Author: Ian Louis Harris

The First Tufty Stackpole v The Children’s Society Cricket Match, 15 July 2001

Village Cricket At the Turn Of The 21st Century – by Dall-E & Me

We interrupt The History of The Heavy Rollers to cover a related (and soon to be overlapping) activity: Tufty Stackpole v The Children’s Society cricket matches. In the same way that we cannot entirely separate the birth of Z/Yen charity cricket matches…

The Very First Z/Yen Charity Cricket Match, Barnardo’s, 22 July 1998

…from the early development of The Heavy Rollers…

The Day The Heavy Rollers Entered My Consciousness & Indeed When My Devotion To Cricket Entered Theirs, 23 July 1998

…several of the people involved in Heavy Rollers outings in the first decade of this century were friends from the Tufty Stackpole matches.

Much like the early Heavy Rollers outings, there is precious little actual evidence from the events. The odd e-mail but no photos and no contemporaneous match reports. Only memories, which might be flawed or partial. Strangely, I have very strong memories of the first Tufty match and almost none of the second. Hopefully others who participated can chime in with comments and help me to improve the pieces.

The initial shout out for the first Tufty Stackpole match came from Charles Bartlett on 29 May:

Game against ‘Tuffty Stackpole’ (I met members of this team on the TCS trek’s in China and Peru). They are a village side and take their cricket very seriously. So experience will be useful. The match is arranged to be played on Sunday 15 July at their ground at North Crawley which is near Milton Keynes

Students of historical research based on e-mail trawling will realise why this e-mail was hard to find in my archive 20+ years later – note Chas’s spelling of “Tufty”.

Anyway, I persuaded Janie that this event would make the perfect culmination for our planned mini break in Yorkshire – a couple of days at The White Swan Inn in Pickering, which we had enjoyed so much the previous year, followed by a night in Halifax seeing Mike Ward’s latest play, followed by dinner with Mike & Lottie.

The Pausanias Affair by Mike Ward, The Actor’s Workshop, Halifax, 14 July 2001

It was quite a late night for us on the Saturday night in Halifax. Mike and Lottie sure know how to make guests welcome. I’m sure some especially juicy red wine will have flowed to accompany excellent beef and other culinary delights late in the evening after the show.

But that didn’t really matter, as we knew that we had time in the morning to take a breakfast at the Imperial Crown and get most of the way back down the M1 in plenty of time.

Actually we half expected to be stopping only briefly on our way home, as the weather was poor and the forecast, on Saturday, for the next day, yet poorer.

But in the morning, when I turned on the Ceefax (this was back in the days before smart phones and internet access on the fly), the simple weather chart suggested that the shoddy weather was at its worst in the North of England…and in the South of England, with the Midlands, including Beds/Bucks/Northants borders villages such as North Crawley, spared the rain and expecting sunshine.

We motored through driving rain until just after Sheffield – thereafter the weather looked promising to the point of looking like cricket weather. When we got there, we learnt that those travelling from the south had experienced similar poor weather until they got a few miles north of the M25.

“Two Pubs!” Richard Schmidt / North Crawley – Wikimedia Commons

Lovely village. Lovely cricket ground in the village. Great bunch of local people too. Tufty Stackpole was basically the veterans side of a “proper” village team. These people could play.

The Children’s Society team had its own weapons for that first fixture. Nigel “Father Barry” Hinks was with us, along with his uber-enthusiastic brother Martin. “Big Papa Zambezi” Jeff Tye brought his mate Biff with him:

Probably the best batsman in the county never to have played for Northamptonshire…

…said Jeff…and you don’t argue with Jeff when he’s talking up his mate.

The Children’s Society also had Charley “The Gent Malloy” Bartlett, me and a few other enthusiasts of no fixed ability.

My abiding memories of the cricket that day are quite strong.

Most of the enduring Tufty folk were there that first time: Geoff Young, Glenn Young (I think), Ian Cooper, Trevor Cooper, Nick Cooper, Trevor Stapleton, Mike Archer, Nick Church (I think) plus the gentleman who sometimes kept wicket whose name I never learnt but whom we nicknamed “Builder’s Bum” because of his appearance when wicket-keeping.

