Devon Cricket Board - Somerset visit revives big-match tradition at South Devon

By Conrad Sutcliffe
all pictures courtesy of the Roger Mann collection
SOUTH Devon CC are looking forward to reviving a big-match tradition that ran through the 1950s and 60s when Somerset visit the Recreation Ground on Tuesday for Peter Trego’s benefit game.
Crowds of more than a thousand were common to see the Test and County stars of the era take on the local favouitres in benefit games.
Ticket sales for next Tuesday’s game have gone well and South Devon officals wouldn’t be surprised to see around a thousand cricket lovers at the game.
In the days before cricket became a seven-days-a-week operation, county cricketers had Sundays off – and generally used them to play in benefit matches at clubs not too far away from their current game.
The first benefit game hosted by South Devon was for the Northamptonshire batsman Jock Livingstone back in 1955.
Northants, who included England stars Frank Tyson and Raman Subba Row, made 197 for five declared – Des Barwick top scoring with 55
South Devon borrowed Somerset captain Maurice Tremlett (left), who top scored with 43 in the home side’s reply of 181.
The beneficiary went home with £175 as the proceeds of the day – a tidy sum in 1955.
Tremlett clearly liked the atmosphere at South Devon as it was his benefit the following year and he brought Somerset with him.
Sadly, it has not been possible to find the scorebook for the game, or a contemporary newspaper report.
It must have gone pretty well though as Somerset were back again in 1957 as part of the benefit programme for Harold Stephenson (below).
Somerset brought down virtually the entire side on a rest day from their Championship game at Bristol against Gloucestershire and amassed a sizeable total of 267 for seven in two hours and 25 minutes.
Peter Wight top scored with 82 and Bill Alley made 73.
South Devon had clearly been advised to strengthen their side and had ‘borrowed’ Somerset pair Jeff Lomax and Chris Greetham as well as Navy and Combined Services opened Andrew Brown.
Lomax made 75 and Greetham 44, but the next best was 27 as South Devon were dismissed for 199 – Australian star Colin McCool taking five wickets for 35 runs.
Captain for both games was Tony Sutton – a former Somerset player – who recalled: “The memory I have is of huge crowds – 1.200 or more – and we couldn’t charge them to come in because of the Sunday observance laws.
“Various devices were employed to raise money….”
The Mid-Devon Advertiser’s correspondent duly reported on the success of the game, adding: “It was a fine afternoon’s cricket and the Somerset County side proved themselves to be very popular visitors.
“I hope it will be possible for the South Devon Club to organise more of these attractive games. The fact more than 1,000 watched proved that Sunday cricket is popular.”
Four years went by before Somerset returned again, this time for Bill Alley’s benefit game.
Alley (below) clouted 61 in 48 minutes including four sixes. South Devon chairman Barry Widdecombe was a young lad in the crowd that dad and remembers vividly Alley smashing sixes on to the roof of the biscuit factory next to the ground.
Somerset’s total of 250 all out was a big one, but helped by their guests South Devon made a respectable 202 for six in reply.
Leading run scorers for South Devon were Geoff Keith of Sidmouth, Somerset and Western Province with 50, Torquay professional Jack Kelly (40) and Mike Comer of Blundell’s school, who made 44.
There was a testimonial circuit throughout the 1960s involving teams like the Whitbread Cavaliers and the International Crusaders – and South Devon was on it,
The last big match came in 1968 when a star-studded International Crusaders team played South Devon in a benefit game for Len Coldwell, the former Worcestershire and England bowler who played for the club in the 1950s.
Current Test players John Snow, Barry Richards and Basil D’Oliveira were the household names in the Cavaliers’ line-up.
South Devon were loaned Australian fast bowler Neil Hawke and Tom Graveney, then 41 years old an in the twilight of a career that included 79 Tests for England.
The Cavaliers made 185 in 40 overs – Merv Kitchen (40) and Jim Parkes (32) upping the tempo after a slow start.
Coldwell and D’Oliveria kept South Devon quiet for the first 10 overs or so, then Graveney went out to bat.
The Mid-Devon Advertiser correspondent takes up the story…
“Exactly 27 minutes later he returned to the pavilion having scored 56 runs, including three sixes and eight fours.
“The first six went out of the ground, cleared Marsh Road and splashed amid cheers in the fast-flowing River Lemon.
“The second narrowly missed a parked Ford Anglia and the third and hardest hit was last seen heading in the direction of the council offices in Kingsteignton Road.”
South Devon couldn’t keep it up though and were 20 runs short with nine wickets down at the close.
The advent of the John Player League in 1969 virtually killed off the old-fashioned Sunday benefit fixture as players no longer had the spare time to turn out in them.
Admission to the Peter Trego game is by programme only, priced at £3. They are available from the Newton Abbot Recreational Trust office in Marsh Road or from Wollen Michelmore solicitors in Sherborne Road, Newton Abbot.