6. Chapter 3 Thomas Dann's Years as Secretary 1860-1871

The First Club Rules: The 1866 Photographs:
The Outstanding Colts Teams: One of the
Principal Clubs of the United Kingdom: Profiles of the Leading Players: The New Pavilion: A match at Lords (1869

In 1860 the Club elected as Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Dann, Jnr, a 21 year old of great drive and vision. He held this position - the two offices were combined in those days - until 1871 and he was also Captain for some years in that time.
Among his first actions was the drawing up of the first known Rules of the Club. They are a model of brevity and decisiveness, with a distinct sting in the tail:-

Rules

1. That the management of the Club be vested in a Committee consisting of the President, Secretary and six other members with power to add to their number; three to form a quorum, the Chairman having a casting vote in addition to his own vote.
2. That a Meeting of the Committee be held at such times as the President, Secretary or any two members of the Committee may think requisite.
3. That the decision of the Committee be final on all matters connected with the regulation of the Club.
4. That at the close of the Season the Treasurer shall lay before the Committee a Statement of receipts and disbursements for the past year.
5. That the Secretary act as Captain in the Field on each practice day, and in his absence a Captain be appointed by the members present, whose duty it shall be to manage the members in the Field, the order of batting, bowling, etc. Any member refusing to obey his orders shall be immediately fined 6d. [21/2 p]

At this time cricket was rapidly growing in popularity, particularly in the Public Schools. This interest in cricket among school boys was recognised by Thomas Dann and soon after he took up office he initiated a far-sighted scheme which was to produce great benefits for the Club in later years. This was the organisation of matches for young cricketers in the area. These attracted to the Club, and no doubt helped to develop, some extremely talented young players. Remarkably, bearing in mind that photography had been invented less than thirty years before, three photographs of colts teams taken in 1866 survive.
Page 13

Two of the photographs are of virtually the same group of boys, taken on the same day. These were from Public Schools and their team was called 'The Gentlemen • The second group were the sons of local tradesmen, shop keepers etc., who were called 'The Players'. One of the photographs of the Gentlemen and the photograph of the Players are reproduced here. Most of the young cricketers subsequently played for the men's team and they achieved great success in cricketing and other activities.
Taking first the Gentlemen:-
L & F Horner Both played for Bexley in the 1870s and 80s. In 1871 Fred did the 'hat trick' the first recorded instance of this feat in the Club's history; he was awarded a' cricket bag to commemorate the achievement. But the 'star' of the family was their younger brother, Charles. At the time the photographs were taken he was only nine and too young to be picked for this team, but he became an outstanding bowler for the Club and for Surrey, taking over 100 wickets for the County in the 1884 season. He played for the Gentlemen in 1885. He was educated at Cheltenham and Oxford. The family lived at May Place, Crayford, now demolished.
W B, L B and C A Friend All three brothers played for Bexley. William B Friend was an excellent all-rounder; he was Secretary-Treasurer of the Club in 1883 and 1884. L B Friend went on to become a professional soldier who rose to the rank of Major General; he was knighted (Rt. Hon Sir Lovick Friend, KBE). He was a free run-scorer and excellent fielder who played for Kent in 1886 and 1887. He was educated at Cheltenham. Like many Victorian families the Friend family was very large - there were eleven children - and the parents may have been getting a little desperate for names when settling on Lovick Bransby! The family residence was Woollett Hall (now Loring Hall), on North Cray Road.
F Wheeler was the son of Mr Thomas Wheeler, surgeon, and he also qualified in medicine. Years later he gave a stained glass window to St John's Church, Parkhill Road, in memory of his parents.
R Arbuthnot The Arbuthnot family home was Bridgen Place, a mansion on what is now Arbuthnot Lane, Bexley. Reggie was an excellent wicket keeper/batsman. He and his brothers WH and FG played for Bexley in the 1870s. Their father was a Member of the Council for India and their grandfather, Sir William Arbuthnot, was Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Reggie played twice for Kent, in 1881 and 1890 and would probably have played in the intervening years had he not followed in his
father's footsteps to work in India for some years. He was in the XI at Rugby School.

S & W C Jackson W C Jackson played for Bexley for many years and was Secretary from 1885 to 188 . He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and later served as a JP. The family lived at Bourne House, Bexley and carried on a prosperous business as hop merchants.
V Holt Vesey Holt was not a particularly good cricketer, but was very successful as a financier, eventually having a knighthood conferred on him for his services. He became President of the Club in 1899 and 1900. The family home was Mount Mascal, North Cray Road, a mansion with its own cricket ground. The family has an elaborate memorial in the churchyard of St James’, North Cray.

