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<meta http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible' content='IE=EmulateIE8' ><title>Mr Major&#39;s Speech to Surrey County Cricket Club - 20th March 1995</title>
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<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C"><a href="year1995.html" style="text-decoration:underline;">1995</a> -<wbr> Mr Major’s Speech to Surrey County Cricket Club</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s speech on Surrey County Cricket Club’s 150th
    anniversary, made on Monday 20th March 1995.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C2">PRIME MINISTER:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Looking at the film I wonder if the members of the Montpelier Club realised what
    they were starting when they founded Surrey.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">That a hundred and fifty years on untold millions would have watched cricket at the
    Oval, and from the Oval. That the very name would be synonymous with cricket or that
    some of the great names of cricket and some of the great events of cricket would
    be played on a former market garden.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Tonight reminds me of how lucky I was to have been born south of the Thames, a Surrey
    supporter. And, as a boy, to have been in the right place at the right time to see
    the greatest county side in the history of cricket.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">We all have our memories of the Oval. I was about 10 years old when I first visited
    it. Like most small boys I was a cricket nut. Having reached Cheam Common Primary
    School&#39;s First Eleven, the progression to Surrey and then the Test Side merely seemed
    a matter of time. I looked forward to a clean and healthy life of cricket in which
    -<wbr> even on the worst of days -<wbr> I batted like Peter May and bowled like Alec Bedser.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">During school lessons I invented my own cricket games. I once scored 241 not out
    during biology while David Fletcher, Tom Clark, Peter May and Ken Barrington only
    scored 10 between them. Fortunately Eric Bedser scored 20 odd not out so we saved
    the game. I&#39;m glad he&#39;s recovered from those exertions and is here tonight. Eric,
    you were a real support.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">On the real cricket pitch it was different. Life being the topsy turvy enterprise
    it is, I discovered I couldn&#39;t -<wbr> even on the best of days -<wbr> bat like Alec Bedser
    or bowl like Peter May.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">And as for the clean healthy life of cricket, I ended up in politics. One can hear
    the Devil chuckling although there are many similarities between the two. The game
    is uncertain. The career is chancy. But they both have their own charm. Politics
    often is about nightmares. Cricket mainly is about dreams.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Tonight I have fulfilled one of them, I have batted higher in the order than Colin
    Cowdrey, one of cricket&#39;s greats and one of Surrey&#39;s past friends.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Cricket has a great history and a great humour. Arthur Mailey, the great Australian
    bowler, was once staying at a famous country house in the days of country house cricket.
    His hostess, an aristocratic lady, invited him to play in a game one afternoon. He
    declined, saying that he was a little stiff from bowling. &quot;Oh&quot; she replied, &quot;so that&#39;s
    where you are from&quot;.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">It is often the unexpected things you remember. I can close my eyes now and see Stuart
    Surridge in the slips with this enormous long arms. I used to think as a boy he could
    pull up his socks while standing upright. I tried the same and was told not to slouch.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">My father had a treasured heirloom -<wbr> a gold stopwatch. I borrowed it and took it
    to the Oval to time how long it took the ball to travel from Peter May&#39;s straight
    drive to the pavilion gates. Peter soon obliged.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">But pressing the stop button, I dropped the watch. It shattered. Bits came out all
    over. It was not in good shape. Its best days had gone. In fact, as John Cleese might
    say, it was a dead stop watch.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">I took it home, aged 11, to return the remains to my father, aged 75. As you can
    see, like Sir Jack Hobbs, my father&#39;s best work was done after the age of 40.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">My father looked at the watch and then he looked at me. Then he said &quot;before you
    dropped the watch did you find out how long the ball took?&quot; I said, &quot;No&quot;. Then he
    gave me half a crown -<wbr> and as he had very little, that was a lot -<wbr> so I could watch
    cricket the next day. It was his way of saying it didn&#39;t matter.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Surrey have always attracted characters. A hundred years ago one such was Albert
    Craig, the Surrey poet. He used to write verses -<wbr> doggerel really -<wbr> and sell it to
    the crowds. I write it too, when I&#39;ve time to spare. I wrote quite a lot as a Government
    Whip when I had to sit on the Bench for hours not listening to speeches. They were
    mostly about Parliamentarians and, if pressed, one day....</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Thinking of this brings clear and fresh to my mind the first poem I ever wrote, aged
    about 10 or 11, at the Oval:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Bernard Constable got a duck</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Oh, he said -<wbr> what rotten luck</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">The Bowler&#39;s really got a nerve</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">First ball down and did it swerve</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Hit the pitch and off it nips</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Caught again -<wbr> in the slips</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">In my own defence, I remind you I was only 10 and I only wrote when it rained. Fortunately
    it was sunny most of the time</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Cricket has inspired more literature than any other game. There have been some wonderful
    writers. Cardus of course, and CLR James, and Jim Swanton, who must have seen more
    of the great moments of cricket than any man alive, and RC Robertson Glasgow. I read
    them all.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Most of you will know the great poem by Coleridge, the Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner.
