Summer Times is the Journal of the Old Scarborians Association

tinuously from lunch to close of play.
Play always began at noon with stumps be‐
ing drawn at 6.00pm. Lunch was taken at
2.00pm and tea, on the field of play at
4.15pm. The opening match was always
Yorkshire v the MCC followed by either Mr
HDG Leveson‐Gower’s XI v the MCC or the
outgoing Tourists, North v South or Gentle‐
men v Players. The closing fixture was Mr
H.D G Levison‐Gower’s XI v the Tourists, a
splendid finale bringing together an array of
quite unforgettable talent. The Festival itself
closed with a rendition by the band of Auld
Lang Syne followed by the National Anthem,
both of which were traditionally observed.
On a strictly personal basis, my involvement
stretches over sixty years. Initially I was a
junior spectator and on one memorable occa‐
sion (1934) I was a ball retriever as Don Brad‐
man scored an incredible 132 in one and a
half hours off bowlers of the calibre of Far‐
nes, Nichols, Bowes and Verity. I soon gradu‐
ated in 1936 to scoreboard operative – my
38
first paid employment ‐ and in those forma‐
tive years I became familiar with my school‐
boy heroes which no doubt influenced a
lifelong career in cricket.
To an avid autograph hunter the Festival was
paradise and two cricketers will always be
remembered: the West Indian Ben Sealey
who replicated his signature on a rubber
stamp, which was as likely to finish on a
forehead as in a book, and the Indian bats‐
man Mushtaq Ali who gave away half‐
pennies with his signature, thereby assuring
his popularity.
About this time I remember running an er‐
rand for Herbert Sutcliffe and was rewarded
with a banana, albeit overripe. Little did I
think that in the first Festival after the war I
would actually play alongside him. This was
the first of my ten Festival appearances –
marking my final appearance against Paki‐
stan with the last of my 26 first‐class centu‐
ries. In those 10 years I was privileged to play
with and against the best international play‐