Charlotte Goodhew is the collections manager for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London and has curated its new exhibition about cricket board games, A Century of Cricket Games. It is on until November 2017.
What’s in the museum?
The foundation of the collection was quite eclectic because members were originally invited to donate objects, which range from furnishings to an iron cannonball from Sebastopol.
More recently, I developed an acquisitions policy to make our collecting more focused, and to fill in gaps. We have a library and paper and film archives. The Ashes urn never leaves: it is too delicate – as are items relating to the famous cricketer WG Grace, such as his team belt buckles.
My favourite object is Justin Mortimer’s dark portrait of the Australian bowler Glenn McGrath in 2008. It touches on vulnerability and disconnectedness and is the kind of work I believe is helping to establish the MCC Museum as a serious contender in the field of contemporary art collecting.
Are the intricate rules of cricket easily translated to tabletop versions?
The show explores two types of games – action and dexterity challenges, and simulation based on real-life probabilities. In the former category, Subbuteo cricket replaces bowling and batting with flicking a small plastic ball and spinning a handle on a small plastic bat. Whereas the Minden card game is based on real cricket statistics taken from Bill Frindall’s scorebook of the 1976 England v West Indies Test series.
Which came first for you, sport or museums?
Museums: I did an art history degree and worked part-time at the British Golf Museum at St Andrews while doing my postgraduate course in museum studies. That is part of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse, and is a private collection that has gone into public hands. The MCC is considering something similar: donating the collection to charity but retaining part of it as private and lending between the two.
What are your personal sporting bests?
I’m a right-arm medium pace bowler for Hampstead Ladies. Playing cricket has certainly helped me understand the terminology and how to interpret artworks here.
You run lunchtime yoga classes at Lord’s. Who attends?
One of the head coaches comes along to stretch, as he works in the nets all day long. The reception staff and catering manager pop in too, and some of the younger cricketers. A downward-facing dog could catch on as an aid to concentration for fast bowlers at the crease.
What’s in the museum?
The foundation of the collection was quite eclectic because members were originally invited to donate objects, which range from furnishings to an iron cannonball from Sebastopol.
More recently, I developed an acquisitions policy to make our collecting more focused, and to fill in gaps. We have a library and paper and film archives. The Ashes urn never leaves: it is too delicate – as are items relating to the famous cricketer WG Grace, such as his team belt buckles.
My favourite object is Justin Mortimer’s dark portrait of the Australian bowler Glenn McGrath in 2008. It touches on vulnerability and disconnectedness and is the kind of work I believe is helping to establish the MCC Museum as a serious contender in the field of contemporary art collecting.
Are the intricate rules of cricket easily translated to tabletop versions?
The show explores two types of games – action and dexterity challenges, and simulation based on real-life probabilities. In the former category, Subbuteo cricket replaces bowling and batting with flicking a small plastic ball and spinning a handle on a small plastic bat. Whereas the Minden card game is based on real cricket statistics taken from Bill Frindall’s scorebook of the 1976 England v West Indies Test series.
Which came first for you, sport or museums?
Museums: I did an art history degree and worked part-time at the British Golf Museum at St Andrews while doing my postgraduate course in museum studies. That is part of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse, and is a private collection that has gone into public hands. The MCC is considering something similar: donating the collection to charity but retaining part of it as private and lending between the two.
What are your personal sporting bests?
I’m a right-arm medium pace bowler for Hampstead Ladies. Playing cricket has certainly helped me understand the terminology and how to interpret artworks here.
You run lunchtime yoga classes at Lord’s. Who attends?
One of the head coaches comes along to stretch, as he works in the nets all day long. The reception staff and catering manager pop in too, and some of the younger cricketers. A downward-facing dog could catch on as an aid to concentration for fast bowlers at the crease.
