Ian Lavender has achieved much in his long career on stage and screen and encountered many interesting people within the acting profession and beyond but, when reflecting upon it all, one memory evokes perhaps the fondest smile of all.
And it is a recollection rooted not in the cosy brilliance of Dad鈥檚 Army or the famous theatres of the West End but in the indoor nets at Edgbaston.
One day in the early 1960s Birmingham-born Lavender, a talented young wicketkeeper, visited Warwickshire鈥檚 ground with other boys from Bournville Technical College.
鈥淒uring the winter schools could take classes into the indoor nets at Edgbaston,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here would always be someone from the club there, not necessarily coaching, but around. And one time I was keeping wicket in the nets when this old chap in whites came up to me.
鈥淗e gave me some tips; where to stand, that sort of thing. And in the changing room afterwards our cricket coach Harry Harrison, a great guy, asked me if I knew who that was. 鈥溾業t was Tiger Smith,鈥 he said.鈥
Lavender had just encountered the greatest Bear of all. Fifty years earlier, in 1911/12, Ernest James 鈥淭iger鈥 Smith played a huge part in England鈥檚 sensational Ashes triumph, keeping wicket as Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster routed the Australian batsmen. Now, amidst a 70-year connection to Warwickshire as player and coach, he had shared a few seconds with an aspiring actor-cricketer from Northfield.
Fast-forward 50 years and the memory still brings warmth and joy to a cold, grey winter afternoon in the west Midlands. Because Ian Lavender is a man who knows his cricket and loves it.
鈥淭iger Smith!鈥 he recalls. 鈥淚 just thought 鈥榳haattt!!鈥欌
Since growing up in the Second City, Lavender has travelled far and achieved much, but he retains only the warmest memories of when his passion for cricket was nurtured as a player at Bournville Tec and Barnt Green and as a spectator at Edgbaston 鈥 though it was never in doubt which direction his working life would take.
鈥淚 had plenty of hopes but don鈥檛 think any serious pretence of a cricket career,鈥 Lavender said.
鈥淚 played for Barnt Green until I was 19 and sometimes you heard that people had come to have a look, but if they did nothing ever came of it. Bournville Tec was a new school so had to do something to stamp itself on public consciousness. And the two things they specialised in were cricket and drama. That suited me fine!
鈥淚 was only ever going to be an actor. The first time I was asked what I was going to be, by Miss Davies when I was leaving Turves Green Junior School, I said: 鈥業鈥檓 going to be an actor鈥. My mother laughed and Miss Davies said 鈥楻eally, I thought you were going to be a minister?鈥
鈥淏ut I had many happy days down at Edgbaston.I would go to our local bakery and get a little cottage loaf. Slice it in two. Danish butter out of the tub. Corned beef cut off the slab. Tomato. And that was it. Off to Edgbaston and the Rea Bank side. Happy days.
鈥淢y dad took me to Edgbaston for the first time. Living in Bournville it was a tuppenny bus ride to Priory Road and I鈥檇 get there on to the Rea Bank and watch Noman Horner and John Jameson. I got Jack Bannister鈥檚 autograph!
鈥淲e had such fun. I remember one game where Norman drove a bump-ball back to the bowler who threw it up as though it was a catch. Then the next two balls were exactly the same and the crowd were all going up 鈥 what fun.
鈥淲hen Jameson came out to bat you knew it would be fun. And then there was MJK Smith taking all those catches at short-leg. To take more catches than the wicketkeeper, standing at short-leg wearing no helmet 鈥 just a cap. And glasses. Amazing.
鈥淪ometimes we would pay an extra two shillings to go into the transfer stand 鈥 a two-storeyed, wooden edifice seemingly built out of old railway sleepers. Or we鈥檇 go into the little Sydney Barnes Stand.
鈥淚 was at Edgbaston that afternoon in the Ashes in 2005, sitting just next to the pavilion and what an atmosphere it was. I don鈥檛 think that amazing 360-degree atmosphere could happen in the ground as it is now.鈥
Lavender鈥檚 passion for cricket did have one sad consequence.
鈥淧laying on a Sunday caused a great schism between my father and myself because he was a strict Methodist,鈥 he recalls.
鈥淥ne of my big regrets is that he never came to see me play. However many years on, it is still a great sadness to me.鈥
But the actor鈥檚 love for the sport is lifelong and he was delighted when two great strands of his life combined happily as Jim Troughton, scion of a distinguished acting family, captained Warwickshire to the championship title in 2012.
鈥淚鈥檝e never met Jim but I鈥檓 delighted to hear that he is such a well-respected chap,鈥 Lavender said. 鈥淲hen he was made captain, this son and grandson of brilliant actors, I did feel proud that he was captain of my county.鈥
Lavender, now 67, will always be a follower of the Bears but, above all, simply a lover of cricket.
鈥淕oing to watch cricket is like joining a conversation,鈥 he said. 鈥淣owhere else do you have a day and a conversation like you do at cricket.
鈥淭here are days when you meet people, chat away for hours and will never meet again but have a great day together.
鈥淥r, if you choose, you can be on your own. I sometimes go down the village and just sit on the boundary, have a pint and watch some cricket.
鈥淵ou can do that at any match anywhere but one of the great things is, whether on the village green or at Lord鈥檚, you can just have 鈥榯he conversation鈥 with whoever you sit next to.
鈥淎nd that鈥檚 a great joy.鈥
