The annual cricket match

One of the author's early recollections, as a young pupil at Peacocks, was the great enthusiasm for enjoyment shown by the partners and staff. This took various forms including the annual cricket match against F. W. Western & Co. of Biggleswade. This was the highlight of the summer, and one Thursday afternoon in 1948, the author was instructed to be at the Igranic sports field in Kempston (at the corner of High Street and Cemetery Road) in order to take part.

The F. W. Western side was captained by Brian Porter and the team included his elderly father and a number of guest players from the Sandy solicitors E. T. Leeds Smith & Co., who were also keen cricketers. The author cannot remember who won the game, but has recollections of a very generous tea, followed by the players and supporters retiring to the King William IV pub for further refreshment. Cricket matches against F. W. Western were annual events for a number of years, and were greatly enjoyed by both sides.

The Peacocks’ archive contains some letters about an earlier, pre-war, friendly cricket match arranged between Robert Peacock and Brian Porter in 1938. The correspondence includes a list of rules agreed by the two teams; one of the rules was that ladies would not be put under restrictions as to bowling as it was felt by the participants that they could be ‘quite reasonable about that’. There are also letters relating to the return challenge match held on Thursday 15 June 1939, which Peacocks lost by seventy runs.

There were also cricket matches against Stafford, Rogers & Merry, for which a coveted trophy – a silver coated china chamber pot - had been purchased at an auction. The celebratory beer after the matches was, however, only drunk from tankards!

Research for this book revealed an amusing poetic description by John Williams of a Peacocks’ cricket match held at Bromham Park on 27 June 1935. The author is indebted to David Henson, George Henson's son, for the text. The poem, between ‘town’ and ‘county’ sides, mentions many of the members of staff involved including Ronald Craig and Robert Peacock (the respective captains), Bill Clarke, Jim Brooks, Reginald Damon and George Robinson.