Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

A two-wicket win in the final representative match at Karachi provided some compensation for what had been the least satisfactory of Allan’s three tours in MCC colours. His own form had been poor and, in contrast to the gentle Indians, whom he had enjoyed playing against, he had now found a more belligerent attitude on the pitch. Off the field there had been little entertainment. “It was a dull tour, nothing for the boys to do, nothing planned for them.” Allan had enjoyed Carr’s leadership, and there had always been a good spirit running through the team. He had shared a room with Maurice Tompkin, who was to die tragically young only months later. “What a wonderful man. He was a handsome looking bloke. All the girls on the boat went for him.” Another good mate was the vice-captain, Billy Sutcliffe. “He was always looking for me to go and have a pint of beer with him. Nobody else seemed to drink.” With so little to do, the team were for ever kicking footballs about and on more than one occasion they were persuaded to play a competitive match. Both Allan and Donald Carr talk animatedly of the day they beat “a team which was in the semi-final of the Pakistan Cup or something”. They won by two goals to nil that day in Multan, when an early conclusion to their match with the Railways XI meant finding another way to entertain the spectators. As news of a football match spread, the crowd multiplied and around 20,000 were there to watch. “We said we’d only play if we played in pumps,” Allan remembers. This was the only concession. The pitch was marked out properly and posts were put up on the cricket field. Several of the touring party had experience of league football. The captain, himself a member of Pegasus teams that reached the FA Amateur Cup Final, pinpoints the strength of the side: “Watkins at left half, Closey at centre half, who knocked everyone over, and Stephenson at right half – they were the backbone of the team.” Ken Barrington kept goal, the Sussex pair of Parks and Thomson were at back, and the forward line read Lock, Tompkin, Swetman, Carr and Titmus. The only weakness, the captain felt, was Lock. “I’m not quite sure why he was playing. I think he fixed up the game.” A large silver cup was on display before the game started and many dignitaries from Pakistan football paraded in the stand. “But at the end of the game,” says Donald Carr, “they’d all disappeared, just as I was preparing to lead the team up to get this cup.” Problems in Pakistan 84