10. Chapter 7 The Arthur Wellard Years 1915-1929

The slow recovery after the War: Percy
Waistell: Arthur Wellard: Cricket Week
revived: The generosity of the Potters: The Ground offered to Kent CCC: The new pavilion (1927): MCC Fixture Resumed: The Illegal Sweepstake: 99 year lease of the Ground

The 1914-18 War took a heavy toll of the Club. Eight members were killed, including the 1st XI players Douglas Baker and WL Smith. The Club s former Presidents suffered grievously· Mr. Robert Cooper JP and Mr. (later Sir) Vesey Holt each lost a son and two of Mr. T H Platt's sons were wounded.
Perhaps surprisingly the Club was able to resume matches promptly in 1919. That this was possible was due in the main to the 'old stagers' taking up the reins again. Percy Newton became Captain again (he had first been Captain in 1901) and Reginald Sweet took on the two jobs of Secretary and Treasurer. He had first been Secretary in 1904. Mr. Robert Cooper was elected President again.
In spite of many difficulties in getting the ground playable after the four-year closure, the Club was reasonably successful in 1919. But it was a struggle, as the following announcement of a concert at the end of the season makes clear:-
Owing to the loss of many gallant members who have given their lives, and others being incapacitated through severe wounds during the war the membership bas suffered and there are not sufficient playing members at present to meet the necessary expenses ..... please support the concert".
Things went reasonably well and at the AGM before the start of the next season, 1920, Mr. Sweet was able to make an encouraging report. The accounts were judged to be highly satisfactory, the receipts including £22 from the concert. A groundsman had been appointed and a boy assistant for him was being sought. And E B ‘Trainer' Kelsey had found a "nice little mare' for use on the ground. (Trainer was an expert on horses, being much in demand as a judge at shows.)
It is interesting to see that Reggie Sweet was busy also as the Secretary of the committee set up to provide a village War memorial. After a great deal of discussion about the form the memorial should take and its location, an Appeal for funds was launched. Quite quickly the money was raised, the site at the junction of Hurst and Parkhill Road was bought an electricity sub- station was moved and the memorial built in the form that can be seen today. Thousands gathered at the memorial for the dedication, in November 1920.
From a playing point of view 1920 was a very poor season, the 1st XI winning only one match. When news of John Shuter's death was received in July no doubt the older members thought wistfully of better days. At the time of his death he was Secretary to Surrey County Cricket Club.
For 1921 Percy Waistell was elected captain, in accepting office he said he would do all he could to make the coming season successful. And while this may seem a very ordinary remark it is possible to see in Waistell’s selection a turning point in the Club's fortunes, for although he was not an outstanding cricketer, he was a most dynamic person. A Cambridge graduate of Yorkshire stock, he proved to be a highly effective and popular influence in the Club for the next twenty years, first as Captain and later as Chairman.
But before turning to the activities on the field it may be of interest to refer to a special meeting called to discuss whether the Club should play on Sunday. The Vicar, Canon Wicksteed, wrote sternly objecting to the suggestion. Club members heatedly expressed a range of opinion. Percy Waistell said the majority of the committee were not against Sunday cricket, but the ground was a small one and it would not be wise to over-use it in view of the necessity of keeping it in good condition for the excellent fixtures that had been arranged for the coming season. This view, which may have been a diplomatic way out of a potentially divisive situation, was accepted at the meeting. Another 20 years were to pass before Bexley played Sunday cricket.
There is no doubt that the most exciting thing to happen to the Club in 1921 was the arrival on the scene of a raw nineteen year old called Arthur Wellard. Arthur's parents kept the Black Horse in Albert Road and it is quite possible that Percy Waistell, the head of Reffell’s Brewery would have heard of Arthur's interest in cricket and encouraged him to join Bexley. It is also said that E B Kelsey paid Arthur's subscription for the first year. After three or four games in the 2nd X1 in which he went in No 11 but took a few wickets Arthur was promoted to the 1st XI. He made a good impression and in June was picked to play for Bexley and District against Kent Club and Ground. Kent scored 198 but Arthur distinguished himself by taking 6—1 against a team containing eight professionals. A strapping young fast bowler he was exactly what the Club needed to get it back into the top flight.
