Chapter 7 - League Cricket 1922-1939

As soon as Collegiate were certain that they would be able to play regularly at Abbeydale in 1922, they were faced with the old problem of precisely what sort of cricket they should play. They followed the tried and surely correct policy of the First XI playing in the best available local league and consequently made an application to join the Yorkshire Cricket Council as a 'free-lance' club, i.e. one which was not a member of one of the various internal leagues in the Council.

As a Collegiate Council side came off the field at Bramall Lane in the late 1930s they were led by George Price, who was a very large man in every dimension, Bill Maddocks, who was very, very tall and very thin and Jim Barber, who was tiny. A voice from the crowd shouted: "Sithee, they're nobbut a lot o' free-aks". Certainly other Council sides used to regard Collegiate as 'freaks', but also usually with great affection, as they played their matches in a slightly different spirit to the general run of Council sides. This is not to say that they did not try their utmost to win, but they were also usually prepared to laugh. This, incidentally, was the normal in pre-war first-class cricket and the older generation are as much saddened by the lack of laughter in the modern game as by any other development.

From way back there had always been a special relationship with Sheffield United and several Collegiate players were also members of United. B. W. Doncaster and L. C. Barber, in particular, played quite a lot of cricket for United, especially in 1919 to 1921 and L. C. Barber later became a cricket member of the United Board, as did also B. W. Doncaster, R. M. Wilson and A. H. Connell. Liaison continued close, many Collegiate members used the Bramall Lane nets and many young United players used to make up Collegiate mid-week sides. There was also for many years a particularly happy relationship with Hickleton Main, especially when their captain was Jim Hutchinson, who to his fifties remained a fine all-rounder and beautiful fielder, having been in his young days for Derbyshire one of the best coverpoints in the country. Those Collegiate members who happened to be at the Hickleton Ground on the last day of the old green hut, before drinking was transferred to the new Miners' Welfare, can probably taste the bottled beer to this day.

The first years in the Council were not at all successful, as for four years Collegiate were never above 51st. and in 1925 suffered the indignity of being all out for 13 against Bentley. The sides were in the normal run of between-war Collegiate teams; the batting was good, but the bowling was not good enough. However things started to improve and in 1928 the club finished third in the Council, but sadly were not qualified to take part in the four club play-off. This was because at the end they had only played 15 instead of the necessary 18 qualifying matches, partly due to bad luck with the weather, but mainly because the Secretary had not arranged enough matches, an almost understandable error in view of the club's previous record.

Two players were mainly responsible for this success. T. A. W. White was a batsman of great power and skill, regarded by Charlie Jones, that fount of experience about Collegiate sides, as the best Collegiate player he ever saw, and W. A. Beadsmoore, who bowled left-handed with success for Norfolk, had a most effective season and gave the necessary added 'cutting edge' to the attack. Good judges reckoned that the club would have been favourite to become Champions, if they had been in the play-off. In happy contrast to 1925 T. A. W. White and L. C. Barber put on 180 in 75 minutes against Bentley and the following year 550 runs were scored in 5 hours at Swinton (Swinton 301 for 6 decl., Collegiate 249 for 6).

Swinton again was a batsman's ground in 1933, when in 5 hours Collegiate scored 235 and Swinton 236 for 1. 1929 saw the f1rst Council appearance of one of the club's best and most successful players, C. G. Buck, who over the next 25 years was to make many runs for Collegiate, capture many wickets with his leg-breaks and googlies and field beautifully. In all matches for the club in 1933 he scored 1000 runs and took 100 wickets by as early as August 9th, which certainly argues great skill, but also presupposes a lot of cricket played. He is one of the few bowlers to be struck for four from every single ball of an over in a Council match, but he is also one of several Collegiate players who could well have been successful in first-class cricket, if given the chance. He was a member of the Yorkshire Committee from 1966 to 1980 and is now the President of Collegiate and, to the enjoyment of all, an outstanding after-dinner speaker. For 1980/81 he was the High Sheriff of Hallamshire, at the same time as two Yorkshire Gentlemen stalwarts, P. N. L. Terry and R. Outhwaite were High Sheriffs of North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Beadsmoore, having meanwhile had the great, but somewhat qualified, success of winning the Calcutta Sweep, departed after a few years and the Collegiate Council attack, in spite of the efforts of B. H. Barber and Walter Elliott, found it difficult to dismiss the opposition. The batting, with P. G. Barber, Walter Elliott, K. A. Wilson, B. H. Barber and Charles Buck, remained formidable and the team was admirably captained by B. H. Barber. The bowling difficulty was to a great extent overcome by the arrival in 1934 of W. R. Maddocks, who had considerable experience of cricket in South Wales and also in the surprisingly good-class club cricket of Glasgow. He was a fine quickish medium bowler, who lost some of his considerable height by a rather low arm, but who could disturb the very best of batsmen on a good wicket with a fast leg-break, known in the club as 'the holy roller'; he was also a very useful batsman. In 1930 R. H. Granville Carr had made his first Council appearance. He was not only a brilliant wicket-keeper, who had kept wicket for the Public Schools and, given the opportunity, might have reached great heights, but was a very effective left-hander who was happy to bat anywhere between numbers I and 11. A year later saw the initiation into Council cricket of A. H. Connell, a competent all-rounder, who gave great service to the club and became not only a member of the Yorkshire Committee, but also Chairman from 1971 to 1980, a period during which the county had many difficult problems, through which Connell led them with great skill. Yorkshire honoured him by making him an Honorary Life Member.