The Post-War Revival

A cricket club begins again

By 1950 the war had been over for five years. But at Torr Park, its effects were still everywhere.

Rationing continued. Aircraft from nearby Hooton flew low over the cricket ground. Two filled-in bomb craters still left depressions in the outfield.

And into this very different Eastham came a new member of the cricket club — Ted Tyson.

More than forty years later, in November 1994, Ted sat down to record his memories of those years.

His notes provide a wonderfully personal account of the club’s post-war revival.

“As with conditions in general the club was still recovering from the effects of the War.”

Ted remembered aircraft taking off from Hooton distracting the players and RAF personnel themselves becoming members of the club.

Cricket was back — but this was still very much a ground bearing the marks of war.

Then I would divide Ted’s story into episodes

There is a remarkably natural structure already hidden inside his notes. I would probably use six or seven sections, roughly:

1. 1950 — A Club Recovering from War — Hooton aircraft, bomb craters, RAF players, Ferry Road trees and the chestnuts overhanging the outfield.
2. Cricket at Torr Park in the 1950s — the wooden pavilion, Union Jack, members’ enclosure, teas carried from Lancaster’s café, water carried from the Vicarage and the pavilion key kept at the Park Keeper’s cottage. These details are wonderful because they allow a visitor to see Torr Park as it was.
3. The Men Who Rebuilt the Club — Bill Davies, Jimmy Kirkham, Jack Freeman, Alan Whitley, D’Arcy Huntriss, David Beel, Tom Pool, Brian Brothers and the others. Ted actually gives us little character portraits rather than simply names. His description of Tom Pool — including his nine wickets at Neston and captains having to summon the courage to take him off — is particularly good.
4. More Than Cricket — dinners at the Glider Club, dances at the Parish Hall and Eastham Hall, car treasure hunts, meeting in Stanley Lane for away games and the Whit Monday journey to Corwen.
5. From Friendly Cricket to Competition — the old friendly fixture system, Ellesmere Port Knock Out and later competitive cricket.
6. A Club of Families — the Kettlewells, Huntrisses, Fletchers, Andersons and Hansons. This is particularly appropriate for Cricket Eastham because it demonstrates how deeply the club was embedded in village life.
7. A Changing Torr Park — the Shell pipeline, later pavilion fire and eventual replacement. Ted’s wonderfully dry description of the replacement as “utilitarian” deserves to survive!