The
Vanishing Welshman
The last time
I saw Vaughan Jenkins as a Rainham cricketer was at the Borstal
Cricket Club pavilion in 1970 after an Evening Post Knockout League
cup final being carried out of the bar by George Phillips and Denis
Chambers intoxicated with beer. Soon after this he disappeared.
After fading memories of him wearing a white eye patch, the result
of being struck by a rising delivery against Phoenix in 1970 and
his attempt to pick up girls at the White Horse disco in Rainham
he vanished from sight and became just a memory.
Vaughan Jenkins
was a rather rotund, pear shaped individual with a loud laugh whose
voice was perfectly tuned and fitting for his job as a teacher at
the Howard School for Boys in Rainham. He could bat a little and
mainly played for the Second XI but he is remembered most as a very
large and heavy beer swilling character who occasionally burst into
song, sometimes in Welsh when intoxicated.
Thirty two years
on, I was painting the scenery for a production at the Doha Players
Theatre in Doha, Qatar. As I painted and lost myself in concentration
two voices in the darkness of the auditorium began to emerge. One
of the voices was Welsh and very distinctive. I looked closer and
there he was, that very large rotund, pear shaped figure who I had
last seen being carried drunk from the bar of Borstal Cricket Club.
He had changed a little. His hair was now grey, straggly and thinning
a little, his round frame and booming voice were unchanged. After
several minutes I could hide my interest no longer and approached
him when his conversation had finished. I introduced myself and
he vaguely remembered.
Vaughan explained
that after a short time at Rainham Cricket club he became the victim
of excess drinking, had treatment, completed a Master's Degree,
left school teaching and turned to teaching English in the Gulf.
He also had to have an operation as a result of being too heavy
and was given two artificial hips. Now married with a wife and daughter
and based in Blackburn he remembered his short period at Rainham
Cricket Club with fondness. He could recall Terry Glazier and George
Phillips, the atmosphere at the club and his time at the Howard
School. However, he said that Rainham Cricket Club didn't drive
him to drink, it just encouraged him.
I never saw
Vaughan again. Two weeks later I was told that he had left the Gulf
and had gone to the Ukraine to work. Has he disappeared for good?
Who knows? He told me that he would try to visit the club in 2006,
the 150th anniversary year so perhaps we will see that pear shaped,
heavy, laughing, drinking, singing Welshman in full flight again.
David Wood 2004
