Developing our wings on the way down

 Hi everyone !

Blog No.100

Thoughts from Up in the Deckchairs

on 

Sussex v Surrey

The first Blog was published nearly 14 years ago on 19^th June 2011.

Almost all have been instantly forgotten !

     [Editor: Almost all ? All !!]

In truth I had wanted No. 100 - as so many of the previous ones have been - to be about

A Last Ball Thrilla !! 

But ... Sussex v Surrey was a Draw, with the 20 wickets lost all being in the first two Innings.

Whilst - as you would expect - I will briefly summarise what happened in the game, the Clue to the Blog is what the Public Address Announcer said 5 minutes before the game started …

Please enjoy:

Developing our wings on the way down

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down

Advice for the Young by Kurt Vonnegut

The latest visitors to Hove were Surrey.

The 275^th meeting between the two Counties, the Sussex Cricket Museum had all the grounds where the teams have played each other.

275 & Counting

Going way, way back to the Royal Brunswick Ground in Hove – via Midhurst & Petworth New Ground - to Horsham, Hastings, Eastbourne & Arundel.

Don’t get me started on Outground Cricket !!!!

When – if ever – will Kent be back playing at The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells ??!!

Next Season it will be the 75^th anniversary of my Favourite Game.

It was – obviously – at The Nevill.

It - absolutely definitely - was A Last Ball Thrilla.! 

Look out for a Special Blog in June 2026 …

In Sussex’s first Season back in Division 1 since 2015, it is already clear that the quality of cricket is much higher than in Division 2.

Looking back over Seasons 2022 to 2024, Surrey are by far the strongest County, with three consecutive Championships – as many as Sussex have ever won !

The Big Four: XXX

Like most Division 1 XIs, Surrey have Plenty of Test Players.

Of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2025, three came from Surrey:

Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Dan Worrall.

Both Atkinson and Worrall were playing at Hove.

Atkinson made his Test debut last Summer against West Indies taking 12 wickets at Lord’s, then picked up another Lord’s five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka later in the summer, when he also scored a century. He finished the year with 52 Test wickets.

Wicketkeeper Smith also made his Test debut last year, scoring 70 runs against West Indies at Lord’s then added 95 at Edgbaston and a century against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford.

In 2024 Worrall took 53 wickets at an average of 16. The Australian-born seamer is now qualified to play for England having moved to the UK permanently. 

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Sussex won the toss and batted.

Openers Tom Haines & Daniel Hughes made a great start.

Earlier that morning Mylo & I had headed down Holland Road on our morning stroll along the Hove Lawns and out along the Western Esplanade.

As we crossed Somerhill Avenue, we saw Mr Hughes on his way to the ground.

Daniel Hughes + Chris Nash, My Favourite Sussex cricketer of  C21^st

We chatted amiably for a few minutes. Mr Hughes is a charming, lovely gentleman.

OK; he hadn’t heard of Young Jim … But he has now !!!

80 minutes into the game and Mr Hughes was on 62.

My Coaching Tips had already paid off !!! 

Like me, Andy Winters watches from Up in the Deckchairs.

With 40 minutes to go to Lunch, he tipped that rare batting achievement: 100 Before Lunch.

Mr Hughes was out next ball !!

Beware the Spectator’s Curse !!

Having lost their first wicket at 95 and their second at 102, the third wicket didn’t fall until 182 runs later when Tom Alsop was out for 63 with the score on 282.

Sussex were eventually all out for 435, with Tom Haines scoring a magnificent 174.

Together with a 2^nd Innings; 62 not out, he was the Professional Cricketers Association’s MVP (Most Valued Player) in this round of Championship matches.

Surrey replied with 490, including centuries from Test players Ollie Pope & Dan Lawrence.

James Coles had a maiden fifer with 5 for 108.

With time lost – the equivalent of almost a full day’s play - for bad light on three of the four days, it was almost Lunch on Day 4 before the Surrey 1^st Innings ended.

