With reference to your Tom Graveney obituary (5 November), I grew up in Bristol, living close to Tom’s family (there were four children – Ken, Tom, Maurice and Dorothy). We lived close to a range of school playing fields in the suburb of Westbury-on-Trym. Most of the groundsmen had been called up for war service, so we were free to play in the playing fields in the summer evenings without being driven out.
Tom organised cricket, in whichever playing field was unsupervised, for a bunch of children living nearby (including me, aged about 11-12). I remember the youngest was a five-year-old boy, to whom Tom insisted we should bowl underarm. As long as Tom was there to lead us, we all played harmoniously together, but when his mother eventually put her foot down and insisted he must study for his school certificate exams, we fell to squabbling.
I am not a sporty person, but I am still proud to think that I used to play cricket with Tom Graveney.
Mary McKeown
Biddenham, Bedfordshire
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