What else are Dreams for ...

Hi everyone!

A couple of years ago in June 2017 The Clock of Life told the tale – on his 65^th birthday – of a Young Boy’s first game of club cricket, exactly 50 years before in June 1967.

All the classic ingredients, of course.

The debutant on strike.

The game going to the last ball; the Death Ball.

One wicket left, 3 runs to win.

Dad watching - impassively - from the Long Off boundary.

Watching from the Long Off boundary

I’ll let you look up the blog & read just what  happened next …

The blog went on to tell how the Young Boy was taken under the wing of The Hawks’ Sunday XI captain, Des Hitch.

A retired semi-professional footballer for Eastbourne United, Des was an estate agent and sometime property developer.

He was the first person I knew who owned a Jaguar.

The S-type

Driven by Des; & in the 1980's by DI Jack Regan in The Sweeney

In the next few seasons Des improved my cricket (a bit!) and my after match drinking (a lot!!).

Des was an optimist at Sport and in Life generally.

“So, Young Ric”, he would often tell me:

“If you’re going to Dream, then Dream Big.”

In September 1971, just before going to university, I played my last game under Des’s captaincy.

In the changing room at the end of the game Des said a few words in front of the team to wish me luck.

After a “couple” of pints with the opposition, Des drove me home.

If Des ever drove his Jag at less than 80 miles an hour, well it must have been when he was in reverse!

We soon reached Farmcombe Road.

I thanked Des for all he had done to help me Grow Up over the last 4 years.

He smiled and said: “Ric,

“If you ever think it is time to be Mature, then think again. And put it off!!”

Des handed me a piece of paper, saying it might help me in the coming years:

All men dream, but not equally.

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

T E Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia)

In the many years since 1971, well I like to think I have Dreamed, maybe sometimes Dreamed Big.

OK; a couple may have turned out to be Nightmares!!

Of course, as the decades rolled by, I came to accept not all my Dreams would actually come true.

In 1992 I turned 40.

That year Jaguar showed a TV advert for their new car.

(Hint: Non parli Italiano? Nessun problema!)

Link to advert: https://youtu.be/gXPti8ppl5U

What else are Dreams for,

If not to come true

The following year in 1993 I applied for a new job.

As the CEO told me a few years later:

408 people, Ric, applied.

407 could do the job perfectly OK.

But we found You!!

And in 1997 - after a successful IPO to the Stock Market – and a mere 26 years after my last lift home with Des, the Jag arrived!!

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At Hove Actually we’re well into the T20 Season.

As I write, after 8 games The Mighty Sussex Sharks are Top of the South Group, with 5 consecutive wins.

 Last Friday evening it was the game against Middlesex.

Plenty of Sussex Legends on the pitch.

And in the crowd too!

Up at the Cromwell Road end

I was delighted to welcome Tim, a friend from Bickley and a lifelong Gloucestershire supporter, to his first ever Sussex game.

Tim’s daughter Lucy has recently moved to Hove, which I hope will prompt him to plenty more cricket watching!

Next to Tim is Emma, once a resident of Hampshire (do they even play cricket?), but now living in Haywards Heath in the Mighty County of Sussex.

 A few weeks ago See, I am sending an Angel told the story of the Where & Why Emma and I became friends.

The Where is:

Lime Wood hotel, New Forest

I was chairing an Audit Committee there at which Emma was presenting.

How many Audit Committees have I chaired in the last 20 years?

Far too many!!

And the one I remember the best was that one at Lime Wood.

Around 3.30 we broke for Tea and sat out on the patio.

Emma asked whether she could take a look round the hotel and its facilities.

About half an hour later, Emma returned.

She announced that the hotel was wonderful.

And as for the Why …

If I had been given a million goes, I would never-ever have guessed What Emma would say.

“It’s where I’m going to have my Wedding Reception!”

TBH, I didn’t know that Emma had a fiancé, never mind a date for her wedding.

“That’s lovely, Emma”, I said.

“When do you hope to get married?”

“Oh no, Ric.

I thought I’d choose the Reception venue first!”

And then find a Husband!!”

The following Sunday evening I was having dinner at Merryfield with Dianne and the Girls.

We were chatting about what we’d been up to during the week.

I told them about Emma & The Wedding Reception.

Nicole immediately said she completely agreed with Emma’s order of selection.

Laura agreed.

I turned to Dianne …who said:

“Reception, then Husband.

Exactly what I should have done!!!”

Was I in a parallel universe?

As Nicole was asking me what I thought, I heard the pips on the wireless for 7 o’clock.

Memories came flooding back of Sunday cricket for The Hawks.

In those now long, long ago days pubs shut on a Sunday at 2.30 and then re-opened at 7 o’clock.

If cricket finished early, we’d sit in the Jag outside the pub listening to The Top 20 on Radio 1 & 2.

As the pips started, Des would send me to knock on the pub door to get the publican to open up. 

“What do You think, Dad?”

There was only the one answer:

“If you’re going to Dream, then Dream Big.”

 … …

It’s a couple of Seasons since Emma and I last watched cricket together.

