Book tells it as it was at the time (From Stroud News and Journal)

Book tells it as it was at the time

Geoffrey Howard managed three MCC tours to India, Pakistan and Australia, served as secretary to both Lancashire and Yorkshire and played the first class game as an amateur with some distinction. Ben Falconer and Mark Watkins met Mr Howard in his Nailsworth home to talk about his life and his book which his late wife had more than a hand in making such a success.

RESEARCHING a book on the life and times of one of post war cricket's pivotal figures would appear to be relatively straightforward - interview the subject at great length, dig up old memories, go through records and sell to a publisher.

Simple. Many sports books recalling days gone by have followed this tried and trusted method.

But reading Stephen Chalke's account of Geoffrey Howard's life, it is clear that this is no regurgitation of events past. Thankfully it is most definitely not from the hackneyed school of "I was eight when I scored my first hundred". At the heart of English Cricket - The life and memories of Geoffrey Howard has the warmth of a diary and a scrapbook with all the relevant facts and figures cropping up in the right places.

And the reason is simple - Mr Howard's wife of sixty years, Nora, painstakingly filed every letter Geoffrey sent home from tours to Pakistan, India and Australia during the 1950s.

In the days before e-mail and 24 hour-turnaround airmail, Geoffrey penned a letter to her every single day of those tours, which lasted anything up to six months, including the return sea voyage.

Unwittingly, he was giving Stephen a priceless historical record of what happened when, where, why and how. He was at the centre of the post-war game and even though Mrs Howard died in 1995, their teamwork lives on in what has been called "One of the most valuable documents in English cricket history".

Those words were Scyld Berry's, one of the game's finest correspondents. It is a fascinating read for anyone even with only the remotest interest in the game.

But it is doubtful that this account of his life would have come across so well, if Mr Howard and Stephen were not going through his attic, searching for Mr Howard's own photographs of the India tour.

He found a box, packed with those letters he sent to Nora, all in order. They resurfaced at just the right time.

"Fancy Nora keeping them all those years," he told Stephen. "What would I have done without Nora?"

Those letters reveal the trials of keeping a touring side of the country's finest players on track, through Pakistan, India, Ceylon as was, Australia and New Zealand.

He gives his views on the great and not-so-great players who represented his teams and those who opposed them too.

Listeners of Radio 4LW's Test Match Special will be familiar with the odd test star of yesteryear, who cannot help himself to a touch of "well of course in my day we would have had them out before tea and seen them off with a day to spare" nostalgia. With Mr Howard there is none of that.

He does not harp on about how good the good old days were. Far from it.

Mr Howard is a modest man not given to the hyperbole which now feeds all modern games. He even admits himself, he can't remember it all. He retired from a 27-year career in cricket 28 years ago. Since then he threw himself in to restoring a canal boat and converting a cattle shed in to what he now calls home. He still tends his own garden there.

There are few things around his front room which would tell a visitor that he is a cricket man and that is partly because he is not. He came late to running cricket teams, at the age of 38.

Having safely made it through World War Two, despite volunteering twice - for flying service and Channel convoy protection - like many demobbed men, he found the world of work an uninspiring place, where others who had not fought had climbed the career ladder.

But he continued to play the game which had consumed his early years and eventually fortune shone on him, when Surrey CCC took him on as assistant secretary. The rest was history but as he told Stephen he was most proud of his wife and four daughters - "The rest was just a means of looking after them."

Asked which players he really admires now and he lists Tendulkar, Lara, Gilchrist, with the Waugh twins not far behind and he admires the way the Australian game is organised, with the good of the international team to the fore.

In a nutshell, he remains on the button, despite his detachment now from the game.

Which is perhaps not surprising. He comes from a family with innovation and a mind open to new ideas at its core. Grandfather Ebenezer Howard was the father of Britain's garden cities at the dawn of the 20th century.

Although many argue that cricket is an establishment game Mr Howard sent a congratulatory letter to Stroud MP David Drew when he won re-election to Westminster last year.

His well-rounded approach to life made him the ideal man to manage amateurs, professionals and the grandees of the game.

Some of his attitudes are wonderfully old fashioned though and point to where sport in this country has gone wrong.

"It's that word, sport," he explained. "Sports are hunting, fishing and shooting. Cricket is a game."

He helped make it a fine one at that and fortunately, his thoughts and recollections on it have been recorded in such a readable form.

At the heart of English Cricket - The life and memories of Geoffrey Howard, by Stephen Chalke is published by Fairfield Books. Call 01225 335813 to order a copy, priced £16 with no extra charge for postage and packing.