Coleman.
Hulme Hall, Dalton Hall and St Anselm’s Hall are the oldest halls of residence at Manchester University, and traditionally competed against each other annually in all the common sports, as well as some less common, such as the lethal game of “Fives”. Hulme’s Warden in 1961 was the Rev Flitcroft, who liked to win every match in every sport, and each year selected his intake of Freshers accordingly. At the end of the 1960/61 year, a number of Hulme’s cricketers had graduated and departed. So it was that in September 1961 Alan Coleman and Alan Robinson found themselves installed in Hulme and beginning a life-long friendship. Amongst 3rd year residents in Hulme was John Reidford, reputed to be a good footballer and very good cricketer, but Freshers and 3rd year tend not to mix very much, so the first significant encounter between Reidford and the two Alans came early the next summer, when the Hulme cricket XI had its first match of the season.. Reidford bowled a rapid and impressive opening spell, off a long run, then, half-way through an over, reducing his run to a few paces, beckoned keeper Coleman up to the stumps. AJR, improbably fielding at 1st slip, similarly approached the stumps, assuming JIR had pulled a fetlock and would just turn his arm over gently to complete the over. To the considerable alarm of both Alans, the ball was delivered at much the same velocity as those off the long run, prompting AJR to retreat rapidly to a safer distance and AHC to form an ambition, later fulfilled, to take a leg-side stumping off Reidford.
Although John played in other games for Hulme that summer, he chose not to play for the University XI, preferring to concentrate on work for his Final exams, so it was by an unkind turn of fate that he was unable to sit the exams, owing to illness.
Opting to retake the year, Reidford returned to Hulme for the 62/63 session. As most of John’s contemporaries had left Hall, he and the Alans became much closer friends and he was persuaded for the next season to join them in the University team. The opening game of the season was against Lancashire Club and Ground, usually used by the County as a practice session for the first XI. Unsurprisingly, the University found themselves struggling to avoid defeat and, with 9 wickets down, Coleman was attempting to protect a very vulnerable No 11 from the bowling of England leg-spinner Tom Greenhough at one end and at the other a handy quick bowler called Statham. Somehow they contrived to survive for 5 overs, and Coleman kept the strike to face the last over from the great “George”. Alan was using a technique of leaving his bat in the blockhole and walking behind it. Accurate as always, Statham duly hit the bat 5 times, then, apparently despairing of defeating the Coleman block, he tried a gentle leg-break, which pitched short and outside leg stump. The thought of fame as the man who hit Statham for 6 was too much to resist and the well-known Coleman welly was unleashed. Sadly, the ball looped off his gloves and was caught at square leg. As the distraught Coleman dragged himself from the crease, Statham put his arm round his shoulder, saying “Bad luck, son”. Coleman’s subsequent vow never again to wash his sweater was probably kept.
Against lesser opponents, the University XI had a good season, one highlight being the dismissal of Leeds University for 14, Reidford taking 6 for 6. AHC kept wicket with his usual excellence, but, in a strong batting side, he was rarely given much opportunity to play a long innings. On one occasion, the University was playing Liverpool Uni when no regular bowlers were available, so the side was packed with batsmen. Though still well down the order, Alan was able to play his strokes in contributing to a final (winning) score of 392.
AJR captained the University side in 1964, while AHC captained Hulme. As Coleman’s course was of 4-year duration, he was still in Hulme for 64/65, captaining both the Hall and University XI’s. In these, he was joined by Mike Selvey, subsequently an England quick bowler.
As might be imagined, it was a source of some resentment to those in St Anselms Hall, that they were invariably beaten at everything by Hulme. Having a good complement of chess players in Hall in 1964, “Slems” challenged Hulme to a match at that. They really should have known better. Coleman, amongst other talents, was a County chess player and played his part in a 10-nil victory.
Leaving University in 1964, AJR came to work in Lancashire and, commencing in September, was just in time to see the last game of the Liverpool Competition season, invited by John Reidford to go to watch Boughton Hall play at Birkenhead Park. Park at that time were a very strong side, and Boughton Hall were not, so the match ended early and the suggestions in the bar that AJR should join Boughton Hall for the next season seemed a good idea.
Thus, joining the Club in 1965, after a few weeks in the 2nd XI, AJR became a colleague of JPB in the 1st XI, (though rarely, if ever, opening the batting with him). Reidford was working way from Chester, and we were rarely able to bowl opponents out. A further blow to the team was the departure to Wolverhampton, of wicket-keeper John Constable. Coleman, having graduated in July with what was, in those days, the rather rare degree of BA Town Planning, was in something of a seller’s job market, so, at AJR’s suggestion, offered his services to Cheshire County Hall, and duly came to live in Chester, too late to play cricket in 1965, but in time for his first night out in Chester to be at JPB’s Stag night.
In their first match of the 1966 season, Boughton Hall were away at St Helens Recs. There being no incumbent 1st XI keeper, Coleman got the nod to begin a career at Boughton Hall which would last well over 20 years. His debut could hardly have been harder, as he found himself trying to read the leg-breaks and googlies of England player Bob Barber, lately returned from an Ashes series in Australia. Coleman’s keeping proved equal to the task, as it would later do keeping to the pace of West Indians Winston Benjamin and Curtly Ambrose.