With thanks to Dall-E, which couldn’t quite bring the troos down to builders’ level

  • We didn’t really have the bowling depth to put the Tufty batting line up under too much pressure. Nigel bowled well and took a couple of wickets, but in a 40 over match each bowler can only bowl 8 overs. Martin was quite useful with the ball too, but there were still 24 other overs to try and escape from;
  • It didn’t help to have several fielders of my “quality” in the long grass. I think it was at that first Tufty match that I juggled a couple of would-be catches but basically spilled them, much to the chagrin of my skipper and team mates – not that I was the only fielder to spill catches;
  • Martin kept encouraging his older brother, Nigel, to field closer and closer in the hope of snaffling a catch off his bowling. Frankly Martin’s bowling wasn’t really good enough to justify insanely close fielding. Eventually one came straight to Nigel at high speed, which he took, partly in self-defence but a clean catch. The bruise was visible at the back as well as the front of Nigel’s hand within seconds. Barely a wince. Brave lad;
  • Tufty Stackpole made plenty. Still, we had some weaponry in the batting department, so preserved an element of hope while everyone tucked in to one of the quintessentially English summer village cricket match teas, provided by, I’m pretty sure, the Merry Wives Of Tufty Stackpole. Derry Young was almost certainly involved in that aspect;

I asked Dall-E to help me reproduce the look of such a cricket tea – indeed there I am enjoying a cuppa in a virtual village hall before a lavish spread:

Me at tea, by Me and Dall-E.

  • I was scheduled to bat 7 or 8, so I umpired at the start of the resumption;
  • Biff was clearly a proper batsman, but he hadn’t played for ages and kept complaining to me bitterly, whenever he got down to my end, that he wasn’t timing it properly and that he was finding it all very difficult after all this time. I tried to boost Biff’s confidence by telling him, truthfully, that he was, relatively speaking, in the context of our game, batting extremely well. Also that he would get back into the swing of it as the innings progressed;
  • Chas was one of the earlier wickets to fall and took over from me umpiring when the third or fourth wicket fell;
  • Nigel batted one place ahead of me. Biff was still batting well and keeping us just about in the game when Nigel joined him at the crease. Nigel himself can tell you the extent to which he was able to bat normally with such a badly bruised hand. I do recall Nigel getting his eye in and then launching at least one big straight six. At that point, just for a very short while, some of us perhaps dreamt of victory. But Nigel’s attempt to replicate the six resulted in a clattering noise behind him and it was my turn to bat;
  • I joined Biff and again tried to boost his confidence, which, given that he had by then scored well north of 50 and might even have been thinking of 100, he was still chastising himself for not batting as well as he used to decades earlier when he batted regularly. “Problem is”, he said, “I’m completely exhausted now. Do we have to keep running ones and twos?” My problem, of course, is that I don’t really have shots at all, so ones is probably the best you can hope for unless I take absurd risks. Biff was by now so tired that his scoring shots were not quite making it to the boundary so we did run a few twos;
  • Eventually Biff played a tired shot and was out. It was an honour for me to have shared the crease with him for a while. We were still some way from the Tufty’s score and frankly we knew we didn’t have the batting to score at the requisite rate, which might have been something like 80 runs needed off 8 or 9 overs at that stage. Big Papa Zambezi Jeff joined me at the crease with the instruction, “we’re to bat for the draw”;
  • This instruction was playing to my extremely limited skills as a batsman – i.e. to prevent a competent but tiring bowling attack from getting me out. It transpired that Jeff had similar skills. We frustrated the Tufty Stackpole bowlers and managed to extract some honour from that first match by not being bowled out.
North Crawley pitch – “borrowed” from Facebook

Don’t ask me which North Crawley pub we all retired to after the match. It might have been The Cock Inn…

…but equally well might have been The Chequers…

…North Crawley has two pubs and the cricket club is honour bound to divide its business between the two. Over the years we certainly tried both.

We enjoyed the post-match conviviality for quite a while and revelled in raising a goodly sum for the charity. I remember that Janie and I got home quite late, ahead of punishingly early starts the next morning. We only made that mistake the once, opting to take the morning or even the whole Monday off after subsequent Tufty matches.

The Pausanias Affair by Mike Ward, The Actor’s Workshop, Halifax, 14 July 2001

Sandwiched between a short break at The White Swan in Pickering and the first Children’s Society v Tufty Stackpole cricket match, Janie and I spent an evening and night in Halifax seeing this show and then dining with Mike & Lottie Ward.

I had written the programme notes for Mike’s play – click here for said notes – and jolly good were the programme notes too…also the play, of course, also the play.

