Hemingford Hermits - An Historical Perspective
Rather like the pub sign that hangs above the birthplace of the Hermits, now covered in ivy, the history of the Club is somewhat obscure.
Not so much a cricket club, more a movement or a way of life.
Sometime in the middle of the seventh decade of the last century of the second millennium, a group of young men making their way in life decided to repair to the local alehouse to contemplate their deepest religious convictions.
It was the era of Lillee and Thompson, Brearley and Greig, Holding and Richards, Kapil, Imran and Hadlee. These were the gods and their followers dreamt of high summer days during long winter evenings in the Hemingford Arms in North London.
Sean, an Irishman, pulled pints behind the bar, hardcore lesbians practised upstairs on a Thursday evening, their exertions softened by the rattle of table football downstairs. Bob Dylan and Sister Sledge seemed to dominate the jukebox.
And so a nomadic tribe was born known as the Hemingford Hermits. Built around the Barnsbury/Islington ballast of Odgers, Squires, Blake, Norman, Burgess and Darton. Joined seamlessly by the South London trio of Keir, Deakin and Bevan. Dixie was recruited from afar as were a number of assorted occasionals and ringers - Flower, Wollheim, King, Hobbs - even a Spector, a Tootell and a Rabb and memorably,as an umpire, a Rushton.
The nature of a nomadic tribe is that it loses and gains other tribesmen along the way and that it has no permanent home. So we hung our sunhats in far flung pavilions from Radley to Shobrooke, Bathampton to Broadchalke, Whipton to Staplefield, Turville to Stonor, Regents Park to Alderney
In the early 1980's, it was decided that the tribe should honour their best player each year at an annual gathering where revelling and pre-season planning effortlessly merged deep into the night.
History is normally based on endless archives and statistics but bravely though the tribe has tried to keep up with the twenty six years, the loss of the Hermits' first scorebook and with it around 10 years of fixtures, teams, scores and results means that much of the history now remains, at best, oral.
Winning and losing were as one for this unique tribe whose founding members now pass on the traditions to their offspring as the Hermits move slowly and sometimes not entirely surely into the 21st century.