Wednesday, 31 August 2022

The day the music died

 

A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

 

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died

American Pie by Don Maclean

Hi everyone!

A £1.50p money off voucher which expired the following day led me to walk down from Brighton station to the TESCO Express in Queen’s Road in search of a Pork Pie for the picnic.

By twenty to eleven I was queuing at the bus stop for the No.7 to take me via Seven Dials to Palmeira Avenue for the Royal London Cup Semi-final Sussex v Lancashire.

I was listening to Pop Master on Ken Bruce’s BBC Radio 2.

(12 & 15; rather better than I usually score).

Ken said to one of the contestants that Music Is So Evocative.

More about this later on.

By barely 11.00 I had taken my seat up at the Cromwell Road end for the start of play.

Lancashire are a strong team.

But after only 14 overs they were looking down & out at 67 for 5.

No Fool like an Old Fool. I was thinking I might be home by late afternoon.

However, the Lancashire Captain, Dean Vilas, had other ideas.

With 50 from George Lavelle and 57 from Danny Lamb, Vilas’s 121 helped Lancashire to 319 for 8.

They had scored 252 runs in the final 36 overs for the loss of only 3 wickets !!

 

During the between-the-innings interval there was much discussion about Sussex’s chances.

The general consensus was that two out of three of Ali Orr, Tom Alsop and Sussex captain Cheteshwar Pujara would need to Go Big.

Of course, plenty of the spectators around the ground were following the other Semi-Final at the Ageas, Southampton: Hampshire v Kent.

Hampshire’s score of 310 for 9 was very similar to Lancashire’s.

Helped by 95 by Ollie Robinson (not the Sussex one !!), 54 from former Sussex player Harry Finch and a wonderful 84 not out by 46 year old Darren Stevens, Kent go through to the Final at Trent Bridge.

Best wishes to the Old Rivals !!

---

As always at Hove, there was plenty of time to remember Times Past.

It was August Bank Holiday Tuesday.

Exactly 50 years before in 1972 I had been at the ground for the County Championship game v Middlesex.

Watching with Dad and his best friend Bill Sands, we were just a few yards from where I was sitting half a century on … …


Just a few yards from where I was sitting half a century on ...

Dad and Bill had played for Rye Cricket Club before the war.

On that gloriously sunny day now long, long ago, all their favourite Top Tales were told.

I had heard them many, many times.

Some may even have been (partly) true !

(Editor: dear reader, you will be thinking like Father, like Son !!)

And the match had plenty of twists and turns and a tremendous ending:

Middlesex scoring 257 in 58 overs to win the game.

After a Quick Pint at The Palmeira, we drove back to Tunbridge Wells.

But Dad & I said very little.

It wasn’t that Sussex had lost. Like all lifelong fans, you know your team does lose. In fact, of the 20 Championship games Sussex played in 1972, they won but two.

No, the reason that we said so little was that Bill had told us that he had a friend who “knew someone on the Committee” who thought that this was going to be Young Jim’s last season for Sussex.

Jim was about turn 41.

But his form seemed OK.

56 and 41 not out in the Middlesex game.

Across the Season he scored 1,014 runs, the 18th time Jim had done so. Only James Langridge has done it more times (20) for Sussex.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, it was indeed to be Jim’s last season for Sussex.

Just the away game at Dean Park in Bournemouth against Hampshire (21 & 70) and then – after 29,138 First Class runs for Sussex - a career that had begun at Fenners against Cambridge University way back in 1949 was over.


As Dad & I drove home that evening, there was a song on the radio, a Big Hit that summer:

A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

 

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died

It really did feel like the day the music died.

But - of course – cricket down at Hove Actually has continued on.

The Sussex openers Alsop and Orr came out to bat.

At 126 for 1 after 21 overs Sussex were up with the Duckworth Lewis score.

But Lancashire restricted the run rate and at 167 for 4, with all the Top 4 batters out, it was Game Over.

Sussex were all out for 254, Lancashire winning by 65 runs.

Well played, Lancashire !!


No Final for Sussex. But it has been a really, really enjoyable Royal London Cup competition !!

---

 

We are well through Season 2022, just a few weeks of Fixtures left.

Do get out your diary & have a look for the game v Glamorgan on 26th to 29th September.


And if not that game … It’ll SOON be Season 2023 !!!

I really hope that you’ll come along and watch cricket with me.

