The Doyen: A Tribute to Alan Swift

Alan Swift © HKCA

Few people have served Hong Kong cricket as Alan Swift has done. As player, administrator, umpire, umpire trainer and repository of sound advice and gentle wisdom in, increasingly, an age of the sound bite and aggressive self-promotion, Alan has always stood for the very best in this most traditional of games. This month, after more than 34 years in Hong Kong, he and his charming wife Suzanne exchange the hustle and bustle of Happy Valley for the provincial pleasures of his beloved Nottingham, with no doubt the odd visit to Canada thrown in. It will seem strange without his unflappable presence on the field or his conviviality at the bar.

No mean cricketer, Alan bowled slow left arm spin, with the emphasis always more on the slow than the spin. A batsman in the mould of Boycott or Tavaré, he was equally comfortable opening the batting or shoring up a faltering innings at number 6 or 7. He was also a fine short leg fielder, in the days when uncovered grass pitches and sporty matting wickets made that position less redundant than it is today, when so much cricket is played on batsman-friendly plastic, much to the detriment of our national side's development.

The extent of Alan's longevity can be gauged from the fact that when he arrived in the colony as a fresh-faced youth, league cricket took the form of a first division and a second division. It wasn't until 1973 that the current Saturday and Sunday League format was adopted, by which time Alan had established himself as a top performer for St George's and Little Sai Wan.

Another veteran of Hong Kong cricket, former colony fast bowler and past Chairman of the Umpires and Scorers Association, Jim Middleton, recalls one of their meetings in the 70s:

"One of the first times I played against Alan was for Police against LSW at the Police Recreation Club in Happy Valley in days when I could actually frighten people (thanks to the police track). The police attack had myself, Roger Booth, Ian Lacy-Smith and Kit Cumings, plus Brian Wigley. I hit Alan with a yorker. I only found out years later it had broken his toe. He showed no pain at the time, probably because I would have tried to hit him again in the same place, being the pleasant guy I am!"

At LSW, Alan was one of three left-armers, by no means playing second fiddle in that trio to the other members of the "S" squad, seamers Peter Smith and Les Stenner, even if his tempo was distinctly andante compared to their allegro. With his military connections - St George's School, where Alan taught, was an "army" school - it was natural that Alan should turn out for the British Forces from time to time. Having been enlisted on one occasion, he made an important contribution with the bat (an unbeaten half century), as his team prevented a strong Malaysia Cricket Association team from completing a clean sweep on their 1979 tour of Hong Kong. Despite rumours to the contrary, Alan's 52* came from down the order, or so he assures me - perhaps with the benefit of hindsight - rather than as opener!

At around the same time, Alan made a decision that was to prove pivotal for the development of umpiring standards in the territory, as he exchanged cricket whites for umpire's coat on a Sunday. But more of his contribution to umpiring later. The 1980s found Alan captaining St George's, traditionally one of Hong Kong's most sociable sides, as well as being a regular finisher in the top six of the burgeoning Saturday League. He had obviously forgiven Jim for breaking his toe, as he persuaded the man with more clubs than Jack Nicklaus to do a Shoiab Akhtar, coming on towards the end of the innings to mop up the tail (something which Jim continued to do with great alacrity in later years when playing for Crusaders, despite the efforts of many others, including the author of this piece, to wrest the ball from him and give themselves a chance of improving their own average!)

Whether or not he perfected reverse swing - and Jim will doubtless tell you he taught Waqar, Shoiab and Jones all they know - Middleton proved a dab hand as tea-lady. The strategy was simple: Swifty won the toss and batted (or the other side won the toss and fielded - as most sides did in those days - same difference), and Jim moseyed down to his old beat, Kowloon City (in those days, as now, St George's played most of their home games at Mission Road). A few favours having been called in, a repast achieving that rare but much sought after combination of quality and economy was procured on a regular basis, arriving back at the ground with Jim shortly before the interval, to allow for those rare occasions on which the number 11 would be required to bat, occasions which always made for compulsive viewing.