A little later in the season Bexley had a very good victory over Gravesend, thanks to a remarkable all-round performance by E Gladstone, who took 8 for 17 and scored 54 in barely 15 minutes. The next eight matches were all won, and Wellard's meteoric rise continued. He took 7 for 28 in the return match against Gravesend and another 7 the following week against Sidcup. He headed the bowling average at the end of the season with 59 wickets at under 9 apiece. The brothers A and J Wheeley chipped in with nearly 40 wicket each. From the disappointment of 1920 the Club's playing fortunes had been completely reversed.
In February 1922 however, a crisis hit the Club. The President, Mr Robert Cooper died and the ground was put up for sale. There were fears that it would be lost altogether as a playing pitch, (ironically Mr Cooper had bought the ground some years before, from Oxford University, when there were fear that it would be sold and lost to the Club). For some weeks there was great concern that the Club would be driven out. In May however some very good news broke. It became known that Mr JA Potter had bought the ground and was making arrangements for the Club to use it in perpetuity. Mr Potter, a long standing stalwart of the Club, had written to Kent County Cricket Club asking them to accept the ground as a gift and to hold it as trustees on condition that Bexley be allowed to use it for all time.
The members of the Club were naturally highly delighted and relieved at the lifting of the cloud of uncertainty about the future. But then to everyone’s surprise and disappointment, Kent turned down the offer in a single sentence reply. The local paper described the County's action a peculiar" and "lackadaisical". The correspondence is reproduced at the end of the chapter.
For the next few year the Club hired the ground from Mr Potter on a fairly informal basis, until more permanent arrangements were made.
Another feature of 1922 was the revival of Cricket Week. It will be remembered that Cricket Week had been held in 1904 and 1905, but that afterwards the idea was dropped. Reggie Sweet who as Secretary had played such an important role in arranging the first Weeks, had become the Chairman of the Entertainments Committee in 1922 and played a big part in reviving the idea. Perhaps more than anyone else he should be regarded as the founding father of Cricket Week. He was not a particularly good cricketer but he was a tireless worker for the Club.
By 1923 a tennis section was thriving. Except on match days, two courts on the outfield
were used, as well as two other grass courts outside the ground.
Also in 1923 the Boys and Girls Hall was opened on Bourne Road. This was a memorial to the men of the district who had lost their lives in the War. There is a special link with the Cricket Club because the main subscriber was Mr G P Baker, who had lost two sons in the War including Douglas, who had been the 1st XI vice-captain in 1914(Ivor Roscoe, one of the Club’s oldest members was Secretary of the Hall for many years).
At this time the Club, like most clubs, had a number of Vice-Presidents, who contributed to the funds. An interesting name on the list is Mr Leonard W Newman. For many years he and his son Hugh ran a butterfly farm in Salisbury Road and they became famous for their talks on BBC programmes. Among visitors to the butterfly farm was Winston Churchill, who in the 1930s bought butterflies to stock the ground at Chartwell. Did he ever pause on Manor Way to look in at the cricket? It seems unlikely, knowing his dislike of team games!
A typical advertisement for Cricket Week, giving the programme of event is reproduced here. The evening entertainments attracted large crowds, especially the carnival and fancy dress procession through the village. The programme to modern eye has a rather prim look about it, but clearly it was very much in tune with the time, when there was of course no counter-attraction from television and few people had cars to take them off to other activities.
The scarcity of motor cars affected cricket in other ways, cars were few and far between until the late 1920’s and the players generally travelled to away matches by train, tram or bicycle. There were few buses outside London but ·some Model T Fords were run by private companies out in the country and the Bexley teams sometimes hired a couple to take them to outlying grounds. The Model T’s would pant lustily as they struggled up hills under the load. In later years the Kelsey’s' farm lorry was also pressed into service as the team transport. As late as the 1960s, care had to be taken in the selection of the teams to ensure that at least three car owners were included.
