Our image prompt for Sepia Saturday 136 provides a composite illustration featuring both cricket and baseball. No doubt the chap who runs Sepia Saturday thought it would be a suitable image to mark the opening of the London Olympic Games despite the fact that neither of the games can be found in the modern Olympic programme. The prompt sent me off to the family photographic archives in search of something sporting but I eventually came to the reluctant conclusion that I am a couch potato descended from a long line of similar vegetables. The family name might just as well be Maris-Piper and my grandfather might just as well have been King Edward (and let me add before anyone else does that his wife should have been called Desiree).
After a lengthy (and enjoyable) search through the shoe boxes I eventually came up with the above photograph which features a gritty Yorkshire cricket team. My connection to it is the chap in the flat cap on the right - the team manager I assume - who is no other than my great Uncle Fowler. The very same man who collected all those old postcards, the man who was a bowling champion on the crown green, that same man was a cricket team manager. I will dig a little deeper and no doubt discover that he also was a long-stop (or whatever they are) on the baseball field as well. That's a fair amount of digging but it is the kind of exercise I like. Now why don't they make family history research an Olympic event?
Avert your gaze away from all the athletic exertions this weekend by taking a look at the SEPIA SATURDAY BLOG and following the links.
Well, if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter, I say!
ReplyDeleteWell phrased, Wendy!
DeleteHa ha -- thanks Barbara!
DeleteHow did we get from Uncle Fowler to a jockstrap?!?
Delete:-)
DeleteJust seeing if anyone was paying attention.
Oh honey!! You're not playing fair!!! You throw in a jockstrap, of course I'm going to pay attention!!!
Delete;)~
HUGZ
Witty play on being a couch potato. I was wondering how King Edward came into this post! :)
ReplyDeletehaha...you would certainly win the gold medal if that were the case. I was thinking as I read this how your Uncle Fowler has enriched all of our lives by his postcard collection and little tidbits that you've discovered. It's really great!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the cry of ‘Ahah!’ as you discovered this lurking in the shoebox.What a jolly chap Uncle Fowler appears to be. I think post match celebrations would have gone with a swing.
ReplyDeleteCute picture! I'm a couch potato now too. My Dad is a jock, and so is my husband, but not me. I never like the competition part of it.
ReplyDeleteKathy M.
Great Uncle Fowler looks like a pleasant chap. I bet he could lift a pint or two?
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have an uncle exactly like Uncle Fowler, what he left for you is priceless, we have to go looking everywhere for pictures, and you get to look through a shoebox. You are right, they should make family history research an olympic event, wow, think about it......
ReplyDeleteGood story . I'm about the same as you when it comes to athletics. I'm looking at the building behind them and am surprised to see that it's rough lumber?
ReplyDeleteYour great uncle was a man of many talents. Your country did a great job with the opening ceremony.
ReplyDeleteNice photo. How do they keep those white clothes looking so nice when they are playing?
ReplyDeleteThat opening is so funny Alan, and it does indeed look like a gritty Yorkshire team they look as though they will take no prisoners. Your uncle's cheery grin must mean they won a lot. Interesting to see the industrial chimneys in the background.
ReplyDeleteI've had some entertaining games on village cricket grounds in Yorkshire, even som with old wooden pavilions like the one in your photo. Alan, have you considered that Uncle Fowler might have been an umpire, without his white coat, or even the scorer?
ReplyDeleteI think that hat provided your uncle just the shade he needed to smile for the camera. Enjoy your humor as well as the great photo. Except for the motorcyclist in my family, we tend toward sedentary sports. Marathon Blog Reading would be right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteAlan this SS is getting more fun for me as time goes by. I was counting on hearing first hand from you about the goings on over there for the next few weeks. I love watching the games and I think I learned a little about cricket and I hope you folks learned a little about baseball fro this theme. (That is short-stop BTW.)
ReplyDeleteQMM
I suppose your uncle in the cap must have been connected to the team.. though I have a funny little thought that maybe he just edged on to the team photo with a big smile, for a joke. I like the mill chimneys in the background, just that little detail anchors the photo in time and place, rounds out the story.
ReplyDeleteI do love searching through shoe boxes. They hold such treasures and such distractions.
ReplyDeleteThe face beneath the flat cap looks more like our grandfather Beanland. By the way, I did win the Mackintosh Trophy for darts!
ReplyDeleteIt does look like Albert Beanland but I still think it is his brother Fowler. And, by the way, I have just discovered something quite interesting about Fowler and his father (another Fowler) - I will let you know once I have tracked the full story down. Do you still have that old Beanland family bible that used to belong to Arthur Beanland?
DeleteMy only achievement would be endurance at watching for hours the Olympic Games, which I've enjoyed so far!!
ReplyDelete:)~
HUGZ
Your great uncle Fowler is very definitely the happiest of the lot - probably because he doesn't have to play!
ReplyDeleteAlan, it must be fun to haven relations to different royal families; they are a tasty lot! All I know about cricket, they look very smart in their bowling whites! Have I mixed up something, here?
ReplyDeleteWhat!!??? No cricket or baseball at the summer olympics but they have beach volley ball???
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting mix of expressions. Is it before or after their match? I'm not sure Uncle Fowler has the right physic for a short(not long)stop but he looks prime for a baseball manager.
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