 

I can’t promise you that Young Jim will be back playing for Sussex.

Though he surely will be by the time I write the Blog !!

 

After all ….

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

 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

PS

By choice or by circumstance, exiting professional sport is inevitable. What happens after is less certain.

There’s an oft-repeated phrase in sports, its recurrence having washed away its origin, but the premise is this:

Athletes die twice, and the first death comes in retirement.

Of course, Young Jim did not die at the end of Season 1972.

Jim went on to play for Somerset until 1976.

He worked for Whitbread for 18 years and then 'Came Home' to work for Sussex in marketing … and become President; twice !!

In 1973 he married Jenny.

You would often see Mrs Parks and Jim walking round the ground.

 

Watching from the Cromwell Road end in June 2019

Aged 90, Jim died a few months ago in May 2022.

Just as he was that Tuesday evening 50 years ago … Young Jim is still my Favourite Player.

 

To live on in the hearts of others is not to die

Sunday, 21 August 2022

Simplicity is one of the truly precious things in this life

I can tell you with certainty that ... 

Simplicity is one of the truly precious things in this life

Live Simply by Annie Traurig

Hi everyone!

Even if - to quote AA Milne & Winnie the Pooh - you are a Bear of Little Brain, when the Fixtures for Season 2022 were first published, Friday 19th August looked a Simple Enough day

It would be off to Taunton, the annual trip to the Wild West.

To watch Sussex play an RL50 game against Somerset.

But – as Winnie knew only too well – Life isn’t always Simple.

Somerset decided to make the match an afternoon / evening game, starting at 2 o’clock. Finishing too late for me to catch the last train back to Paddington with onward connections back to Bickley.

So, the annual trip to the Wild West was switched to the Somerset game v Durham on Wednesday 10th August.

See: http://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2022/08/our-paths-may-change.html

Now with a free day on Friday 19th, it was back to the Fixtures …

What about Kent v Yorkshire at Canterbury?

I spoke with Graham Bishopp (‘Bish’) – a lifelong Kent fan, a friend from school and, like me, a Co-Founder of the Upper Banner Farm Cricket Club, the iconic UBFCC - who confirmed he would be going along.

In truth, it is a Simple enough rail journey from Bickley to Canterbury. Bickley to Bromley South, change at Bromley South for the Canterbury train and then a short walk up the Old Dover Road.

As I crossed the footbridge at Canterbury station, it just didn’t look that familiar …

That was because I had gone to Canterbury West, not East !!

Faced with a 1½ mile walk, twice the distance from the correct station, Google Maps soon got me heading through Canterbury, past The Cricketers in St Peter’s Street.

 

 For once, there was no time for a well-deserved pint !!

On by the Whitefriars Shopping Centre, I crossed the A28 inner ring road and headed up the Old Dover Road.

As you turn off the public road into the Kent ground you pass Keepers Close.

A memory of all those wonderful Kent Wicketkeepers…

Les Ames, Godfrey Evans and, of course, Knotty, Wisden’s selection in 2013 for the World Alltime XI (I guess Young Jim must have been unavailable !!!).

Time - and there is never need for any excuse – for a telling of the game TW Borderers played away at Newick.

Let the scorebook show for ever that Piers Morgan ( yes, that Piers Morgan) was ...  Stumped Bishopp !

In the photo - from the celebration of Kent's 150th Birthday - the gentleman in the front row in the blazer is Alan Knott.

To His right is a gentleman in a grey sports jacket.

Now Knotty has his fans to be the Greatest wicket keeper the game has ever known

But he never ever stumped Piers Morgan !!

(Editor: dear readers, many of you may be thinking very little is actually true in a Lord Ric Blog… but this tale definitely is !!).

As I finally took my seat in the upper tier of the Frank Woolley stand, Yorkshire were batting with the score about 60 without loss.

The Yorkshire innings progressed steadily with Top 3 all scoring 50+: Will Fraine 68, Harry Finaly Duke 85 and Bean 61.

At 235 for 4 after 40 overs it looked Simple enough for the score to get around 325.

But Life isn’t always Simple …

A couple of rain showers meant that the Yorkshire innings was reduced by 5 overs to a 45 overs a side match. They finished on 282 for 6.


At this point you might be thinking that Kent would need to score 283 to win.

But oh no … the Duckworth Lewis System (‘DLS’) required Kent to score 14 more runs than Yorkshire.

297 to win !