L A and J Shuter Although they are not on the 1866 photographs, two other Public School boys, Leonard and his younger brother John Shuter were shortly to move to Bexley and play a big part in the Club's success in the next twenty year, both played for Surrey and John for England. His feats for the Club are described in the next chapter. Leonard was educated at Cheltenham, John at Winchester. They lived at Vale Mascal, on North Cray Road. Their father had a prosperous timber and barrel-making business.
The photograph of the Players does not carry the names of all those in the picture, but it is possible to give biographical details of four of those named.
Bert Kelsey was a member of the local farming family which has been prominent in the Cricket Club for 150 years.
Tom Scevity Played for Bexley and other clubs in the district in the 1870s and 80s, being a very useful bowler. In one match in 1868 he had the remarkable analysis of 27 overs - 3 maidens - 62 runs - 10 wickets, for which he was presented with a belt. (These were probably 4-ball overs, but nevertheless it represents a lot of bowling for a teenager.)
Harry Wood As far as is known he did not play senior cricket for Bexley. He was an excellent wicket keeper, who played as a professional for Surrey for many years. He kept wicket for England in 1888, in the team which also included John Shuter. His greatest triumph as a batsman was an innings of 134 not out for the English team versus South Africa in Cape Town in 1891/92. For some years after retiring he was a first-class umpire.
H Campkin won the bat awarded by the President, Rev Thomas Harding, for the highest score made in the Players v Gentlemen (Under Sixteen) match of 1868. The following year he won a belt for taking 19 wickets in 2 matches and also a cup, for having the best bowling average for the colts.
According to the population census returns, the ages of the young cricketers shown in the photographs are between 10 and 16. Thomas Dann, pictured with the teams, was 28 at the time.
Before leaving the photographs it is interesting to study the background features. The railway bridge and embankment of the newly constructed Loop Line of the South Eastern Railway (opened 1866) are clearly visible, giving positive confirmation that the match was taking place on the present ground, in the year shown on the photographs. The small tented pavilion, complete with flag, was no doubt used by the scorers, who hung numbers on the simple telegraph to display the score. Ladies in crinolines can also be seen in the pictures.
One final comment about these remarkable photographs: according to the curator of the Cricket Memorial Gallery at Lords25, the earliest known photographs of the game were taken in 1857, ie only nine years before the Bexley pictures.
Colts matches were organised by Thomas Dann throughout his years as Secretary. In 1870, John Shuter when only fifteen years old scored 63 not out, and this was perhaps the earliest indication to the Bexley Club that he would develop into a brilliant cricketer. Incidentally, the splendid Thomas Dann provided teas with lobsters and other delicacies in the pavilion on these occasions. A report on the match is given in Appendix 1.

That the Club was progressing on other fronts is shown by reports in Lillywhite's Cricketers· Guide26\ Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion26b and their successor, Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual27• (These were similar to, and rivals to, Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, carrying all the important scores and news.) They included a chapter entitled ·Principal Clubs in the United Kingdom' or 'Chief Clubs'. For most years in the period 1865-1886 there is a report about Bexley, clearly demonstrating that the Club was rising to a prominent position.
Lillywhite’s also gives profiles of the leading players and the following examples, taken from the 1868 Companion, carry the flavour of the period:-
H Whatson, captain, capital bat, fast run getter and on his day, as a long stop, not to be excelled; ought to have played for his county.
W B Friend, excellent bat, bowls a peculiar round-arm slow very true.
W Coppinger, a fine free bat; bowls 'lobs' with great success; splendid point. [He and two brothers played for Kent a few times; they were the sons of Edward Coppinger who had been the publican of The George Inn at the time of the Bexley St George's Club.]
In another year's report, Thomas Dann is described as "an exceedingly upright bat, back or forward play, able to bat either right handed or left handed".
;
The membership of the Club, including non-playing members was about 40 during the 1860s, rising to 60 by 1871. Playing members paid a subscription of 5s (25p] and non­playing members £1 or 10s [50p]. The Club colours are variously given in Lillywhite’s as blue (1867), dark blue (1868-1872), black and blue (1873-1882) and black, red and blue, the present colours, from 1883. These would probably have been worn as coloured ribbons around the white bowler hats that were now replacing the toppers of the earlier decades.
The Cricketers' Companion for 1869 also reports "a new pavilion erected for dinners and dressing" at the ground. This is the first known reference to a pavilion and a further indication of the progress being made under Thomas Dann's leadership. The pavilion presumably replaced or augmented the tents shown on the 1866 photographs and probably was the wooden building just visible in a photograph taken about 1887 (see Chapter V). This pavilion was about 50 feet long by 12 feet wide, situated on the opposite side of the ground to the present pavilion.
Curiously, the Lillywhite's Companions for 1865, 1866 and 1868 state that the Bexley Club was established in 1860. This date, which was when Thomas Dann took on the office of Secretary, saw the formalisation of the Club's constitution and rules, but cannot be regarded as the date of the earliest cricketing activities. In another sense, however, 1860 is a very important date; from that year there are records of matches being played on the present ground every season, with the exception of the two World Wars.
There was a regular and increasing programme of fixtures throughout the 1860s. In 1869 the Club played a Lords, for the only time in its history, in a match against the North of the Thames Licenced Victuallers. In Thomas Dann's final year as Secretary (1871), the Club had a particularly successful season, winning 12 of the 15 matches played and drawing the others.

