Hugh Henry – The Wind in the Willows

A Club With Personality

Our cricket club has personality. In a way, our club is its personality. Like many small recreational sports clubs, the members of Anson St George are Anson St George. You can’t point to a place on a map, a pavilion, or a 22-yard strip of grass and say ‘that’s Anson St George Cricket Club. Barring a few match balls, some branded stumps, and bank account with a couple of quid in it, Anson St George CC only exists through the virtue of about 17-18 people coming back year after year to have fun and play cricket, happy to say, ‘we are Anson St George’.

The club has been doing this successfully since 1952. Cricket is the common factor that brings us all together. The elixir that provides the energy that makes people want to come back are the personalities that make up the club. That’s certainly been the case since I joined in 1995.

This blog has already lightly touched upon how the personality of the club was defined by John Monk and Alf Harrison at the time I joined. There are a lot more that need a space for their stories. This post is celebrating someone that has been the life and soul of the club for the last 30 years. That man is Hugh Henry.

If you think I am going to start this blog with a joke that Hugh is a larger-than-life character… then you have another thing coming. Hugh is an Anson polymath. He provides us with humour, innuendo, disdain, karaoke compeering, singing, music knowledge mastery, quizzing mastery, scoring mastering, social organising, fixture arranging, kit managing, gastronomy, gas expulsion, catchphrases, and of course, cricketing acumen.

The Early Years

Such is Hugh’s contribution to the club that it’s hard to know where to start. I’ll begin with my earliest memory of him from 1996. It was during a game against Little Thurrock or Tilbury over at Blackshots park. It may have been Hugh’s first game for the club which was threatened to be ruined by marauding gypsies encamped at the nearby athletics stadium. They’d been causing a nuisance all afternoon riding across the pitch on their motocross bikes. Eventually they came too close to the pavilion where Hugh was padded up waiting to go into bat. It was an annoyance too many for Hugh. The image of him in his pads, waving a bat above his head, and chasing this lad on a bike across the field is an image I won’t forget in a hurry.

Like many of us who were new to the club Hugh was trying to determine his best playing role. He was one of many who had a go behind the stumps. His batting could also be useful at times and most his best scores came in those early seasons. Hugh has opened the batting on occasion, and I suspect he is one of the few who has batted every position from 1-11 for Anson.

Coming of Age

Early on he didn’t get much of a bowl, despite being able to swing the ball like a banana down at Chingford nets. We did have very strong bowling in those days. It wasn’t until about 2009 that Greg gave him more of an opportunity with the ball. He finished that season with 18 wickets and there was no looking back. From that moment up to when he retired, Hugh became a crucial part of the team taking regular important wickets.

Hugh was a slow bowler but not a spinner. He would trot in off a couple of paces and confuse batsmen with his flight and occasional swing. Whilst he would occasionally go for a few runs, when it all came together Hugh was a match for the best. A lot of his wickets were some of the better batsmen we played against who were not used to facing his sort of bowling in the Saturday leagues.

If Hugh has definitely put his playing days behind him his wicket tally of 171 in his 307 games is a decent return. This is particularly because most the wickets came in a span of about 9 seasons. His record includes a hattrick and three 5-wicket hauls, the first of which came against Loughton, where he was bar manager and first team scorer at the time. He was very unlucky not to get bowler of the year in 2017 thanks to some tactical voting in the player awards (ahem, Sam).

The Odd Couple

If it took a bit of time for Hugh to establish his exact playing role in the team, it took no time for him to establish himself as a key member of the club in other ways. One of the defining aspects of Hugh’s early years was his relationship with Alf.

On the surface they were a bit of an odd couple with completely different personalities. Having fun at Alf’s expense was de rigueur for everyone. However, Hugh’s deadpan and caustic acid drops were the perfect foil for Alf’s eccentricities. Hugh’s public display of farts would lead Alf to labelling him a heathen. Hugh would come back with some or other name for Alf.

It was to everyone’s delight to watch Alf’s consternation every time Hughy, who was now the club’s scorer, refuse to tell Alf what the updated score was. Alf used to plead with Greg to make Hugh tell him what the score was.

The jibes between Alf and Hugh had us all laughing, but as Taggs once said, it was the greatest act of friendship that Alf took the time to write a comedic poem about Hugh that had us all in stitches. You can read Alf’s poem and Hugh’s riposte on one of Tagg’s old blogs. It was hardly a classic poetomachia but it had us all laughing out loud.

The Party Planner

Hugh’s commitment and status in the club was set very early and in the late 90s and early 00s. Hugh’s house became a regular venue for the AGM and the house parties that we would have on Sundays preceding a bank holiday Monday.  It was during one of these parties that I had an unfortunate accident with Pyscho’s house keys, who was lodging with Hugh at the time.

