YEARS OF TRANSFORMATION 1955-1964 (written by Harry Pearce)
PREFACE by Ron Stevens. Originally, we wanted Frank Cambridge to summarise this decade but because he was such a significant figure in this period and unlikely to give due credit to himself, Harry offered to report having been Assistant Secretary to Frank for 5 years from 1961 to 1965
Stan Chisnell was my best friend from boyhood and our time in the Boys Brigade. That’s where we knew Derek Dennis from. Stan was a good cricketer but football was my game. Derek had got Stan to play in 1955 but I wasn’t interested. Then in the following summer Stan invited me to join their tour to Isle of Wight thinking I would enjoy the hospitality. Too right I did and, of course, I got roped in to play when they were a player short. It has since become a way of life for me. I discovered this was a club that enjoyed its social life as much as cricket. After every game they would go to a pub and wives and girlfriends were included, my wife Jean among them and who thought the whole thing better than my football. Those with children would make a match a family day out. We had a couple of fixtures that were organised as days out for the families.
One was against Westgate in Kent which was first played in 1952 when the club had a tour there. In 1959, a really hot summer, on the way back the coach broke down. It was after 11 but the coach limped along until the driver, looking for a telephone, found a pub that although not open still had a light on. To our good fortune the landlord was accommodating and put us all into a large lounge bar area. He also agreed to serve us beer under the counter which was another good result. It didn’t take long for a card school to start up. All the children were asleep except Pauline Strelley and Greg Stevens so, using the pub’s crib board, Bill Ash taught them to play cribbage to keep them occupied. After about two hours or so the driver came in to tell us that a replacement coach had arrived only to find that the sun and beer had got to us and the only people still awake were two 12-year-olds playing cribbage.
There were plenty of the team that liked their drink, Bill Ash, John Homer, Frank Cambridge, Cliff Chard, Len Johnson, Keith Newton, Pat Harris, Gus McAllister, Freddie Bush, Stan and Derek to name a few! None more so than Big Bob Farley who also played rugby for J & P. The 1957 tour to the Isle of Wight provided some outrageous moments when this lot were around. In the early hours of one morning Bob together with his rugby pal, Dave Tredidgo, somehow scaled the flagpole at the Isle of Wight Zoo and removed their flag. That was a spectacular feat for a 6’4” second row forward. If climbing the flagpole wasn’t difficult enough it needed all their strength as the flag turned out to be much bigger and heavier than it looked from the ground. But as souvenirs go it was impressive.
On the same tour, the hotel manager was a misery and moaned about having to keep the bar open for us, sometimes well into early mornings. On the last night, led by Bill Ash and John Homer we held a mock funeral for the death of enjoyment. In those days the club gear was kept in a large trunk. We draped it in a bedsheet and paraded it around the hotel lounge bar as a coffin. In his fiery welsh accent Dave Tredidgo delivered an irreverent eulogy.
But Bob Farley was important to the club in other ways. In 1954 he was assistant secretary to Frank Cambridge but, as luck would have it, at the same time was secretary of the rugby club of J & P where he worked. At Frank’s instigation they worked together to secure pitches at the J & P sports ground. Only Sundays but it was a start. Access to such facilities brought a significant change to the quality of our fixtures. The following year Frank secured pitches for Saturdays at another private venue, the Cambridge University Mission (CUM) in New Eltham.
Frank compiled a much stronger fixture list. Now we could offer reciprocal hospitality we could entertain company teams and the old boys network. Teams like United Dairies (who provided a full cream tea with scones and clotted cream), Peek Freans, Suburbagas, Met Police, Old Colfeians, Old Wilsonians, Old Brockleians, Blackheath Wanderers and Dagenham Dock. Through shared after-match hospitality, we became especially close to clubs Suburbagas and Dagenham Dock. Dagenham Dock was our first all-day match. In later years some of their players joined our tour parties.
Frank Cambridge was secretary from 1953 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1965 in which time he had dramatically raised our profile and we were playing quality opposition in superb surroundings all thanks to his efforts.
We had the team to rise to the challenge. Derek Dennis and Stan Chisnell were an almost telepathic opening partnership. They could steal quick runs with no more than a nod and a wink. John Strelley was a prolific and classy number three who pretty much topped the batting averages throughout the decade. Ted Gorham, another recruit from the Post Office Services, was a hard-hitting batsman on joining in 1958. He gave us 500 plus runs a season. Pete Cocklin was a great all rounder and if his runs weren’t enough, he was invariably our leading wicket taker. Keith Newton, Frank Cambridge, Vic Mason and Cliff Chard were terrific batsmen but with different styles. We also had a phenomenal left arm spinner, Clyde Cartwright, another old Boys Brigader who joined the same year as me. He failed by just three wickets to take 100 in one season. Clyde’s brother Alan was a fast bowler in partnership with Pete. We were to lose two good bowlers in Johnny Long and Jack Foster but gained Alan Coupland (1959), David Sitch (1961) and Taffy Holman (1962). Taffy was an unusual acquisition. He was goalkeeper in my football team and knew nothing about cricket when I persuaded him to play just to make up the numbers. As expected, he proved agile in the field but had played some six games before finally being given a chance to bowl by his skipper, Bill Ash, anxious to break a deadlock. He was surprisingly successful and took five wickets He had no measured run up – it was different with every ball – and he held the ball with three fingers on top and the seam in whatever it angle it came into his grasp. In explaining his unerring accuracy he said his aim was simply to make it bounce in front of the batsman!
Derek Dennis left after the 1959 season, persuaded by his brother-in-law, Brian Fisher, to try his luck in the Surrey League with Streatham Wanderers but as we lost Derek, Ron Stevens returned and went straight to the top of the batting averages.
In this period, we had arguably three of the best ever captains for Grenfell in Derek Dennis, Bill Ash and Stan Chisnell.
Our first dinner and dance was held at the Chiesmans store in 1960 to celebrate our 25th anniversary. It was to become an annual fund-raising event held at Bailey’s Restaurant in Old Bailey but designated a ladies festival with gifts for wives, daughters and girlfriends. Dagenham Dock invariably made up a table of twelve or more and we similarly supported their events. We also held two other social get-togethers in the winter months with them.
In 1960 the committee under Frank Cambridge drew up our formal constitution. I became assistant secretary to Frank in 1961 eventually taking over from him in 1966.