Actually I also wrote a review of the play/production, which I can reproduce in full below:

I thought this production was very good and an advance on The Elland Affair in several respects. The play itself was very interesting, with lots of character development and (almost too much) plot and intrigue. The casting and performances were good pretty much without exception. It was a most ambitious production in many respects and a great credit to cast and crew that they pulled it all off with such aplomb.

The programme notes were, once again, insurmountable and without question the highlight of the whole production!!?

Seriously, if I have any criticism of the play, it is too long and a little short on modern relevance. I know Mike Ward’s brain is already grappling with these issues for his next one. And I hope his next play arrives soon, because these Actors’ Workshop home-grown play/productions are getting stronger year on year and are a rare achievement in a small theatre such as The Actors’ Workshop.

All involved in this production should be commended and the people of Calderdale should be fighting now to get the hot tickets for the next home-grown production.

Not especially coincidentally, we saw The Elland Affair (Mike’s previous year’s piece) while on a tour which also included The White Swan in Pickering plus my first ever book signing:

My First Ever Book Signing, Clean Business Cuisine (the book), Actors’ Workshop Halifax (the venue), Yet Something Was Missing, 5 July 2000

…but I digress.

We enjoyed our evening in Halifax, not least the ever-warm hospitality of Mike and Lottie after show.

The Heavy Rollers Witness Ashes Cricket Together For The First Time, Edgbaston, 5 & 6 July 2001

Yes, the big fuss is for that little urn. Do you have a problem with this?

In November 2000, there will have been an outbreak of joy in several households, not least mine, when we received the following missive from Nigel Hinks:

Just to confirm that despite “unprecedented interest” (Warwickshire CC) TICKETS have been secured in usual places (Priory Stand Row A 12-17) for the above.

Cost of £67 (32 Thursday+35 Friday). Payable as soon as you like………

Haven’t yet spoken with David. No assumptions about Wadderton or indeed David as ‘catering manager’. Just book it in the diaries and look at it throughout the winter months!!!

Nigel

Needless to say, Wadderton & David Steed’s catering management came through.

The team of Heavy Rollers for those six seats reverted to the 1999 contingent, listed again here with the nicknames allocated some years later (apart from mine, which had been around for years):

  • Charles “Charley The Gent Malloy” Bartlett;
  • Nigel “Father Barry” Hinks;
  • “Big Papa Zambezi” Jeff Tye;
  • David “David Peel” Steed;
  • Nick “The Boy Malloy” Bartlett (like me, a 1999 initiate);
  • Me “Ged Ladd”.

The mists of time have left a mystery, nay even controversy, surrounding the absence of Nick Bartlett in 2000. I’ll leave that debate for others to argue out in articles other than this one…or possibly in court if the debate gets too adversarial.

Differently controversially, my team of mascots, which had included Henry The Duck & Hippity the Green Bunny in 2000, was increased by the addition of Bananarama Monkey-Face in 2001.

Bananarama Monkey-face in 2004, no doubt “in care” having been rescued from Jeff’s clutches

Daisy & I were adopted by Bananarama Monkey-Face in Pickering in July 2000.
This image from his post trauma writing phase in 2014.

In many ways this 2001 visit was the first true manifestation of Nigel Hinks’s curtains-induced vision of watching Ashes cricket at a regular meet with friends.

Guest Piece by Nigel Hinks: The Birth Of The Heavy Rollers Tradition, Edgbaston, June 1998, Including The Revelations And Acts That Led To The Birth

I don’t suppose that Nigel’s 1995 vision included duck, bunny & monkey mascots, but that simply shows that revelations of that kind only reveal part of the future story. It also shows that, to some extent, you should always beware what you wish for, even if it is something as wonderful and enduring as The Heavy Rollers.

Actually it was Jeff Tye who seemed least pleased with the mascot contingent and took some pains over the forthcoming years to ease them out of the picture.

Many of us had a sense of foreboding about the 2001 Ashes, despite the seeming opposite from some of us in the November 2000 e-mail bants:

Jeff: What a prospect – the tide has turned – England 480 for 8 after 2days in Pakistan – just imagine the score after 2 days against Australia at Edgbaston – the book is already open Charles !!!!

Me: I just hope those Aussies can last two whole days.

Chas: I do not wish to sound unpatriotic, but the Aussies will give us the most extreme test of our cricketing abilities!