The parties were always great fun. Hugh always had a compliment of tasty, and sometimes very spicy, food. He of course used to have his karaoke kit set up as well. The karaoke kit did a few dos for us, including at Upminster Tennis club as Taggs explained previously, and even at a party round Greg’s mum and dad’s house for a birthday.

Karaoke is a bit of an Anson favourite. The club has been blessed with a couple of decent singers over the years, but Hugh is the standout star. He can turn his voice to any tune, but he is well known for his rendition of Elton John’s Daniel. In fact, he’s probably sick to death of us asking him to sing it whenever the opportunity arises (see also Taggs dancing to Single Ladies). I was hoping that Hugh would sing at my wedding, but the band got stuck in traffic.

I’ll Go, Where Hughy Takes Me

Hugh was a natural to take on the role of social secretary. His legacy of organising the beanos and the Butlin’s trips will live on for a long time. The Butlins weekends particularly have become so popular that lots of non-Anson folk want to come along. I particularly loved the soul and disco and the 60s weekends. A couple of ladies that we bumped into even thought that Hugh was Jimmy James. To be fair the rest of us did look like a bunch of vagabonds. When the Elvis impersonator came on, we were all loudly singing the Wonder of Hugh.

Even though Hugh doesn’t hold the official social secretary role anymore he still organises the Butlins trips and hosts regular quiz and curry nights.

Phall play

The curry nights are actually an occasion that Hugh is famous for because of his penchant for chicken phall. We have a regular curry base in Uruswamy’s in Hornchurch. Regardless of where we go, Hugh will lap up the dish whilst beads sweat drip down his face before finishing up and saying “I’ve ‘ad ‘otter” (not tarka masala). This again demonstrates the opposite character to Alf who once complained that mango chutney had given him the shits (but not the runs).

It’s also a long stranding tradition that new Anson recruits should dip their bread into Hugh’s phall or lick his spoon. I’ve tasted Hugh’s curry on many occasions. It hurts.  If inclined to alcohol new recruits also need to sample Hugh’s rum.

Hugh’s rum is distilled near he’s mums place in Saint Lucia and should come with a health warning. It’s clear and odourless and is usually presented to us in a recycled plastic water bottle. Its ideal purpose should be as a thinner to clean your paintbrushes. If you survive Hugh’s phall and rum and pay your subs, you can officially be an Anson member.

The rum isn’t the only aspect of Hugh’s West Indian heritage that he displays. He has a number of catchphrases which I believe stem from his Saint Lucian roots. ‘Lick ‘im ‘pon ‘im tet’, ‘up the harry um bang’, and ‘you damn rass’ are favourite phrases. I am not sure of the meaning of all his phrases. I suspect that some of them are a bit blue.

International Man of Scoring

Hugh hung up his bowling boots in 2021 playing his last game against Archway Ladder on 2 May. There is of course still time for him to make a comeback if he wants to. Nonetheless, Hugh is still a regular on a Sunday as our scorer, DJ, and friend. He’s been scoring for a long time and showed excellence at it from the start. I haven’t seen anyone that scores better than Hugh, and he has really honed his craft. We’re really lucky to have Hugh come and score for us. We would of course be happy with his presence in any capacity. All the work that Lee has done with The History would not be possible without the likes of Hugh and other scorers in the past maintaining accurate match records.

Hugh also scores for Shenfield CC First XI on Saturdays and has also scored ICC matches. It’s a testament to Hugh that he has been asked to help manage the England men’s over 50 World Cup squad in Sri Lanka this February and score their matches. I couldn’t be prouder that he’s been asked to do this, and I hope he has a fantastic trip.

Our Great Friend

Finally, Hugh is a fantastic friend. He’s great company, easy to talk to, and if you organise any party or social event, he always makes an effort to attend, even if he’s coming from far away and turns up late. He was one of the first to come and visit me when I was having treatment for cancer. I know that he’s very close to a lot of people in the club, including some of us who are 20-30 years younger than him and who only know him through the cricket team. I think that says a lot about Hugh and a lot about what sort of team we are.

As I mentioned before, Anson St George CC only exists because we all want to keep coming back year after year to have fun and play cricket. Hugh has been a big part of the enjoyment of playing for Anson. The club would simply not be the same today had he not been part of it. A lot of the humour, traditions, and stories that have become part of the club’s lore over the last three decades involve Hugh one way or another.

He has given so much to Anson during this time on and off the pitch. And I mean sooo much! The club does not bestow honorary life memberships lightly. Hugh has definitely earnt his 10 times over.

Thank you to Hugh for all that you continue to do for the club. I know I am not the only one that looks forward to more fulfilling years of your company and entertainment.