Almost fifty years ago, in 1976, during the height of the Cold War, a very young second lieutenant (the lowest officer rank in the army) was serving his country – or, rather, enjoying his gap year earning money and doing fun things with heavy weapons – in Germany, part of an Artillery Regiment based in Hohne, Northern Germany, with its own cricket pitch. As the long, hot summer of that year began, a fellow cricketing officer suggested he join the tour of the ‘Stragglers of Asia Cricket Club’ to Berlin – then an enclave within communist-ruled East Germany.

The team drove up through the tightly patrolled ‘corridor’ linking the free West with Berlin, flashing ID documents at various checkpoints occupied by severe-looking and stony Russian and East German soldiers, before they arrived at Edinburgh House in the British zone in Berlin – a bland, military-run establishment for sleeping and breakfasting. The next day the young man made his debut for the Stragglers against the General Officer Commanding’s XI and kept wicket before opening the batting at the end of the day: it was a two-day game and the young tyro was ‘not out’ overnight. This was possibly a mistake as he had to resume batting on the Sunday morning with a debilitating hangover after a long, boozy night in the fleshpots of the city, which, because of its isolation surrounded by communists, had a hedonistic quality. The small NATO garrison in Berlin would be overwhelmed in just a few hours if the Cold War ever turned hot, so people enjoyed the atmosphere and the mystique evoked in some of John le Carré’s early novels: the drink was ridiculously cheap and the nightclubs were eye-opening. 

Whether it was because of that unusual debut or just the innate friendliness of the club, somehow the Stragglers made their mark on me and I was happy to join; at the time they offered ten fixtures in Germany and thirty or so at home. With university commitments  (sadly not cricketing – a few games for the Oxford University Authentics second team was all I managed) and other clubs to play for during the summers, I did not play much in my early years, but met some of the characters – including the hard-working, hard-living chairman, Brigadier Johnny King-Martin, a force of nature. Playing the Bluemantle’s at the Nevill in Tunbridge Wells, we repaired for lunch to the Pantiles, where he and other older members like Geoff Downman and Bryan Hamblin passed on some of the history and lore of the club. 

Sangers XI v HH Maharajah of Patiala’s XI in Chail, India 1923. H.A.V. Maynard (back row 2nd from right) founded the Stragglers of Asia CC in England in 1925. All those standing became Founder Members.

In the decades following, with a career in aviation, mainly in Asia, I would show up for games as a genuine ‘Straggler’, for it was a club founded in 1925 for colonial officials, military officers and businessmen serving in India who needed someone to play for when on leave in England. Having studied history for a degree, the origins of the club began to fascinate me, and in 1990 I wrote an article in The Cricketer for their ‘Clubs of Distinction’ series. I also acquired notoriety for returning on leave one year only to register five successive ducks – the only excuse I could offer is that I was a wicket-keeper concentrating on that craft, not on batting!

In 2005, the ex-chairman and then archivist, Jack Hyde-Blake, retired to Portugal and summoned me to the Carlton Club in St James’s to hand over the records he had, a number of minute books going back to the 1930s and some miscellaneous letters and other records – including the secretary’s register of members, which included a brief pen-portrait of individuals’ cricketing abilities. ’Poor performer although very keen’ was one; ‘A useful bat, a very good fellow, good company on tour’ was another; ‘Good bat but idle cricketer’ a damning comment. Among these I found the description of A. J. Trollope, a member of the first eleven the Stragglers fielded at Eastbourne in 1925: ‘One arm bowls a little. I had the title of my book years before I wrote a word.

The gestation of the book, and the discovery of the various Straggler dramas, I will cover in my next blog post.