From David Sweetman, MilanCC honorary president, memories:
“Before leaving London, destination Milan, I made sure to give my bat and other useful gear to an up and coming cricketer at my former club in Chingford, Essex. I was sure that at 32 years of age my decision to move to ltaly meant the end of my cricket career, but I felt that having played school and club cricket for the preceeding 22 years, I had had a pretty good innings.
Certainly I would see some cricket on my future visits back to London or Dublin, but to tell the truth I have always enjoyed playing myself more than watching others, no matter how good, play.
My surprise was indeed immense when, a month after arriving in a cold and foggy Milan, I was invited to a meeting which had the objective of funding a cricket club. The meeting was held in the old (and sadly defunct) British American Club in Corso Venezia, and there were at least 20 people present. The meeting was run by John Di Vita (the President of Ronson) and John Dexter (Managing Director of Commercial Union), brother of iconic England captain Ted Dexter. There was a great deal of enthusiasiasm about the project, something which I have noted has continued at our A.G.M.’s, also held in February; maybe it is the thought of the coming spring and summer, because even now some people seem to lose something between brave words uttered in February, and turning up on the day some months later. To my complete amazement not to say concern, the meeting ended with my being elected club secretary.
At least John Di Vita was President, he seemed to know how to get things done, and a Price Waterhouse man, Peter Rogers was Captain. We also had a good list of names of (very) varying ages but no ground and no fixtures.
I did what seemed logical, I rang many British Consulates or Embassies throughout Europe and in this way made contact with the Standard Sporting Club in Paris Geneva Cricket Club. Naturally our 1972 season was composed solely of away fixtures, 6 games in all. I don’t remember how we did, but not badly, Peter Rogers was a superb batsman and captain, and others played well too. Hector Doel and Mike Northcott of I.C.I. come to mind, as do Richard Murray, “Avvocato” John Brebner, Roger Bevan and John Barnes. I do remember that París had a very good side, Geneva were very aggressive and determinad to win.
During the summer John Di Vita and John Dexter, who both had summer homes in the Menaggio/Grandola area, looked for a ground and, legend has it, that our present ground was found when on Boxing Day they emerged from a walk in the woods to see this flat ground which the locals call the “Binadona”, in front of them in the fog and John Di Vita declared that this was where we would play cricket.
In the Spring of 1973 we dug a deep hale in the middle of our rented land, and filled it with stones for a base and topped it off with red earth, just as we do now. John Di Vita, who was wonderful at getting the impossible done by tomorrow, even in ltaly, had a jute mat delivered from England, had large nails made to hold it firm, even hired a heavy road roller to even the bumpy outfield and also imported wickets and gear.
We had several skirmishes with the local contadini who did not seem to understand or enjoy our presence, especially when the ball went onto their plot, but the heated discussions always ended before blood flowed -money usually talked – once we had to pay an exorbitant 200.000 Lire for trampled hay, probably worth less than half that sum. However, I feel we can safely say that these bendings of our high principles were well worthwhile as the club still prospers many years later.
We played happily, home and away through most of the 1970’s, probably no more than 12 to 14 games a year. lt was not long before we noticed that players carne and went with frightening regularity. The late 1970’s were the period of the Brigate Rosse in ltaly, and sorne fareign firms closed or reduced their overseas staff, leaving us with less players; very thoughtless of them! One of our earliest games in 1974 was at Zuoz against the Lyceum Alpinum side, run by Roger Myrsep.
John Di Vita had died very suddenly in 1982 and much to our sorrow we were without our founding President. Without John’s drive and knowledge of how to get things done in ltaly we would never have got the club off the ground.
In 1975 we played our first fixture at Grandola against the Squash Club XI run by Henry Putnam. John Dexter played regularly with Henry’s team, as on one or two occasions did his brother Ted, as well as many other interesting people. Henry always tried to pull a surprise out of the bag, his objective was always to win, sportingly, of course! The result of this first game was 155 far 12 wickets by the Squash Club XI with HTP himself contributing 38 retired (!) and Nick Kuensberg 40. We could only muster 86 all out. The following year the game ended in an incredible tie, 166 each.
Apart from introducing many new players to us, the fixtures with Henry’s XI also introduced us to S.R. Bramley, Bram far short. One speech from Bram and he was elected President.
One of my own best memories of the period is that I was invited to join Geneva on a tour to Barbados in 1979. At a cost of FS350, flying Laker Airways (remember them?) from Gatwick, I could not say no. lt was the best 1O days of my life, in fact, it was so good several players refused to get on the plane back home, really!
In 1979 we moved our ground to Milan, the American School. I think it was mainly a cost problem, but we soon discovered that hotels and meals in Milan cost 3 times Grandola prices. After 3 seasons in Milan we decided to try to revive Grandola, because of threats by our regular opposition not play us again until we returned there. So John Thorpe, who meantime had become secretary as I had moved to Padova, set out in the winter to inspect our former pitch and declared it still playable, subject to a bit of hard work!
That was another turning point in the story of the club; without John’s detemination to return to play at Grandola, I think we would not have survived much longer in Milan.
A match which stands out in my mind during our short Milan period was against a New Zealand World Tour XI, which included a test player (Bryan Andrews). To say they were very good is to minimize, suffice to give the scores, in 40 overs they got 220 for 3, and we were all out for 18, our lowest score ever, I hated them! John will remember as I do how much money that weekend cost us; we had to pay for everything for them, including breakfast at the airport and a dinner at Terry Bruce’s home.
So we have arrived to the 1980s, back to Grandola, and I returned to Milan. A new era in our history will to be written, hard to foresee that it would last for over half a century.”
