Getting the Ground fit for Cricket: Cricket
Week revived: Old Time Matches: 150th
Anniversary: Jim Jeffery' s batting successes: Cyril Hoare's 100 wickets

Three members of the Club were killed on active service; JA Gordon, H W Griffin and KS Daniell, and Percy Waistell the Chairman died during the war. Two bombs fell on the ground and the craters were only roughly filled in. Eager returning members had a shock before the 1946 season when they saw the state of the ground. It was overgrown and a mass of molehills, and an early resumption of cricket seemed out of the question. But a small band of workers set to with a will. Gang mowers were hired to hack through the long grass and the moles were gassed using two cars with hose pipes connected to their exhausts. The same two cars were used to restore the outfield, one dragging hurdles of hawthorn branches behind it to scarify the turf, the other following behind pulling a roller to consolidate the surface. The square, when it had been found, was mown, weeded and rolled, and, as if by a miracle the ground was ready for play by the first Saturday of May 1946 the team for the first match included five of those in the 1939 1st XI photograph:- H C Davey (Capt), J A Richardson, F T C Johnson, W Brisley and G F Lovegrove.

Old and new members began to pour in, but there was trouble in plenty. A dilapidated pavilion, debts, an unserviceable motor mower, food rationing and a neglected pitch all meant headaches, but gradually order and improvement grew from the chaos. The first
two or three years after the war were hard ones for the enthusiasts, who, led by Secretary W S ("Gimps") Gimber, relaid the square, ran the bar, coached schoolboy cricketers, repaired and repainted the pavilion and did countless other jobs. They were relieved of one headache, however, when Reffells' Bexley Brewery very generously cancelled a debt of £400 incurred before the War for the laying out of two hard tennis courts.
By 1947 the Club had sufficient members to run three Saturday XIs and two Sunday X.Is. The outstanding fixture of the year was against a Kent XI which included L E G Ames, L J Todd, D G Ufton, W H Levitt, C Lewis and P Hearn. The county scored 327-7 dec. (Ufton 100) and Bexley had struggled to 128-7 when rain saved them.
Despite the conditions of austerity the Club was able to hold its first post-war Dinner in 1947, at the Black Prince. The menu stated, somewhat unappetisingly, 'Dinner will be served in accordance with the Regulations of the Ministry of Food', but by all accounts the evening was a great success.
A number of interesting visitors played at Bexley in these post-war years. They included the Test cricketers Andy Sandham, Arthur Wellard, W E Russell and Jack Martin (England); Learie Constantine(Learie (later Lord) Constantine was out lbw in the first over of the match. much to the disappointment of the large crowd) and C B Clarke (West Indies); Jim Workman (Australia) and Don Taylor (New Zealand). Charlton Athletic Football Club also made a cricketing visit, with their Kent stars D Ufton, S O'Linn, S Leary and other excellent cricketers.
Despite the difficulties of the immediate post-war years - and possibly because of them - people were keen to enjoy themselves and in 1948 Cricket Week was resumed. The fixtures included the MCC, a Stage XI (made up of actors and BBC staff), an England Ladies XI, and Gore Court. The Bexley star of the week was Jim Jeffery, who scored 386 runs at an average of 96.5. In scoring 113 in the victory68 over the MCC he became the first Bexley player to score a century against them since the fixture was first played in 1883. He scored 100 against Gore Court at the end of the week and 102 not out against Dartford a few days later. Not surprisingly he headed the season's batting averages with 1136 runs at an average of 57.
The Ladies XI included Molly Hide, who had captained the England team on their recent tour of Australia and several other members of the Touring Team. The fixture had been eagerly awaited but in the event the Ladies were all out for 60 and the match was a disappointment.
There was a full programme of entertainments each evening at the ground during Cricket Week and large crowds from the village joined in the fun. There was a Fair, with swing boats and roundabouts (and an eccentric proprietor who always refused to begin negotiations about the hire charges until after the end of the Week). There were stalls along the western side of the ground and a small-gauge railway which gave rides along the southern boundary. And the High Street was bedecked with banners and strings of bunting. The high spot of the Week was the Saturday evening carnival procession through the High Street, with decorated floats, and groups and individuals in fancy dress. When the sound of the band was heard in the distance the cricket match was abruptly brought to a close, irrespective of the state of the game. Once on the ground the participants circled the field for the benefit of the judges. After the prize giving, the rivalry between the floats would turn to good natured water fights, as concealed stirrup pumps were brought into action and bags of flour and other 'ammunition' were hurled at rival groups. The Kelsey family always entered into the carnival atmosphere with great gusto, and an abiding memory is of their re-enactment of the chariot race from the film 'Ben Hur', with the farm tractors - suitably transformed - charging round the outfield.
Cricket Week apart, present day players would be surprised at the number of spectators attending matches in the immediate post-war years, often amounting to two or three hundred, in contrast to modern times when the players frequently out-number the spectators. For many years, until the mid-1950s, there was a public Tea Hut, located near the gate in the north-eastern corner of the ground, to meet the needs of the spectators.
The provision of teas and lunches for the players presented great difficulties in the years of food rationing after the War. An idea of these difficulties comes over in the 1947 Annual Report which gives special thanks to Miss Jean Bowyer, who grappled With the “Food Returns" Somehow excellent meals were conjured up and old members
say that Bexley Cricket teas were publicly praised in the House of Commons by the local MP. but the author has been unable to find any record of this in Hansard. The tea and lunches were made and served by wives, mothers and girlfriends and until a kitchen was built onto the pavilion in the mid-1950s, these ladies - all volunteers - had to make the meals in an old groundsman's hut (which had also been a scorebox) and take them over to the pavilion.