    The rest of you will have been educated after 1960. What you may not know is that
    Robertson Glasgow applied it to cricket:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">It is an Ancient Cricketer</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Who stops me in the street</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">He holds his victims with his hands</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Their catches with his feet</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">It tells the tale of a team who run into a spot of trouble with a bird on their way
    to a match -<wbr> in this case a duck rather than an albatross:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">The duck it is a wondrous fowl</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">But at crossing the road not clever</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">That duck (or drake) went under the brake</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">And had ceased to quack for ever.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">The outcome was, I am afraid, inevitable:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">For we had done a hellish thing</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">To murder a blooming duck</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">And some averred we&#39;d killed the bird</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">That brings a batsman luck.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">&#39;A pity,&#39; said they, &#39;that bird to slay</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">That brings a batsman luck.&#39;</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">All sorts of disaster befall the team:</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Then a rocket went up, and the squire ran back</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">And skirted around and -<wbr> well -<wbr></span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Where a cow had dallied, he staggered, then rallied</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">The skidded, then rallied, then -<wbr> fell.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Thirteen all out, and there wasn&#39;t a man</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">But argued until was hoarse</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">That the death of the duck had brought ill-<wbr>luck</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">Except old Matthew, of course.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">The Ancient ceased, and his mouth was dry</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">So I eased it off with a tankard</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">He&#39;d talked enough, and Hops is the stuff</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C0">For a soul which Cricket has cankered.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">What other game could have had such a poem written about it? None.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Tonight we are here to celebrate Surrey&#39;s first 150 years -<wbr> we should enjoy it not
    least because if he were here the Bearded Wonder would tell us we are statistically
    unlikely to be here to celebrate their next 150 years.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">But we can look forward to that future and the investment we can make in the future
    of cricket. Some say &quot;it&#39;s only a game&quot;. I don&#39;t agree. It is a game of course and
    it must always remain one. But it is also part of the English character.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">It is interwoven in the warp and weft of our way of life. It&#39;s fun and life must
    be about more than economics and social awareness. I want to know that future generations
    can look forward to the same enjoyment of the game that we have here tonight.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">That is why I want to put team sports back in schools. Why I want to develop youth
    cricket and club cricket. Why I have high hopes that cricket&#39;s share of the 300 million
    pounds a year which will come from the National Lottery will help permanently boost
    the game. That&#39;s why I left my red boxes to fester in Downing Street this evening:
    despatched to long off -<wbr> or at any rate to later on.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Surrey is an important part of cricket&#39;s history. On this occasion, looking around,
    I hope there are ghosts present. Some of the greatest of all cricketers have been
    servants of this Club. Bowlers like George Lohman and Tony Richardson and batsmen
    like Hayward, Hobbs and Sandham. And I just wonder if Bosser Martin, the great groundsman,
    might also be hereabouts this evening.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">And there are some whom we would dearly loved to have been here tonight. Peter of
    course, and Stuart Surridge, Jim Laker, Ken Barrington and Tom Clark. Sadly they
    are gone. But they will never be gone from the history of cricket or of Surrey. If
    we close our eyes we can remember them again in their prime.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">The future is bright. The renovation of the Oval is truly remarkable. The Ken Barrington
    Centre now offers wonderful facilities to youngsters. Next year a second county cricket
    school will open in Guildford. There may be further centres, perhaps in Kingston,
    perhaps Croydon, perhaps both.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">Surrey will be giving cricket back to all parts of the county. The youth policy is
    alive and working and I hope we will find more time and more money for development
    women&#39;s cricket as well. Never forget it was WG&#39;s mother who taught him and it was
    our ladies team that won the World Cup at Lords.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">I would like to end by paying a special tribute to Coopers and Lybrand for their
    generosity in sponsoring this evening. Cricket is a natural game for accountants
    and Coopers and now responsible for producing ratings of players. These must be pretty
    accurate because they show Waqar Younis to be the best bowler in the world and Graham
    Thorpe to be the third best batsman.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">But never mind about third best.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">This is Surrey we&#39;re talking about. The very best. The sight of white flannels and
    a chocolate cap can move me from despair to contentment.</span></p>
<p class="Wp-Body-P"><span class="Body-C-C1">So, tonight I want to thank those players who&#39;ve brought such pleasure into my life
    and I want to make one wish: may it always be so.</span></p>
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