When Summer’s end is nighing

When Summer’s end is nighing

And skies at evening cloud

I muse on change and fortune

And all the feats I vowed

When I was young and proud

A E Housman  

Hi everyone!

Season 2016 ended with a very tense 3-way fight out between Middlesex, Somerset & Yorkshire for the Division 1 Championship.

With Somerset beating already relegated Nottinghamshire inside three days, it all came down to the last day of the season: whoever won at Lords between Middlesex & Yorkshire would be Champions.

I was lucky enough to be there on the Thursday for Day 3 with Richard Bradford & George Materna, both massive Yorkshire Fans.

Amidst a very exciting day’s cricket, there was time for a Spot of Lunch at the Lord’s Tavern !!

Please note the Healthy Option: Gherkins.

In a fluctuating final day, with Toby Roland-Jones taking a hat trick with the last 3 balls of the day, Middlesex won by 61 runs.

Meanwhile … … down in Division 2 Season 2016 was finishing much less dramatically, with Gloucestershire hanging on for a draw against Sussex.

In truth it has been a mixed season for “the Oldest professional cricket club in the world; and the Best”.

In the RL50 Sussex were bottom of the Southern Division with just one win from eight games. At least the one win was one better than Season 2015!

In the T20 Blast, although there were several very close finishes,  Sussex were 6^th of 9 in the Southern Division.

And  - a year after relegation - in the Championship Division 2 they were 4^th, most disappointingly never challenging for promotion.

But on the more positive side, young players from the Academy were introduced to the 1^st team, with Jofra Archer, George Garton & Phil Salt looking full of promise for the years ahead!

But cricket for Lord Ric is never just about the Results.

It is about so much more.

Of course, it is about being out in the Sunshine.

The Deckchairs at Hove 

I refer to research from Andrea Fagiolini of the University of Siena: strong daylight appears to improve sex drive.

“We found fairly significant differences between those who received the active light treatment and the controls.

Before treatment both groups averaged a sexual satisfaction score of about two out of ten, but after treatment the group exposed to the bright light was scoring sexual satisfaction of about 6.3. In contrast, the control group only showed an average score of 2.7 after treatment.”

Suffice to say, and notwithstanding a very wet June, I was out in the Sunshine for plenty of hours in Season 2016!

And it is about sampling the Old & the New.

There were lots of days sitting in the deckchairs at the Cromwell Road end at my beloved Hove.

And the always looked forward trips to Arundel, Beckenham, the Nevill at Tunbridge Wells and to Lords and the Oval.

Arundel

And this season I was on the road for first time visits to Colchester, Worcester and to Sir Paul Getty’s ground at Wormsley and the Duke of Edinburgh’s at Windsor Castle.

Sir Paul Getty's Wormsley 

But above all it is being with Friends.

In the Sunshine at Hove:

Graham, the Young Man & David

Bill & Graham

Those I played village-green cricket with in the 70’s and 80’s at The Borderers:

The Lads at the Cromwell Road end

And those perhaps sampling their first cricket with me:

Mike, Mike, Muhammad & Tim at the Nevill

So many of you found time in your busy diaries to come & watch some cricket with me.

Thank you so very much !

I look forward to seeing all of you in Season 2017.

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can be in one. ^©

See you soon !!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

When Summer’s end is nighing thoughts always turn to the forthcoming Season.

Of course, every Season brings anniversaries and memories of bygone years, of matches seen which are never to be forgotten.

Season 2017 is a Special One for me  …

Long, long ago on Saturday 16 June 1973 Dad & I had walked round from Farmcombe Road to the Nevill for Kent v Nottinghamshire, captained by Sir Gary Sobers.

Just before 11.00 I witnessed something I was to think of and ponder many times over the decades that followed. 
And always when I entered the Nevill by the Tennis Club in Upper Cumberland Walk.

In Season 2017 it will be My Turn …

Will I accept the offer of the Pensioner’s Discounted Ticket?

Or will I – as Dad did a few weeks after his 65^th birthday – say: Thank you, but I’m not 65 until next year!

Where have the years all gone?

Time goes, you say?

Ah No !

Alas Time stays, we go

Henry Austin Dobson 

Young Passions, Old Bodies

Hi everyone!