But to return to the cricket. Three Bexley players had cause to look back on 1949 with great satisfaction. One was Cyril Hoare, a slow-medium leg break bowler and hard hitting batsman. He took 113 wickets at under 10 runs apiece, thus becoming the first Bexley bowler to take 100 wickets in a peace-time season. Originally a medium pace bowler, he had been persuaded to change over to spin by George Lovegrove and the switch proved a great success. He achieved his spin by a flick of his fingers, rather than with his wrist, and could bowl an off break with very little obvious change of action. 1t has been suggested that he took 100 wickets on Saturdays and Cricket Week alone, ie excluding Sunday matches, but this is uncertain. Another to do well was Jim Jeffery, "hose excellent form continued; he had scored over a thousand runs in the two previous seasons and at one period in the 1949 season scored 495 runs in 7 innings. Thirdly, Ken Hockaday had an excellent Cricket Week, scoring three centuries, a feat not equalled to this day. Ken had played for Bexleyheath before the war but moved to Bexley immediately after it and was one of the Club's leading batsmen for the next few years. He had headed the batting averages in 1946 and had scored the first post-war century for the Club.

Also in 1949, the Club and Bexley Round Table agreed to stage a charity match at Manor Way. It was to take the form of an old time cricket match, with the players, umpires, scorers and as many of the spectators as possible dressed up in the fashions of 1850. The idea was clearly just right for the time, for it succeeded beyond all expectation and was repeated annually until 1956, regularly drawing crowds of several thousand spectators.
The Round Table's team used to assemble in Bexleyheath and travel, via various hostelries, to Manor Way in a splendid coach and four, with post horns sounding out their progress. When they arrived at the ground they would be greeted with much doffing of toppers and old world courtesy, but once the match began, to the Laws of 1850, some very strange incidents occurred. Duels with pistols were fought for alleged cheating, players were put in the stocks, farm animals scampered across the ground, toppers exploded and the spectators had much else to keep them amused. The players wore drainpipe trousers and frock coats and sported magnificent beards and side whiskers. The ladies entered into the spirit of the occasion with great enthusiasm, looking charming in their crinolines and bonnets. The match was played for a barrel of ale, but it was seldom clear who had won it.

Spectators lined the route to see the carriages bringing the team and their supporters and in 1953 the crowd at the ground was estimated to be over 6,000. British Movietone News, television news and several national newspapers were on hand to record the fun and the local bus service nervously monitored the progress of the match to ensure that

Old Time Cricket Match, 1954.
The umpire, Bill Haywood, looks remarkably relaxed considering his dangerous position. Crowds of several thousands watched these matches(A French newspaper (La Marseillaise, 9 August 1950) also carried an account and a photograph on its front page. Quite what their readers made of it all is hard 10 imagine)

