Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

104 Chapter Eighteen The Creation of Watney Mann After having to relinquish the captaincy in 1950, George played in only two more Championship matches for Middlesex. The first of these was under the captaincy of Bill Edrich at Lord’s against Lancashire in 1951 and the second at Leicester in 1954, where (now aged 36) he was asked to lead the side after three years’ absence from Championship play. At Grace Road he saved Middlesex from defeat with a gritty, unbeaten 33 when set 305 to win in 59 overs on the last day and ended play at 157 for six. 55 His connection with the County Club remained as close as ever and he accepted the responsibility of honorary secretary in 1951, overseeing the general administration of the club, a position he occupied until 1965. 1951 was also the year that George Mann joined the wandering club Free Foresters to play Cambridge University at Fenner’s in an annual three-day match during the first week of June. He was sometimes alongside Gubby Allen and/or Walter Robins, and from 1955 he accompanied Walter’s son Charles until 1958 which became the sad occasion for George’s last first- class match. In 1957 he was asked to play for Quidnuncs, the Cambridge University touring side, formed of previous or nearly University Blues, against the ‘Arabs’, at Hurlingham, and watched in amazement as Charles Robins hit ten sixes for the Swanton team. His final first-class match was as captain of the Free Foresters at Fenner’s in 1958 where, batting well down the order, he scored 40 in the first innings and 10 in the second. Five generations of the Mann and Crossman families had now been associated with the Albion Brewery but the 1950s saw many dramatic changes in the British brewing industry. In 1958 the London County Council were considering future plans for new public roads in the congested area around Victoria Station and the historic Stag Brewery in Pimlico, the home of the brewers Watney, Combe, Reid and Company. The latter was scheduled under a redevelopment scheme for a hotel and offices, with buildings arranged to facilitate the construction of a new road across the old site. Since their Mortlake Brewery to the west of London was unable to meet the full demand for Watney beers, there were two alternatives – either build another brewery on the eastern side of London or come to some arrangement with a brewery already situated there, such as Mann, 55 When he was 34, George became a father on 26 June 1952 when his first son, Simon Francis, was born. No doubt parenthood was another factor in keeping him out of regular first-class cricket. In due course the household grew to six with the births of Richard William in 1953, Sarah Marguerite in 1960 and Edward John in April 1961. A career soldier who later became a security specialist, Simon later fluttered journalistic dovecotes through an alleged involvement in a coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. That, of course, is a story well beyond the scope of this book.