Month: June 2001

The Children’s Society v Z/Yen Cricket Match, Regent’s Park, 28 June 2001

Who is wearing the brighter whites? Chas or Ged?

A memorable match in many ways.

Charles “Charley the Gent Malloy” Bartlett and I had sloped off to the nets a couple of times ahead of this fixture, if I remember correctly. The tuition paid dividends for both of us. We both achieved scores of 20 not out (retired).

But…

…on this one occasion on Regent’s Park, Z/Yen was to prevail.

David Highton, with his reliable medium paced dobble-bowling, took a hat-trick for Z/Yen, ripping the heart out of the Children’s Society batting line up.

Charles kept his pads on, as the “retired not out” batsman was permitted to resume if the innings would otherwise be complete.

On resumption, Chas somehow managed to lob the simplest of catches to me at midwicket.

“Tell anyone about that catch and Tony The Tarantula will pay you a visit. He knows where you live, know what I mean?”

I wrote to Chas early the next day, a long and rather dull e-mail about work stuff, in which I concluded:

Look forward to seeing you Wednesday – oh and I have not yet told [anyone] about the dolly catch.

Chas replied that morning with one of the worst, laugh-out-loud excuses for a dismissal I have ever read:

As I recall I was being verbally abused by some of your close-in fielders – and to my dismay some of my own team on the sidelines!

In an attempt to satisfy everyone (low scoring but wickets tumbling around me!) and finding it almost impossible to get a bat near any ball. Wides, no balls and balls trickling along the ground. I attempted a pull shot to leg, only to be temporarily blinded by a shinning white vision, which turned out to be Ian’s brand new cricket whites!!

That is pretty much as I remember it!!

That “e-conversation has since been immortalised on the King Cricket website -a mere 23 years after the event:

Some bloke catching another bloke in a 2001 charity match (a match report)

If anything were ever to befall King Cricket, you can read that piece here.

One other vital matter that emerges from this piece of cricket archaeology is proof positive – we might call it silicon dating – that I bought my cricket troos that spring, 2001, confirming that they are significantly older than England cricketer Rehan Ahmed, which was a matter of some conjecture and debate in King Cricket circles when that lad had his debut. Indeed they are older than I suspected when I estimated 2002 or 2003 as the purchase date.

Six things older than Rehan Ahmed

Here are the scorecards from that historic and seminal 2001 match, which Z/Yen won by a smidgeon – 4 runs:

Several Midweek Evenings Out In Late June 2001

Özer-like restaurant image generated with Nano Banana 2 via Google Flow

The diary is light on details. Frankly, the memory is similarly light on some.

Meeting Up With John White, Starting At “FOB Office”, 19 June 2001

John was Chief Executive of The Federation Of Bakers at that time. My e-mail archive, usually so good at digging out details, draws a blank on this one. Perhaps John had just started there and we set up the whole thing by phone. For sure I scribbled down the Catherine Street address and telephone number in the diary. I suspect that we had a drink somewhere more than half decent in Bloomsbury, followed by a meal nearby in a restaurant that was also more than half decent.

Janie & I Visit Brendan & Fi For Dinner, 22 June 2001

Brendan was a client in his capacity as Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council. Fi also worked there. Brendan & Fi very kindly invited me and Janie to their pad in Farringdon for dinner. I recall a very jolly evening.

In particular, I remember that Brendan had a very grand piano – I think it might actually have been a mini grand – around which we stood and sang some spoof songs. Brendan was really a classical pianist, so we spoofed pop songs that have been written to classical tunes. Billy Joel (This Night), Eric Carmen (All By Myself) and Barry Manilow (Could It Be Magic) all got the treatment.

Özer Restaurant With Kim & Micky To Celebrate Janie’s Birthday, 26 June 2001

I remember this meal very well. We all wanted to try this new Özer Restaurant in Langham Place and we were not disappointed – the food was excellent. I came hot foot from a Z/Yen boat trip, upon which I had been suitably abstemious so as not to impede the birthday celebrations.

I always was happier on dry land in a middle-eastern restaurant than I was on a boat trip and probably always will be.

I recall everyone being on good form and a super midweek evening.

I can see from my diary that I had a busy day the next day, including a return to Marylebone for rare business lunch at Caldese.

No wonder I had more trouble maintaining my weight back then, than I do now.

Clubland by Roy Williams, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 23 June 2001

We are very partial to modern plays in Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and this play by Roy Williams did not disappoint.

I think this was our first sighting of a Roy Williams play – we started picking him after seeeing this.

