Gentleman George
The Fastest Tongue in Rainham

He once said that he would like to score 50 on his fiftieth birthday, a century when he reached retirement and has always maintained that he loves Rainham Cricket Club. He didn’t achieve the first of these, we will have to wait to see if he achieves the second and only he can provide a true answer to the third.

George Phillips has mellowed with age, is usually accompanied by a sex mad cocker spaniel that once badly sprained my wrist in it’s attempt to get at me but George still turns out for the odd match for Upchurch and still talks a good game. During the winter months he coaches the Rainham Colts in an attempt to put something back into cricket.

As a younger man the cheerful and comically inclined former Rainham idol developed a reputation as a ‘have bat will travel cricketer’ and over the years has turned out for Frindsbury, Borstal, Medway Electricity, Chatham Nomads and Upchurch but throughout this period the outspoken Rainham character has periodically returned to his original club to make contributions.

Both a talented local cricketer and footballer, George has never been slow in expressing an opinion or in demonstrating his skills. He has always considered batting ‘a piece of piss’, Danny Clout to be ‘too much of a nice bloke’ and himself to be an automatic choice for the greatest ever Rainham Cricket XI.

In terms of skill he once ran after a ball in the deep with former member Dave Peach but as the ex Gills football star raced ahead and was about to pick up the ball George flicked it away with his right foot, flicked it up again, dummied his surprised team mate, took the ball past him then picked it up and threw it to the wicket keeper, a great piece of skill.

George had his good side and once spent a whole week with me in 1972 painting the changing room and pavilion walls for which we were both rewarded by former captain Terry Glazier with a trip to Nottingham to watch England play Australia. Although we had to share a communal bedroom above a transport cafe with several snoring lorry drivers while Terry Glazier stayed at the County Hotel we enjoyed the day out.

George, always a controversial figure from the day he first arrived in the mid sixties, never ceased to amaze. This was never more so than when he turned up at Berengrove Park one Saturday afternoon in 1964 looking for a game for Rainham Second XI who were due to play Rainham School. Because Rainham School were short of a player, teacher and Rainham cricketer Eric Rotherham, reluctantly decided to take him for the team. Dressed in his father's whites and cricket boots George went out to bat and proceeded to score 109 in partnership with Alan Heath who scored 58. The school declared at 213-4. In reply Rainham Second XI struggled to 107-7. From this point George started playing for Rainham Second XI and had a good start with scores of 16 against Minster, 23 against Higham and 46 against Macknade.

The following season George hit his first half-century for the club with 67 not out against Cliffe and Cooling. Chasing a total of 93 Rainham replied with 94-1 with a partnership between George and John Tatton. After this George got his chance with the First XI in 1966 and scored his first half-century for them with 50 in a total of 260-8 against Folkestone. He then scored his first century for the First XI with 115 against Dulwichians in an all day match at Rainham.

In 1968 George Phillips hit his second century for the First XI with a score of 110 not out against Trembeth's XI. This firmly established him as a First XI player and he went on to score many more runs for the club before joining Frindsbury in the early 1970s to play South Thames League cricket. He returned to the club in the mid 1970s and again in the 1990s after periods with Medway Electricity, Borstal and Chatham Nomads.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s George became a man of indulgence. He was often known to down at least six pints of beer in one night, once drank a pint of raw eggs in ten seconds and could eat almost as quickly as me. I also remember him being carried out of the clubhouse by his arms and legs after drinking too much at the 1969 club cheese and wine party and survived a wild drinking bout at Westerham after a match and a nurses party at All Saints hospital in the same evening to take six dismissals as a temporary wicket keeper in an all day match at Folkestone the next day. I also remember him getting totally intoxicated in the Railway pub one Sunday lunch time, opening the batting with me a short time later and hitting the first ball of the game over the pavilion for six while looking decidedly unsteady on his feet. Something amazing was always likely to happen when George was around.

George could also be the villain during the early seventies, often appeared through the bushes at the Berengrave Lane end with his gear under his arm moments before or after the start of the game and once had the experience of being sent off the field of play by former captain Terry Glazier.

George once told me that the secret of his success was that he always considered himself a better batsman than anybody and didn’t respect anyone who played at a higher level than himself when he knew that he was better. He explained that if you think you are the best you can be the best in your own mind even if you aren’t. In 1971 he scored so many runs with such frequency, including centuries against Frindsbury and Saracens that one Saturday evening when I met him in the bar of the Railway pub after a match that I had missed I asked him how many runs he had scored. Looking at me with a serious expression of shock with beer foam hanging from his lips he replied, “ I had a bad day today, Woody, I failed.”

“Well, how many runs did you score”, I asked.

“Eighty five”, he replied with a huge smile on his face.

George had reached the stage of scoring runs so easily that only a century was good enough. But how did he manage this kind of form. Rumour at the time had it that he used to spend Saturday mornings on Rainham Rec batting for hours against the local schoolboys who just couldn’t remove him from the wicket with their variety of deliveries while he hit himself into form for the afternoon match. George definitely had a streak of determination although there was a hint of that Boycott batting selfishness. However, he preferred to play his shots when he batted and tried not to hang around. He could dig himself in if the going got tough and I remember him scoring 75 in a total of 95 all out against Riverside in 1970 on a terrible wicket against local West Indian superstar quickie, Peter Pitt.

After the early 1970s George played sporadically for the club as his allegiance shifted between clubs but he periodically starred. In 1984 he played for Ron Hillyard’s XI against a Kent XI at Berengrove Park and scored 69 in partnership of 85 with his brother Jim against former Kent and England bowlers Derek Underwood and Richard Ellison.

In more recent years George has shown hints of his former batting glories with 52 against New Ifield in 1997, 56 against Tenterden in 2002 and a very good 48 against Sandwich in the East Kent League in 2003. Most of his time is now spent coaching the colts, telling stories about former Rainham players and re-living his former glories in the bar. Will he score a century for Rainham when he retires? Who knows, but we don’t have long to find out…sorry about that George.

Dave Wood 2007