The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

Some very sad news to taint an otherwise bright Easter weekend – Sir Alec Bedser, one of the greatest cricketers of his generation and long-standing Horsell resident, died yesterday aged 91. Many more senior residents will remember the heyday of the Bedser twins (his brother Eric died in 2006) in the 1940s and early 50s and his exploits for England, when he carried the attack at a time when there was precious little support as England emerged from the cricketed hiatus of the Second World War.

There are a variety of very good obituaries to him in many of the nationals today. But many in Horsell will have known him personally, living as he did in Carlton Road for so long. I was lucky enough to meet both twins at the Surrey History Centre in 2003 launching an exhibition on Surrey County Cricket Club but had no further contact with them until I wrote the obituary for Eric in the Woking News and Mail three years later. Most people would want silly reporters somewhere else on the death of a loved one – not Sir Alec, who phoned the paper up personally to make sure that we got his brother’s factsright.

After, I met Sir Alec on various occasions and he espoused everything good about sport. Eric bequested an amount of money to Horsell Residents’ Association, which the association uses to fund achievement prizes for the village’schools. For some time in the 1970s, Sir Alec ran a youth and sporting club at Horsell Village Hall, where signed potraits of the twins are now on permanent display. Generous with his time and wisdom, there was nothing of the modern-day sporting prima donna about Sir Alec. He would talk with gusto about the modern game and while, yes, he was very definitely of the old school, he never left you in any doubt what he meant. And that’s less common than you’d think.

Both twins were passionate about their sport and also believed in the value of community, of selflessness and that sport was an act of athleticism and competition, yes, but also of pleasure and entertainment for the paying public. Their sense of duty to Surrey, England and those around them was a rare thing and Horsell and Woking have been blessed to have the Bedser twins play the part they did in our story.