Words: Simon Travers
With thanks to Barbara Marshall and Maxi Marshall
Nets are in session, the indoor team have been in the mix all winter, and squads are forming; it won’t be long and we’ll gather and count ourselves lucky to be freezing cold under four layers in an Oak Park April. However, this special edition of The Sweep aims to reflect on a significant change from the offseason. Those who attended the 2024 end of season dinner dance will already know that club Chairman Graham Baskerville has announced his retirement from the role after 37 seasons. The Cornwood Cricket family gave Graham a thunderous appreciation that night, but there is opportunity now to look back and appreciate Graham’s lifetime of investment in Cornwood CC.
A quick check on ancestry.com will tell you that there have been Baskervilles living in and around Cornwood for centuries. Graham’s club debut happened in the club’s pre-history before the earliest remaining scorebooks of the 1966 season. The first time his name appears in the records is a match on 8th May 1966 against Regent CC. Graham put on 5 for the second wicket with his brother Garfield before being Ct Duffin B Wonnacott for 29 in a low scoring, nail-biting win. The date of the last time Graham pulled on a Cornwood shirt is also elusive. That means it is impossible to attribute Graham with definitive lifetime statistics but the following can be said. In over 600 appearances at all levels for Cornwood, Graham scored over 7000 runs, took over 115 wickets, and over 200 catches. In the heart of his career, between 1966-1996, Graham averaged around 14 with the bat and 13 as a part-time bowler. Which arguably qualifies him as a very Dartmoor kind of all-rounder, built for endurance in a Jurassic era of pitch preparation.
In Graham’s decades as a Cornwood player, three matches stand out as career highlights that reveal his best as a cricketer. Graham made eight 50’s, the first of which was his tied career top score of 83, made as part of a team total of 183-6 against the Nomads on 20th July, 1969. If that date sounds familiar, that is because it was the day that Apollo 11 landed on the moon for the first time. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were in lunar orbit, making their last preparations for that ‘one small step’, Graham was getting the front foot forward in and sending 13 rockets to the boundary before being trapped LBW.
If there is one match though that could be described as ‘Graham’s Match’, that would be nearly two years to the day later on the 17th July, 1971. The weather had been kind that year with Plymouth Hoe experiencing its sunniest July in 60 years. On a dry wicket at Langton Park against Yelverton 2XI, Cornwood batted first and in the 9th over, at 3:07pm, Graham walked to the crease at number 3. Yelverton’s Prince had drawn first blood skittling Shinner for 15 with the score on 22-1. Graham carried the team to 185-9 in 46 overs and carried his bat for another 83* in 113 minutes with 11 fours. However, the day was far from done, as the Yelverton reply had reached 110-5 with 29 overs gone and Prince looked settled and dangerous on 30. In today’s money, a chase of 76 needed with 5 wickets in hand and 17 overs feels entirely makable, but with decimal currency in the UK only 5 months old, the draw may have been looking the likeliest outcome. Graham was tossed the ball as the fourth bowler used. In his first over, Graham forced Yelverton’s number six Quantick into defence through a maiden. The first ball of his next over, Graham broke through Prince’s defences to bowl him for 32. Four balls later, the number eight Williams also heard the death rattle. The collapse was on and it turned into a rout as Graham’s next over was another double wicket maiden. Alder grasped the last wicket to fall to prevent Graham getting an extraordinary 5-fer, but he finished with figures of 3-3-0-4 and Cornwood won by 74 runs. Yelverton collapsed from 110-5 to 111 all out.
For a later vintage Baskerville, you need to step back to the 29th August, 1992, the day Muttiah Muralitharan took his first test wicket. At Oak Park, the Second Team B Division Championship needed wrapping up with a Twos win. Facing lowly Galmpton 2s, things were not going according to plan. Earlier, Phil Warren took 5-44 as Galmpton set a target of 141. However, that target looked distant at 6:04pm when Graham came to the crease with 19 overs remaining and the score on 81-6. Over the next 77 minutes, Graham led the team home to a last ball, one wicket win with 45* including 3 fours. There was a heart in the mouth moment in the last over though. 1 run to win, 2 balls remaining, Graham facing: he connects, the call is ‘yes’, and Maxi Marshall is run out at the keeper’s end. Fortunately, Steve Horton held his nerve and hit the necessary single from the final ball.
