About
Hello,
Don't spend too much time thinking about it as you won't know me from my "playing days". Although there was a cricket team in our village, it was a club in the 'erm "rural tradition". On the far extreme edge of the parish, out of harms way the lads could indulge in a bit of bat and ball and a good deal of cider. Youth Development was in it's infancy.
Had I been a Butleigh cricketer I'm not sure if I'd want to have been the Marquis or the Maverick. The Marquis of course the Golden Boy of local cricket for many years, churning out his centuries a la Cowdrey, "hard enough for four is hard enough"; and as our own Correspondent would put it "setting the hearts fluttering in Butleigh housewives of a certain age"
Or to be The Maverick, a man who had a scale diagram of Butleigh Court on his bedroom wall, with a tick to show which windows he had broken with his latest big hits. Many batsmen clear the trees at The Park end of the ground from the top of the square, but only the Maverick has cleared the Walnut tree at the top of the ground. The Maverick, a man out of time, clearly cut out for the new wambam.
In the late 1980's I used to work for Clare Son & Co. at Wells, Somerset, the production arm of Mid-Somerset Newspapers, as it was then. A new Editor had arrived, looking for a slightly less austere publication, featuring more pictures and a fresher style, as would befit the new tabloid design. It was Mike Mathias who first got me to send in a few photos from cricket and football matches that I had attended the previous weekend. Taken on some distinctly "budget" equipment, digitalised versions of some of these will feature on here in the "Old Black and Whites" section,- but it could take a while, so keep checking back.
A few years and a couple of jobs later, we were back in Somerset, living in Butleigh, when the phone rang one night and Jim Lovell (q.v Rogues Gallery) from the Cricket Club rang asking if I'd like to help the club sort out a Youth Team. Some of us had got together and started a village youth club which had done well and would in time spawn a lively football community, I'd been suggested as someone who could help the cricket club; that was my first involvement with Butleigh C.C.
Later, Ade Bush asked me to photograph a player who was moving back home to New Zealand, this required me to turn up at cricket matches with a camera and thus a return to a bit of sports photography.
These photos were taken to record the local sporting scene, its many participants, their good days and bad, fortunately I'd kept the old 35mm negs from the 80's so we can have fun comparing the 2 eras.
Early in 2009 I held a small exhibition at our village pub "The Rose & Portcullis", which was quite well received and gave me the pleasant task of showing the photos to the great Chris Smith of the Sunday Times. This would be akin to the Pub singer/songwriter reciting his latest lyrics to Paul McCartney.
Chris Smith left a message in the visitors book which reads "...what great shots, a pleasure to visit..."
and I hope you'll like them too.
PRE
Don't spend too much time thinking about it as you won't know me from my "playing days". Although there was a cricket team in our village, it was a club in the 'erm "rural tradition". On the far extreme edge of the parish, out of harms way the lads could indulge in a bit of bat and ball and a good deal of cider. Youth Development was in it's infancy.
Had I been a Butleigh cricketer I'm not sure if I'd want to have been the Marquis or the Maverick. The Marquis of course the Golden Boy of local cricket for many years, churning out his centuries a la Cowdrey, "hard enough for four is hard enough"; and as our own Correspondent would put it "setting the hearts fluttering in Butleigh housewives of a certain age"
Or to be The Maverick, a man who had a scale diagram of Butleigh Court on his bedroom wall, with a tick to show which windows he had broken with his latest big hits. Many batsmen clear the trees at The Park end of the ground from the top of the square, but only the Maverick has cleared the Walnut tree at the top of the ground. The Maverick, a man out of time, clearly cut out for the new wambam.
In the late 1980's I used to work for Clare Son & Co. at Wells, Somerset, the production arm of Mid-Somerset Newspapers, as it was then. A new Editor had arrived, looking for a slightly less austere publication, featuring more pictures and a fresher style, as would befit the new tabloid design. It was Mike Mathias who first got me to send in a few photos from cricket and football matches that I had attended the previous weekend. Taken on some distinctly "budget" equipment, digitalised versions of some of these will feature on here in the "Old Black and Whites" section,- but it could take a while, so keep checking back.
A few years and a couple of jobs later, we were back in Somerset, living in Butleigh, when the phone rang one night and Jim Lovell (q.v Rogues Gallery) from the Cricket Club rang asking if I'd like to help the club sort out a Youth Team. Some of us had got together and started a village youth club which had done well and would in time spawn a lively football community, I'd been suggested as someone who could help the cricket club; that was my first involvement with Butleigh C.C.
Later, Ade Bush asked me to photograph a player who was moving back home to New Zealand, this required me to turn up at cricket matches with a camera and thus a return to a bit of sports photography.
These photos were taken to record the local sporting scene, its many participants, their good days and bad, fortunately I'd kept the old 35mm negs from the 80's so we can have fun comparing the 2 eras.
Early in 2009 I held a small exhibition at our village pub "The Rose & Portcullis", which was quite well received and gave me the pleasant task of showing the photos to the great Chris Smith of the Sunday Times. This would be akin to the Pub singer/songwriter reciting his latest lyrics to Paul McCartney.
Chris Smith left a message in the visitors book which reads "...what great shots, a pleasure to visit..."
and I hope you'll like them too.
PRE