The Master's Club
John Arlott had developed a close friendship with Sir Jack Hobbs, who ran a sports shop in Fleet Street after his retirement from cricket. His admiration and respect led him to establish the Master's Club to honour the great man's birthday, on 16 December. The inaugural lunch was held in 1953 at a restaurant in Fleet Street and was attended by John Marshall (London Evening News), Kenneth Adam (BBC) and Alf Gover (Surrey). Membership of the club increased over the years and the annual lunch was eventually moved to the Long Room at The Oval. Despite the demise of all of the original members, it still thrives and continues to meet for lunch every year either on, or close to, Hobbs' 16 December birthday. In keeping with tradition, the lunch always consists of Sir Jack’s favourite meal, roast lamb followed by apple pie.
Read more about this topic: John Arlott
Famous quotes containing the words master and/or club:
“The master class seldom lose a chance to insult a woman who has the ability for something besides service to his lordship.”
—Caroline Nichols Churchill (1833–?)
“The barriers of conventionality have been raised so high, and so strangely cemented by long existence, that the only hope of overthrowing them exists in the union of numbers linked together by common opinion and effort ... the united watchword of thousands would strike at the foundation of the false system and annihilate it.”
—Mme. Ellen Louise Demorest 1824–1898, U.S. women’s magazine editor and woman’s club movement pioneer. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 203 (January 1870)