Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

One hundred and thirty-eight years after his death, Fuller Pilch was once again the centre of attention. ‘They still can’t get him out as legendary batsman’s grave blocks Concert Hall plan’ was the headline in The Times of 25 June 2008. The newspaper went on to explain: ‘Building work in the churchyard of St Gregory’s, in Canterbury, cannot proceed until his remains, along with the remains of about 200 others, have been disinterred and reburied away from the site of the proposed music centre. The trouble is, the planners have no idea where he actually is.’ Canterbury Christ Church University, who proposed to build the 350-seater auditorium on the now redundant and unkempt graveyard, announced: ‘We have been advised that Fuller Pilch is buried within the churchyard and that his memorial stone was moved. However, his name does not appear on the initial survey of the graves undertaken as part of our planning application. We cannot confirm the location of his grave until a further survey is carried out if planning permission is granted. If it is granted, all the remains affected will be reburied in a memorial garden in a corner of the churchyard.’ All work ground to a halt until a relative, Peter Pilch, produced a photograph taken in the 1950s of the memorial, with his mother standing next to the grave, which could be identified as being on the south side of St Gregory’s, whereas the music centre was being built on the north side. As the grave would be unaffected, a new memorial tombstone was erected. It had been intended that this would bear the same details as the original of 1870, but his birthplace is now incorrectly spelt. Further research, carried out since the erection of the new headstone, has shown that it should have been positioned above a double plot about fifteen yards away from its present position. None of this is particularly satisfactory, of course. 132 A pension and a monument The festival match played at Horningtoft in July 2004 to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Fuller Pilch.