Rhubarb 2020

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

O S E I N T E R V I E W

What would be your advice for OSE currently trying to get into the world of sports journalism? Not to raise your hopes too high, mainly because more and more former international players look to go into the media when their playing days are over, whatever their sport. I would certainly not have made it successfully myself. My first salary with The Times was £950 a year plus £50 a year cost of living bonus. I’d be surprised if my successor but three Mike Atherton, perhaps the best all-round cricket writer there has ever been, gets much less of a salary than a City tycoon. He, David Gower, Nasser Hussain, Ian Botham and Alastair Cook are among those who have gone into the media and made life more difficult for aspiring schoolboy journalists. However the last thing I would want to do is discourage the latter. If your aim is to become a sports writer, I suggest you write something on everything you watch, whatever the game, and if you have a local paper send it to them in the hope that you will eventually be taken on not least for your enthusiasm. If you have some sort of a degree to fall back on, should your dream of becoming a sportswriter, then so much the better. Good luck – it’s a great profession. During your time at the School what, in particular, influenced your future career direction? All my years at Teddies were during the Second World War, hence to some extent a case of making ends meet – something at which Warden Kendall excelled. As an example of this, my first Segar’s housemaster was not Gerry Segar himself but Henry Gauntlett, affectionately known as ‘the grocer’. He was standing in for Gerry Segar, who was away at the war. They were both quite different characters and great schoolmasters, Henry with his dear little dog and Gerry, when he came back before the war, sitting in his study, smoking his pipe, rug over his legs and as close to his electric fire as he could get in order to save fuel. When Henry’s dog was drowned in the canal, it was a great sadness to us all. More memorable for the whole School was the appearance of Guy Gibson, very soon after he had become a national hero by leading the great dambusting raid for which he was awarded the V.C. He gave a short and wonderfully modest talk from

the high table at lunch dressed in civvies. Gibson had gone first of all to Cowell’s, his old House, there to be met by Derek Henderson, Head of House, and to see Freddie Yorke his old Housemaster. On the cricket field, nothing was more inspiring than our bowling out what Cheltenham considered to be their strongest ever side for 62 before lunch, the damage being done by Henderson himself and our great friend Mike Womersley. Which Test cricketers did you admire most? Of the 40 odd tours I made overseas, mostly with England, the first tour to Australia and the first to South Africa, were all made by sea. This meant, happily, meeting all the best players of the day and getting to know most of them closely. Among those who came to play for me against Longparish, the Hampshire village where I have always lived, have been Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Richie Benaud, Ken Barrington, Frank Tyson, Graeme Pollock, Bishan Bedi, Ian Redpath and many others. Cricket is not only a great sport but the source of many a friendship at whatever level. Among my fondest of possessions is the warmest of letters from Sir Donald Bradman on my appointment as editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, proudly boasting of his ownership of a full set of them. It is very rare to meet an unfriendly cricketer.

Barry Richards (+ Viv Richards, Martin Crowe, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara)

Batsman:

Fast bowler:

Dennis Lillee

Spin bowler:

Shane Warne

Wicketkeeper:

Godfrey Evans

Captain:

Richie Benaud

Fielder:

Colin Bland and countless others

Allrounder:

Gary Sobers followed by Ian Botham

Medium paced bowler:

Alec Bedser, (Derek Henderson – SES and John Bishop – SES)

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