Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

18 Harrow Observer and Gazette do not report the names of the individual winners of each event, but only the name of the school house to which they belonged. 18 The report of the previous year’s sports day did at least identify some individuals, including ‘Brown’ who came second in the 200 yards for 13-year-olds. Syd was obviously also a useful footballer, a photograph of the school team in 1931/32 showing him proudly sitting in the centre as captain. Apart from the reference above I have been unable to discover anything further about Syd’s cricketing exploits as a schoolboy, other than that matches were played against ‘local schools’ and against the staff. Nower Hill School does not have any details about his time at Headstone School, and neither does the Harrow Local History Library, although they do have some very useful general information about the school. The local paper of the time, the aforementioned Harrow Observer and Gazette , reported very little about school cricket, apart from recording Harrow School matches in some detail. The paper did cover cricket in the area extensively but I can find no evidence of young Brown playing for any of the local clubs while he was at school. Despite examining available Middlesex and MCC records, I have also been unable to discover anything about the circumstances that led to his employment at Lord’s. 19 The information about Syd’s formative years is therefore unfortunately limited. However, I think it is fairly clear that he was a talented sportsman, with a particular aptitude for cricket, to whom employment at Lord’s, hopefully leading to a career as a first-class cricketer, would have seemed a very attractive career choice. Many would follow this path; not all would succeed. 18 Probably because the purpose of the meeting was ‘promoting team spirit and eliminating the idea of personal gain’. 19 The local paper suggests he joined the MCC staff at Lord’s in 1933. Other sources say 1934. Whilst the Browns lived in Letchford Terrace, near neighbours at No.4 were George and Emily Edith Hart. I’m fairly certain that this was not George (Edmead) Hart, the Middlesex cricketer mentioned above, or that he was their son. This may just be coincidence, therefore, and further research would be needed to establish whether cricketer George (who was educated in Harrow and had played locally) and neighbour George were in any way related. However, it is possible to speculate that if they were, this might somehow have led to Syd meeting the cricketer and being encouraged by him to pursue a sporting career. Beginnings: Syd