Harold Gimblett’s Hundred by John Arlott finds its way back home! – an Article by Richard Walsh

Bicknoller was his village, Harold Gimblett was his name

Farming was his working day, but cricket was his game.

When he was but twenty and first played for Somerset

He played the mighty innings that we remember yet.

Stogumber is the village where Jack White used to live;

But for cricketers in Somerset, that’s the name they give

To the fierce cross-batted stroke they will use for evermore,

Swinging it right off the stumps and past long leg for four…….

The poem goes on to chronicle the amazing achievement of the farmer’s son from Bicknoller who played his club cricket for Watchet and who after being turned away by Somerset following a two week trial was called into the team as a late replacement and scored a century on his debut against Frome against Essex in May 1935.

It’s the stuff of boyhood dreams and in the 1970s Gimblett’s achievements caught the imagination of John Arlott who was well known as a cricket broadcaster and writer.

Arlott composed a poem about Gimblett’s feat which first appeared in print in a magazine called The Vole, in 1977, that was edited by Richard Boston who was better known for championing the return of Real Ale to our pubs.

The poem was also put to music and recorded in the early 1980s by the Dorset based folk group The Yetties, who of course were from Yetminster.

In the early 1990s (yours truly / the writer/ Richard Walsh) who’d first become aware of the poem when it appeared in The Vole decided to produce a short booklet containing the poem which was duly published in early 1991.

The book was produced in a limited edition of 123 – the number of runs Gimblett scored at Frome, all of which were signed by the author- John Arlott.

The first 30 of the run were bound in maroon cloth and also signed by the five players who remained alive from the match- Reg Ingle and Dickie Burrough of Somerset and Tom Pearce, Frank Rist and Ray Smith from Essex.

The venture involved a trip to Alderney in the Channel Islands on a snowy December day, where Arlott lived in retirement and also visits to each of the five remaining players who lived as far apart as Padstow, Walthamstow, Worthing, Stourbridge and High Lyttelton.

The book sold out at the time and has since become a scarce and much sought after item.

Arlott died in late 1991 and Harold Gimblett’s Hundred is the final publication of his lifetime.

One of the hardbound editions was later purchased by David Harrison a keen player and follower of the summer game from Leicestershire for his father, who was a great Gimblett fan but who has since sadly passed away, and on the 7th October 2022, he called into the Somerset Cricket Museum to present them with his copy on long term loan.

David Harrison (centre) pictured with Richard Walsh (left) and David Wood (right) – Photo courtesy of Alain Lockyer (Photographer and Museum Trustee)

“My father was born in 1934 and Gimblett was his favourite player and he followed his career right up until the 1950s and told me all about him. I have searched and searched for this book with the poem and it took me about 10 years to find one but eventually I did.

“Sadly my father died last year so I thought that this was the right place for the book to be.”

“Along with my father I have a love of cricket and when I was about eleven I played my first game of mens cricket and I played right up until I was about 52 or 53 and then decided I was a too old. I  now look after the cricket ground at my home club Enderby and help out on a voluntary basis. Cricket has saved me effectively because it is my life.

“After my father died I was wondering what to do with the book and then I read a tweet that Annie Chave had made that she was sitting on Gimblett’s Hill at the County Ground in Taunton and that was the light bulb moment that made me decide thats where the book belongs.

“Annie put me in touch with the Somerset Cricket Museum and Mike Unwin got back to me, about three or four months ago and here we are!”

David Wood the curator of the Somerset Cricket Museum said: “ We are very grateful to David Harrison for loaning us the copy of Harold Gimblett’s Hundred which will now take pride of place among the considerable number of items we have relating to one of Somerset’s most successful batsmen.”

The Somerset Cricket Museum is located at the Cooper Associates County Ground behind the Ondaatje Pavilion.

An audio version for visually impaired people has also been recorded by the Chard Talking Pages team and can be found here.

Harold Gimblett left and Alan Pearse- two Watchet boys who played for Somerset
Harold Gimblett batting at Weston