Doug Insole
An article he wrote at the time of the club's centenary in 1984;
The fact that two Chingford players have so far completed the journey from club to test cricket must, I suppose, reflect some considerable credit on the club and I am bound to say that the reputation of Chingford in the war years, when I started playing, was such that my own first appearance in the first team induced a feeling of pride and satisfaction not very dissimilar from that of being selected, several years later, for England.
The jump from school cricket to a regular place in a top class club side was very significant and provided the opportunity of playing with people like Len Parslow, who opened the batting and was a prolific scorer for a British Empire XI which brought together many of the best players from England and the Commonwealth to play weekend matches against representative club sides. It was, at that time, the best team around. Learie Constantine often turned out; Farmer Ray Smith was a regular; Don Spencer, first of Chingford and then of Chelmsford and Essex, also played. It was all quite big-time to a naive young man who had spent most of the war evacuated to Hertfordshire.
The Chingford team was pretty ancient, Fred Cheesewright, Gordon Downes, Jock Harwood, Harold Prior, Bob Dalton and the rest. Bolstered occasionally by young bloods home from leave. To field at cover point in that side was to have responsibility for the whole of the off side once the ball had gone past a fielder. But, apart from being delightful characters, they gave sound advice. The aforementioned Len Parslow, who was not universally regarded as the easiest man in the team, took me under his wing and in a thoroughly practical, non-technical manner, told me what it was all about.
I was sometimes bewildered by the futility of the cricket when blood matches, particularly I seem to remember with South Woodford and Ilford, produced declarations that meant nothing at all, or over rates that, even in these days of controlled activity on the international scene, would seem pedestrian. Indeed, in the later years, involved as I was in the Test and County game, I seldom came across anything quite so unfriendly as those evenings in the bar when they had set us 130 an hour or, to be fair, when we had done likewise.
My style was never very orthodox, so the scoreboard, and the rate that it was ticking over, was always my best friend. Getting runs against the better club and representative sides was a good grounding for more testing times ahead.
In my first match for Cambridge University, against Yorkshire, I was run out for 44 - a direct hit by Norman Yardley from mid-off, and a diabolical decision - and I must say that I did not find Bill Bowes at Fenners any more difficult to handle than Sid Cousins at Buck Walk (Walthamstow's ground in case it is called anything different now). I always felt nervous before going in to bat, but I don't remember that the waiting was any more agonising at Cambridge than at Chingford. The intensity of my apprehension increased over the years as my responsibility grew.
It is not easy to explain the difference between club and county cricket and between county and Test cricket except where they are obvious. A number of quite average club players have become successful county players, while prolific run-getters and wicket-takers in club cricket have failed dismally when put into county teams. By the same token highly successful county players have failed on the Test scene, although this is more understandable because of the added temperamental difficulties at the highest level. The question of pressure is fundamental, but is not so obvious at county level because county cricket is still quite a friendly game and indeed in my day it was rather more friendly than club cricket.
The modern first class game has become such a specialist occupation that there is much less chance than in my day for the club cricketer to edge his way into the county side as a result of good club performances, as did people like Ron Evans, Harold Faragher and Ron Lynch of Ilford, Sran Eve of Upminster, Allan Lavers of Buckhurst Hill, Arnold Quick of Clacton and Colin Griffiths of Old Brentwoods in the immediate post war years. Which is a pity. But the clubs remain and will always comprise the principal source of talent for the counties and, through them England. As evidenced by the performance, in the past 20 years or so, of Barry Knight from Wanstead, Robin Hobbs from Chingford, Graham Gooch and John Lever from Ilford and Niel Foster from Colchester.
The reduction of the amount of cricket played in schools, and the increase in coaching by clubs , together with the advent of youth teams run by them, is sure to mean that the path from club, to county cricket will continue to be well used in the future. I trust that the next Chingford Test cricketer is en route at this moment.