It was a moment when - to be frank – you needed a DLS World Expert to explain what on earth was going on.

Fortunately, we had Martin Hansell, a friend from Tunbridge Wells Borderers Cricket Club.

Watching with The Lads - Bish & Martin

(I think Martin explained that) It is all to do with Yorkshire would have scored more than the 283 they did if they had known from the start (rather than after 40 overs) they would have an innings of 45 overs, not the regulation 50.

When Kent batted Joey Evison was out first ball. DLS went into overdrive and immediately Kent were 30 behind the required run rate.

Though getting ever further behind DLS, Ben Compton (grandson of Denis who was Young Jim’s favourite cricketer and cousin of Ben) scored a steady 81, Ollie Robinson (not the Sussex one !) 59  and Joe Denly 61.

The Kent No.6 looked a Really Good Player !!!

Harry Zacariah Finch … played for Sussex & was born in Hastings.

(Editor: dear readers, absolutely no need to ask Lord Ric where he was born …)

But when Harry was out for 42, Kent were 274 for 6; needing 23 to win off just 17 balls.

Harry Podmore scored 8 off 5 balls, leaving 7 off 4 balls.

The new batsman Hamidullah Qadri scrambled a single.

The Kent No. 7 Grant Stewart declined a single off Matthew Revis’ penultimate ball to leave everything on the Final Ball.

What can I tell you about Grant Stewart?

His story is far from Simple !!

Born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Grant is a graduate engineer from the University of Newcastle in New South Wales.

He made his First Class debut for Kent in 2017.

Earlier in 2022 he was loaned to Sussex for one game.

Grant’s mother is Italian and in 2021 he played for Italy in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier.

Not too many other players, perhaps, with an Italian & Sussex connection.

But there is one …

He was born in Milan on 15 May 1935.

All my life I’ve known only too well that I was a Bear of Little Brain.

That - for me – it just had to be Simplicity is one of the truly precious things in this life.

Grant Stewart may never have heard of the Sussex player born on 15 May 1935.

And - even if he has – he probably doesn’t know that Edward Ralph Dexter was born in Milan, Italy.

It had all come down to One Ball Left - Six To Win.

With Bish & Martin scarcely able to look , I thought of what would would Ted would have down … …

Never in doubt, was it ??!!

For Lord Ted knew the Essential Message of Life:

Give It Go !!!

Grant Stewart pulled Matt Revis through backward square leg for a Huge Six.

To a huge cheer from the home crowd.



In the end … it had been a Simple Enough day !!

---

 

We are well into Season 2022, just a few weeks of Fixtures left.

Do get out your diary & have a look at the fixtures for the remaining weeks of Season 2022.

I really hope that you’ll come along and watch cricket with me.

I can’t promise you that the game will actually go to the Final Ball.

Though it surely will have done by the time I write the Blog !!

After all ….

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

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

 

PS

During the afternoon I had been e-following the game in Taunton.

It turned out to be a Simple win for Sussex.

Scoring 397 for 5, Sussex won by 196 runs.

The Sussex opener Ali Orr is just 21 years old.

His score of 206 off 161 balls with 11 sixes and 18 fours was the first ever List A double century by a Sussex player.

Beating the 174 made by Cheteshwar Pujara against Surrey at Hove just five days earlier. It is equal 5th place among the top scorers ever in List A cricket.


I thought back 59 Seasons to the first One Day Cup Final at Lords:

Sussex v Worcestershire.

65 overs a side.

 

Dad & I were at the game watching from the Mound Stand, cheering when Lord Ted lifted the Cup.

I doubt that either of us would ever have believed that a Sussex batter would score 200 in a 50 overs game.

More than the entire Sussex XI that September Saturday now long, long ago.

 


Lord Ted, Young Jim & Snowy. All play in my Sussex Alltime XI.

This Tuesday Sussex play down at Hove Actually against top of the table Middlesex in the RL50 Cup.

Win and the mighty Sussex definitely go through to the Quarter finals

Would any of Ted, Jim or Snowy even make the starting XI … …

  

What did that great cricket lover LP Hartley write in The Go-Between?

 

The Past is a different country.

They do things differently there.

 

Sunday, 14 August 2022

Batting at No.3 …

 Hi everyone !

Saturday 14th August 1948 

Exactly 74 years ago today.

Club Cricket at The Nevill

Tunbridge Wells v Haywards Heath


Even if – like me – you love watching cricket at The Nevill, this is a probably a long forgotten game …

Until that is a few days ago when a friend of mine sent a weblink.