There was a remarkable match in Cricket Week in 1924. Bexley batted first and after a shaky start, raced to 315-8 declared. The man responsible for the recovery was Arthur Wellard. Batting at No 6 he scored 156 not out in l ½ hours, including 6 sixes and 1-l fours. The opposition replied spiritedly with 255 for 9, of which LG Crawley, a Cambridge blue, scored 145. The 570 runs were scored in 5½ hours. L G Crawley, his brother A M Crawley and other members of the family played regularly in Cricket Weeks at this time: they were excellent cricketers and well known in golfing circles.
Although Wellard had been taking wickets regularly in the preceding seasons, his century in Cricket Week was his first major score and marked an important step forward in his development as an all-rounder. It was the highest score he ever made for Bexley. The page from the scorebook, showing the individual strokes in his innings, is reproduced here.
Cricket Week in 1925 was again a great success. Among the notable visitors was Henry
(later Sir Henry) Leveson Gower, a former captain of Oxford, Surrey and England. Shrimp, as he was always known in cricketing circles, was a very influential figure on the MCC Committee. Although he was over fifty when he played at Bexley he is remembered for his stylish batting and enthusiastic fielding.
A feature of Cricket Week in this period was an open-air religious service held on the ground on the Sunday afternoon at the end of the Week. The first service was held in 1924 and services continued to be held for over forty years. A number of well-known clergymen took the service, including the Rev F H Gillingham. He played cricket for Essex for many years, played in Cricket Week several times and in 1927 became one of the earliest cricket commentators on the wireless.
The Club Captain, P H Waistell, was in poor health for most of 1925 and decided to retire from playing at the end of the season. He was elected permanent Chairman of the Committee. This was the first time that the Club had had an official Chairman in its history.
The new Captain was Basil Jones, and under him the Club enjoyed its most successful season since the War, the 1st XI winning 16 matches, drawing 4 and losing only 2. As in earlier years the bowling was very strong, with W H Simpson (spin), and Wellard taking over 150 wickets between them, at fewer than 8 runs each.
Arthur Wellard continued to make great strides as a batsman, scoring over 1000 runs at an average of over 50. It should be remembered that these figures do not include any Sunday cricket and his haul would probably have been nearly double had he been playing today. FTC Johnson (475 runs) and H W Starkey (409) gave useful support.
Arthur Wellard had an amazingly successful Cricket Week:-

Tuesday v Mr Platt's XI - 145 not out and 5-43
Wednesday v Kent Club & Ground 3 and 5-36
Thursday v Mr Bowring’s XI 41 and 2 wickets
Friday v Mr Gunton’s XI 50 not out
Saturday v Old Charlton XI 6 wickets

The renewed fixture, with Kent C&G was closely contested even though Kent brought eight professionals including Ames, Todd and Fairservice. The detailed score sheet 48 is printed in Appendix I. (Rugby enthusiasts will be interested to note that W W Wakefield, the Famous England captain, played for Gunton’s Xl scoring 19.)
Arthur Wellard had by now become one of the leading club players in Kent and not surprisingly there was talk of him turning professional. According to Wisden49 he asked Kent whether there was any chance of a trial with them but was told he had much better be a policeman! However, Arthur Haywood, late of the Kent staff and then professional at Taunton School suggested that he should approach Somerset. This he did, and after a successful trial joined the county in 1927. Under the regulations then governing players born outside their adopted county, Wellard had to spend two years qualifying to play for Somerset. He was, however. able to play in non-championship matches and acquitted himself well against the New Zealand touring team in 1927 and the West Indies in 1928. In his first full season in county cricket, 1929, he took 131 wickets at 21 each.
