was the best individual analysis by anybody at the time and remains the third best ever to this day. He followed that up with 5-16 in the next game against Metrogas. By now, Bill was giving Clyde the first over of an innings although it is quite likely that his opening partner, Peter Cocklin, as a fast bowler, still got choice of ends. His remarkable form continued throughout the summer; 12 wickets (6-15 and 6-29) in one weekend, 6-13 and 5-27 in the last two matches. All in all he had 9 five wicket analyses and finished the season with a then Club record 97 wickets (av. 10.44) in a monumental 355 overs. Only Ken Angelo with his 101 wickets in 1973 has superceded his season total.

A by-product of Clyde’s spin dominance was that Bill Ash’s wrist spin enjoyed something of a renaissance in his wake. Stan Chisnell became captain in 1959 and adopted a far more orthodox approach. Despite himself being a spinner Stan generally preferred a more hostile, fast bowling attack. In fact, 1959 was a very hot summer and most bowlers found it hard going on batting friendly wickets. Nevertheless, Clyde’s 33 wickets (av. 14.60) from 151 overs was a very commendable performance as was his return of 33 wickets (av.15.42) in 1960. In 1963, though, it all went wrong for Clyde; he had developed “the yips” a recognised but not understood condition. The encyclopaedia describes it as the loss of fine motor skills in athletes. The condition occurs suddenly and without apparent explanation usually in mature athletes with years of experience. It is poorly understood and has no known treatment or therapy.   Many are forced to abandon their sport at the highest level. The yips manifest themselves as twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks. The condition occurs most often in sports which athletes are required to perform a single precise and well-timed action such as bowlers in cricket and pitchers in baseball, golfers and darts players. Famously, Surrey’s Keith Medlycott was forced into retirement at age only 26 by the condition and England’s Phil Edmunds had a couple of seasons in the wilderness until he came back with a totally reformed action.

Everybody wanted Clyde to recover but the reality was that he could not get it right even in the nets or in pre-match knock-ups. A couple of decent returns in 1972 looked promising but given similar opportunities to bowl in 1973 he proved too erratic.

Resigned to not being able to bowl he resolved to improve his batting which he had pretty much neglected in his early years. Always an elegant looking batsman he had a good technique, good enough to be used as an emergency opening bat. Ted Gorham always told the story of his first game for the club when Clyde opened the batting without looking out of place although he did not score many runs. The following game Clyde was in his usual number ten spot. Not realising that Clyde had only been a stopgap Ted thought this was an incredibly hard club to play for when an opener fails and is then relegated to the bottom of the order.

Unlike most left-handers Clyde was not strong playing off his legs. He was an upright, front foot player whose best shots were on the drive – through cover, mid-off and mid-on. His transformation from bowler to lower middle order batsman was successful enough for the decade between 1967 and 1976 to yield over 900 runs (nearly half of his career total) at a reasonable average. The most runs in a season was 146 (Av. 7.30) in 1970. His highest score was 47 v City of London Poly on 25 August 1973. Batting at number five that day he shared a fifth wicket stand of 77 with Bill Davies.

He shared in only two other fifty wicket stands but for a year he and his brother Alan held the tenth wicket record stand with 48 v Meadows on 21 May 1961. It is probably apocryphal but according to Stan Chisnell what made it remarkable was that there were about six missed run out opportunities. In one such moment, the brothers were stranded together mid-wicket, both well short of completing a run, when the return to the bowler’s end was overthrown. However instead of completing the run they were on they turned around and went back, scoring nothing when they might have had two.