Page 18

One curious feature of Bexley fixture lists for the early and mid-nineteenth century is that matches were almost invariably played in mid-week; they were rarely played on
Saturdays and never on Sunday - this indicates that players and spectators found it easier to leave their other activities10 mid-week. The scores were generally quite low, often less than 100 for the whole team and it was often possible for both teams to complete two innings in a day.
Among his other virtues, Thomas Dann took infinite pains over his Minute Book, which was still in existence in the 1930s. At the beginning of each year he listed all the Officers. in beautiful lettering, adorning the pages with scrolls and elaborate designs, and adding the results of all the matches played. Unfortunately the Minute Book has disappeared, but we have the original of a subscription list in appreciation of his work for the Club, dated 1865 (see illustration), penned in a similarly decorative hand. The money subscribed was used to provide a silver goblet for the worthy Mr. Dann.
Thomas Dann 's Minute Book contained a cryptic reference to a match played in 1870, against a team called Dalston Alberts, in which the result was recorded simply as ·a dispute'. This puzzled readers for many years, The Record24 for 1931 saying 'How we would like to know exactly what lies behind that phrase!'. The author was pleased to be able to resolve the mystery recently, by reference to a match report283. It records that two or three of the Bexley team did not arrive at the ground until one o'clock, substitutes having fielded for them during the morning in the Dalston innings. When the latecomers did eventually arrive the Dalston team objected to one of them, H W Estridge batting, in the belief that he was not a club member. After an argument the stumps were pulled out and the match ended abruptly there and then. One tends to think that the behaviour of players in Victorian times was impeccable, but clearly that was not always so. Whether Estridge should have been allowed to bat in this match, having arrived so late, is a moot point, but he was certainly a regular member of the team and won the batting prize for the highest average ("24 runs per innings and 2 over") for the season.
Sadly, Thomas Dann died in 1873 at the early age of 34. In its obituary notice the Bexley Heath Observer28b commented "His exertions in connection with Bexley Cricket Club, of which he was the life, will long be remembered and his demise will be sorrowed by its members as acutely as by any of his many friends''. What he may have foreseen, but did not live to see, was that several of the young cricketers encouraged by him would grow up to be County or England players and that they would form the nucleus of an extremely strong Bexley team in the 1870 and 80s.
Thomas Dann, Jnr., and other members of his family associated with the Cricket Club are buried in St James' Churchyard, North Cray.

Bexley – Nov 30th 1865
“At a Meeting of Members and friends of the Bexley Cricket Club held on Thursday Nov 30th it was in the most express and cordial manner determined to present to the Secretary of the said Club Mr Thomas Dann Jun, a testimonial as a token of the high esteem and great regard they have for the continued zeal he has manifested for the welfare of Club and for the pleasure of all who have been associated with him in the recurring Games of both Cricket and Foot Ball throughout the seasons and also his desire and aid in promoting good feeling and companionship among the Village Youths. The undersigned have subscribed our names and most respectfully solicit our friends in aiding us to promote so deserving a testimony of Work”
Names of Subscribers:
Arbuthnot W; Beadle M; Buxton R; Bath A; Cannon S Jun; Campion G; Cruikshank JA; Chapman, Dann H Jun; Friend W; Freemantle; Gammon; Green; Harding Rev. T; Harris; Hards; Hide H; Kelsey W; Kelsey J; Kemp R; Lucas W; Miles Jas; Newman J; Parker J; Saxelby J; Staples M; Staples W; Story; Scevity W; Storer J; Steel W; Thompson P; Vinson V; …. White F; White J; Wheeler J; Wheeler Jun; Wheeler Friend; Whatson H; Wyver H; Williamson G; Williamson H.