Newbury artist's brush with cricket lands Falkland commission

Christopher Hall was commissioned to paint Falkland Cricket Club, for whom he played on and off for around 20 years.
Having trained at the Slade School of Art in the early 1950s, he has continued to paint over the years in the style he developed for himself in those years.
As a full-time painter he has supported his family of three sons, taking time out in 1967 to serve as the mayor of Newbury.
He has exhibited widely, including the Royal Academy, is a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Cambrian Society, and has paintings in the collections of the Museum of London, the National Library of Wales, the National Museum of Wales, the Ashmolean and several other regional public galleries.
The painter, who started playing cricket just after the Second World War, said: “My first match at the age of 15 was in a farmer’s field at Inkpen because the cricket ground had been ploughed up during the war.
“We had to cut down clumps of nettles. Play was disrupted as cows traipsed across it.”
Christopher Hall has been commissioned to paint Falkland Cricket Club on at least three occasions. He said that he had enjoyed painting other cricket grounds “for sheer amusement”, including Donnington, West Ilsley and Ripley.
“I painted the ground at Ripley several times for a nearby gallery.
“It’s an attractive ground,” he added.