My friends are gone, and my hair is grey

I ache in the places where I used to play

    Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen

Season 2016 is now well into its second half.

Plenty of days already at Hove and the much-loved annual trips to Arundel and to the Nevill at Tunbridge Wells.

And to Lords and the Oval too.

But - though my hair is grey - at the start of the year I set myself the goal of visiting some New Grounds.

For as Mr Cohen went on to sing:

Warm sacred dancing us to the end of love;

Young Passions, Old Bodies

So it was that back in May Mr Squire & I had a daytrip - by rail via Oxford and lots of stops in the Cotswolds - to Worcester for Worcestershire v Sussex in the Championship.

Worcester has a reputation as a very pretty ground.

The view from the Pavilion is wonderful:

Encouraged by the first New Ground it was off to Windsor Castle for the Royal Household CC v RSM Accountants; accompanied by the good Lady Piper no less.

Another wonderful setting:

Then to Canterbury for Kent v Worcestershire.

A bit of stretch to say Canterbury is a New Ground.

But I had not been for some 7 years and the ground now has some new stands.

And – would you believe it - a TESCO Express as you enter. (Ideal for buying a Pork Pie; Obviously !!).

It was great to meet up with The Lads, most of whom I had played cricket with at Tunbridge Wells Borderers in the (19 !!)70s and 80s.

I’m really looking forward to seeing them at Hove later this month for the Sussex v Kent game, when we will be joined by the Young Man over from New Zealand.

And from Canterbury it was to Colchester - again with Mr Squire - for Essex v Sussex.

A Quintessentially English county outground, the Castle Park had a good size crowd for an exciting day’s play, with Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer batting Sussex away from danger.

Let’s hope that the outgrounds survive the reduction in the number of Championship games in 2017 .

And so to the final New Ground of Season 2016: Sir Paul Getty’s Wormsley, off Junction 5 of the M40, for England U19 v Sri Lanka U19.

This is Country House cricket at its very finest.

You turn off the public highway, through the first security check and drive about 2 miles on a private drive, past the grazing sheep and avoiding the pheasants (pheasants, not peasants!!).

Just before the car park, you reach the second security check.

“May I have your name, Sir?”

    “Lord Piper of Beckley Furnace.”

The guard checked his list.

“Welcome to Wormsley, Lord Ric.”

Is Wormsley the prettiest ground in England?

Well perhaps it is …Though Arundel runs it very, very close.

Sri Lanka scored at 5 runs per over in their 257 for 7. 
Captain Asalanka with 70 and Ashan with 60 both looked promising batsmen. 
Dominic Bess (Somerset) bowled his off breaks tidily with 10 overs for 30 and 1 wicket. Wicketkeeper Ollie Pope (Surrey) made a wonderful stumping to dismiss Bandara off Hugh Bernard (Kent).

In their innings England were all out 149, losing by a whopping 108 runs. 
Only Captain Max Holden (Middlesex) with 40 looked up to much on the day.

I will be following the careers of all 22 players, in the hope that there will be a Test Player or two amongst them in the years ahead.

Plenty to have enjoyed  at the New Grounds of 2016.

And some more new ones to visit in 2017.

Taunton: which I had hoped to go to in 2016.

And Eastbourne: where Sussex are planning to play their first match since 2000.

But before then: there’s still time to come & watch some cricket at Hove with me this Season

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can be in one. ^©

See you soon !!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

In the hope of finding an Ice Cream– which I never did !! – after lunch I wandered round the ground.

I did find a statue:

And then just outside the perimeter of the ground I saw some young boys playing :

My thoughts went back to playing in the late 50’s and early 60’s at the Upper Banner Farm Cricket Club; the famous UBFCC, who’s home ground was the field at the top of Farmcombe Road.

OK: Next Season I turn 65, my hair may be grey and my body old… 
But I’m still up for Young Passions.

Hope you are too!!!

A Day to Remember

If I could turn back time
If I could find a way

If I could reach the stars
I'd give them all to you 

Then you'd love me, love me
Like you used to do

If I could turn back time

By Diane Warren (for Cher)

When the Cricket Fixtures for the coming season are published in the late Autumn, there is always one which I look for first: The Championship game at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells.

Will there be a game there this year?

