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Colonel P.B. Sanger, late of the Royal Artillery, a founder member, described the formation of the Club thus:
"In the early 1920’s, when stationed in Ambala in the Gunners, I was invited by the late Maharajah of Patiala, to take a cricket team to Chail every summer. Chail was in the Simla Hills, 7000 ft up. The Maharajah had cut off the top of one of the peaks and made a cricket ground. It was the most tremendous fun and we played them at everything. Cricket, hockey, tennis, billiards and we even did our best in the whisky stakes. The Patiala Peg was two fingers, measured with the first and little fingers. After we had done this for a few years, we discussed the possibility of forming a Club.
Those who entered the Army, Civil Service or Firms, came out to India at a young age, before they had time to join cricket clubs in England. In those glorious days, one had 6 months leave, every three years. It was generally taken in the summer. The idea was to give the young on leave a Club to play for. Alleyne Coldwell and Vernon Maynard were the great instigators of the venture.
Finally, in 1925, Mason Macfarlayne (in later years Governor of Gibraltar), Coldwell, Maynard and I drove to London to fix the final details and to call the Club the Stragglers of Asia. Next morning we went round to Fosters to select the tie. After much argument, especially from Vernon who kept saying "we must have apple green in it", Eira my wife chose the tie. We then went round to lunch with the Maharajah of Patiala at the Savoy and made him an honorary member for life."
Captain A Coldwell of the Northamptonshire Regiment became Hon Secretary based at the regimental depot in Northampton. A great many of his brother officers joined. At the same time an Hon Foreign Secretary was appointed in Calcutta. Under the benign leadership of Vernon Maynard, who became known as the Founder, the club was immediately successful. Representatives were appointed all over the Far East as far as China. Membership was by introduction only and Representatives introduced potential candidates to the Foreign Secretary who forwarded all details to the UK, where the Home Secretary helped candidates to play their qualifiers when on leave. The qualification for membership was "to have been in residence for at least two years East Of Suez". |
The Maharajah of Patiala
The Fixture list rapidly developed and consisted, in the main, of a tour of Oxford Colleges, a tour of Cambridge Colleges and a West Country tour.
In 1939 eighteen fixtures were played. At the end of that year, the Second World War broke out and the club ceased to function. No matches were played and no meetings were held throughout the war. In 1945, a small advertisement appeared in the Times asking any interested Stragglers to meet. Six Stragglers appeared and it was decided to start again and six matches were arranged for 1946, printed on a fixture card the size of a cigarette packet.
There was a powerful new interest because many people, through their war service, were able to qualify under the old rule of Eastern residence. The 1948 Membership list recorded 414 members with 1 Lt. General, 1 Major General, 12 Brigadiers, 23 Colonels and 84 Lt. Colonels.
In 1954 Colonel Sanger began fixtures in Germany. This was a fruitful ground for the Stragglers and up to ten fixtures a year were played against military establishments, some touring sides, and against some Dutch clubs. However, as the British civilian and military presence East of Suez diminished, so did the main source of membership. Membership difficulties resulted in a committee warning being sent to all members that the Club might have to disband. Finally, at a meeting in the Star Tavern, Belgravia in 1982 it was decided to open membership to cricketers of like mind. This meeting can be taken as the birth of the modern Stragglers. The Hong Kong Stragglers continue to play one or two matches each year, but Stragglers in Germany played their last fixture in 1994. With the reduction in the armed forces, new players are now mainly civilian and the military nature of the club has changed. Successive committees adopted an active policy of improving the fixture list in quality and quantity as well as expecting high standards from members on and off the field. The club now has over 400 members and a fixture list featuring over 30 high quality matches. |
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Major Hugh Lindsay joined the Club in 1985, aged 32, having been at Millfield and then being commissioned into the 9th/12th Lancers. He served as an Equerry to the Queen and was a close friend of the Prince of Wales. An “aggressive early order bat,” according to the club records, he was an all- round good character, with many Straggler friends. Very sadly he lost his life in a well publicized skiing accident |
in an avalanche at Klosters in early 1988.The Committee decided to institute a memorial trophy in his honour, as an annual award to the “young cricketer of the year.” The first recipient was Rupert Baraimian, who received the trophy from Hugh Lindsay’s widow at the Cross Arrows game at Lord’s in September 1988. Since then the trophy has been awarded yearly at the Annual Dinner. |
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The Club has long prided itself on the quality of its tours. Indeed, a large proportion of the fixture card in the 1920’s and 1930’s was made up of the tours playing Oxford and Cambridge colleges. The sobriquet of “a good tourist” appears in more than one description of a Straggler in the Club records.
