Geoffrey. A. Copinger

Martin Chandler | 9:30am BST 05 May 2024

Published: 1998
Pages: 1
Author: Rosenwater, Irving
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars

The name of Geoffrey Copinger is fading into history now, but is still one that will be recognised by anyone with an interest in collecting cricket books as, for many years, his was the most substantial and comprehensive collection there was.

This publication, just a single page, was an obituary that appeared in a Club Cricket Conference newsletter that appeared in 1998. I don’t suppose that is particularly easy to find now, but it must be easier to find than one of the ten copies that Rosenwater ran off, signed, numbered and gave to close friends.

That Rosenwater should seek out the friendship of the pre-eminent collector of his time is not surprising and, for once, it is perhaps inevitable that Copinger is one of the relatively small number of people with whom he appears never to have fallen out.

The presidency of the Club Cricket Conference in 1976 was a matter of great pride to Copinger, although as an organisation its contribution to English cricket was not entirely positive*. Of course an obituary of Copinger in the organisation’s journal was not a place to examine that and the piece is exactly as would be expected and, perhaps more so now than when it appeared, is an interesting study of a name that continues to crop up in the collecting world.

*For anyone interested in this comment Duncan Stone’s book Different Class is highly recommended. The Conference’s ‘crime’ was to hold back the development of league cricket in the south of England. Lest there be any doubt however the leopard changed its spots years ago, and these days the Conference plays an important and entirely positive role in the recreational game.