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Snow at Les Ormes Nomads at Chaintre Saumur At Thoiry Lunch at Entrecasteaux
Nomads Cricket Club was founded in 1903 the same year at the exchange of visits by King Edward VI to Paris in April and President Loubert to London in June. One year later the Entente Cordiale was signed. Nine years after that Nomads played their first fixture against a French Cricket Club,Stade Francais, at North Middlesex’s ground at Crouch End. Stade Francais, recently revived as a professional Rugby club of distinction, played cricket up to the Second World War and were on a tour of the London area in 1912. The Match with Nomads was immortalised in the pages of Sporting Life with scorecard and caricatures. It is shown on the Nomads web site today. Several of those cricketers were to die in France in World War One. In fact the Nomads club was to lose over half its membership on the Western front in France. Delaying its re-start for a few years it was to soon drop ‘Hampstead’ although the club was to be refered to for decades as the Hampstead Nomads.
There is no record of contact with cricket in France by Nomads until the late seventies when the club introduced a weekend visit to Paris to play Standard Athletic at Meudon. This proved so successful that it was retained for many years. One of SAC's members James Drayton joined Nomads when he returned to UK and subsequently became a very popular club skipper. At his wedding both Nomads CC and SAC were well repesented. More recently Nomads have visited Saumur, Thoiry, Les Ormes, Chantilly but in spring 2004 the club made it first visit to Provence where we played Entrecasteaux and Cabris in celebration of the Entente Cordiale. The Club returned in 2006 when it won the Entente Cordiale Cup outright..
However the French connections of Nomads run much deeper individually. Our oldest member John (Jack)Hyams who has scored more runs than anyone else in the history of the game was born in 1920 to a French mother. Her father had skippered the Herald Tribune Paris Office Cricket Club at the turn of the century. A photograph of this team is still displayed at the Standard Athletic Club where Jack played for Cryptics on tour in the 1986.
Of course, some Nomads have married French women and others are very good friends and partners! Another Nomad has a sister married to a Frenchman. Several Nomads have represented France at cricket including ICC and ECC International Competitions. These Nomads Internationals include Julian Howe married to a French lady, Paul Wakefield, Chris Bartlett and Mark Surridge three of whom are, or have been, members of Thoiry CC. Kelvin Sutherland was also a member of Thoiry while his father has been President of the French Umpires Association. Simon Barter a regular Nomad tourist has been a member of both Saumur and Thoiry. When Tim Bourke, a New Zealander and former captain of Nomads, went awhol from the wizadry of the City of London banking, he turned up playing cricket for Eymet CC in Dordogne.
Then there are Nomads who live in France like Julian Howe and until recently Simon Barter who is a director of PGL Activity Centres. Vince Gavin & Julian Smith live in Brittanny and both are members of Les Ormes CC. Krishna Lester lives near Saumur where he manages a vineyard and founded Saumur CC. Chris Bartlett has set up a Brewery in Nantes and plays for Les Ormes and Saumur and threatens to set up as opposed to founding Nantes CC. Daniel Hudecek, we believe, still resides in Paria.
Lastly there are Nomads with property in France. Our recent President Richard Kershaw is just one and his son owns and manages a vineyard. Ian Sutherland has two homes in France, one in Lot & Garonne where he is a member of Damazan CC and another in the Pyranees. Jamie Lane is another as is Ollie Croom-Johnson who also is a member of Cabris CC(Rivierre).
Michael Blumberg the club’s Hon Sec and now President is an honorary member of Thoiry CC and has played for them on tour in UK and helped lay on the UK launch of the French Cricket Association which subsequently integrated into the Federation Of Baseball, Softball and Cricket. In 1953 he listened to the Oval Test commentary when we won back the ‘Ashes’ from a car radio as his parents drove home to London from the Cote d’Azure.
There have been several discussions about setting up a French based Les Nomades which is still on the drawing board.
And so there is much about the Nomads that is very much in the spirit of the Entente Cordiale.