What’s the date?
Who’ll be playing against Kent?

Last November there was Great News!

Indeed there was going to be County cricket at the Nevill in 2016.

And - for the first time since 2003 - it was going to be my beloved Sussex in a four day game starting on Sunday 17 July.

In the First half of my life I regularly took the less than 10 minutes’ walk from Farmcombe Road over the railway line to the ground.

And in the Second half each year I either drove or took the train from Bickley to Tunbridge Wells.

But - as all those of us who watch Countdown on Channel 4 in the afternoon know - there is a Third half.

This year I came from a new direction; driving from Hove across East Sussex through Lewes, Uckfield & Crowborough. It felt like my own Third half had begun!

There was a only a modest size crowd as I met up with Sally & David Lambourne – who both watch cricket with me regularly – and Bob Ayers and Mike Varney, each father of one of Nicole’s best friends and each on the first ever visit to the Nevill.

We sat – as Tradition demands – at the Railway End between the sightscreen and the iconic marquees.

We were soon joined by Graham Bishopp, who I played cricket with at the Upper Banner Farm Cricket Club and then at the Borderers in the 1960’s and ‘70s.

And then by Graham Clayton (a member of the Team of 1969. Captain: Lord Ric) and his friend Bill; with whom I had watched Sussex v Middlesex in a T20 Blast at Hove on Friday evening.

There was a spare seat next to me and a Lady asked if she could sit there.

My Favourite Sister-In-Law (Auntie Barbara) has told me never to judge people on appearances.

But straightway I knew the Lady wasn’t the Ukrainian - 27 years’ old - Blonde that a Lord Ric Blog really deserves.

To start with … She wasn’t a Ukrainian. The Lady had that wonderful, mellifluous speaking voice that can only be acquired from a really expensive private education in England.

And though she had been 27, a gentleman - if really pushed - would have said 27 was a “couple” of decades ago.

But … She was Blonde!

In the way that so often happens at Cricket, we started to chat.

She told me that it was her first visit to the Nevill; though (like me) she had recently watched Sussex play at Arundel. 
She had driven up from Chichester. Her husband had planned to come too, but at short notice he’d had to go into work as his boss had a child who was ill. She’d decided to come on her own.

I told her that I had grown up very, very near the Nevill: the ground where I had seen my first County game almost 60 years ago in 1958.

Did I tell her that Young Jim scored 127 on that Saturday long, long ago? Of course, I did!!

That I had driven up from Hove, where Dianne & I now lived at weekends and to where I plan to retire. (OK: Not just yet!!).

I explained that Dianne wasn’t interested in Cricket, though we’d both gone to an England v Australia Ladies T20 game last season with Sally, who was sitting just in front of me.

The Lady asked if any of my children were interested in the game.

Not really, I replied. My elder daughter Nicole has taught in Abu Dhabi for the last three school years; she was about to come back to teach in the UK. I’d gone out to see her last October and seen several days of the Pakistan v England Test Match.

And your younger daughter?

I heard my voice catch as I said that very, very sadly Laura had died a few months ago. 
Dianne, Nicole & I were just taking each day a day at a time.

The Lady said how sorry she was.

And – as well-educated, middle class English people do – we quickly and almost seamlessly moved the conversation on.

After tea I decided to go for a stroll round the ground. OK, it was to get a Good Boy ice cream! After all it was National Ice Cream Day!!

And when I returned to my seat the Lady had left.

The Lady may never have been Ukrainian and she hasn’t been 27 for a while.

But she did have that wonderful speaking voice and she is a Blonde.

 I’ll be looking out for her at Arundel next season!!

------

I said goodbye to Sally & David and Mike as they each made their separate way home.

At Close of Play Bob & I walked along Upper Cumberland Walk & back over the railway line to my car parked in Delves Avenue.

I dropped Bob off at the station and drove through Tunbridge Wells town centre and then past Skinners’ School, where I’m an alumnus.

As I got on to the Tonbridge bypass, I realised that - as it always is – the game at The Nevill is A Day to Remember.

I thought of Mum & Dad, to whom I owe so much and whom I think of every day.

And I thought of Laura.

Over the years Laura & I had hundreds of conversations - & silences too!! – on our walks with Lottie.