He knew that I would be interested !!

  

A glance at the scorecard shows Tunbridge Wells batted first.

They were all out for 114 in 48 overs.

Batting at No. 6, Captain Bill Isard top scored with 42.

He played 310 matches for TW, from 1928 to 37 years later in 1964. 

For Haywards Heath there were 3 wickets from the No.3 and 2 each from the No.1 and No.11.

 

 In their innings of only 25 overs, Haywards Heath were all out for just 81.

  

A low scoring game; a regulation win for The Wells !!  

---

 

Delving a little more into the details …

The TW No. 3 Charlie Wicker was run out for 3.

He played a massive 732 games from 1937 to 1982, amassing 13,300 runs and taking 516 wickets.

His son Graham was a friend of mine at Skinners' in the 1960s.

The TW No. 10 Des Hall was bowled for 4 and took 3 for 37.

Des played 387 games from 1939 to 1982.

His career bowling stats are 914 wickets at a very impressive 13.6.

  

Batting No. 7 & keeping wicket was Thomas Saunders.

Only 2 games for TW, both in August 1948.

Batting No. 8 was Ron Young.

80 games from 1945 to 1950 with 821 runs and 157 wickets.

More about both Thomas & Ron shortly …

---

So, what is it about this particularly game - exactly 74 years on – that my friend knew would interest me ???

Well, it is true that Dad & I did know both Charlie Wicker & Des Hall.

But the Real Reason is all about the Haywards Heath No.3.

He took 3 for 28 in 11 overs.

And was out for a Duck, stumped by Thomas Saunders bowled Ron Young.

One other fact … that Saturday afternoon - now long, long ago – the No. 3 was 16 years old.

 

I wonder if Thomas & Ron ever knew exactly who they had got out …

If they did, they would have Told the Tale thousands of time in the many Seasons ahead !!!

 

For the scorecard will forever show:

James M Parks:  stumped Saunders bowled Young for 0 

---

 

Three Seasons on and in June 1951 Young Jim was back at The Nevill, once again batting at No.3.

This time for the Mighty Sussex !!

It is – of course – my Favourite Cricket Story about my Favourite Player.

One I have told thousands & thousands of time.

http://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2021/06/yesterday-today-twisted-like-rope.html

The day that Young Jim went to his 100 - one bounce through mid-wicket into the iconic marquees – off the last ball of the day!!

---

Cricket at The Nevill ...

Will Kent ever play there again  …

We can but really hope so !!!


Watching from the Railway End

Meanwhile …

Do get out your diary & have a look at the fixtures for the remaining weeks of Season 2022.

 

I really hope that you’ll come along and watch cricket with me.

 

After all ….

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

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

 

PS

I know … you think I make up all the Blogs.

Never let the Facts get in the way of What Really Happened !

But ... Take a glance at:

https://tunbridgewells.play-cricket.com/website/results/4556335

 

Special Thanks to Graeme Hall - the son of the TW No. 10, Des - who sent me the scorecard

Thursday, 11 August 2022

Our paths may change …

 Our paths may change  ... as life goes along.

But the bond between friends remains ever strong.

There is something about childhood friends that is irreplaceable.

 

Hi everyone!

The Annual Trip to the Wild West - to Taunton in Somerset -  is always one of the highlights of the Cricket Season.

Covid issues had meant that it was three years since The Lads & I had last met to watch some cricket & reminisce about the Good Old Days.


The Lads - #ForeverYoung

We are all from the Classes of ’63 & ’64 at Skinners’ School in Tunbridge Wells on the Kent / Sussex border.

Our friendships and cricket playing days started almost six decades ago.

County allegiances are split broadly evenly between the two Old Rivals.

So, when the Fixtures for 2022 were first published, we planned to see Somerset v Sussex in the RL50 game on Friday 19th August.

But when the timings of the game came out, it wasn’t possible  - for those of us who live in London  - to watch an evening game and get back home by rail.

No problem; we soon settled on the day game v Durham on Wednesday 10th August.

Train timetables were reviewed, tickets bought & picnics packed.

We all met up - as tradition demands - in Block 5 of the Somerset Stand.

---

Durham started strongly with 86 from Graham Clark and 88 from Scott Borthwick.

By 30 overs they had scored over 180 for the loss of only one wicket.

