Shenley Village Cricket Club

The club recently received the sad news that one of its past and most prominent players Barry Cashin had passed away. Barry will be well remembered by some of our older members and according to our records is currently the 12th highest run scorer in our club's history. Ray McLennan who played many games with Barry has penned his own tribute below:

 

If anyone looks at the league handbooks or club averages back from 2001 and starting around 1995 you will see the name Barry Cashin stand out in many games.   When SVCC joined the Herts league in 1996 we had previously been in what was called the West Herts League since 1993.When the club had to leave the Shenley Cricket Ground,  the clubs only team had perhaps 14 players, one of which was Steve Cashin, and as far as I know he invited Barry to play for Shenley as we were trying to not only keep going but attract new members, find new wickets to play on and raise funds for essentials such as club kit, balls, and things like trophies and league fees.

It must have been around 1994 that Barry joined the club, and its fledgling committee.  Not only was he a determined batsman, but an ambitious one.  He always knew his score as he batted, and kept detailed notes of his average and everyone else's. But that same determination became particularly useful to the club off the field, and with he and I living about 50 yards apart we worked together on keeping the club going, when the previous committee had resigned.  The old Shenley social and cricket club had a considerable brewery debt,  so we set about forming a new entity, and we came up with the unique feature in Shenley Village as our club symbol, the lock up near the pond.

 

Barry designed what is now the club badge, the jail on top of a cricket ball, and it was his idea to add the word 'village'  so we were clearly a new entity, The Shenley Village Cricket Club.  We then had a name, a logo and chose the current navy blue and red colours, not knowing what the colours had been for the previous 130 years. We entered the West Herts league and Barry took on the role of fund raising by putting together a club fixtures book with adverts.  In his occupation as a consumer journalist, Barry was very experienced in writing and selling, skills he used very productively to raise over a thousand pounds over the winter of 94/95, and many years there after, but He also wanted it to cover his membership fees for the coming season !

 

Meanwhile I worked on trying to get as many games as possible at the Shenley Cricket Centre, and then the best possible grounds for the rest of our games, Barry's next job was getting a standard club shirt, cap and jumper, so we looked like a team on the field. Up to then all 11 players wore different bits and pieces, all in whites, but some clearly didn't separate colours from whites in every home, and others had apparently played for England or the West Indies at some time! The caps and hats were even more varied. Looking smart and considerably strengthened, In 1996 we joined the Herts League in Div 5 West, and although we only had 4-5 league games at Shenley, we had attracted new players, some of which was down to Barry's newspaper articles and match reports, We designed posters and leaflets and put them in all the local pubs, post offices, corner shops,chip shops, etc . In 1996 we achieved promotion for the first time, and I believe we have never failed to have at least one promotion every single year since 1996 right up to the present day,  We have only ever had two relegations. All that led to a 2nd team, around 1997 followed 3 years later with a 3rd eleven.

From an administration point of view Barry was a much valued club man, but he did not always impress everyone with his obsession with his average and his own score.   On one famous occasion in club folklore Barry was closing in on the then highest score for the club, held by the talented but more humble Steve Scott. I think the record was 158, and Barry was blazing away with his bat, when suddenly the captain on the day declared the innings closed, leaving Barry on 156 not out but immensely frustrated, because he knew for sure what that record was! The Captain, lets call him Anthony,  declared his ignorance claiming he didn't take much notice of such things, while we all ran out to start bowling and fielding a little embarrassed, but we had enough runs!

 

In the 2001 season, Barry's first 3 innings were all centuries, playing for our 2nd team in Division 10, and he was hoping for the 1000 run milestone, but as with sport he hit a barren patch mid season and finished with 639 league runs, 800 for the season.

Barry went to play for Harpenden Dolphins in 2002 for a couple of years, when he moved home to just off the Harpenden Road near where Old Albanians play.  

I was in touch with him a couple of times a year when he went through a divorce and moved to France.  He had previously told me He had  prostate cancer but it had gone into remission, but 6 years ago he was told it had come back strongly and after a second course of chemo, was given 2 years to live.  I'm not sure what day in July he passed away, but it was obvious he valued his time with the Shenley Village cricket club, and I made sure he knew his contributions were invaluable in helping to secure the clubs future.

 

Here are a few extracts from one of his last emails to me.

I will be cremated in France. I will be having my favourite Slazenger bat in with me and will be wearing my special SVCC v Aus over 50s shirt. Sad but you know how passionate I was about the club and cricket. Some, in fact, many Indeed, of my happiest times have been spent on a cricket pitch with the guys at SVCC. The camaraderie was always close and amazing and I honestly enjoyed every match, win, lose or draw (though much preferred winning). Sadly, a chronic back problem followed by a cancer diagnosis meant that I was unable to play a quarter of the matches that I wanted to for Shenley - but I enjoyed my lot immensely.