From David Sweetman, MilanCC honorary president, memories:
“Before leaving London, destination Milan, I made sure to give my bat and other useful gear to an up and coming cricketer at my former club in Chingford, Essex. I was sure that at 32 years of age my decision to move to ltaly meant the end of my cricket career, but I felt that having played school and club cricket for the preceeding 22 years, I had had a pretty good innings.
Certainly I would see some cricket on my future visits back to London or Dublin, but to tell the truth I have always enjoyed playing myself more than watching others, no matter how good, play.
My surprise was indeed immense when, a month after arriving in a cold and foggy Milan, I was invited to a meeting which had the objective of funding a cricket club. The meeting was held in the old (and sadly defunct) British American Club in Corso Venezia, and there were at least 20 people present. The meeting was run by John Di Vita (the President of Ronson) and John Dexter (Managing Director of Commercial Union), brother of iconic England captain Ted Dexter. There was a great deal of enthusiasiasm about the project, something which I have noted has continued at our A.G.M.’s, also held in February; maybe it is the thought of the coming spring and summer, because even now some people seem to lose something between brave words uttered in February, and turning up on the day some months later. To my complete amazement not to say concern, the meeting ended with my being elected club secretary.
At least John Di Vita was President, he seemed to know how to get things done, and a Price Waterhouse man, Peter Rogers was Captain. We also had a good list of names of (very) varying ages but no ground and no fixtures.
I did what seemed logical, I rang many British Consulates or Embassies throughout Europe and in this way made contact with the Standard Sporting Club in Paris Geneva Cricket Club. Naturally our 1972 season was composed solely of away fixtures, 6 games in all. I don’t remember how we did, but not badly, Peter Rogers was a superb batsman and captain, and others played well too. Hector Doel and Mike Northcott of I.C.I. come to mind, as do Richard Murray, “Avvocato” John Brebner, Roger Bevan and John Barnes. I do remember that París had a very good side, Geneva were very aggressive and determinad to win.
During the summer John Di Vita and John Dexter, who both had summer homes in the Menaggio/Grandola area, looked for a ground and, legend has it, that our present ground was found when on Boxing Day they emerged from a walk in the woods to see this flat ground which the locals call the “Binadona”, in front of them in the fog and John Di Vita declared that this was where we would play cricket.
In the Spring of 1973 we dug a deep hale in the middle of our rented land, and filled it with stones for a base and topped it off with red earth, just as we do now. John Di Vita, who was wonderful at getting the impossible done by tomorrow, even in ltaly, had a jute mat delivered from England, had large nails made to hold it firm, even hired a heavy road roller to even the bumpy outfield and also imported wickets and gear.
We had several skirmishes with the local contadini who did not seem to understand or enjoy our presence, especially when the ball went onto their plot, but the heated discussions always ended before blood flowed -money usually talked – once we had to pay an exorbitant 200.000 Lire for trampled hay, probably worth less than half that sum. However, I feel we can safely say that these bendings of our high principles were well worthwhile as the club still prospers many years later.
We played happily, home and away through most of the 1970’s, probably no more than 12 to 14 games a year. lt was not long before we noticed that players carne and went with, frightening regularity. The late 1970’s were the period of the Brigate Rosse in ltaly, and sorne fareign firms closed or reduced their overseas staff, leaving us with less players; very thoughtless of them! One of our earliest games in 1974 was at Zuoz against the Lyceum Alpinum side, run by Roger Myrsep.
John Di Vita had died very suddenly in 1982 and much to our sorrow we were without our founding President. Without John’s drive and knowledge of how to get things done in ltaly we would never have got the club off the ground.
In 1975 we played our first fixture at Grandola against the Squash Club XI run by Henry Putnam. John Dexter played regularly with Henry’s team, as on one or two occasions did his brother Ted, as well as many other interesting people. Henry always tried to pull a surprise out of the bag, his objective was always to win, sportingly, of course! The result of this first game was 155 far 12 wickets by the Squash Club XI with HTP himself contributing 38 retired (!) and Nick Kuensberg 40. We could only muster 86 all out. The following year the game ended in an incredible tie, 166 each.
Apart from introducing many new players to us, the fixtures with Henry’s XI also introduced us to S.R. Bramley, Bram far short. One speech from Bram and he was elected President.
One of my own best memories of the period is that I was invited to join Geneva on a tour to Barbados in 1979. At a cost of FS350, flying Laker Airways (remember them?) from Gatwick, I could not say no. lt was the best 1O days of my life, in fact, it was so good several players refused to get on the plane back home, really!
In 1979 we moved our ground to Milan, the American School. I think it was mainly a cost problem, but we soon discovered that hotels and meals in Milan cost 3 times Grandola prices. After 3 seasons in Milan we decided to try to revive Grandola, because of threats by our regular opposition not play us again until we returned there. So John Thorpe, who meantime had become secretary as I had moved to Padova, set out in the winter to inspect our former pitch and declared it still playable, subject to a bit of hard work!
That was another turning point in the story of the club; without John’s detemination to return to play at Grandola, I think we would not have survived much longer in Milan.
A match which stands out in my mind during our short Milan period was against a New Zealand World Tour XI, which included a test player (Bryan Andrews). To say they were very good is to minimize, suffice to give the scores, in 40 overs they got 220 for 3, and we were all out for 18, our lowest score ever, I hated them! John will remember as I do how much money that weekend cost us; we had to pay for everything for them, including breakfast at the airport and a dinner at Terry Bruce’s home.
So we have arrived to the 1980s, back to Grandola, and I returned to Milan. A new era in our history will to be written, hard to foresee that it would last for over half a century.”