In the heyday of BAOR (British Army on the Rhine), there were several tours to Holland and Denmark, and, fondly remembered by many, Berlin – when West Berlin was a NATO enclave surrounded by Communist East Germany. The nightlife had that certain edge that nearby barbed wire and minefields seemed to enhance.
In 1986, the Committee resolved that “Tours need to be planned well ahead, and not be too ambitious”, but immediately disregarded the latter point. In 1993 a fantastically successful venture to Hong Kong went ahead (one tourist stayed on in Hong Kong the next five years or so!) and this was followed by the Western Cape, South Africa, in 1997, the 75th anniversary tour to India in 2000, and Sri Lanka in 2004. In 2003, a planned tour of Argentina was cancelled and replaced in 2004 when the Stragglers |
went on a 7 match tour to Sri Lanka. The 2000 tour to India enjoyed the active co-operation and assistance of HH Captain Amarinder Singh, Maharajah of Patiala – grandson of the “original” Maharajah. A symbolic match was played on the Chail ground - and the tour culminated with a great match against HH’s XI containing six members of the Patiala family, as well as Bishen Bedi (ex Captain of India) and Mushtaq Mohammed (ex Captain of Pakistan). The touring party enjoyed extravagant hospitality and a warm reception wherever it went.
In 2007, a touring party flew once again to India, this time to play 8 matches, including a day and night match in Mumbai. A diary of the tour or ‘Tales from the Raj’ was published each day and posted onto our Website. This has been kept as an historical record for future years.
Between major tours our “short” tours have been most successful and have included long week-ends in Portugal, Cyprus, Malta and a memorable 6-a-side tournament in the Argarve in 2007. in the UK a ‘West Country’ tour is undertaken from time to time and a ‘Northern’ Tour is planned during the 2009 season. |
Vernon Maynard was an old boy of Eastbourne College against whom the Stragglers have played an annual fixture since the first club fixture in 1925. In 1955, the committee of the Stragglers presented to him and Mrs Maynard two silver plated sauceboats for the “feeding and watering” which they had provided to the committee at their home for many years. In 1988, at the Annual Dinner, Maynard’s son, Matthew, presented the sauceboats back to the club “for safe keeping”. These sauceboats, plus other silverware and trophies collected over |
the years, are now displayed in the Eastbourne College pavilion. In 2001, another trophy was added to the collection after the 75th Jubilee Match at Eastbourne when Devraj Jadeja – who is related to the Ranjitsinghji family - presented the Patiala Bowl, which is played for annually. The inscription on the trophy reads:
The Patiala Bowl
to be played for between Eastbourne College
and Stragglers of Asia Cricket Club.
Presented by the family of HH Ranjitsinghji, Jamsahib of Nawanagar. |
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Largely on the initiative of Jack Hyde-Blake, the Club began a “100 Club” to help defray the costs of cricket in 1985. Members are invited to make quarterly payments into a fund, which pays out 60% (net of costs) to lucky winners of the quarterly draws, whilst 40% goes into Club funds. |
On the occasion of the Stragglers tour to India in 2000, permission was obtained from our Honorary Life Member, the Maharajah of Patiala, to change the name to the “Patiala” Club. The Patiala Club is now supported by most members and a few non-playing friends and provides an important source of club funds. |
