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In this episode we hear from Newport Cricket Club's Michael Clayden who, this season, became the first player in the history of the South wales Premier League to reach 200 appearances and to score over 6,000 runs in the league.

He has played all his junior and senior cricket for the Newport Club and this loyalty shines through in his inetrview that talks about his batting development, his cricketing heroes, memorable innings and, more recently, his coaching and his captaincy.

The epitome of the one club man, Michael has played at the top end of recreational cricket in Wales for 25 years. His memories and his thoughts tell us a lot about him as a person but also provide some great insights on the game for all cricketers.

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In this episode we talk to ex Glamorgan seam bowler Steve 'Basil' Barwick.

You can read about Steve's first class career here:

https://glamorgancricketarchives.com/steve-barwick/

We begin by talking about his early years playing for Briton Ferry Town and Alan Lewis Jones who introduced him to Glamorgan and the then coach Tom Cartwright. He talks about Tom and how he built his strength up as a bowler.

He talks about his debut for Glamorgan against Sussex at Hove and his first season in 1981.

We talk about some of the international players who played county cricket at the time and some of the bowlers he remembers playing with.

Steve mentions Garth Le Roux as the most difficult batsman he had to bowl against. We also talk about his career best figures of 8 for 42 which he took against Worcester at New Road. You can see the scorecard here:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/schweppes-county-championship-1983-468579/worcestershire-vs-glamorgan-470263/full-scorecard

Steve talks about how proud he was to receive his County Cap.

Basil then tells me how he got the nickname!

Steve then describes his experiences as a sufferer of sarcoidosis. He describes the symptoms and the impact the illness has had on his life. You can read more about it here:

https://www.sarcoidosisuk.org/

Steve talks about how he changed his bowling to predominantly off cutters and how he went about his craft. He then goes on to how Glamorgan planned to win matches in the period in the early 90s. We talk about the impact Viv Richards' arrival at the club and the Axa Equity and Law victory in 1993. Steve recalls the final game at Canterbury and what a fantastic day it was.

Steve tells the story of how Ian Botham turned up at this mother and fathers wedding anniversary party.

We finish by talking about Steve's love for the game, how he continued to play cricket after his first class career and what the game has meant to him.

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In this, the second part of our chat with current and ex players and officials we meet Henderson Springer. You can read a little bit about Hendy and his connections with Haverfordwest and the cricket club here:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/hendy-springer-53004

http://www.pembrokeshiresport.co.uk/home/henderson-says-hello-to-his-pembrokeshire-cricketing-friends

You can hear an interview with him on this Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=192877061657624

And an article in Barbados today about Hendy's return to the island and its cricket community:

https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/06/19/springer-returns-as-crickets-coaching-boss/

First, we hear my questions to Hendy. He talks about his first impressions of the club and the town, his estimation of the team and what made it successful in the period he was with it. He talks about how he felt coming to the club as a paid professional and a little bit about his approach to coaching.

He tells the story about a lady called Mary Field who's conversation with him is something that has stayed with him throughout his coaching career.

He also gives a message to the club and its members about everyone pitching in to keep the club going for another two hundred years !

The second part of the episode is club members talking about Henderson arriving at the club and their memories of him, both on and off the field!

The final part of the episode is the club members talking about their favourite grounds, both within and outside Pembrokeshire, their connections with the wider game in Wales, including the relationship with Glamorgan and Welsh Fire and the impact of women and girls cricket on the club.

Finally, we hear some favourite stories about the club and its players and memories of a loved ex member of the club, Steve James.

Very sadly, Henderson's mother was taken into hospital on the day of our conversation. She has, since, passed away.

This episode of the podcast is dedicated to her memory and to the memory of Steve James.

Anyone interested in attending one of the remaining functions celebrating the club's bicentenary can find the details via the club's Facebook Page.

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The collected group of ex-players and committee post holders started by telling us who they are and what they were like as cricketers.

We get a picture of the way into cricket which was different for different players, some moving from juniors into seniors and others coming onto the scene as a senior. There were four senior sides in the past and some present played for all four sides.

We talk about a little bit of the older history of the club with contributions from Stuart who outlined the contested question of exactly when the cricket club was formed. Cricket was brought to the area by English gentlemen who played mainly ‘away’ fixtures from 1824 but finally came to the Racecourse Ground in 1839.

Stuart tells the story of why the ground is called ‘The Racecourse’ and also outlines the history of the building of the current Pavillion.