I really, really would like to tell you that she did get married at Lime Wood …

But the sad, sad truth is that Emma never did.

Isn't that the risk you inevitably have to take when you Dream and Dream Big?

The best I can offer you, dear reader, is a quote from Martin Luther King:

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Just two T20 home matches left this season …

How about coming to a Friday night game at Hove Actually?

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own. 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

Oh come on, dear reader, this is a Lord Ric blog !

Last ball of the game, one wicket left, 3 to win.

It’s always, but always going to be the one-bounce through midwicket for 4!!

OK, Emma never did get married at Lime Wood.

But …

She did meet James.

Went on their first date to The Jolly Sailor at Hamble.

Decided during the Main course that James was The One!

And on Friday 27 April 2018 got married!!

With a wonderful Reception at The Montagu Arms in Beaulieu !!!

What else are Dreams for,

If not to come true

Des would be pleased that Jaguar Land Rover made the car !!

That Was The Week That Was

Hi everyone!

"That was the week that was,

It's over, let it go ..."

Sung by Millicent Martin on That Was The Week That Was

Devised, produced and directed Ned Sherrin and compered by David Frost, That Was The Week That Was (TW3) was shown on the BBC in 1962 & 1963. 

It was the first satirical programme I ever watched.

Broadcast live on Saturday night, TW3 attracted an audience of 12 million.

TW3 often overran as the cast worked through material as they saw fit. At the beginning of the second season in the Autumn of 1963, in an attempt to assert control over the programme, the BBC scheduled repeats of The Third Man television series after the end of TW3. 
Frost suggested a means of sabotaging this tactic to Sherrin, and he agreed. For three weeks, Frost read out the plot of The Third Man, until the repeats were abandoned following the direct intervention of the BBC Director General Hugh Greene, the brother of Graham Greene who wrote The Third Man.

Though I didn’t understand all the jokes and satirical attacks, I loved TW3.

It had some wonderful scriptwriters, including John Betjeman, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Roald Dahl, Frank Muir + Denis Norsden and Eric Sykes.

Performers ranged from the comedian Frankie Howerd to The Times columnist Bernard Levin.

But the Star of the Show was its compere David Paradine Frost, “Frostie”.

Jill, the daughter of a friend of Dad’s from his time in Chatham Dockyard in WWII, had been at Barnsole Road Primary School in Gillingham with Frostie. Frostie’s Dad, Wilfred Paradine Frost, was Minister at the nearby Byron Road Methodist church.

Jill told me that Frostie on the TV was just as he had been as a little boy.

For me, Frostie would go on to be the best TV interviewer of the 2^nd half of the 20^th century.

Of course, the interviews with disgraced President Richard Nixon & with insurance fraudster Emil Savundra will be long remembered. 

Frostie was the only person to have interviewed all eight Prime Ministers serving between 1964 and 2013 and all seven US Presidents in office between 1969 and 2008.

But I especially liked his Sunday morning interview programme Breakfast with Frost which ran on the BBC from 1993 until 2005. 

Frostie’s Little Black Book led the Great & the Good (and the Not-So-Good) on to the programme. And whenever there was a bloodless revolution in a far away and unknown (to me anyway!) xxxStan, Frostie would go live to the newly installed General (Oxford educated and Sandhurst trained, obviously!) who, it turned out, was a good friend.

When Sir David died in 2013 I knew that Michael Grade’s eulogy would be fulsome:

Unlike many modern interviewers, he listened, and he disarmed people. You tended to relax in his company and say things that perhaps you otherwise wouldn't. The skill of any interviewer is to get somebody to say more than they intended to say, and David did that with charm. You felt he was your friend. Very quickly, you felt you were just having a conversation with a mate, and you might say something you shouldn't.

He was a complete pleasure to work with. He was very collaborative, picked good people to work with, and he always listened. He was always very keen to learn. He was a delight.

I think his outstanding human quality, which you would not find in anyone else in our business, was that you couldn't get him to say a bad word about anybody. He enjoyed a gossip but I never, ever, in the 30-odd years that I've known him and worked with him, heard him have a bad word to say about anybody. Try as I might to get him to say something, he would just smile and say, "Oh, you know." He just didn't have it in him, and he had so many friends. And that was, I think, one of the features of his longevity.

He was huge – you knew you were going to see an absolute superstar – but you never felt that. He was a sweet, sweet, lovely man. He was very popular to work with. He had a lot of people who were jealous of him, but everyone who worked with him knew he was a gent.

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So, dear reader, just One Small Step from That Was The Week That Was to That Was The Week We’ve Had.

The T20 Vitality Blast season is well-underway.

In the last week I’ve been busy putting in the hard yards watching my beloved cricket!!

Friday night games at Hove Actually are regularly a sell out.

And the game against Surrey was no exception.

Sussex’s 144 for 8 included 76 not out from captain Luke Wright. But it looked 20 to 30 runs too few.

The Shark Attack was led by Jofra Archer (2 for 21) and Tymal Mills (2 for 16).

Duckworth Lewis showed the game was very close; too close to call.