Here’s Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard speaking quite highly of it:

Clubland de Jongh Standard Clubland de Jongh Standard 20 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Jonathan Myerson in the Independent was not so sure:

Clubland Myerson Independent Clubland Myerson Independent 20 Jun 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, suggested that this play was not as good as Roy Williams earlier material and that he needed to branch out a bit. I think he was probably right, as we really went for some of William’s later plays even more than this one, but it was good enough to get us hooked:

Clubland Billington Guardian better Clubland Billington Guardian better 23 Jun 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Playboy Of The Western World by J M Synge, Cottesloe Theatre, 16 June 2001

Janie and I thought this play/production was…

…excellent.

The RNT put on terrific stuff in the Cottesloe at that time. Fiona Buffini directed an excellent cast, including Sorcha Cusack, Patrick O’Kane & Derbhle Crotty. The Theatricalia entry for this production can be found here.

Despite the fact that we thought it was excellent, our friend, Michael Billington, really didn’t like it, bemoaning the fact that the only Synge that ever gets revived is this one.

Playboy Billington Guardian Playboy Billington Guardian 22 Feb 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph loved it:

Playboy Spencer Telegraph Playboy Spencer Telegraph 21 Feb 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard rated it good, which is sort-of medium:

Playboy de Jongh Standard Playboy de Jongh Standard 21 Feb 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

In that case, the casting vote must go to me and Janie. It was excellent.

Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner At Café Rouge Maida Vale, 14 June 2001

Café Rouge Maida Vale…is no more

An early example of John Random organising an Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner (gathering of 1990s NewsRevue writers) by e-mail, in John’s inimitable style.

The day after the event, the following e-mail arrived from Random:

Thank you all those came to The Cafe Rouge and to those that didn’t, hope to see you next time, whenever that is. You missed a great evening, especially the surprise visit of Bill Clinton who interrupted his golf game to come over and say how much he’d enjoyed Billy Don’t Be A Hero (February 1994) no he didn’t.

John was no doubt referring to this lyric of mine – quite possibly because Mike Hodd had waxed lyrical [did you see what I did there?] about it at the dinner.

Billy You Ain’t No Hero, NewsRevue Lyric, 17 January 1994

I think I have identified, from the e-mail addresses, all the people to whom John wrote. Presumably not all attended, given the words John chose. Anyway, here is the Random hit list from June 2001:

  • Me
  • Random
  • Jonny Hurst
  • Graham Robertson
  • Mike Hodd
  • Jasmine Birtles
  • Barry Grossman
  • Sheila Hyde
  • John Cowen
  • Colin Stutt
  • Neil Watson
  • Terry Franks
  • “Ivan Shakespeare” – presumably Elspeth, Ivan’s partner, who only attended once or twice but I suspect that John kept her informed on the circulation list, regardless of whether or not she was attending, for quite some time.
  • Debbie Barham – I don’t remember Debbie ever attending one of these dinners; she was already very seriously ill with anorexia by the time Ivan Shakespeare died. I had stayed in touch with her, sporadically, by e-mail, as had John, presumably. Debbie’s trademark “skcollob.win-uk.net” e-mail domain name was one of a kind. Like me, for business reasons, in the very early e-mail days, she’d gone with a WinNet e-mail account so she could name her own domain. Mine was sensibly corporate, whereas Debbie’s was bollocks backwards. Typical.

The Women of Troy by Euripides & This Cookie May Contain Nuts by Tracey Hitchen, Orange Tree Theatre, 9 June 2001

This was an unusual double-bill of short plays at the Orange Tree, both women-oriented, I think directed by some young women on an apprenticeship scheme.

We rather enjoyed it.

The Women Of Troy is hardly a bundle of laughs. But the second play was an interesting take on modern web-based technologies, quite prescient I should think from the turn of the century if we were to see it again today.

I can only find one local review, which rated the evening pretty highly:

Troy Cookies Troy Cookies 15 Jun 2001 Barnes, Mortlake and Sheen Times (London, London, England) Newspapers.com

We’ll have gone to Don Fernando’s after that three hour epic and had a pretty late night.

We went to David Highton’s 50th birthday party in West Ealing the next day. Gosh we were troopers back then.

Howard Katz by Patrick Marber, Cottesloe Theatre, 2 June 2001

Janie and I thought this one was

Very good.

We saw a preview – the first Saturday.

Excellent cast, led by Ron Cook. We loved Closer, so were keen to see more Patrick Marber, who directed this one himself (not always the best idea…) Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.

Nicholas de Jongh did not like it, awarding the production the dreaded blob:

Katz de Jongh Standard Katz de Jongh Standard 14 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in The Independent, on the other hand, really liked it:

Katz Taylor Independent Katz Taylor Independent 14 Jun 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington steers closer to de Jongh, liking the performance more than the play:

Katz Billington Guardian Katz Billington Guardian 14 Jun 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Just as well we thought it was very good, then.