Graham stepped up from the Vice Chairman’s role to Chairman at the start of the 1988 season. He has been the club’s third chairman, after Major Parker and Jack Blackshaw. Maybe the best way to reflect on Graham’s achievements as a club leader is to consider the ways that he has brought continuity of culture and purpose in a time of rapid change. Graham is as consistent a part of Cornwood’s heritage as the view from the clubhouse down to the pink tree.
It's boggling how much has changed since Graham started as Chairman. In 1988, the Firsts came third in D division (equivalent to C Division today). 3 promotions in the next 12 years meant that Cornwood were a Premier side by the Millenium. 1988 was only 9 years after electricity was available in the clubhouse, and 10 years before Cornwood signed its first overseas player.
That’s not nearly the whole story though. Graham’s chairmanship has seen growth in every area, from two adult men’s teams to five, the growth of the women’s section, the opening of the Delamore Park ground, Brian Gould’s work in starting the colt’s section, two redevelopments of the clubhouse, followed by the new pavilion opening in 2010. There’s space at Oak Park for everyone who loves cricket; from the youngest acorn holding a bat for the first time, to seasoned professionals connected to the highest levels of accomplishment in the sport.
Regular Sweep readers know that there is a special place in these pages for Cornwood’s army of volunteers. Graham helped to build and sustain a culture of volunteering and understood the value of people giving their time to assist others to perform on the park. The change Cornwood has seen could never be as a result of one person’s labours. However, as a club representative, spokesperson, encourager and leader, Graham has embodied how to win at Dartmoor cricket; get stuck in, stay at the crease, keep a line and length, and celebrate the team.
Incoming Chairman Nick Goodliffe provided a personal tribute for Graham as he steps down. Nick commented:
“My involvement at Cornwood CC began very soon after the turn of the century, so sadly I don’t recall seeing Graham performing on the pitch. He did however, welcome me into the club when my inquisitive nature drew me in and I started to play a few matches for the 4th XI. That was the start of an association and subsequently a deep friendship which continues to this day. Graham was canny manipulator and very soon I was lured into various volunteering tasks, which evolved over a short period into a committee role as Club Development Officer and a member of the project team responsible for raising the funds and then delivering our not so new pavilion in 2010. Throughout my time on the committee Graham was at the helm, and was a voice of reason on occasions when difficult decisions had to be made. His common-sense approach often left us pondering “why didn’t we think of that”.
Cut Graham and he bleeds green, not just for his beloved Plymouth Argyle, but of course for Cornwood CC as well. After so many years of dedication to the club, it is now time reflect on what can only be described as a monumental effort, steering the ship for so long, and through great changes. Graham is never short of an interesting yarn about our humble beginnings and I would encourage our members to join Graham on his favourite park bench for a natter, once when the season gets underway.
Cornwood CC is widely recognised for doing things right and often leaves folk wondering, as a small village club, how we maintain our position in the top flight of Devon cricket with an inclusive and welcoming culture that allows our membership to thrive. Graham has played a huge part in shaping the club into the entity it is today, and I am honoured to be taking over the chair duties from him. A tough act to follow but I’m confident with such a dedicated committee, a strong depth of dedicated volunteers and the support of our entire membership, I have an robust platform to make a good go of it.”
As Nick said, Graham will still be taking up his usual spot at the boundary’s edge come the 3rd May, when the Ones begin their Premier Division campaign with an intriguing matchup against last year’s runaway A Division champions North Devon. It will be great to see you there too. Stay warm. Keep getting your eye in.
Great article. On Big G’s last game, I am sure he played in the first match of the Aug 2007 tour to Reading, where I was especially careful not to run him out! He treated us to some fine nurdles to leg, but I think he then called time on his playing days after that. Daniel Harris.