Of Alan's strategy as a captain on the pitch, Jim recalls:

"Alan was my captain when I played for St George's one year. We had a simple tactic - Nanda Pereira would open the bowling, bowl short and stop them scoring, and I would get the last ten ['overs', I think, is what Jim means, though he probably thought he could get all ten wickets]. Both of us would try and kill Nigel Grandfield our keeper, no matter how far he stood back. I have to say that with Barry Ellis whining most of the time it was pleasant to be able to talk to Swifty at mid off."

Much of his astuteness as a captain could be put down to the various exponents of the art he played under in his formative years. Among these, Col Metcalf of LSW stands out. After a break in play while the ball was retrieved from Mong Kok, whither Kit Cumings had despatched it off Alan's "wrong 'un", the Aussie came up to Alan with the instructions to forget about the batter and bowl at him. The fact that Metcalf was at first slip didn't matter. Swifty duly obliged, and Cumings was out chasing a wide.

Tours were a major part of Alan's cricketing life, whether as Captain of Kowloon Cricket Club or with his beloved St George's. Before we catch up with Mr Middleton once more for some insight into Alan's activities beyond Kai Tak, a brief diversion is in order to discuss the Doyen's exploits for KCC. In the two matches he played for the club (though a member for many years, he supported the independent sides of a weekend), he managed two famous wins: a Rothman's (Sunday) Cup Final triumph in which he touched the ball just once (no wonder he switched his allegiance to HKCC!), and a Hancock Shield victory over the auld enemy, when he steered KCC home in a 14-run partnership with a young, lissome Yarman Vachha.

One tour he was unable to make, to his eternal regret, was Hong Kong's visit to England when they played the MCC at the home of cricket. Having been picked in the touring party, his boss didn't let him make the trip to Lord's. I really don't think he's forgiven Suzanne to this day! (Editor's note - Not that boss, Alan says.) Indeed, Alan was unlucky not to have represented Hong Kong at cricket with his slow left arm. And this was at a time when getting a game for Hong Kong was actually quite difficult, with the standard of cricket boosted by British Army and Air Force teams, as well as the "spies" at Little Sai Wan.

With his leech-like approach to the art of batting, Alan was a captain's dream when the chips were down. Another occasion on which he was in at the death chasing victory came on a tour to Taiwan in the 1980s. Jim Middleton picks up the story:

"In the 80s we used to tour Taiwan, and the Taipei American school was a soccer pitch with a coir mat on it for cricket. It was lethal. In one game I hit their opener, a missionary, three times on the inner thigh in one over. He was wearing shorts and no thigh pad. He blasphemed. Then it was our turn. We were struggling to score and then Alan got hit in the face (only cissies wear helmets) and broke his nose, something which attracted Suzanne to his now rugged looks. He came off but was dragged back on by the captain (me) and he and I scored the winning runs (more he than I)."

Alan was once again at the forefront when an overseas team made the first cricket tour of the People's Republic of China, and the first tour of the Mainland since 1948. Middleton again:

"In 1983 St George's went on the first ever international cricket tour of the PRC. Our first game was against the Australian embassy and the Aussies made the mistake of trying to get us drunk in their embassy pub that evening. Ha! Later we played the British embassy and combined odds and sods. Unfortunately at that time Peking was a hardship posting..."

Here the manuscript breaks off and I can only assume that Jim pays testimony to Alan's stalwart efforts in fostering international relations at a time when our neighbour, as it was then, was still recovering from the insanity of the Cultural Revolution.

But it is as a first-rate umpire (he was in 1990, I believe, asked to stay on and umpire the final of the ICC Trophy in Holland) and as a patient and knowledgeable instructor, that many of us will remember Alan. His long-time colleague Jim Middleton pays him this tribute:

"Alan has spent years of time and effort in becoming in my opinion one of the best instructors you will ever find anywhere in the realms of cricket laws and umpiring. He will be sorely missed by us all, and we must wish him and Suzanne all the best in sunny Nottingham. Have a good retirement, Swifty, and keep in touch."

I think we'd all raise a glass, or a crooked index finger, to that.

THE END

By "The Doc" (based on the reminiscences of Jim Middleton, Roger Nissim, Peter Hall (in his book 150 Years of Hong Kong Cricket) and the Doyen himself)