Summer Times is the Journal of the Old Scarborians Association

mate and had all the neatness, style and man‐
nerisms of a Godfrey Evans, he dropped a
disconcerting number of straightforwa catches.
Reg Atkinson, a delightful companion, was
described by The Scarborian in 1942 as ‘a styl‐
ish bat with good footwork’. He became cap‐
tain in 1944, and I later enjoyed playing under
his captaincy for the Scarborough ‘A’ team. He
was a fine driver of the ball, but never quite
lived up to the potential he showed in the nets.
I last saw him in the 1960s when I was fielding
on the boundary in a match at Menston in the
Airedale and Wharfedale League and enjoyed
a chat with him.
Geoff Dennis got his first mention in The Scar‐
borian in 1943, and was still in the team in 1945
when he and Vokes must have made a fear‐
some pair of opening bowlers.
He came from a cricketing family, and his
sister married Len Hutton.
He was a fast bowler and often operated from
the opposite end to Bill Foord for Scarborough,
later becoming a very successful captain of the
club. The red‐haired Dennis was less accurate
than the disciplined Foord, but bowling left
arm over at the end of a run up that ended in a
fiery rush, he whipped the ball across the
right‐hand batsman and achieved high bounce
on anything like a helpful wicket.
I have a memory of him bowling down the
slope on a spiteful wicket in a Yorkshire
League match at Rotherham. I was fielding at
fine leg, and had to make several futile at‐
tempts to stop four byes when his bouncers
went way over the wicketkeeper’s out‐
stretched hands.
Ted Lester, the greatest of them all, had left the
school before I joined in 1941, but I watched
him score a torrent of runs for the Scarborough
club at North Marine Road at a time when
Alan Richardson (not an Old Scarborian) be‐
strode the scene. Alan played a number of
times for Yorkshire and was the mightiest
straight driver I ever saw. Indeed, fielders
33
used to get out of the way of some of his shots
– that is the ones that were not going over their
heads for six. But Ted could match his rate of
scoring, though he was more likely to keep the
ball on the ground, and was stronger on the
leg side. Both interspersed their big hitting
with the most delicate of late cuts, a shot rarely
seen today.
They were at their most exciting when they
were batting together, often racing each other
to the hundred at a rate that must have terri‐
fied their opponents.
Ted went on to play for Yorkshire 2nd XI,
where he again scored prolifically, and took a
lot of wickets with his off‐breaks. He had
played one game, against the RAF, for the 1 st
XI in the 1945 Festival, but his County Cham‐
pionship debut was against Nottinghamshire
at Trent Bridge in 1946. And, because he was
one of my boyhood heroes, I can still remem‐
ber that he got 47, caught Heane bowled
Woodhead.
The Yorkshire Post’s J M Kilburn commented
that his drives were ‘rackety’ and, looking
back on his style, I recognise the description.
Ted did give the ball a sort of wristy slap.
Yorkshire were very strong in those days, and
he did not yet get a regular place. This left him
free not only to continue to play for Scarbor‐
ough, but also to play for the Old Scarborians
against local villages in the Evening League
and the Hospital Cup. This was not something
that was always appreciated by other teams –
particularly when Bill Foord was in the side as
well. I remember that in a match against Cay‐
ton Ted was run out backing up, without the
bowler having given him the customary gen‐
tlemanly warning.
Cayton justified this dastardly act on the
grounds that it wasn’t fair for Ted to be play‐
ing, and the Evening News gave a lot of space
to the furore that followed. Indeed, it might
have been this incident that triggered the Eve‐
ning League rule change, recorded recently in