And so it proved with 2 off the last ball by Imran Tahir leading to that rarest of results: A Tie!

On Sunday it was the annual trip to Taunton for the game against Somerset.

Good to be accompanied on the journey out to the Wild West by John Squire.

And to meet up with old cricketing friends from schooldays, Arthur Durrant and Graham Clayton.

Sussex’s 183 for 8 included 78 from debutant Alex Carey, who has been playing for Australia in the World Cup.

Babar Azam with 83 kept Somerset in the hunt, but tight bowling resulted in Somerset falling 12 runs short.

No rest for Lord Ric … on Tuesday it was off to the Oval for Surrey v Kent.

With a 2 hour delay because of rain, there was plenty of time for Jeremy Simpson and me to reflect on the EU Referendum. We (only) needed a “few” more hours to resolve that one!

When play finally got underway the game was reduced from 20 overs a side to just 7 overs.

Surrey scored 54 for 4.

After 3 overs Kent were level with Duckworth Lewis on 24. But Rikki Clarke’s over went for 21 and, with 43 from Mohammad Nabi, Kent won with an incredible 3 overs to spare!

Time for a break from T20?

On Thursday it was off to Edgbaston, Birmingham for the Test match: Day 1 of England v Australia, the Ashes.

A MASSIVE thank you to Jill Ainscough for the ticket.

It is 2 or 3 years since I last watched Test cricket.

An intense day, a reminder that I ought to apply for more tickets at Lords and the Oval.

Not to mention those long-promised overseas trips to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa!

Stuart Broad with 5 for 86 and Chris Woakes with 3 for 58 were the stand out bowlers for England.

But the day was all about Steve Smith, the former captain of Australia, on his return to Test cricket following his 12 months ban for the ball tampering incident at Newlands, Cape Town.

His 144 showed that he is currently the World’s best batsman. 

Good to see plenty of the England players from the Ashes in 2005.

And to meet up with the Lads from the Tunbridge Wells Borderers:

Bish, Keith & Trevor

And so to the final game of That Was The Week That Was: to Hove for the game against the Old Enemy, Kent, who arrived with the impressive record of 5 wins from 5 games played.

I was delighted to be joined by Kent supporters, Sally and David Lambourne.

We watched the game from the CanCom verandah, the best office viewing in the World Cricket!!

Sally + David

With Host Martin in the pink shirt

Kent set off like a rocket, with a sparkling 50 from Daniel Bell-Drummond, who was taught at primary school in Lewisham by Sally’s sister Jane.

But Tymal Mills with 3 for 23 helped keep the Kent score down to 154 for 8.

It proved far, far  too little, with not out scores from Phil Salt: 63 and Laurie Evans: 65 allowing Sussex to win with 9 wickets and 4 overs to spare.

After all that, I could do with a Rest.

I’m off to the Edinburgh Festival for a good lie down !!

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How about coming to a Friday night game at Hove Actually?

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own. 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

Plenty of wonderful memories of Kent & Sussex games …

Watching on my first trip the Nevill, Tunbridge Wells in ’58 (that’s 1958 , please!).

Sussex winning there in 1963 in the first Gillette Cup game.

And the game in 1980; the 40^th anniversary is next year. Look out for the blog.

And – of course – the match back in 1842. Last game of the season, on Saturday 10^th September if I remember correctly.

In the early 1840's I was living at Banner Farm on the south side of Tunbridge Wells. 

I walked down to the Pantiles where The Lads & I caught the Regency Runner. There was a change of horses at Crowborough and then at Lewes.

We arrived at the ground in good time for a 2 o’clock start.

In those days Sussex played at The Levels, just north of where the Pier is now.

A big crowd; look carefully and you’ll just see us!

A 40 overs a side game, the prize of 1,100 guineas (£1.05 in decimal currency) was Winner Takes All.

(Editor: the prize of 100 guineas a player was equivalent to about 30 years pay for an agricultural worker)

No need to trouble ourselves with the precise scores, for in a Lord Ric Blog the facts never need to get in the way of what really happened!

Suffice to say that Kent batted first and, in what was a ‘nip & tuck’ game, by the last ball of the Sussex innings the home team were 9 wickets down with 3 runs needed to win.

A young Sussex player called Michael was facing. He’d travelled by train from Haywards Heath to Brighton on the railway line which had opened a year earlier in 1841.

Perhaps you haven’t heard of Michael, nor of his great grandsons, Harry & Jim, who both played for Sussex and England.

But you surely must have heard of Michael’s great great grandson who was also called Michael?

As the older Michael took guard on the Kemp Town side of the ground he would have known only too well that 3 runs stood between him and each of his team mates winning 30 years’ wages.

109 seasons on in June 1951 his great grandson (James Michael Parks, ‘Young Jim’) was batting at the Nevill for Sussex against Kent. Last ball of the day … 3 runs needed for his 100 so that Fred & Isabel (Mum & Dad) could get engaged.

What happened next … … Come & watch some cricket with me and I’ll tell you!!

Hint: There’s only The One Winner for me … …