a convoy of buses turned up at the right time to take away the crowd.
Ken Kelsey was a great enthusiast for these boisterous occasions and when the matches started in 1949 he acquired a penny farthing bicycle and taught himself to ride it. For five years he was to be seen riding through Bexley High Street in his top hat and old fashioned cricket clothing astride the bike, waving to all and sundry. Sadly the fun ended in tragedy in 1954 as he fell off his penny farthing, punctured a lung and died a week later
The Old Time cricket matches continue to be held at the ground for another couple of years, but somehow they had lost the1r sparkle and were discontinued. The events had required a lot of hard work by the joint organisers but had raised a substantial sum for local charities and for the Club. And they had given an afternoon of fun to thousands of families.
On the more conventional cricketing front much hard work was being done behind the scenes, always with very limited money, to maintain the ground and pavilion and to organise various activities. Harry Snelling took over from 'Gimps' Gimber as Secretary in 1951 and served in this capacity for seven years. He was a man of gravel-voiced dignity and great dedication, and a good enough leg-spinner to take 50 wickets for the 1st XI in 1954 and 1955. He subsequently served as Chairman for a further six years. The Chairman in the mid-fifties was Bill Haywood, who worked very hard to ensure that all the functions of the Club were well run. And for the whole of the period covered in this chapter, Mr S E Lawrence was the Hon Treasurer. The committee were engaged in a constant battle to maintain the facilities and equipment in reasonable repair. There was no money available for major building projects and almost the only new construction at this time was a lavatory block in the pavilion to replace the awful outside bucket toilets.
Other prominent members at this time included: George Couldrey, a useful batsman and hard working committee member: Bill Siveyer, who captained the 2nd XI for many years, always playing the game very seriously but being a model of friendliness and hospitality to the opposition afterwards: Stan Morris, who took wickets regularly until donning an umpire's coat in the mid-fifties: and Johnny Gaunt, who on his 73rd birthday carried his cricket bag to North Cray to play, took 6 wickets for 17 runs for the 3rd XI and walked back to Bexley after the match.
To digress briefly from cricket, for several winters after the war Cambridge Harriers used the pavilion as their clubhouse. A number of famous walkers and runners, including Sydney Wooderson the holder of the world record for the half mile and mile, took part in races organised by the Harriers. It has to be said that conditions for them were very bleak, as the facilities for heating the pavilion and for prov1dmg hot water for bathing were extremely primitive.
In 1950 Jim Jeffery and Ken Hockaday established a post-war record for the first wicket of 195, in a ten-wicket win over Dartford. And 1950 also saw the introduction into the 1st XI of 16 year old Trevor Hood, who took 85 wickets at an average of 12 runs each. He was to become the fastest bowler in the Club in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
By the early 1950s most of the pre-war cricketers had either retired or left the district, and only Jim Jeffery, Cyril Hoare and Ray Stilwell of the pre-war Juniors remained 10 the 1st XI. Of the newcomers, Eddie Ridout, from Catford Wanderers, was a sound opening batsman who went on to captain the team in 1957-60. His best season was
195 . when he scored over 1000 runs at an average of 40. Another newcomer Pat Ptolomey was a punishing bat, quick on his feet to slow bowlers. He was to have a particularly good year in 1957, averaging 58, and at one stage in that season played five consecutive innings without being out, while scoring 340 runs.
The most successful season in these years was 1953, when 21 victories were achieved. Skipper Jeffery as usual was the best of the batsmen with over 1100 runs at an average of 47, but the experienced all-rounders Lovegrove (768 runs and 72 wickets) and Hoare (75 wickets and an astonishing innings of 172, the highest score since the war), aided by a new fast bowler H D Griffith with 24 wickets at under 10 apiece, played major parts in the successes of the season.
The highlight of the 1955 season was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the famous match against Kent. An excellent illustrated brochure was produced in connection with the anniversary21. At the start of the celebrations a Dinner-Dance was held which was attended by many present and former members of the Club and by Les Ames, Edward Heath MP, the President of Kent County Cricket Club and numerous other distinguished guests. The other main event of the season was a repeat match against a strong Kent XI69, including D V P Wright, A Fagg, C Page, F Ridgway, R Wilson, P Hearn and J Pettiford. Not surprisingly, the 1805 victory was not repeated*. Score: Kent 229: Bexley 94 (J W Jeffery 58, Page 5-15, Wright 4-20).
Jim Jeffery's 58 against the County bowlers was widely praised. He had by this date developed into one of the best opening batsmen in club cricket and had scored nearly 10,000 runs since the war at an average of over 40. He went on to top the batting averages for fourteen seasons. Perhaps his finest innings, however, was played not for Bexley but for the Association of Kent Cricket Clubs against the Surrey Association in 1952. The match was at the Oval and he scored a superb 160 not out.
Perhaps the last words in this chapter should be left to a book about Club Cricket70, written in 1951:-

"I like Bexley - I used to play against the club for the Old Alleynians before the War - but not just for the cricket (which is good). I like Bexley because the whole town seems to have a personal interest in the club. And, of course, its 'Weeks', when everybody joins in, are famous."