Zimbabwe Cricket Photo Quiz

[Jemisi]

Did the stragglers play some cricket in front of the then Princess Elizabeth when she was touring Rhodesia?

[foreignfield]

Did the stragglers play some cricket in front of the then Princess Elizabeth when she was touring Rhodesia?

No.

The link is through a person involved with the Stragglers' club, and his relatives.

[gargamel]

shot in the dark connecrion with Win Ives . Any connectin to Jeremy ?

[foreignfield]

shot in the dark connecrion with Win Ives . Any connectin to Jeremy ?

Nope.

The person I'm looking for was in the news recently, but the connection is not straightforward, I'm afraid.

Edit: I mean the connection to royalty, the connection with the Stragglers club is as straightforward as it can get

[foreignfield]

All right, let's reveal the answer:

The Stragglers club, and subsequently the junior cricket festival which still flourishes today, was founded by Robert Spencer-Parker in 1959, a fact mentioned recently by Tristan Holme in his outstanding article Highfield of Dreams. His grandson, James Matthews, is set to marry Pippa Middleton and become brother-in-law to Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge:

Jane’s father, Robert Spencer ‘Spenny’ Parker, was a sports-mad architect who designed Harare’s imposing High Court and central library.
He played rugby, founded a cricket club and loved a drink

Here's his obituary in Wisden:

SPENCER-PARKER, ROBERT, who died in his sleep at his home in Salisbury, Zimbabwe, on October 17, 1980, his 66th birthday, was, with T. E. S. Francis, the Cambridge University and Somerset cricketer and England Rugby international, the founder of the Stragglers - a club known to, and enjoyed by, countless visitors to Rhodesia. He was a tireless worker for cricketers of all ages, both African and European.

I'll add a few more interesting facts about the Stragglers below.

CrimsonAvenger: 53
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[foreignfield]

I've come across the name of the Stragglers a few times in the past. The Wikipedia article on the History of Cricket in Zim mentions winter tours to Blantyre (now Malawi); when the ground at Triangle was reactivated a few years ago it was mentioned that in the past the Stragglers' yearly visit was one of the highlights; and there's also evidence of them touring Kenya in the fifties.

Andy Flower, in the Times' interview where he talked openly about the rascism he grew up with, mentions a Stragglers tour to England as a first eye-opener that the relations between the races could be different to what he knew from home:

“I had really been looking forward to the tour of England,” he says. “We were a casual cricket team called the Stragglers and I was billeted with a lovely family in Esher. They had a son of my age and I remember having a discussion with him about interracial relationships. I was truly astonished when he said that he would contemplate having a non-white girlfriend. We argued for hours one night about it. I began to realise something was deeply
wrong with my beliefs.

A scorecard from that tour in 1986 has survived: https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scor ... 35919.html

And those were the days when a "casual" cricket club from Zim could easily crush a full Ireland side: https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scor ... 00671.html
Okay, they had Houghton and a few other decent cricketers, Graeme Hick was smashing the Ireland bowling to all parts on his winter holidays, and Russel Tiffin was safely positioned behind the wicket as keeper, and thus unable to give bad decision against them

A question for the locals: Does the club till turn out adult sides to play socially, or is it solely devoted to junior cricket these days?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I think I remember seeing a banner for Stragglers Cricket Club when I was at HSC in 2014 on the second storey just above the old bar.

But I never knew of their story, thanks foreignfield.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Fascinating stories! Thanks for digging up and sharing these details.

[Googly]

They have a FB page. I don't think they've fielded a senior side for a while though. Some quality blokes there. Win Ives had a lot to do with organizing the junior Stragglers holiday cricket. I see Brian Goodwin (Murray's brother) is trying to get together a Zim side to play in the Golden Oldies tournament in Barbados in 2017.

[Googly]

I see Kevin Murphy on that team sheet, a very capable and outspoken critic of ZC. He's an accountant. I'd love to see him being given carte Blanche to clean house there!
He'd have that place running liking a smoothly oiled machine, but there would be some very sad faces.