Like in other areas of Wales, english educated gentlemen first brought the game of cricket to the town when returning to their homes.

The first reported game involving members of the Haverfordwest Club took place on 12th August 1835 when a combined Haverfordwest and Pembroke team played members of the Tenby club.

The club is reputed to be the oldest in Wales. A quote from 1839 noted, ‘It is ordered that John Higgon Esquire, and other gentlemen of the cricket club, be allowed to level a spot of ground within the ring of the Racecourse for the purpose of forming a Cricket Ground.’ English educated gentlemen first brought the game of cricket to this part of Wales

One character from the early years of the club was John Henry Philipss. You can read about him here:

https://www.cricketmuseum.wales/the-pembrokeshire-cricketer-who-became-president-of-the-mcc/

In the late 1960s and early 70s discussions got under way regarding the building of a clubhouse. In 1977 the new clubhouse was opened by Wilfred Wooller of Glamorgan CCC and in 1982 the extension was officially opened by Alan Jones esq, Wales pre-eminent first class cricketer and Glamorgan opening bat for many years.

For more detail on the history of the club you can approach them for a copy of the 200th Anniversary Handbook which also contains some great articles on the modern day achievements of the club as well as pieces on its Ladies and Junior Sections.

Simon and Chris outline their favourite performances for Haverfordwest and then the ex-players share their memories of playing for the club.

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In this, the second part of our chat with Martin, umpire with the South West Wales Association of Cricket Association, we talk in more detail about his experiences in Chennai, India at the International Masters Cricket Over 60s World Cup earlier this year.

He begins by telling us about the celebrations at the British Consulate in Chennai for the King's Birthday which he attended whilst at the tournament and which was one of the great highlights of the trip for him.

We talk about the first round robin round of the tournament and Martin's memories of that. England and Australia were the standout teams. Although Martin did not watch them, the Welsh side did really well (finishing 5th overall in the competition).

Martin talks about reflecting on his performance and how important that is for umpires generally. He regretted not being able to stand with one of the local Indian umpires.

After the round robin phase there were group positions so then the top of Group A played the second in Group B. Effectively, these were semi finals but there were also games involving all the nations involved to give final placings. Martin was chosen to umpire the semi final between Australia and New Zealand. He describes the game and Australia's comfortable victory.

No one knew who would be umpiring the Final although it would have to be a neutral umpire. As it would be played between England and Australia, Martin, as the sole umpire from Wales, was in with a shout. All the international umpires thought the final would go to the Indian umpires. However, after some delay on the evening before the final, at about 9pm, Martin discovered he was one of the three umpires chosen to officiate at the final. A further wait happened until it was confirmed that he would be one of the on-field umpires.

Martin describes his feelings of nerves and excitement at the prospect of officiating at such an important game.

Martin describes the unusual feeling of participating in such a big occasion but that it was happening without much of a focus on it. It was still one of six games that were taking place on the same day.

We talk about a serious incident which took place at the tournament, with a player experiencing a 'mild' heart attack. All the umpires stressed this to all the players before the final. He then talks to us about the ground where the final took place as well as all the grounds and the wickets in general.

England got a below par score, for them, in the 160s. Australia were a fantastic bowling team and pinned England back with them losing wickets regularly. Australia won with 4 or 5 overs and 8 wickets to spare. The celebrations were rather muted but Martin felt that this was rather inevitable given the way the tournament had been organised.

Martin described the closing ceremony which took place two days after the final and what he received as a participating official. He concludes with some final reflections on the experience.

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This episode features the first installment of my chat with cricket umpire Martin Wale.

We begin with a bit of onomatology! Quite a departure for us. We then get on to more familiar territory, talking about Martin’s growing up in Coventry and getting to watch Warwickshire CCC at the Corthaulds Ground in the city.

Martin talks about his love of the detail of what goes on on a cricket field, stumpings v run outs, the lbw rule and so on. Martin can thank his wife for getting him involved in umpiring, prompting him to approach the South Wales Cricket Association in 2004. He used to watch games at the Mumbles Cricket Club as well as visiting St Helens.

Martin talks about his mentor Huw Rees who stood with him for the whole of his first season of umpiring. Huw sadly passed away in recent times, but Martin remembers him fondly. Leighton James was playing in his first game as an umpire and Martin gave him out first ball lbw. He talks about how conflicted he felt about making that decision.

