MEMORIES OF OUR FOUNDING FATHER

By John Darling, former National President and Founding Chairman.

To tell you how the Lord’s Taverners began in Australia, I need to go back to one of my visits to London in 1981. I had a lot to do with Scotland Yard at the time and I became friends with Detective Inspector Roger Lewis. One day Roger asked me to lunch at the Kennel Club and it was there that I first met John Varley.

John Varley was a Dog Judge but also one of the founders of The Lord’s Taverners – a group of Thespians who loved their cricket and met in the Tavern Stand at Lord’s before going to their theatre for the evening performance. John was their No. 11 and first secretary.

Later that year, John Varley came to Australia, wooing an Australian girl who was to become his wife. Because of our meeting in the Kennel Club, he looked me up, not knowing many Australians. We met in my office and I took him to lunch.

During our conversation, he found out that I was a cricket lover and that Joe Darling was my great uncle. It was Joe Darling who took me to my first test match, in Melbourne --- the Bodyline Series.

John Varley told me of his desire to bring The Lord’s Taverners to Australia. He said an attempt had been made by Anthony Swainson, the Lord’s Taverners Director in England, and a Mr. Gangooly, who financed the trip. John told me how they received no enthusiasm in Sydney and then went to Melbourne with the same result.

When he asked me why I was smiling, I told him it would be impossible to find an organisation in Australia subservient to Poms in cricket. Secondly, I told him if an organisation was founded in Sydney, no one in Melbourne would have a bar of it and likewise, no one in Sydney would have a bar of it if it was founded in Melbourne.

When he asked me how I would handle the matter, I said the organisation must be independent of Lord’s Taverners in England. Then it should be formed and registered in Canberra with a branch in each State. I suggested the way to have a link with the UK would be for the Duke of Edinburgh to be 12th Man. He would "carry the drinks" in Australia. We said farewell with goodwill and I thought no more about it.

Two or three months later I was walking down Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles when I met Richie Benaud. He told me he was on his way to the Masters Golf in Augusta, Georgia, and then said he had heard I had something to do with the Lord’s Taverners. I denied this and later thought it was a strange suggestion.

The next day I arrived back in Sydney to find John Varley (still wooing) had made an appointment to see me. We met again in my office and he got straight to the point.

"I have been authorised to tell you that the Lord’s Taverners in London invite you to start the Lord’s Taverners in Australia with full authority to use the name and along the lines of your discussion with me earlier," he said.

 Needless to say, I was surprised and flattered. The penny dropped – now I knew the reason for Richie Benaud’s remark. They were checking me out!

I asked John McCallum, a well known Australian thespian, to become National President. I then formed a Branch in NSW, followed quickly by one in Melbourne. Queensland came next and that triggered off an investment of $30,000 a year for three years from Castlemaine Tooheys which really helped. South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory and lastly Newcastle completed the network of Branches. John Varley completed his wooing, moved to Australia and became our first Secretary and Director.

This completed the organisational framework I had originally outlined, and Prince Phillip accepted the position of 12th Man.

I wanted Don Bradman to be our first Honorary Member. I discovered he was to be at a Fauldings board meeting, so I arranged with the Chairman, Bill Scammell, to arrive at the conclusion of the meeting. Don was looking for help to load the boot of his car with Fauldings products and I volunteered. At the open boot I popped the question and he happily accepted.

We had Australia’s Icon as our Number One National Honorary member!

From then on, the development of "The Lord’s Taverners Australia" is in the history of the Branches and well documented.

This is an intimate and personal account of the events leading to our foundation.

So be it.

(Re-printed with kind permission of Vic Levi - Editor of 'The Taverner')