Why I Love Cricket: John Challis

The Only Fools And Horses star passed away on September 19. In this interview from April 2017, he explained what cricket meant to him, and how cricket never really made it on set

I don’t know why I fell in love with cricket. It just grabbed me when I was at a young age for some reason. My parents bought me a table-top game. The bowler had a slingshot arm with a little cup to deliver the ball. I played on my own. My favourites always did terribly well and I kept detailed scorebooks. I always no-balled people who dismissed my heroes.

I learned my batting technique playing against the wall in the garden. I was such a fantasist, and I invented all sorts of scenarios. Even now I can hear the applause as I went indoors at close of play.

My first visit to a Test was at The Oval. I recall sitting on a grassy bank. I can remember seeing Denis Compton bat, with his famous sweep. I think it must have been the Test against Australia in 1956, or South Africa the year later. 

Tom Graveney was my big hero when I was at school in Surrey. I therefore supported Gloucestershire. I was annoyed because they would not make him captain because he did not go to the right public school or something. I recall meeting him at Bristol. I think my grandfather knew someone who knew his brother. He was very welcoming, he bent down on one knee, but I was completely speechless. It felt like God standing before me.

I always followed the most elegant batsman of the time. So after Graveney it was David Gower, and I therefore switched my allegiances to Leicestershire. I also liked Ian Bell of the modern generation. I enjoyed the way he made his runs, although he was not quite as elegant as Graveney or Gower. Pretentiously I would call it ‘the art’. I would hate all bowlers, especially the ones that dismissed my heroes. 

Gower could make a duck attractively. He had a suspect temperament, but sometimes everything clicked and… flashing elegance! He would also empty bars like Ian Botham. As soon as they were out, people would rush back into them.

^{John Challis passed away on September 19}

When Gower was out, the whole country went out. I used to switch off They Think It’s All Over when he was teased about wafting to second slip. I found it tiresome. Mark Ramprakash had the same elegance. Kevin Pietersen was brilliant but his batting was ugly. Ken Barrington was so effective, but crabby. Alastair Cook ditto.

I’d make pretty good little knocks but then keep getting out. I also used to be able to be obdurate yet elegant at the same time. It was all to do with style. The nearest I got to a century was 96 at school. I have a great memory of it. I was given a full toss outside leg stump. I swung wildly, it came off the edge, hit the wicketkeeper on the head and I was caught at slip. A ridiculous comedy moment.

I played a lot of charity matches later on. My last one was in Shropshire, for Help For Heroes. Andrew Flintoff captained one side, and I led the other. Derek Pringle was on my side and he skippered really. Flintoff was a hero that day. He was injured but stood there and hit a few sixes before obligingly holing out. He talked to every single serviceman or woman. It was extraordinary seeing them play despite their injuries. 

It was the first time I had played in glasses. I suddenly had Vic Marks bowling at me. He gave me a few runs, but then I fell over in these borrowed pads and everyone laughed. I thought I better get out and let people in who knew what they were doing. And we raised a lot of money.

David Jason (Del Boy) and Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney) do not like sport really, so we never discussed cricket on the set of Only Fools and Horses. Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger) loved sport, though, and took it very seriously. He finally got MCC membership just as he got ill, which was very sad. He managed to make a few games at Lord’s in time before he passed away. 

Paul Barber (Denzil) liked cricket. We were pleased when an Only Fools and Horses convention was staged in a corporate box at The Oval.

I went into the media centre at Lord’s and met all these England captains. I felt I had been through so much with them all. I also met Tom Graveney once more, this time at HQ, and was again speechless! 

Interview by Huw Turbervill

This interview originally appeared in the April 2017 edition of The Cricketer Magazine. Subscribe by clicking here