Martin goes on to talk about what he feels about umpiring. In particular, he focuses on the ‘man management’ involved in umpiring and the team working involved in umpiring.

Before talking about the Over 60s World Cup, Martin relates the story of his involvement in the Over 50s World Cup in South Africa in 2020. The Tournament was abandoned half way through the first round of games as the Soth African Government declared their lock down. Martin and some members of his family were amongst the last few people to leave the country and returned back to a country that was 10 days into its first national lockdown. An incredible part of his story.

Martin talks about the setting up of the International Masters Cricket organization and the ‘regularizing’ of international seniors cricket. This included the setting up of IMCUP (International Masters Cricket Umpires Panel). It was as a member of this panel that Martin found out about the Over 60s World Cup in Chennai earlier this year.

Those interested in finding out about Masters Cricket can link to the ICM website here:

https://masterscricket.org/o60swc-2024/

Much of the preparation for going to India took place through a WhatsApp group. Martin talked us through some of the things that were discussed here. He relates his excitement about what lay ahead.

We then talk about the tournament organisation and the surprising revelation that the umpires did not know which game they were going to officiate in until the evening before the game. Martin talked about some of the travel arrangements to and from the grounds.

We hear about Martin’s impressions of Chennai which was, in his words, ‘chaotic, noisy, and dusty’:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai

He then describes getting around in the ubiquitous Tuk Tuk’s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw

He’s overall impressions of the people were that they were very welcoming and friendly. Martin discovered Dosa’s. See here for more details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosa_(food)

We finish this part of our chat with Martin running through some of the details of the umpiring organisation at the tournament including the arrangements for coping with the heat and humidity prevailing across the City.

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In this episode we make use of the MCC Sound Archive to bring you the story of Blaina Cricket Club.

The MCC project, Taking the Field was aimed at recording the oral history of cricket clubs throughout the breadth of the UK. Members of the Blaina Cricket Club had already started recording their history for a published book.

The book can be bought here:

https://welsh-academic-press.shopfactory.com/contents/en-uk/p12_Blaenau-Cricket-Club.html

The Facebook page of the project still exists and can be found here:

facebook.com/takingthefield

We talked to Emma Peplow, who was the full time officer with Taking the Field and Alan Williams, long time member and Chairperson of Blaina Cricket Club. Interspersed with our interview with Emma and Alan are excerpts from the MCC Sound Archive. We have interviews with the following:

Diane Williams
Alan Williams
David Jones
Alan Lewis
and Ernie Barber

We hear about the history of the club going back to its earliest beginnings in the 19th Century and it's high point in the early 20th Century.

Emma and Alan talk about one of the highlights of the project which was being interviewed on the Test Match Special lunchtime slot during the Test Match against Sri Lanka.

Alan tells us about the early sponsorship of the club and one of the outstanding individuals who helped keep the club going in the 1920s, Evan Watkins. His wikipaedia page is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Watkins

Emma tells us about the international dimension of Taking the Field

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Ossie begins by talking about his experiences as Chairman of Glamorgan CCC and the difficulties cricket and Glamorgan faced in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

We move swiftly talking about the Kerry Packer Circus and it’s impact on the game. Ossie mentions the Tony Grieg affair which arose out of this and then talks about the Gatting affair in 1988 when England captain Mike Gatting was caught on camera pointing his finger at Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana. For more on that you can go here

https://www.wisden.com/cricket-news/the-gatting-rana-fall-out-when-a-whole-day-of-test-cricket-was-lost-to-a-player-umpire-argument

We then move to talking about the idea of a UK Board of Cricket. By the way Ossie gives us a little bit of history about the role of the MCC.

Ossie tells the story of the England AND WALES Cricket Board and how it came to be called that and the implications of that for the development of the first class game and it’s various academies and pathway organisations.

After finishing his work as an administrator with the first class game, Ossie talks about his involved with the founding and development of what was called the Cricket Foundation but what became the Chance to Shine Charity. In particular, we hear the story of how the ex Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, got involved and managed to get a huge investment form the government of the day to take cricket into primary schools.

We talk about Ossie’s involvement with the Sports Council of Wales and he talks at length about Tom Cartwright’s involvement as a coach in welsh cricket.

Ossie reflects on the game today with particularly interesting comments about the County Championship and Test cricket, including ‘Baz Ball’.

We end with Ossie’s thoughts on welsh cricket and the need to produce some more of our homegrown talent.