King’s former cricket coach Ian Wilson, pictured with current coach Steve Moores at the lunch to celebrate 150 years of cricket on the School’s main field, has picked his best post war team. Associated with King’s cricket for nearly 40 years, Ian ‘The Wizzer’
There is little if any knowledge available of school cricketers pre-First World War, and indeed only very limited information, including from personal recollection, of events on the front field before the 1939-45 War – though one suspects that Dick Hewitt, who captained the 1st XI for two years in the late 1930s and later played for Oxford U., and Denys Rowbotham, another two-year school cricket captain and later the Guardian’s chief cricket correspondent, would both have had a serious chance of making a "best XI" selection for the whole period 1857-2007 during which cricket has been known to have been played on the front field.
Also, what about G.R.Gibson, captain for three years 1920-22, or Vernon Hope, who played for Cheshire 1912-26 after his days in the School XI? However, I have been asked to confine my selection to the period since 1945; so here goes - though I would be the first to acknowledge that these are only my judgements, and that others would undoubtedly differ!
Alan Jones
He was Fred Millett’s oppo in the mid-1940s, captaining the side for two years, and later played for
Fred Millett
A gritty batsman and useful medium-paced seamer or off-spinner, he was perhaps most outstanding as a captain. He played at the highest level of Minor Counties cricket for many years, as well as for
Kym Graham
An Aussie who set batting records galore in the early 1990’s. His seven 1st XI centuries was a record before Khalid Sawas overtook it, and he was Daily Telegraph school batsman of the year in 1991.
Khalid Sawas
His eleven centuries in the mid-2000s, including a fantastic 150 against the best schoolboy side in
Alan Day
Another who made an incredible volume of runs in the early-2000s, as well as being a useful off-spinner who could keep it tight as well as anyone. He is currently playing with some success at Alderley Edge CC, and breaking into the
Peter Moores
An outstanding schoolboy keeper, as well as a very handy batsman, he played for England Schools immediately after leaving King’s before beginning his career as a professional cricketer on the Lords’ Ground Staff. Since then, of course, he has reached as elevated a position in
Richard Cragg
A quiet achiever in the mid-1960s, he was a prolific batsman who went on to play for MCC and England Schools, Oxford University and Cheshire, as well as becoming a stalwart for Bramhall CC. He was also a noted captain, of the school side for two years as well as for his representative schools sides in 1966.
Alan McInnes
In some ways an unusual pick - but a quality second keeper in the side as well as an outstanding outfielder, and a more than useful aggressive middle-order batsman, as well as another two-year captain. He represented
Mike Davis
He was a fearsome quick bowler, who went on to play briefly for Northants in 1964, and also an effective hard-hitting batsman. He played for
Clive Barker
The side’s other main pace bowler, he was captain in 1957 and also selected as national schools cricket bowler of the year. He went on to play for
Andy James
It was incredibly difficult to select just one specialist spinner from an absolute delight of options - I am not sure what is the official collective noun, but as the standing umpire, that one seems to me to be absolutely the most appropriate! Andy just qualified with his left-arm spin on the grounds of sheer volume of wickets over many years in the 1st XI in the 1990s, as well as his selection as Daily Telegraph schools cricket bowler of the year in 1992.
I have to admit that, until I began to study the information available on the 1945-68 sides, and to augment the stats with my own memories of players since then, I had little realisation of just what a depth and range of cricketing talent there was to select from. Thus, the above XI would probably be hardly if at all weakened if some of its members were replaced by such quality batsmen as Neil Smedley, Andy Bones or James Duffy, or spin-bowlers in Jeremy Cope, Chris Burgess or Stuart White, or wicket-keeper/batsmen in Steve Swindells or Jim Pickup. Equally left-arm seamer Guy Emmett doesn¹t really deserve to be omitted, or Howard Walker, and what about all-rounders like Brian Gaskell, Graham Jenion or Tom Parfett-Manning? Then there are some quality cricketers whose greatest strengths were as captains, and who would each have ensured that the other 10 would have achieved more than just the sum of their parts. Overall, though, there is no doubt whatsoever that the front field has seen cricket, and cricketers, of very high quality over the past 150 years ; let us hope that the same can be said in 2157!