Many, many topics covered.

But we didn’t ever talk about Life after Death.

Rather like the central heating clock, neither of us would have thought we knew enough about how it all worked.

But Laura will now …

Mum & Dad taught me never to do Deals with the Devil.

As plenty of you will know, I hope to be alive and well in the Summer of 2039.

I will turn 87 that June.

And Sussex – the oldest professional cricket club in the world - will be celebrating its 200^th anniversary.

I’d like to be able to walk to the Ground and enjoy the celebration lunch.

And in the 20+ years between now and 2039, there’ll be time for lots & lots of Cricket watching, the game which has been such a huge part of my life.

But as I headed past Sevenoaks and on towards the M25 and back to Merryfield, I knew that if the Devil offered me the Deal of no more Cricket watching in return for half an hour with Laura, then I’d take it.

Who really knows if there is Life After Death?

And if there is, whether the Dead can ‘connect’ with the Living?

But just in case … …

Laura:

If I could turn back time
If I could find a way

If I could reach the stars
I'd give them all to you 

Then you'd love me, love me
Like you used to do

If I could turn back time 

Love Dad xxx

Extra Jelly, Please

Hi everyone!

Every Cloud does indeed have a Silver Lining ... ...

And Sussex’s relegation to Division 2 at the end of Season 2015 means that we get to play Kent at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells.

As - when I was a lad - we always used to in the days when the County Championship was only one Division.

 The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells

The iconic marquees on the Tennis Club side of the ground

I'd like to take you back to a Kent v Sussex game some 65 years ago ... ...

In fact, exactly 65 years ago today: 23 June 1951

On that gloriously sunny Saturday long, long ago the local derby had attracted a big crowd, including Fred and Isabel who were sitting high up in the old wooden stand that used to be to the left of the sightscreen as you look towards the pavilion.

New Stand (left of sightscreen) & Pavilion

They’d only decided to come to the game as late as just before 10 o’clock on the Friday evening when having a drink together in the saloon bar of The Queen’s Head in Rye.

Confirmation – not that confirmation is ever needed – that so many of Life’s biggest  and best decisions are taken in bars!

Isabel was up early on the Saturday morning.

By 8 o’clock she was at the Bakers in Landgate to buy bread for the sandwiches.

Then it was off to the Butchers.

“Morning, Jack. Two of your best pork pies, please.”

“You like them with jelly, don’t you Isabel?”

Isabel smiled.

She and Fred had long known that a pork pie without jelly is like love without sex.

“Extra jelly, please, Jack!!”

Was there time for a visit to the Greengrocers?

Well, perhaps there was, for a Cricket Picnic always welcomes the Healthy Option:

Onions for the Bhajis;

Vegetables for the Samosas: and

Tomatoes – out of politeness!

By a little after 9.15 Fred & Isabel were driving up Rye Hill and through Peasmarsh.

In Beckley, they took the shortcut along Whitebread Lane and crossed the River Rother at Newenden.

Then it was on through those quintessential villages of the Kent-Sussex border, the Hursts: Sandhurst, Hawkhurst, Ticehurst and Wadhurst.

They parked in Forest Road, high above the ground, and walked down Warwick Park to take their seats.

The players were gently warming up on the outfield.

A young Kent player took the eye. Though rotund in build and only 18 years old, the rumour was that he was a Special Player.

And the rumour was right for Colin Cowdrey would be the first cricketer to play over 100 Tests, including 27 as England Captain, and become President of the MCC.

Not to mention playing tennis-ball cricket with Dianne’s best friend’s husband, Nick Wilcox, in his back garden; just round the corner from Merryfield!

But it was Sussex who were much the stronger side.

They would win the match by an Innings and 94 runs.

It was their batting line up that made Sussex such a force to be reckoned with.

That day of the four highest-ever scorers for Sussex, three were playing.

The brothers Jim and John Langridge batted at 1 and 4.

 

The Langridge Brothers: John & Jim

Jim, only the 3^rd professional ever to captain a County team, was 4^th on the list with 28,894 runs.

John was 1^st on the list with 34,150 runs. He scored a century that Saturday, just 1 of the 70 he scored; more than anyone else never to play Test Cricket.

But the day belonged to a young Sussex player.