Our sense of foreboding was more than justified. Here is the match scorecard. The sense that England might somehow be in with a shout dissipated soon after lunch on Day One.

I’m pretty sure this was the match at which Charles managed to persuade some autograph-hunting youngsters that Nick was Andrew Flintoff, watching with us from the front row of the Priory Stand.

Nick Bartlett

Freddie Flintoff

You can see for yourselves above that this must have been an easy scam to pull off, especially with Nick ‘s poker face showing no sign whatsoever that this was a lark.

Nevertheless, a few dopey kids lined up and collected Nick’s forgery of Freddie Flintoff’s autograph.

Frankly, I think Charles might easily have passed himself off as Freddie Flintoff at that time. Again, judge for yourselves.

Freddie Flintoff setting a field

Charles Bartlett setting a field

Joking apart, and despite the fact that the memories of these matches, writing them up more than 20 years later, are quite faded, I do recall that we had a superb time yet again.

I also recall that, on the Friday afternoon, I popped out to the loo, anticipating an hour or so more of play, but when I came out of the loo the heavens had opened and everyone was pouring out of the stands. Nigel very kindly gathered up my things, rescuing Henry, Hippity and Bananarama-Monkey-Face from what could have been a very soggy demise.

As well as rescuing “my boys”, Nigel must also have rescued Jeff Tye’s “betting sheets” for the prediction game, which ended up in my hands for computation that year – perhaps for the first time but certainly not the last. Those relics remain with me to this day – here they are:

Unmistakably you can see Jeff’s templates with Jeff’s writing all over them…until you get to the computations which are in my trademark scrawl. I note that the going rate at that time was just 20p per punter per line.

I think several people had brought cars with them to the church grounds near Edgbaston Stadium with a view to driving home from the ground on the second day. Nigel kindly took me to the railway station on his way out of town. Our correspondence that weekend (I peppered his e-mail with comments):

Nigel: Hope you got home ok. Friday. We experienced the most amazing flooding in suburban Harborne after we dropped you off.


Me: Hope it didn’t hold you up too much – I got home c20.40


Nigel: Ah well we got the best couple of days and possibly the day of the series.


Me: almost certainly


Nigel: Shame about the collapse today again. But what a knock from Gilchrist who you fancied….just as well he didn’t get in on Friday!

Me: Yup

By November 2001, though, we were lining up for a breach of tradition in 2002. Nigel again:

Dear Jeff, Ian, David, Charles and Nick,

We agreed, I think, unanimously that we won’t resume our traditional places at Edgbaston this coming year given that it is taking place in May.


However some mutterings abound for us to up sticks and try Trent Bridge.


This would be for 8th and 9th August, in Nottingham, against India (2nd Test) and it would mean adding in some accommodation costs if we do the 2 days.

So, before I do anything, could you let me know if you are interested.

How did that all pan out? Well, unless you can remember, you’ll simply have to await the next exciting episode to find out.

Mountain Language & Ashes To Ashes by Harold Pinter, & Alive From Palestine by Al Kasaba Theatre Group, Royal Court Theatre, 29 June 2001

We adjudged the event:

Triple bill proved a bit much for us that night!!

Both of us had really busy weeks in the run up to this Friday night at the theatre, with Janie taking patients early and late that week. In my case, as well as many client meetings, a very late night for me the previous evening due to the traditional Children’s Society v Z/Yen cricket match in Regents Park:

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

Harold Pinter would have understood.

I had seen Mountain Language before – a most memorable production in 1988 with Michael Gambon, Eileen Atkins, Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson, directed by harold himself..

Mountain Language by Harold Pinter, Lyttelton Theatre, 25 October 1988

Returning to 2001, our friend Michael Billington reviewed Alive From Palestine, but not the triple bill, giving me the sense that the piece might have had a greater effect on us had it not been preceded by the two Pinter pieces.

Alive Guardian Billington Alive Guardian Billington 30 Jun 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Halliburton in the Standard raved about the brace of Pinter plays, while remaining silent on the Palestinian play:

Ashes Standard Halliburton Ashes Standard Halliburton 27 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

To be fair, she reviewed the Pinter double bill ahead of the short late night run of the third play started. And at least The Standard had the good manners to trail the Alive From Palestine one:

Alive Standard preview Alive Standard preview 21 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph absolutely hated the Pinter and was utterly silent about the Palestinian play:

Ashes Telegraph Spencer Ashes Telegraph Spencer 28 Jun 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

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.