Overtly Clyde was good natured, mild mannered and warm-hearted but you don’t get to be a successful cricketer, even at Club level, without a serious competitive element and one memory I have exemplifies his steely determination. I was only about eighteen years old and we played Petts Wood. I don’t remember how I did except that I would have been one of the failures. Batting second we were eight wickets down and with no chance of getting enough runs to win when Clyde went in, instructed by skipper Ted Gorham to hold out for the draw. The Petts Wood bowler who did the most damage was a hostile fast bowler George Armitage, a burly Yorkshireman. He was clearly getting frustrated that Clyde was only playing defensively and he let him know it but, of course, there was no way Clyde would engage in a slanging match. Eventually a delivery caught the edge of Clyde’s bat and, without being a catch, the ball flew through the slips for a boundary. It being an unintentional shot Clyde muttered a “sorry” to the bowler as he ran down the wicket. It may seem as difficult now as it did then to imagine how a softly spoken word so outraged the bowler. “Sorry? Sorry?”, he repeated, “I’ll give you fuckin’ sorry”. Consequently, every delivery to Clyde, surrounded by close fielders was intimidatingly short pitched and followed up with more verbal abuse. In his rage though, he was playing into Clyde’s hands who remained implacably calm and just let the ball harmlessly through to the wicket-keeper. Eventually it came down to the last ball, Armitage to Cartwright, and with two wickets to fall we could not now lose. Another short-pitched delivery but this time Clyde put in a big, fearless front footed step and meeting the ball on the up pulled it through a vacant mid- wicket area for four. He had had the last word, albeit unspoken.

He wasn’t just mentally strong, despite his slender frame he was physically tough as well. This was typified by an incident in a match against Temple Bar. In the field, our bowler dropped a return throw near the stumps, Clyde raced in to pick up the loose ball. Just as he got it in his grip the batsman, running through, trod on his hand. His third and fourth fingers were broken and the studs on the batsman’s boot sliced the back of his hand. It was a bloody mess that required seventeen stitches. Required to bat on his return from the local hospital we tried to talk him out of it. It would be nice to say that he successfully defended and saved the game but he was too badly hurt and was soon out without scoring. In fact, his hand was so badly damaged he couldn’t drive. Fortunately, we had a spare driver, Alan Wild, who was able to take Clyde home. Unable to play for a two weeks Clyde generously lent the car to Alan so that the club gear and a couple players still got to matches while Clyde came along as an umpire.

In 1976 he was, for the first time, afflicted with a bad back which restricted his appearances although he was still a useful contributor when he did play. In 1978 a reoccurrence of his back troubles not only affected his availability but never fully fit from then on his performances were also impeded. However, it speaks volumes for his spirit and magnitude that he continued to play, on demand and often painfully, for another ten years finally announcing his retirement at the end of the 1988 season, signing off grandly with 2-25 in a 6 over spell.

Always a willing umpire he then volunteered himself in 1989 as umpire for the Saturday second XI League matches but it should be no surprise that the records show that on six occasions he was obliged to exchange the white coat for flannels and he ended up playing another six matches! Sixty years old at the end of the 1992 season Clyde decided that even umpiring was too much for his debilitating back injury and packed it all in.

He had never sought office but was my vice-captain for consecutive seasons in 1973 and 1974 although by his own admission it was a responsibility he didn’t enjoy; readily recognizing that his was a default appointment when Dave Sitch declined nomination to stand in deference to continuing as Club Treasurer. An advocate of Kevin Laroche for the role he was happy to relinquish the position in favour of Kevin in 1975. Always a contender for the Jean Pearce trophy the purport of which might well have been designed for him it is surprising therefore that he did not win the award until 1985, an achievement rendered especial when on this occasion he was honoured to be presented with it by Kent and England cricketer, Derek Underwood. However, as a fore-runner to the Jean Pearce trophy Clyde had been the recipient in 1970 of a specially engraved tankard in recognition of his commitment and off – the- field support to the wellbeing of the Club.

In the nineteen-eighties, his employers had moved their operation to Basingstoke a journey that Clyde commuted daily from his mother’s home in Deptford. In 1984 Clyde began working, for the second time, on compiling the Clubs history. His employer, McMillans, granted him permission to utilize their facilities in his own time which entailed him driving all the way to Basingstoke on a Saturday morning and returning in the afternoon to play cricket!! It was for this level of commitment that Clyde was so admired by generations of Grenfell Club members.

