Dick and Pat Wilding Memorial

This memorial piece collates headline memories and images of Dick & Pat, across their remarkable innings of 75 years’ involvement at Berkhamsted Cricket Club.

They could rightly be called ‘childhood sweethearts’ as their mothers were well acquainted and Dick & Pat would walk out together in their respective prams in the mid-1930s….

Dick’s senior education was at Berkhamsted Boys School, where he enjoyed sporting success at athletics, cricket and rugger. His close friend Brian Hines was a 1^st XI regular at the School, and after leaving in 1951 they both joined Berkhamsted Cricket Club.

Dick & Pat were married on 26^th January 1957, albeit at a slightly untraditional time of the year, and set up home in Crossfell Road, Leverstock Green.

A first journey through their life within Berkhamsted Cricket Club can then be mapped out through the many and varied Club offices the two of them have held.

Dick is known to have been the 3^rd XI captain in 1956 & 1957, then a few years later in 1963 he began a 6-year spell as captain of the now-legendary Wanderers team, sharing the role with the likes of DAG Harrison, John Keen and then a youthful Peter O’Toole.  During a short rest from captaincy, Dick took over the Team Secretary’s role from Gordon Paton and managed that busy and essential task for two years before Gordon picked up the reins again.

Dick immediately allowed himself to be re-elected as captain of the BCC 3^rd XI, the Wanderers ‘flag’ having been lowered for the last time in favour of returning to the standard title of a 3^rd XI. He shared the captaincy from 1973 with fellow-wicketkeeper Bill Johnson, and then in 1976 and 1977 with Steve James.

Upon the departure from the role of Jack Keating, Dick was unanimously elected to be BCC’s new Hon Secretary at the AGM of 1977, holding the post through many dramatic developments in the Club’s history (including the move to Kitchener’s Field) before handing on to James Cadman in 1989.

During that spell of a dozen years, Dick had the additional honour of being elected as a Life Member of BCC in 1986. He also had the pleasure of welcoming Pat onto the Club’s Management Committee in 1984, a post she occupied with wit and distinction for six years.

As 1990 arrived, Dick served in that year as both Chairman and Team Secretary, helping to resolve some of the difficulties that were emerging in the Club’s governance arrangements at Kitchener’s Field. He then welcomed Colin Buckle into a lengthy and crucial spell as Chair from 1991 onwards, with Dick taking an extraordinarily well-deserved break from holding any office within the Club.

With Dick’s playing career receding into memory, Dick & Pat started to attend matches with less frequency. However Dick’s interest in participating was re-kindled by an invitation in 1999 to stand as Umpire in the traditional annual fixture at Kitchener’s Field between Jon Griffin’s XI and Andy Niven’s XI. Dick required quite a bit of persuasion to do so, but then enjoyed it so much that he started off upon several years of umpiring for BCC teams, primarily the 2^nd XI, right through until the 2011 season.

Returning to Dick’s playing career, he had enjoyed occupying the strange world of being a specialist wicket-keeper whereby people ascend and descend a single ladder amongst the XIs depending upon other wicket-keepers’ availability, form, etc. At various times in his BCC career that often had him playing in the 3^rd XI one weekend and the 1^st XI on the following one, but Dick brought the same love of cricket and fair play to any fixture. He distinguished himself as a safe catcher and stumper from his unique crouching style, together with being a brave and resourceful batsman from  any position in the order. Meanwhile in Watford and throughout the Home Counties, Dick was fulfilling a successful winter role as a Rugby Union referee, having played for many seasons (again with his schoolboy friend Brian Hines) at the Camelot club in Hemel Hempstead.

With Pat looking on from the boundary and ever the life and soul of the ‘family spirit’ amongst whichever group of players & supporters they were with, a bottomless well of mutual love and admiration from fellow Club members was built up over many years for “Dicky Mint and Patty”. With son Ed, born in 1964, growing up within the Club’s ‘family’ alongside numerous other ‘cricket kids’, Dick & Pat provided outstanding support on and off the cricket field, plus through numerous winters as members of BCC’s Darts Team.

Back at the cricket ground, here is a photograph from Pat’s family album of the BCC Gents v Ladies fixture at Lower Kings Road in September 1976, with Pat looking cool and collected before the game alongside spectator Jackie Collins (left) and Sandra Warren ready to open the batting, standing next to young Simon Collin:

Aside from being the formal Captain for any given season, Dick led many a BCC 3^rd XI team into the field including on this occasion at the Cow Roast in 1980 against Hemel Hempstead: 

But no description of the Wilding family’s contribution to the history of Berkhamsted Cricket Club would be complete without the narrative thread of BCC cricket tours !  Dick’s flair for organisation made itself fully apparent to all who joined in the BCC Centenary season’s tour to Deventer in Holland, in August 1975. The four fixtures played were probably the easiest aspect to arrange, amongst return travel plans and keeping everyone involved in the social events.

The following year, 1976, the same magic formula was applied closer to home with a tour to Cheltenham, creating a successful bond with the staff at the Pittville Court Hotel in the town.
Legendary stories of that baking hot summer still roll down the years, with morning visits to Pittville Park’s pitch & putt course, tennis courts and boating lake setting everyone up for a hearty lunch followed by an afternoon’s cricket at Old Patesians, Stinchcombe Stragglers or Frocester.

This tour and venue was therefore repeated for two further years, with Pat shown here in a team photograph from the 1978 visit:

To mark the end of this hat-trick of Cotswold tours, the hotel manager Mr Nightingale presented Dick & Pat with a symbolic umbrella, to which the tour party collectively added other commemorative gifts.