It was only on the Thursday that he had received permission from his RAF Station Commander to play.

By the end of his career he would be 3^rd on the list with 29,138 runs for Sussex.

Not to mention 1,087 catches and 94 stumpings.

And 46 caps for England.

And twice becoming President of Sussex.

And having the Bar in the Pavilion at Hove named after him!

He was the son and nephew of two former Sussex players: Jim (the only man ever to make 3,000 runs and take a 100 wickets in one season) and Harry Parks (8^th on the list with 21,692 runs).

Jim (Senior) & Harry Parks

The young player was called James Michael Parks. 
He was already known as Young Jim; just as he is 65 years later.

Young Jim at the Nevill: 23 June 1951

The Kent wicket keeper is Group Captain Maurice Fenner

As he always tried to, Jim started to score quickly.
When Jim got to 50, entirely out of the blue  - and just as she so, so much hoped that one day he would do  - Fred asked Isabel if she would like to marry him; as long as Jim got a century that day.

“I’ll make you the happiest man in the world, Fred”

Twice dropped in the 70’s, Jim became marooned in the Nervous 90’s.

And so it came – as it so often seems to in Lord Ric’s Blogs – to the very last ball of the day.

Jim was on 97, needing 3 or more to reach his century.

As the Kent bowler ran in from the Railway End, Isabel had never heard of Neil Armstrong and had no idea that within less than 20 years men would walk on the Moon.

But once they had, she would always say that as the bowler reached the wicket her heart was beating faster than Neil Armstrong’s when he took one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

The ball was fairly full; pitching on middle, middle and leg …

                                                           

30 Years Later

Time indeed flies like an arrow.

And 30 years later in the Spring of 1981 a Stroke left Fred with very little sight.

His mind – which had been able to instantly spot ‘cant & tosh’ at a 100 paces – was left with only a sporadic memory of Times Past.

That year -  for the first Season since before World War 2  - there would be no visit to Hove to watch his beloved Sussex.

But Isabel would read Fred the cricket reports from the morning paper.

And in what was the year of Botham’s Ashes, they would sit together to listen to the England v Australia Tests on the wireless.

One Saturday morning  - on my way to play cricket for The Borderers  - I called in to see them both.

As it usually was, the front door was on the latch.

I gently pushed it open; and stood outside the lounge.

The wireless was on and Ian Botham was batting.

I heard the commentator say Botham had hit the great Aussie fast bowler Dennis Lillee for 4.

 Lillee & Botham: Exchanging Pleasantries!

Fred & Isabel were talking about the cricketers they’d loved over the decades.

I heard Isabel say:“Fred, do you remember the day we saw Young Jim at the Nevill?”

She began to tell the tale.

Of  deciding to go to the game whilst they were in the pub on the Friday evening.

Of walking to Landgate for the picnic.

Of taking their seats in the stand.

“ And Young Jim. How well he played. He’s always been my Favourite Player.”

“Oh, Fred, I was so excited when you asked me to marry you.”

Isabel told how Jim was dropped in the 70’s and became marooned in the Nervous 90’s.

“It came to the very last ball of the day, Fred. Jim needed 3 more runs for his century.

I was so nervous. My heart was beating faster than Neil Armstrong’s when he walked on the moon!”

“Do you remember what Young Jim did, Fred?”

How long did Fred take to answer?

Listening outside the lounge, it seemed to me liked minutes.

How much longer must it have felt for Isabel to wait for her husband to reply?

“Jim hit it for 4, Is. Into the marquees.

That’s what he did.”

“He did, Fred. He did”

For some Days at the Cricket are never to be forgotten.

……….

I can’t promise you that this year’s game at the Nevill will go to the very last ball of the day.

(Though when I come to write the Blog, it surely will have done!!!)

Nor that you will be proposed to.

(Though if your name is Emma… well, you might well be in luck; #JustHopeSo!!!)

But I'd love you to come along with me to The Nevill this year

*** Sunday 17th, Monday 18th & Tuesday 19th July ***

After all …

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can be in one. ^©

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

If you are thinking of bringing the Pork Pies … 

Like Mum & Dad, I love my Pork Pies with 

Extra Jelly, Please

But you knew that already, didn’t you!!!