A bit of research has uncovered, I think, the fact that the clock at the top of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion celebrates its centenary in 2024. It previously resided at the top of the scoreboard which stood, more or less, on the current site of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion, until 1979. It was then moved to its current location. It is the only remnant of the ground from before 1979. The old scoreboard was paid for by a donation of, as far as I can see, £69 from the Stragglers Club. The donation was made at the end of the 1923 season and so, and I have made a bit of an assumption here, the scoreboard was in place for the 1924 season. It was certainly in place by the 1925 season because it can be seen in British Pathé’s film of Jack Hobbs scoring his hundredth run to equal W.G. Grace’s record of 126 first-class centuries (Hobbs passed the record with another century in the second innings). It has therefore seen a few things and a bit of change in its time.

And so, to mark the centenary, I have managed to cobble together one of my occasional ‘poems’ :

 

The Colin Atkinson Pavilion Clock

1924 – 2024

I am the Colin Atkinson Pavilion clock.

I mark the walk of Old Father Time

Endlessly measuring days

Since John Daniell stood firm at the crease,

And Ramsay McDonald first reigned in Downing Street.

New, from atop the scoreboard then, I cast my gaze.

Now, I am the only remnant of those post Great War days.

I am the Colin Atkinson Pavilion clock.

Marking time. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

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