In January 2004 Nomads Hon Sec contacted MCC, France Cricket and ECC to enquire whether the centenary celebrations of the Entente Cordiale was planned to include some cricket. Simon Hewitt, then of France Cricket, thought there had been some mention of it but nothing was firmed up. Well the actual centenary was April 8th intimated the Hon Sec whereupon SH sugested we better try Provence as it was too early for anybody else. A Nomad was a member of Cabris and so the ball was set rolling. Sean Burke of Entrecasteaux saw to the rest.
 
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Entrecasteaux Entente Cordiale Lunch with The Mayor
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Young French Cricket Fan Reflections on Entente Cordiale Cricket In France
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On Easter Monday 2004 the majority of the world of cricket was focused on the Recreation Ground at Antigua in anticipation of Brian Lara regaining the world record Test individual score. However for one small French boy and his grandpapa it was the cricket ground at Entrecasteaux that held their attention. For two hours up to lunch Jonathan gave his ‘Papis’ a running comentary and explanation of the Entente Cordiale Trophy match between Entrecasteaux’s Cricket Club and the Nomads CC from London England. Jonathan was both knowledgeable and completely enthralled by the game of cricket which he had learned and played as a member of Entrecasteaux’s Kwik cricket squad.
There would seem to be a development model here that is very much outside ECC, ICC and even FFBSC policy. A small village with a reasonable expat community within reasonbale distant, a supportive Mayor and council, local cricket ground with nets and a substantial number of village youngsters just as willing to learn to play cricket as football, boule or rugby. This is just what exists at Entrecasteaux. Yet despite the 100 millions of development dollars available to ICC this village club’s only financial support has come from its own members and the Community Local Council.
The bounding enthusiasm of this club and its commitment to the community surely is deserving of some recognition if not financial assistance from ICC’s much vaunted Development funds.
Cabris(now Riviera) is the other Provence club we played with its own ground not now in Cabris but nearbye at St Valier De Thiers which they share with Monte Carlo CC. A pleasantly situated ground there are no facilities as yet and no guarantee of tenure. The club was formed in the late 1980s and the development side of the club is concentrated on the International Schools in the surrounding region. There are or have been over the past decade other clubs, Montpelier, Nice, Monte Carlo, Provence and some way westwards along the coast Perpignan illustrative of the numbers of cricketers located in the area but also of the problems in securing land and local government support for this foreign sport. It is a yawning gap in ICC’s development strategy that there is no such thing as a partnership investment programme appropriate to a potential region such as Provence or any similar in Continental Europe
Kwik cricket demos, umpires and coaches courses, even expensive inter country competitions at all ages are no substitute for hard cash, facilities and support. There is likewise no substitute for an ICC/ECC function in meeting with local sports bodies in Europe and exploring joint initiatives.
The Ententente Cordiale Centenary should have been a heaven sent opportunity for cricket authorities in UK-ICC, ECB, MCC, CCC etc to have set in motion a host of small and major cricket initiatives across France as it was only Min Patel’s Indoor Benefit Tournament in Le Touquet in February and Nomads visit to Provence in April celebrated the occassion. More's the Pity! |
Back row (L to R) Mike Lomax (umpire), Laurent Amiot (Ent), Maurice Mitchem (Ent), Trevor Yeomans (Ent),Sean Burke (Ent capt),
Roshan Perera (Ent), Len Terry (Ent President), Satpal Randhava (Ent), John Rezko (Nom), David Coates (Ent),Ivan Linhart (Ent),
Richard Kershaw (Nom then President), Bob Bartlett (Ent scorer)
Front row (L to R) Ollie Croome-Johnson (Nom), Bill Rodwell (Nom scorer), Russ Mann (Nom), Mark Surridge (Nom),Daryn Williams (Nom),
Michael Blumberg (Nom Hon Sec), Mike Hodd (Nom), Jamie Lane (Nom), Vince Gavin (Nom), Richard Woolhouse (Nom).
Not shown; Paul Wakefield (Nom),
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