When 19 year-old Henry Smoker played as a trialist against Chatham in a Southern District Combination fixture, the Echo thought him

“out of his element; he did a few smart things but lacked experience”.

The Southampton management must have seen something, though, as he was signed a week later. Yet Henry, a speedy winger, was denied the needed experience until 1903-04, when he became a regular in the Reserves, save for two games in the Southern League. After which, he concentrated on cricket. He played for Hampshire – as had his father, George, before – and extended his cricketing family by marrying the sister of Victor Norbury, another Hants-and-Saints all-rounder. A medium-fast bowler, he made 31 first-class appearances for Hampshire, taking 7-35 against the South Africans in 1907, his final season with them. Like Norbury, he later had a spell in the Lancashire League, although his main cricket now took the form of Minor Counties matches. His 35 games for Cheshire stretched from 1909 to 1925, with a break for war, during which he served with the Royal Field Artillery in France, rising to the rank of sergeant. He became the cricketing pro at the Birkenhead Park club in 1929 and joined the staff of Birkenhead School, a year later.

By now known by his second name of “George”, he was primarily the school’s groundsman – Head Groundsman from 1938 – but he coached cricket on the side during much of an appointment that lasted until he retired, at the age of 79, in 1960. His cottage on the school’s grounds became known as “Smoker’s Lodge”, a soubriquet that lived on after his retirement. He cycled everywhere and the school’s records testify that, in his last years, he was “cycling primly, but somewhat unsteadily, around the campus.”