A walk down memory lane to Compton's regular lunchtime haunt

HUW TURBERVILL: I took a stroll from our office, about eight Martin Guptill record six hits away, to 71 Blandford Street. That is where Compton spent his lunchtimes in retirement, at The Cricketers Club

^{Carousel-London used to be The Cricketers Club}

Denis Compton was born 100 years ago on May 23, and The Cricketer has devoted the cover of its May issue (out now) to this notable century.

To pay tribute, I took a stroll from our office, about eight Martin Guptill record six hits away, to 71 Blandford Street. That is where Compton spent his lunchtimes in retirement, at The Cricketers Club.

Now it is Carousel-London: “Split across two buildings and five floors, our revolving creative hub is home to a carefully curated programme of chef residencies, art exhibitions and all round awesome experiences.”

I wonder if it is awesome as listening to Compton describe his hundred in his maiden Test against Australia, or his 18 in the summer of 1947.

Novelist Christopher Sandford has written a lovely article about the man he knew in this issue. Sandford says “he would meet Compton at the Cricketers Club at around noon most weekdays, and then reel home again sometime between the tea interval and close of play. Denis would operate as a sort of one-man cottage industry while on the premises, surrounded by a seemingly endless crowd of admirers, the attention he gave to friend and fan alike tempered only by his concern for the fortunes of the 3.45 at Uttoxeter showing on the television above the bar.”

^{The latest issue of The Cricketer, celebrating Denis Compton, is out now}

"The Cricketers Club of London was a private members’ club run by cricket enthusiasts," Wikipedia tells me. "It offered members food and wine, entertainment, visiting speakers and excursions," but ceased to exist “after the relaxation of the licensing laws”.

A very pleasant lady at reception tells me that all cricket remnants probably disappeared about four years ago, although enthusiasts sometimes pop in to have a look from time to time.

If cricket is struggling in this country, at least until the ECB’s ‘100’ rides to the rescue, are there also fewer pubs bearing the name these days, I wonder?

An article on The Daily Mail reveals that The Cricketers is the 29th most popular pub name, with 130 in the country (there is a famous one at Richmond Green, for starters). Red Lion is the most popular. (There are also some Duck Inns, Man of Kents, Somersets, Surreys, Balls, and Bat and Balls, but that would be stretching the point…)

The spirit of the Cricketers Club lives on, however. “Ben Bickley, an old boy of Christ’s Hospital School, continues to run the club as a cricket club, under the presidency of the famous MCC member John Fingleton, and assisted by a number of cricketers who do not believe league cricket to be the be all and end all of cricket. It has a dozen or so very pleasant fixtures a year.”

We wish them all the best.

WHAT'S IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE OF THE CRICKETER: Find out right here