The reason why Arthur Wellard did not play for Kent have been the subject of debate among Bexley members for many years. Recently, George Lovegrove who knew Arthur well, gave a rather different version to Wisden's. He recalled that as we have seen in 1926 the Club played Kent C&G. The Club & Ground XI was managed by G J V Weigall, a noted autocrat. The match was to be used as a trial for Wellard. The C&G XI batted first and Arthur took three wickets before lunch. It was Arthur's practice in whole-day matches to cycle home in the lunch interval to make sure everything was in order at the Black Horse. He went home as usual this day, but unfortunately his mother was having some trouble with rough customers and by the time Arthur had sorted it out and cycled back, lunchless, the game had restarted. His absence was noted and without any enquiry being made as to the reason he was written off as being unreliable. He was not offered an engagement by Kent, despite taking - wicket for 36 in the match.
The following year Bexley brought Wellard up from Somerset to play in the match against Kent C&G. He proceeded to take 6 for 21, including the wicket of Weigall. Bexley won by 2 runs, in an exciting finish50. The full score is given in Appendix I
According to George Lovegrove, who was the young scorer in the scorebox and overheard the conversation, Weigall at lunchtime tried to persuade Wellard to change his mind and sign for Kent. Arthur Wellard pointed out in no uncertain term that he had not been given a chance to explain the incident the previous year and that Somerset were being very good to him, so Kent could forget their interest. The following year, 1928 Wellard again came back for the Kent C&G match and took 8 for 32, including Weigall and five others clean bowled51. In later years in first class cricket he often seemed to reserve his best performances for matches against Kent and perhaps thoughts of his rejection spurred him to special efforts in these matches.
For the next twenty years (apart from a break for World War II) Arthur was one of the leading bowlers in the country, regularly taking over a hundred wickets for Somerset in a season 52. He was a fast right-arm bowler, who could also bowl off-breaks very effectively. But although bowling was his main skill, it was his mighty hitting that caught the imagination of the public 52,59_ In the course of his first-class career he hit some 500 sixes 49, accounting for a quarter of the runs he made. No county cricketer has scored such a high fraction of his runs in sixes. He played twice for England, in 1937 against New Zealand and in 1938 against Australia. In the latter match at Lords he took part in a stand with the youthful Denis Compton at a time when the match seemed to be slipping Australia’s way, Arthur scored 38, including an enormous on-drive for six into the balcony of the Grand Stand. (A local story of that match is that while fielding he nipped off to place a bet; not quite the thing to do in a Lord Test perhaps. but he was not one to be over-awed by cricket's establishment figures.)
He was selected for the MCC tour of India in 1939 but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of the War. After his retirement from first class cricket in 1950 he played in local club cricket and made a number of appearances at Bexley. Even when in his sixties he retained a fine rhythmical action and the ability to bowl a late out-swinger of brisk pace.
Stories abound about his big hitting at Bexley. One favourite is that he hit a ball onto a passing train so that it ended up in Chatham. It is a nice story and it may be true, but many grounds which have a railway line nearby have similar stories. Also, it has to be said that batsmen usually wait until a train has gone by before facing up to a ball from the railway end. Arthur's contemporary 'Hacker' Johnson did, however, recall seeing him hit a ball through the railway arch whence it bounced along Manor Way, a carry of over 130 metres. George Lovegrove also recalls Arthur, in his frequent stops at Bexley when playing as a professional, hitting practice catches for the team one handed, while standing by the pavilion with the fielder on the far side of the ground.
Despite the depressed state of the economy in the 1920s, the successes on the cricket field in 1926 helped to create a mood of optimism in the Cricket Club and over the winter the committee gave thought to improvements to the pavilion. At the AGM in March 1927, Mr H M Philpot, the Hon Secretary, declared that the existing pavilion was considered inconsistent with the Clubs standing in the county, and also that the costs of keeping it in reasonable order were becoming excessive. The committee therefore proposed major refurbishment and extension, adding two new wings to the existing building and a terrace on the roof for scorers and spectators. The cost was estimated to be about £200.
