CHRIS WOODS meets a stalwart of Northumberland cricket who is still donning his whites in his seventies.
HE picked up a cricket bat the year the great Don Bradman put his down, and more than six decades on, Allen Thompson is still playing the game he loves.
Along the cricketing journey, he has batted with Sobers, hit six sixes in an over, played against Graveney, Boycott, Walsh and Willis, and watched Ian Botham smash sixes into Jesmond Cemetery. Representing Northumberland for 27 years is no mean feat, but add to the equation being captain for two of these years and coach for four more, and still to play first-team club cricket until 2009, then you have quite a journey.
Allen Thompson is Northumberland cricket’s elder statesman, and arguably greatest ever servant. At 72, he is still determined and strong. Strong enough in the regular midst of battle to put one over men less than a third his age.
A self-confessed “quiet and withdrawn lad” from Newcastle’s West End, Thompson now plays and mentors junior players in his role as a second team player-cum-coach at Alnwick Cricket Club. In between, after having been initially rejected by Northumberland, he crossed the boundary with some of the greatest talents, both regionally and internationally. While other players from the North East region moved south to earn fame and fortune, Thompson – who last played Minor Counties cricket seven years before Durham County Cricket Club joined the County Championship – remained humble and shy of the first-class game.
Some may say Northamptonshire’s loss – as a teenager Thompson rejected their offer of a further trial – was Northumberland’s gain.
So where to start with a true gentleman who has seen and given so much? More of the household names later.
Thompson was born in Benwell in May 1939 and first discovered his passion for the game when he played in his backyard at the early age of 10.
“If we hit the ball into a neighbour’s yard it was six and out, it wasn’t encouraged, but it felt great.”
These very neighbours invited Thompson to watch England play a Test match on black-and-white television in the early 1950s. From that moment on, the young boy from the West End was truly hooked on cricket.
Dame Allan’s school was the next port of call for the talented youngster. Initial associations with Northumberland became apparent. They were not happy memories: “They didn’t pick me. I had scored a 100 for the school first XI but the county coach thought I had a technical fault. My teacher disagreed and said, ‘but it always goes for four!’ so I had to carry on trying to improve.”
The teacher forecast that Thompson would represent the county at the age of 19. Not a bad estimation as in 1958, Thompson featured against Cumbria in Carlisle. You may say he never looked back. It was far from happy memories from ball one with Thompson outlining the difficulties of intermingling with his socially approved team-mates. “To be honest, I would have felt more comfortable facing an England bowler trying to knock my head off than awkwardly socialise with my elders,” he admitted.