Ed Wilding and Christopher Meager are shown in this photograph, spectating at Frocester which would always be the final fixture of the week.

After a one-year rest, 1980 saw Berkhamsted CC head to the south coast with a tour to Brighton. 

Pat and Ed are shown here taking the sea air on Brighton Pier, while Pat features between Andre Machon and Janet O’Toole in the photograph on the hotel balcony:

The call of the Cotswolds was then heard again, and 1982 saw a successful return to Cheltenham with a full touring party and numerous supporters. Shown in the ‘squad’ below are Dick (front row left, in relaxed Tour manager mode) and Ed (back row, fourth from right). 



Pat included a return visit to the Pittville Park boating lake in her week’s entertainment, helped here by Peter O’Toole and various youngsters.

The following year (1983), Dick & Pat’s organisation was re-applied to Europe and a cricketing stay in Scheveningen which is located on the North Sea coast just to the west of The Hague. That location accounts for the following ‘seaside snap’, with Pat & Dick surrounded by (from left) Martin Everitt, Steve Dunford, Steve Phipps and Bob James.

Ed Wilding recalls: “The Scheveningen tour was in August 1983. We played French Cricket in the ferry port at Dover, and upon arrival stayed in a haunted Hotel called Gouden Wieken, part of which was an old Nunnery. I remember we used to have a Chocomel on the beach and a swim before lunch at the hotel then off to the match on our coach. Ian the coach driver got a game in too !

Also we had a morning in Amsterdam before returning home.”

The final BCC tour under Dick & Pat’s management was a further return to Cheltenham, in 1988, as is evident from the Pittville Park scenes here.

Dick is shown with various BCC team-mates in the pre-match photograph below, waiting to keep wicket.

…and as this Gazette headline indicates, it was dubbed a happy tour by all involved.

Towards the end of that 1988 season, Berkhamsted hosted a special match between Mike Gatting’s XI and Jack Richards’ XI, both of whom were in their benefit year with Middlesex and Surrey respectively.

There had been a great deal of rain in the preceding days, so a lot of hard work by the groundstaff was required to enable the match to go ahead. However as these photos indicate, Mike Gatting was “O.K. to go” and Dick’s trusty checklist of preparatory tasks ensured that everything ran to schedule.

The boundary edge was ringed with marquees serving food & drink or sheltering the sponsors from passing showers.

One legendary tale from the cricket action arose from a stroke being hit hard & high towards the Harrowell & Atkins tent, whereupon Dennis Atkins stepped forward inside the boundary rope and caught it. He was rewarded by Mike Gatting insisting he come onto the pitch and field for a couple of overs, still dressed in his business suit !

Re-tracing the path to the first page of this Memorial piece, Dick eventually stood down from BCC offices in 1991, and finally retired from playing soon after that.

Dick’s father Granville Richard Wilding had been a Vice-President of Berkhamsted Cricket Club from 1966 – 86, so the Wilding family heritage at the Club was deeply rooted.

Here is a family album three-generation photograph featuring Dick, Ed and Granville.

With Pat enduring health problems, the family’s participation at the Club became more measured. Her death in July 2008 still came as a great shock to all members of BCC, and numerous tributes were paid to her lasting memory including a memorial bench at the ground.

Following the death of Norman Warren in 2013, the honorary role of President of Berkhamsted Cricket Club required a new occupant and Dick was duly recruited, to widespread acclaim across the membership.

He enjoyed various opportunities to contribute within the Club’s annual cycle.

As Julian Dent, then the BCC Chair, explained: “Dick was always good value for saying something really kind or helpful when asked to present the trophies and other prizes at the end of season celebration dinner. His stories always seemed to include Andre Machon needing to be picked up from random spots on the route to away games in the days before mobile phones, but succeeding nevertheless! Obviously some kind of telepathic communication going on between them.

I enjoyed many chats with him on the decking in his latter days, which always started with me asking him how he was and Dick replying “Bloody Awful” with a grin.”

Here is the photograph that hangs on the Pavilion wall at Kitchener’s Field in tribute to Dick’s term at President.

Julian went on to recount the splendid tale of that winter’s Ashes series in Australia, which Dick had arranged to visit in person whereupon he then encountered Julian and wife Jan at the Melbourne Test.

“We had sourced our tickets for the Boxing Day Test through MCC channels and so also received an invitation to the Christmas Day lunch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), to which we added Dickie. It was a magnificent occasion with spectacular table-centre displays of cakes of Melbourne sports stadia, including an enormous one of the MCG itself. Sadly this was not to be eaten, only brought out each year for show!

After lunch ended, we filed out and noticed many guests heading down onto the hallowed turf, so we followed along. Mike Gatting was the MCC President that year so had also been at the lunch. Dickie’s eyes lit up and he strode over to shake his hand and ask him how much he had enjoyed playing at Berkhamsted in 1988! Gatt was obviously very used to being reminded of what for him were one of many such events but for the Club were real highlights, and managed a very convincing response telling Dickie everything he wanted to hear.

Dickie was greatly impressed and regaled all at the Club later in the year with what fond memories Gatt had of playing at Berkhamsted fifteen years previously! “

Battling on through deteriorating health, Dick continued to preside at the annual gathering for BCC Life Members and Vice Presidents, welcoming all in attendance and taking his place at the lunch table. His death in May 2022 brought an end to his memorable innings for the Club, some parts of which have been summarised and illustrated in this Memorial Dedication piece. Dick was succeeded as BCC’s President by Julian Dent.

The final and following picture seems the best to close with, showing Dick and Pat in their happiest of surroundings : watching a game of cricket in the sunshine, with Ed somewhere close by.