EAST RIDING CRICKET SOCIETY

Enjoy six winter meetings a year at Beverley Town CC | 7.15 for 7.30pm . Everyone welcome : join at any meeting. Membership: £15 | guest £5 . Mon 20 Jan, Mark Ramprakash (England, Middlesex & Surrey); 9 Dec, Geoff Cook (England, Northants & Durham; Mon 25 Nov, Jack Brooks (Yorks, Northants & Somerset) [ report ]; 11 Nov, Jeremy Lonsdale on Bill Bowes [ report ]. More speakers tbc ... To find out more please email: ercsoc AT gmail DOT com Recent guests include: Pat Murphy [ report ] | Dr Jane Powell [ report ] | Kevin Sharp [ report ] | John Barclay [ report ] | Jeremy Lonsdale [ report ] | Dean Headley [ report ] | Barry Richards [ report ] | Vic Marks [ report ] | James Carr [ report ] | Graham Onions [ report ] | Chris O'Brien on Neville Cardus [ report ] | Paul Farbrace [ report ] | Kevin Howells [ report ] |

'A hell of a ride, and good fun' ( Jack Brooks , ERCS meeting, 25 November 2024). Well, Jack delivered a talk as fluently and directly as he always bowled – straight and to the point. He played for three counties: Northants, Yorkshire and Somerset. His best result was his first and only first-class 100 at Old Trafford. As a latecomer to professional cricket, he played the game as he would wish to watch it. He didn’t view it as a 'real' job (he’d had one of those) but as having fun with his mates. After a trial with Surrey came to nothing, he answered a call to open trials with Northants. In his first match he took 6 for 90, scored some runs and thought it would bring him a one-year contract. Instead he was offered four years, and his highlight was opening the bowling against Australia as part of their pre-Test warm-ups. He did a Lions tour and roomed with Jonnie Bairstow. While various counties tried to get him after that, Yorkshire's offer seemed quirky enough to ...

It was a bit odd having our first meeting in November rather than October but Jeremy Lonsdale was well worth the wait. He began by reminding us that we were celebrating the 60th birthday of East Riding Cricket Society, almost to the day. Our first meeting was held in Jackson's Ballroom, Hull on 4 November 1964, with the Hull Daily Mail reporting that over 100 attendees gathered to listen to Yorkshire great Bill Bowes. And who was Jeremy talking about in 2025? None other than that very same cricketer – now the subject of Jeremy's biography, An Unusual Celebrity: the Many Cricketing Lives of Bill Bowes , shortlisted for the Cricket Writers' Book Award 2024. Perhaps a coincidence – or perhaps a cunning plan. Bill made his first-class debut for MCC in 1928, for Yorkshire in 1929 and for England in 1932, taking 68 wickets over 15 Tests. Meanwhile his first-class total of 1639 wickets at 16.76 (bettering the career average of S F Barnes) and 1531 runs at 8.6...