Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

37 and contemporaries, just like Beryl Lucey in Sedlescombe, knew that he was a former county cricketer, though they did not necessarily know just how short his career had been.) Of his playing style, Mike recalls that from what Fred told him, he likened him to Alec Bedser in pace. But his batting was not up to much. Mike also met Ada, briefly; his abiding memory is that she made him some nice cups of tea – an excellent quality in a wife, though I say so myself. 54 * * * * * Each year on 16 December, the Master’s Club lunch is held at The Oval to celebrate the life and achievements of Jack Hobbs on his birthday. And in the evening of that same day, if you chance on the right restaurant in North London you will find a small group of friends having their own Master’s Dinner, in celebration of the birthday and the memory of the man who stands for all first-class cricketers, major, minor, or mini-minor: the late Frederick J.Hyland. For as Ronald Mason concluded, ‘Of his kind is the game given its enduring strength and fascination’. After nearly 50 years, Mike Talbot-Butler’s memories of Fred Hyland are understandably a little hazy. But the words he uses to sum him up show that the man whom Mason chose to stand for all first-class cricketers is fully worthy of our admiration as a man, as well as our respect as a cricketer: ‘[he was a] lovely man, whose brief acquaintance I have always valued.’ I rather think I would have liked the late Frederick James Hyland. 54 Ada Hyland survived Fred by 18 years; she died in hospital near Northwich in September 1982, aged 92. Of the Late Frederick J.Hyland, again