Apologies for the blogging silence lately. It’s not only that it’s August; if I’m honest – and why wouldn’t I be? – I am lost to cricket these last few days. The least I can do then is supply a cricket-related item. OK, so here is a picture of me at the age of 14 getting the autograph of the great South African off-spin bowler Hugh ‘Toey’ Tayfield.
Er… sorry for all that space; I don’t know how to deal with it. Let’s just say it’s my way of giving the item special prominence. The occasion was a game between Rhodesia and Transvaal played in Bulawayo on 28th and 29th September 1957. (The link I’ve provided gives the venue incorrectly: the match was played, in fact, at the Raylton ground and not at Queens, as can be confirmed by consulting Jonty Winch, Cricket’s Rich Heritage: A History of Rhodesian and Zimbabwean Cricket 1890-1982, at page 62.) Some background about Hugh Tayfield (and me) can be found here and in the third paragraph of the essay here.