Although Boughton Hall’s batting continued to be weak during the late 1960’s, Coleman rarely seemed to have the opportunity to play a “normal” innings. Sometimes the “Statham block” was required – sometimes the run-chase “welly”, in which anything favouring the legside would be heaved into an arc between mid-wicket and long-leg, often necessitating a visit from Anfields, the glass merchants, the following Monday. Alan’s talent as a batsman was, in fact, by no means limited to the two extremes. He and AJR had begun to play regular Sunday cricket with the Crossbatters, and Coleman took full advantage of the opportunity to bat for them at the top of the order. Between June 1966 and May 1968, he scored 4 centuries, as well as an 89 and an 84*, all against respectable attacks. This, of course, was in the days before covered pitches and railway-sleeper bats, when the contest between bat and ball was still evenly balanced. On one particularly enjoyable afternoon, he and AJR put on 169 against a strong Neston team, with AHC contributing 102, and AJR 73.
On occasion, Alan also batted higher up the order for Boughton Hall, but, as the side’s depth of batting increased during the 1970’s, he suffered the common fate of the all-rounder, being demoted below the specialist batsmen in the order, in company with other talented batsmen such as Rob Jones, Richard Dandy and, of course, John Reidford, who had rejoined the Club after his years on the south coast. Coleman would certainly have been worth his place in the team as a specialist batsman and who knows how many runs he might have scored. But then again, he might have become a successful bowler, and thus found himself once more relegated in the order. The Boughton Hall scene was enlivened for a couple of years in the early ‘70’s by the arrival of Nick Calder, an amiable and talented Australian. Nick hit the ball extremely hard, had a throwing arm which made “one for the throw” a farewell statement, and used an entertaining line in “Strine” vernacular. Arriving at Boughton Hall for his first net, on a damp pre-season April day, Nick found Coleman’s bowling difficult to cope with on a net pitch of plasticene consistency. After a couple of destructive innings in the 2nd XI, Nick made his 1st team debut at Wallasey and, learning that we would be in the field, was surprised to see AHC padding up. “Gee”, said Nick. “I didn’t realise ya’s a stumper. Ya bowl a real mean nut!”
At heart though, what Alan really took pride in was his wicket keeping, and in this he was extremely good, though always putting effectiveness before elegance. Had he had the style of an Alan Knott, or Bob Taylor, his talents would have been more widely recognised by those who selected representative sides, but, although he did play at times for Leicestershire 2nd XI, for Cheshire, for UAU and for the Liverpool Competition Select XI, he was regularly overlooked in favour of neater, but less efficient keepers. Coleman’s principle was to take the ball in his gloves, if possible, but otherwise to stop it by whatever other means might be necessary. This point was well illustrated once, when a wayward delivery from Winston Benjamin shot down the leg side. Diving headlong after it, Coleman was struck on the helmet. As the ball rebounded towards the bowler, there was more congratulation for AHC for the prevention of byes than concern about his well-being. Alan always regarded a bye conceded as being an affront to his dignity, and, in each game he played, he conducted his own private competition with his opposite number, as to which of them would concede the fewer byes. It was a contest he rarely lost and, in one extraordinary season, he did not concede a single bye. Nor did he drop many catches nor miss many stumpings. It was reported by a reliable source that, during a Test match in the West Indies, the Windies’ opening bowlers, Benjamin and Ambrose complained to Geoffrey Dujon “ Hey man, we’re used to playing with a keeper who takes his catches!”
All Coleman’s sporting activities were characterised by determination and a fierce will to win. As a football centre-forward at Hulme he prompted the gloomy remark from Rev Flitcroft “Coleman’s just a plodder”, but he plodded effectively enough, both at Hulme and, later, for Chester Nomads, to score a lot of goals. As a completely novice hockey player, further handicapped by being left-handed, Alan once turned out in a Sunday morning hockey friendly against a Neston XI which included a current England international. We decided the best way to counter the threat was to let Coleman "Man-mark" the star, which he did in all senses, never straying more than a yard away from him, treading on his feet and whacking his shins at every opportunity. The star was reduced to impotent fury and we won the match.
Although he did have real talent with the bat to complement his mental strengths, Alan was never likely to be mistaken for David Gower and it was in the quality of his wicket keeping where he genuinely excelled. At an indoor net one winter, AHC and AJR were in conversation with Peter Sutcliffe, a Southport player soon to become National Director of Cricket Coaching . Explaining how, when Southport had found themselves without a wicket-keeper, they had given the gloves to one of the batsmen, Sutcliffe remarked that “You don’t need any special ability to be a wicket-keeper.” The following summer, as Boughton Hall batted against Southport, and the tally of byes ticked steadily upwards, Coleman sat and watched, with a happy smile, muttering “You don’t need any special ability to be a wicket-keeper” – and we all knew better!