Members welcomed the proposal enthusiastically, and work began in April. In fact, instead of the proposed extension, the pavilion was almost entirely rebuilt, with only a few of the original timbers being re-used. It incorporated a much larger dining area, two dressing rooms at either end, and a flat roof area for spectators surrounded by attractive balustrading. The scorers also were housed on the roof in a cabin cry much like a large sentry box. The new building was put up remarkably quickly, being in use in mid-July, 1927, for Cricket Week. Members were delighted with their new clubhouse.
One of the highlight of the Week was the resumption of the fixture with MCC, first played in 1883. Arthur Wellard was again able to come back from Somerset for the match, scoring 49 and taking 4 wickets.
The social side of Cricket Week was also very successful. According to contemporary reports seldom had so many people been seen in Bexley as on the Saturday evening to watch the fancy dress procession. Mr E B Kelsey was outstanding in the procession being dressed as the Pearly King and driving a donkey with a cart load of bananas up the High Street. There were some spectacular prizes too with a distinctly rural flavour. They included a pony and a pig. and one hopes they found suitable homes. A toy balloon race was among the many competitions, the winner's tag was returned from France, having covered a distance of 132 miles. Clearly the organisers put a great deal of imagination and enthusiasm into the programme of entertainments.
The fine new pavilion cost £500, much more than the original estimate put to the members meeting. But by the start of 1928 all but £100 had been paid off. In order to clear the debt the committee organised a Derby sweepstake, with tickets at ls [5p] each with half the proceeds going to the pavilion fund and the other half being returned as prize money. Seven or eight hundred tickets had been sold when the police intervened to have the lottery called off on the grounds that it was illegal. Someone had sent a ticket to Scotland Yard marked 'Is this legal?' and the sweepstake was judged to infringe the rather unclear laws on lotteries as they existed at the time. The intervention of the police was a major embarrassment to the Club, but although ticket holders were offered their money back most seem not to have bothered and the debt was cleared by the end of 1928.
As already mentioned, Arthur Wellard returned also to play in the Kent C&G match and took 8-32, Kent just managing to pass the Bexley total with the last pair together. But overall 1928 was not a particularly successful year and clearly life without Wellard was not going to be easy. However, one factor which worked to the Club's advantage was the building boom 61 in the late 1920s/30s in Bexley. This brought a big increase in the population and an increase in membership, so that the Club was able to run three XIs every Saturday in 1927, for the first time in its history.
It is remarkable that the Club built the new pavilion in 1927 without having formal security of tenure of the ground. In May 1929, Mr Alistair Potter, acting on behalf of his father put this right by very generously offering the Club a 99 years' lease. The letter containing the offer is certainly the most important ever written to the Club and part of it is reproduced below:-

Mr Potter went on to propose the 99 year lease, at a rent of £10 instead of the £5 then in operation. However, he hastened to add that as long as he was around and the Club was run properly he would return each year as an annual subscription the whole of the £10, less any expenses to which he had been put in connection with the ground. Needless to say, members accepted the offer of the lease with great satisfaction. The lease has been the basis of the Club's continued enjoyment of the ground ever since.These arrangement were made against a background of the failing health of Mr John Potter and in June 1929 he died. Mr Potter had moved from Glasgow to London in 1883 as manager of the Shaw Savill and Albion shipping line. His working life began with 'wind jammers and ended with large steam ships. He was awarded the CBE for his services. It will be remembered that he bought the ground in 1922, when on the death of Robert Cooper, it looked as though the ground might be lost to the Club.
With the security of the ground, following on closely on the building of the new pavilion, the Club could face the future with confidence. Bexley had steadily climbed back during the 1920s from the horrors of the War, to a strong position.

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Correspondence between Mr J A Potter and Kent County Cricket Club. The Secretary, the Kent County Cricket Club, Canterbury

KENT COUNTY CRJCKET CLUB 13 Oaten Hill, Canterbury 16th May, 1922