REMEMBERING KEITH, A DEAR FRIEND AND CRICKET BUDDY

I had a phone call from Graham, Keith’s son, whilst I was at the hospital on Wednesday, asking if I thought Mr. HCB would like to have some of Keith’s cricket books and memorabilia.  I said I was sure he would love to have them, so we arranged to go round yesterday afternoon to look at the various items.

We got there at 2 o’clock and before we knew it, the clock had ticked round to 5 o’clock - and what a wonderful afternoon we had.  Graham lives in America and had come over to see his Dad  a couple of days after Keith’s accident just before Christmas.  He has been here ever since and was with his Dad when he was “Promoted to Glory” - so they had very special times together.  As you know, we have been privileged to visit Keith on several occasions, and he and Mr. HCB chatted a lot about cricket until the last couple of times when Keith just slept.

Yesterday afternoon, I learned much more about Keith and the conversations that he and Mr. HCB used to have on their journeys to and from the cricket ground at Bristol for most of the season, but to Cheltenham for the famous Cheltenham Cricket Festival in July.  

There were many funny stories, such as when Keith was no longer allowed to eat ice cream, but seemed to spend a lot of time chatting to Anna and Pablo, who had an Italian ice cream business and would be there with their van at every match, but in his latter years, Keith never bought an ice cream, but just stood and chatted, which was probably how he got to know many of those members who attended the matches.

Graham also reminisced about his Mum’s picnics when he was younger and when he used to visit with his family, so although she died in 2016, following which Keith had to provide his own “picnic” for a day at cricket, he still packed enough to feed an army.  I knew that Vi was a great cake maker, so I often used to make enough cakes to last both of them four days of cricket and Keith always told me how much he enjoyed them and then we would have a discussion about Vi’s wonderful cakes!

Mr. HCB told Graham that he “kept an eye” on Keith and always looked for his distinctive blue baseball cap, which he wore when he went off wandering around the ground, again chatting to people as he went.  Sometimes, Mr. HCB said, Keith would be gone for a couple of hours, but didn’t realise that he was being “tracked” by Mr. HCB, not with some high tech gear, but with a C & G blue baseball cap.  Mr. HCB explained that this would have been a “giveaway” when the Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society used to sponsor the Cheltenham Cricket Festival, which has been going for more than a hundred years - not that Keith and Mr. HCB have been going that long!

I’m sure therefore, that you can imagine the utter delight on Mr. HCB’s face yesterday, when Graham brought out the C & G blue baseball cap and Keith’s lanyard with his Membership card and said that he was so pleased that his Dad had had such a wonderful friendship with Mr. HCB that he wanted him to have these two precious items.  Graham also asked Mr. HCB if he would like Keith’s Gloucester County Cricket Club tie - which of course, he was delighted to accept.  Graham said he will be wearing one at the service on 2nd March and Mr. HCB said he will wear this one too.  I think it’s fair to say that we all had tears in our eyes! 

Then it was time to look at the books - and what an array there was.  Graham and I went into the kitchen for him to make a cup of tea and to have a chat, leaving Mr. HCB to look through the books.  Mr. HCB said that he had chosen books from great players of the past, two of whom had played for Gloucester County Cricket Club - namely, Tom Graveney and Jack Russell.  I can see that I will soon be relegated to Number 4 in Mr. HCB’s life, especially during the summer months - Cricket, the Garden, Reading Keith’s Cricket Books and then me - but I don’t really mind.

It was also interesting that several newspaper articles fell out of some of the books - obviously clipped out by Keith when there was an interesting story.

The two “Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks” were the only two that were on Keith’s bookshelf - this cricket reference book is published annually and the one is dated 1948, is the 85th edition and at that time, cost the princely sum of Nine shillings and sixpence.  The other one, which is also a soft back is dated 1950 and was still 9s.6d.  However, Mr. HCB was given one by our son in 2010, probably for his birthday;  this is the 147th edition, a hardback and cost £45 - I guess that’s inflation for you.

We have told Graham that if he wants to come over to watch a cricket match - and he says he may very well come in September, before the end of the season, there is a bed here waiting for him!  There was another baseball cap that Keith sometimes wore, so I said that when he comes, Graham needs to bring that, so that if he goes off wandering like his Dad did, Mr. HCB can “track” him!  

I asked Mr. HCB to help me choose a quote about cricket - to remember Keith and he chose this one by the famous commentator, with a wonderful deep voice, John Arlott:

“Cricket is a most precarious profession; 
     it is called a team game but, in fact, 
          no one is so lonely as a batsman 
facing a bowler 
     supported by ten fieldsmen 
          and observed by two umpires 
to ensure that his error 
     does not go unpunished.”
John Arlott