An ever present for every Club tour during his career; he drove me to the Isle of Wight in 1966 and over twenty years later in 1987 I roomed with him and John Heinson in Devon. On these occasions, without the responsibility of driving, he often let his hair down more than we usually saw.

There was one evening of pure slapstick which occurred on the 1970 Devon tour. Clyde was one of those rested for a match and along with the other rested players enjoyed a few extra beers in the afternoon. It was uncharacteristic for Clyde to over-imbibe which made his behaviour all the more comedic when he stumbled into the late-night hotel bar brandishing his camera and proclaiming himself the official team photographer. His guise for this self-appointed role inexplicably included sun-glasses, a flat cloth cap and a transparent pac-a-mac worn over khaki shorts. He reeled unsteadily around the bar and the camera flashed – flash, flash, flash as we smiled, embraced, raised glasses and were gathered into groups. Having bumped into the furniture for the umpteenth time and satisfied he taken enough shots he finally announced his retirement for the night. The following morning at breakfast someone asked how many pictures he’d got. “Unfortunately,” he paused, “I forgot to put any film in the camera.”

On the 1985 fiftieth anniversary tour we had a free day and the club entered four teams in the afternoon quiz. I found myself in a team that included Clyde where it turned out not to be false modesty when he declared that he would not be much help, “I only know Sport”. Having offered no suggestions to questions on athletics and horse racing he revised his knowledge, “not sport so much as just cricket and football”. He did surprise us therefore in the Geography round when he knew Karachi was the capital of Pakistan. “They play cricket there” he explained but he was wrong when it turned out that the chief produce of Columbia was cocoa beans and not cocaine.

He never regarded himself as much of a footballer and although he played some matches for the Boy’s Brigade Old Boys alongside Harry Pearce and Stan Chisnell he was not a regular and did not play after 1955. Instead he met on the South terrace on Saturday afternoons with a group of fellow enthusiastic Charlton Athletic supporters within Grenfell cricket club – Frank Cambridge, my father Ron Stevens, Les Pearce, John Strelley and Keith Newton. He later worked with Keith Newton from 1959 onwards in researching and gathering together Club records.  Another special friendship developed with Peter Cocklin, often ending up in Peter’s home for a late supper.

Never married, he was an avuncular figure among us children of players, bigheartedly giving his time to give structure to and oversee our pitch side games. He was something of a mentor to my younger brother, Rog, who like himself was a left hander that Clyde was convinced he could coach into a quality spinner. That my brother did not quite make it (for Grenfell) is no reflection of the encouragement he received from Clyde.

Late in life, Clyde took it upon himself to look after his widowed mother and even though he had a flat at Basingstoke he preferred to stay with her making the daily trip to the old family home in Deptford. Soon after his retirement in 1997 he had a double hip replacement but his body became increasingly gnarled with other arthritis. Eventually he moved to Maidstone, Kent to be near his brother Percy.

However, he was always much closer to his younger brother Alan and was a welcome addition on their family holidays. Alan, sadly, died in 1994 but his widow Marion and children John and Susan will especially mourn Clyde’s passing. Our thoughts are with them as we all miss but fondly remember a gentle and good-humoured man.

