Friday, July 27, 2012

Sepia Saturday 136 : King Edward's Grandson


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.

28 comments:

  1. Well, if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter, I say!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well phrased, Wendy!

      Delete
    2. Ha ha -- thanks Barbara!

      Delete
    3. How did we get from Uncle Fowler to a jockstrap?!?

      Delete
    4. :-)
      Just seeing if anyone was paying attention.

      Delete
    5. Oh honey!! You're not playing fair!!! You throw in a jockstrap, of course I'm going to pay attention!!!
      ;)~
      HUGZ

      Delete
  2. Witty play on being a couch potato. I was wondering how King Edward came into this post! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. haha...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!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cute 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.

    Kathy M.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great Uncle Fowler looks like a pleasant chap. I bet he could lift a pint or two?

    ReplyDelete
  7. How 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......

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good 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?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your great uncle was a man of many talents. Your country did a great job with the opening ceremony.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice photo. How do they keep those white clothes looking so nice when they are playing?

    ReplyDelete
  11. That 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.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'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?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Alan 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.)
    QMM

    ReplyDelete
  15. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I do love searching through shoe boxes. They hold such treasures and such distractions.

    ReplyDelete
  17. The face beneath the flat cap looks more like our grandfather Beanland. By the way, I did win the Mackintosh Trophy for darts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It 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?

      Delete
  18. My only achievement would be endurance at watching for hours the Olympic Games, which I've enjoyed so far!!
    :)~
    HUGZ

    ReplyDelete
  19. Your great uncle Fowler is very definitely the happiest of the lot - probably because he doesn't have to play!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Alan, 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?

    ReplyDelete
  21. What!!??? No cricket or baseball at the summer olympics but they have beach volley ball???

    ReplyDelete
  22. Such 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.

    ReplyDelete

11 March 2024 : Paper Hanging

  Some people read the paper, some try and understand the meaning of life, George II and Elvis Presley both died there .... and photographer...