Ted's Ties
TED’S TIES: THE DEXTER QUILT
Linda Seward, wife of Robert (1959), recounts how a surprise phone call and box of ties led to the creation of the Dexter Cricket Quilt. In 1999 I was in charge of publicity for a quilt exhibition that was being held at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. The celebrity that I had asked to “cut the ribbon” let me down three days before the opening and I had no idea how to find someone else at such short notice. My husband Robert, who knew Ted Dexter from Radley and who regularly played golf with him, suggested I ask him to open the show since the exhibition was at Lords. To my surprise and utter relief, he accepted with alacrity and he and his wife Susan turned up at the appropriate hour, full of enthusiasm, to view the quilts and shake the hands of the astonished guests who never expected to meet the great man at a quilt show! Below: Ted and Linda in front of the Dexter Cricket Quilt.
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the old radleian 2021
This must have given him an idea because in 2004 I got an unexpected call. “Hi, Linda, Ted Dexter here.” Ted is a man who doesn’t waste words, so even though we hadn’t spoken for a few years, he came straight to the point. “I have a box of old cricket ties—think you could do something with them?” Surprised by the phone call and his direct request, I couldn’t say anything but “Sure!” A few weeks later my husband came home from his golf club (Ted was also a member there) with a big cardboard box with my name on it. “Do you have any idea what these are for?” he asked. One look inside the box revealed a huge number of ties in a riot of colours and confirmed that my job had now begun.
