Hi everyone!
It didn’t look as though I’d be able to get to Sussex v Northants for My First Game of the Season …
But suddenly a Window of Opportunity opened up & and after online booking (& only two phone calls to the Sussex Ticket Office !!), I was all set for Day 2 & 3 at Hove Actually !!
As I travelled down from Merryfield to the South Coast I was following the early overs on the BBC sports website.
Sussex won the toss & chose to bat…
As 30 for 4 became 55 for 6 and 67 for
8, I began to wonder how much cricket I would actually see ?
But two of Sussex’s younger bowlers,
Jack Carson (top scoring with 56; a maiden half century) and Henry Crocombe,
put on 99 for the 9th wicket and helped to get the total to an almost
respectable 175.
By the end of Day 1 Northants had
reached 91 for 4.
The weather for Day 2 was – as you would always expect in a Lord Ric blog – “gloriously sunny down on the South Coast”.
As I strolled past The Palmeira and turned left towards the ground, I remembered my First Ever Visit over 60 Seasons ago, watching with Dad from the Deckchairs up at the Cromwell Road end …
So many, many memories…
But no Deckchairs for me this time for they had been replaced “for now” by the “temporary” stands erected for the T20 Vitality Blast games in June.
Looking up towards the Cromwell road end
I took my seat high
up in the Sharks stand at the Sea End.
Northants made steady progress, ending their innings on 256, with George Garton taking 4 for 69.
81 runs behind after the1st innings, Sussex lost their first 4 wickets for 98, just 17 runs ahead.
Mainly relying on Tom Haines and Skipper
Ben Brown, they ended the day on 142 for 4, a lead of 61.
Perhaps there would be cricket for most
of Day 3 …
If the Sussex Marketing department were monitoring the Day 2 Friday crowd’s demographics …
Well, you’d say they
were pretty much all Legacy Fans (Flask & Sandwich).
No one sitting near me would see 60 again !!
But the crowd on the Saturday did have some younger people.
Sitting in front of me were Mum-Pat & Dad-Derek and their 8 year old son, Jack.
They had driven over from Icklesham in 1066 Country, between Rye and Hastings.
It was Jack’s First
Ever Visit to watch Sussex.
But it was clear from his conversation with Mum & Dad that he was a Lifelong Fan.
We soon started chatting …
With Ben Brown going
well, Jack told me that the Skipper & Wicketkeeper was his Favourite
Player.
Ben Brown
Jack asked me if I had a Favourite Player … …
I said I did.
He had scored a 100 in the first game I
had ever watched v Kent at the Nevill, Tunbridge Wells … and only 1 v Yorkshire
in the first game I had watched at Hove.
Jack had never heard
of Young Jim Parks.
He knows plenty about him now !!!
We discussed what
makes a Favourite Player.
They don’t have to be
the Best.
Plenty would choose Matt Prior in their All-time Sussex Dream XI.
No one would really challenge anyone
who said that Sarah Taylor is a tremendous wicketkeeper for Sussex &
England Women.
Even I accept that Alan ‘Knotty’ Knott was a better wicketkeeper than Young Jim !
As the afternoon wore on, Sussex were all out for 298.
Tom Haines 103, his 2nd 100 of the season & Ben Brown out for 95, caught on the long off boundary right in front of us.
Northants started their 2nd innings needing 218 for victory.
As the Sussex bowlers Crocombe and Atkins opened the bowling, conversation turned to Fast Bowlers.
Young Jack was a fan
of Jofra Archer.
I said I hoped that Jack and his parents would come to a T20 on a Friday evening under the floodlights and see Tymal Mills
charge in down the hill from the Cromwell Road end.
Tymal Mills
Jack had never heard of John Snow or Garth Le Roux.
I mentioned Imran
Khan …
“ Imran used to play here … & now
he’s the Prime Minister of Pakistan!”
Jack smiled; he already knew that in a Lord Ric tale, you should never worry about the Facts getting the way of What Really Happened!
The Mighty Imran
By close of play
Northants had reached 131 for two; victory would come before lunch on Day 4.
As Jack and his parents left to head back across Sussex, we all agreed it had been a really good day.
What was it ‘Lord’
Ted Dexter said:
Sussex County Cricket Club is not
simply a bucket of statistics and a record of who did what to make them.
It is even more than a celebration of
the game.
For cricket is part of this land's social history, and Sussex is one of its cornerstones.
It is over 40 Seasons
since Ted wrote the foreword to From the Sea End, celebrating the first
150 years of Sussex, the oldest professional cricket club in the world.
I’m already looking forward
to 2039 & the 200th Anniversary celebrations…
Young Jack is too !
---
I really hope that
you’ll come along and watch with me this season.
We’ll be watching from the Deckchairs, up at the Cromwell Road end !!
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
As I walked back up
Palmeira Avenue towards Chatsworth Square, I realised I was dawdling ...
Of course, when your Action List – Still To Do starts with: Clean the Bathrooms, well, Dawdling is permitted !
I thought of that
Little Boy who had watched Sussex at Hove all those years ago…
As he travelled with his Dad back across Sussex to Tunbridge Wells, he dreamt of captaining Sussex & playing for England …
He’s still dreaming !
What are Dreams for,
if not to come true !!
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