CAREER RECORD

Matches: 756   Runs: 1,949 (av. 5.72)  Highest Score: 47  Most Runs in a Season: 146 (av.7.30)

Overs: 1,456.4  Wickets: 336 (av.14.07) Best Bowling 9 – 27 Most Wkts in a Season: 97 (av.10.44)

5 Wicket Analyses: 13     Catches: 169      Most catches in a Season: 17

WICKET STANDS OVER FIFTY

Wkt       Runs                                  Between                                                      Opponents                       Date

5^th    77     C. Cartwright (47)  and   W. Davies (43)           City of London Poly         25 Aug 1973

6^th    68     G. Stevens (43)       and   C. Cartwright (28)     Swanscombe                    5 Jul 1970

4^th    51*   A. Haylock (108*)   and   C. Cartwright (6*)     Metrogas                          19 Aug 1978

10^th  48     A. Cartwright (22)   and   C. Cartwright (21*)   Meadows                          21 May 1961

FIVE WICKET ANALYSES

9 – 27    v   Sirius                                          11-May-1958

6 – 3       v   Cyphers                                         2-Jun-1957

6 – 13     v   A.S.E. (Gillingham)                     14-Sep-1958

6 – 15     v   Walworth                                    10-Aug-1958

6 – 39     v   Acons St Helens                           9-Aug-1958

6 – 40     v   Wat. Bonded Warehouse        26-May-1958

6 – 53     v   Trinity                                              2-Jun-1956

5 – 14     v   Cassington                                     26-Aug-1956

5 – 16     v    Metrogas                                     17-May-1958

5 – 21     v    Eltham & Ladywell                     22-Sep-1957

5 – 24     v   Farnborough                                16-Aug-1958

5 – 27     v    Centymca                                     20-Sep-1958

5 – 43     v   Pinchin & Johnson                       29-Jun-1958

SEASON BY SEASON

Year	Mts	Inn	No	Runs	Hs	Avge	50	Cts		Over	Mdn	Runs	Wkt	Av’ge	5wi
1956	30	18	4	37	9	2.60		7		170.1	35	505	51	9.90	2
1957	36	31	3	116	15	4.14		9		309.1	71	903	73	12.37	2
1958	38	17	8	28	12	3.11		11		355.2	77	1013	97	10.44	9
1959	32	16	7	66	10*	7.33		9		151.2	34	482	33	14.60
1960	36	24	7	52	8	3.05		6		145.4	28	509	33	15.42
1961	31	29	13	102	21	6.30		4		84	16	255	14	18.21
1962	31	21	5	112	20	7.00		5		65	10	234	11	21.27
1963	27	19	4	74	13	4.93		17		19.3	3	55	1
1964	27	16	2	41	10	2.92		4		7	1	29	0
1965	20	15	5	79	19*	7.90		3		16	1	52	5	10.40
1966	21	19	3	21	11	3.50		5
1967	18	14	4	79	19	7.90		5		5	0	30	0
1968	23	13	3	83	16	8.30		1		2	0	7	0
1969	29	21	2	93	14	4..89	–	9		3	0	9	0
1970	33	23	3	146	28	7.30		6		2	1	5	0
1971	26	15	4	19	5	1.88		8		8	1	32	0
1972	28	20	3	124	20	7.29		5		35	6	182	8	22.75
1973	26	16	3	81	47	6.23		11		26	1	149	3
1974	24	15	4	104	38	9.45		5		5.3	0	37	0
1975	28	16	8	108	37*	13.50		7		14	0	67	4	16.75
1976	16	12	4	74	17*	9.25		2		1	0	6	0
1977	20	12	5	41	17	5.85		5		11	0	66	0
1978	12	8	3	57	13	11.40		7		3	2	17	0
1979	20	9	1	26	8	3.25		3
1980	16	6	1	15	5	3.00		2		4	0	16	0
1981	15	9	2	25	6	3.57		3
1982	11	9	1	39	14	4.85		1
1983	8	5	1	7	5*	1.75		–		3	0	25	0
1984	8	3	2	1	1			1		5	1	10	1
1985	19	10	6	16	5*			2		1	0	7	0
1986	11	6	1	25	20	5.00		1
1987	16	7	5	35	15			3
1988	14	7	2	11	6			1		6	1	25	2
1989	6	3	1	12	5			1
	756	473	132	1949	47	5.72		169		1456	229	4727	336	14.07	13