Ol’ Ric was predicting - with that sublime & completely unwarranted confidence that the Lads had known only too well for over half a century- a Durham score after 50 overs of 350 to 400.

But 19 year old Sonny Baker was in tremendous form, taking 6 wickets for 46 runs in his 10 overs.


Despite scoring 80 runs in the final overs, Durham were all out in the final over for 342.

--- 

There were plenty of Top Tales throughout the day from The Lads… the ones where no one worries that the Facts don’t get in the way of What Really Happened.

Several were about EW ‘Jim’ Swanton.

Peter Richardson, the Worcestershire, Kent & England batter was renowned for his practical jokes, often targeting EW ‘Jim’ Swanton, the cricket correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and eminence grise of cricket writers.

 

Jim Swanton, Brian Johnston & Peter May

During a match at Canterbury, Richardson was forced to retire after being hit on the head, but later resumed

Batting against West Indies, with Swanton and Brian Johnston commentating, Richardson complained of a booming noise and said he could not continue.

 Umpire Bill Copson was in on the joke and  walked towards the commentary box.

Ah, said Jim, obviously some small boys are playing about below us here and putting the batsmen off - or perhaps it’s the sun shining on the windscreen of a car . . .

Copson stopped 20 yards short of our box, cupped his hands and shouted so that the millions of viewers could hear, Will you stop that booming noise up there? It’s putting the batsmen off.

Swanton later wrote that Richardson would be better off concentrating on his cricket.

 

The Somerset DJ had an amazing, eclectic range of ‘only played once’ tunes between the overs.

Nothing wrong with Sweet Caroline, but it is good to hear other songs too.

Shortly before noon. he played Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks.

It seemed an unusual choice. We were 160 miles West of Waterloo; and Sunset was over 8 hours away.

I texted Somerset with an alternative…

The Lads & I spent the rest of the day listening out for it to be played. 

To no avail !!

---

 Somerset’s reply started slowly. Needing to score almost 6 ½ runs an over, after 13 overs they were 62 for 3, with their Top Batter James Hildreth out for just 12.

After 31 overs Somerset were 166 for 6. Just 19 overs left and still requiring 168 runs to win with only 4 wickets left.

Duckworth-Lewis # had Somerset over 80 runs behind the target

# The Lads aren’t stupid.

No one even attempted to explain how Duckworth-Lewis actually works.

They’re not that stupid !!

166 for 6 after 31 overs became 195 for 8 after 36 overs.

For all the world it looked like Game Over for Somerset.

We were contemplating getting to the Gurkha Restaurant well-before our 6 o’clock reservation.

But cricket is a wonderful game …

In the next 14 overs a 3,000 strong crowd was to be treated to some fantastic batting.

The 9th wicket pair of Ben Green and Alfie Ogborne put on 97 in 8 overs.

Of which 19 year old Alfie scored but … 3 runs !

When he was out - bowled by Chris Rushworth – Alfie left to a standing ovation.

As for Somerset Captain Ben Green, in 60+ Seasons of watching cricket I can say his innings was one of the most amazing I have ever seen !!!

Having reached a 45-ball fifty, his maiden List A hundred occupied only 14 more deliveries as he blasted four sixes in an over off Scott Borthwick - to go to his century  - and four more off successive balls from Oliver Gibson.

The Innings of his Life !!

Somerset needed 11 off the final over, bowled by Gibson.

The No. 11 Sonny Baker scrambled a single from the first ball.

Off the second ball, Green hit hard & high out to the long on boundary. 

Down below us in Block 5, a couple of feet inside the boundary rope Liam Trevaskis dived forward to take a brilliant catch, inches above the ground.

Durham had won by 9 runs.

---

There was just time for one course at The Gurkha.

And Yes; I did have what I always go for: Onion Bhaji, Lamb Korma & Peshawari Naan !

 ---

 

It had been a really, really enjoyable day’s cricket !!

Do get out your diary & have a look at the fixtures for the remaining weeks of Season 2022.

I really hope that you’ll come along and watch cricket with me.

After all ….

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

 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

 

PS

The Somerset DJ never did play my choice …



The tax man's taken all my dough

And left me in my stately home

Lazin' on a Sunny Afternoon


And I can't sail my yacht

He's taken everything I got

All I've got's this Sunny Afternoon

 

Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks

 

Cricket with The Lads on a Sunny Afternoon … #JustCan’tBeatIt !!