I seem to recall a certain wedding taking place the other week. Bloke in red uniform married daughter of wealthy businessman in a big church. Bit of a do. Made the papers. Tabloids drooled over the bride’s dishy sister, too, but turns out she already had a bloke. Old Etonian City banker type called Alex Loudon. Pardon? THE Alex Loudon? The Alex Loudon who played for Warwickshire and England? Yes, the very same. Royal weddings suddenly became more interesting…
In times gone by, Old Etonians, Harrovians and their like dominated the establishment, both political and cricket! All strictly amateur, of course. More recently, the sport has become the preserve of grammar school boys, possibly even from Comprehensives like mine. Loudon was the latest in a long but thinning line of toffs who became professional cricketers and were actually quite good. From Eton to Durham University, taking in the England Under-19 captaincy, he made his way to the county game with Kent, before switching to for Warwickshire in 2005. A tall classical batsman, he really looked the part but he scored only five centuries out of 5000 runs and his spin bowling took more precedence in the last few years. His form earned him a place in an England ODI team against Sri Lanka five years ago, whereupon he was duly run out without facing a ball and bowled six overs for 36 runs. He never really regained the form and at 27 he retired from cricket to study for banking exams and a career making money, as was perhaps his birthright.
There have been other Eton OBs in county cricket. I recall the impossibly posh John (JRT) Barclay in the ‘70s and ‘80s. A very solid (i.e. slow) batsman and captain of Sussex, he eventually retired having accumulated nearly 10,000 first-class runs at an average below 25. In 236 one-day games he never once reached three figures. No wonder he became better known as a spin bowler in later years and he was far more effective in limited-overs cricket with the ball. Barclay went on to manage England’s touring side and became an important figure at the MCC.
Kent’s Matthew Fleming also enjoyed a long career in the game and was generally more successful than other ex-public schoolboys in cricket. After the Army, he played for Kent and his all-round ability earned him 11 England ODI appearances, starting with 4-45 against India at Sharjah in 1996. He was also a popular captain of his county side, serving them with distinction until retirement at 37 in 2002, having scored more than 15,000 runs and 650 wickets. Fortunately he has remained involved in cricket.
James Bruce is a year older than Loudon and probably would have played for the same Eton side. At Hampshire he played exactly 100 games in all formats and his fast-medium bowling was moderately successful, particularly in one-dayers. However, he led where Loudon followed and also retired at 27 to become a banker and - who knows? - maybe meet another Middleton sister….