Going in 65 runs behind, Haines & Hughes made another century partnership.

Bad light ended the game with Sussex on 132 without loss. 

A Draw.

Not withstanding it being Blog No.100 …

It just wasn’t to be A Last Ball Thrilla!!

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It just remains for me to tell you what the Public Address Announcer said a few minutes before the game started …

In announcing the Surrey XI, he said that the No.7 was Ollie Sykes.

This was Mr Sykes’ second First Class game.

He made his debut in September 2024 v Essex at Chelmsford.

Bowled Tom Westley for a Duck.

Two overs for 11 runs.

You might not guess from his debut game; but Ollie Sykes is a very promising cricketer.

As he showed with 37 off 45 balls at Hove.

Furthermore, he was Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year (WSC of the Y) in 2024.

Awards Evening: Mike Atherton & Ollie Sykes

It is an illustrious list, with plenty of Top Cricketers.

The first three – Jonny Bairstow, James Taylor & Jos Buttler - all played for England.

Several more have gone on to play County cricket, including Daniel Bell-Drummond and Tawanda Muyeye who both currently play for the Old Rivals: Kent.

But for others … no matter how promising they were at School, they have not gone on to a career as a Professional Cricketer.

Just to choose one …

Fourth on the list is the 2011 WSC of the Y: Will Vanderspar of Eton 

By chance; I saw Mr Vanderspar bat that Season… in the Eton v Harrow game at Lord’s.

[ Editor:

Given Ric’s well-known & very often expressed views on Private schools, it would take more than the next 100 Blogs to even begin to explain – never mind justify - how he came to be at that game !!

Talk about Poacher turned Gamekeeper !!! ]

On the day, the Eton No.4 Rory Cox – whose father Edward had invited me along – played the standout innings, with 63.

Rory went on to play two FC games for Durham MCCU … including taking the wicket of Future England Captain Ben Stokes for … 111.

Will Vanderspar, the Eton captain, scored a well-made 40.

If - like me - you love Amazing Co-incidences, Will’s ancestor George Vanderspar played one game of FC cricket: in 1893 at Lord’s for MCC v Kent.

The MCC Captain was WG Grace… who captained Gloucestershire in the first ever game at Hove in 1872.

After Eton, the younger Vanderspar went to Leeds/Bradford MCCU.

In 2015 he played half a dozen games for Glamorgan IIs.

His entire FC career across 5 games was 222 runs at 32 with 4 wickets at 22.

His final FC game was for MCC v Nepal in Kirtipur in November 2019.

It’s a small world: Tom Westley – who took Ollie Sykes’ wicket at Chelmsford – was the MCC Captain !

Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur

Notwithstanding being a WSC of the Y, Will Vanderspar never did have a career as a Professional Cricketer.

You may wonder if Mr Vanderspar knew of Kurt Vonnegut’s advice:

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down

Well, it turns out he did !!

For in Life, as I wrote in Blog No. 57 in September 2018:

"C'est la vie", say the old folks,

 It goes to show you never can tell

You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry

Indeed, Mr Vanderspar may not have had a career as a Professional Cricketer … but he did develop wings.

He is currently an Investment Banker at J.P. Morgan.

And in December 2021 he married The Tatler's beauty and lifestyle editor Lily Worcester at Cowdray House in West Sussex.

Mr Vanderspar really has followed the advice Mike Atherton, former England Cricket Captain & current Cricket Correspondent of The Times, gave a few days ago on 16^th April 2025:

One of the greatest dangers for young athletes is that they define themselves solely by their success or failures in sport, which leaves them vulnerable when things do not go to plan.

Best to remember that playing professional sport, no matter for how long or how successfully, will form only a slice of life.

 As I head into my second century of Blogs, it is advice I commend us all to follow !

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There’s still plenty of Season 2025 left to watch.

I really hope you will come down to Hove Actually … I’ve Saved a Deckchair for YOU!!!

After all ….

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

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Dozing up in the Deckchairs

PS

If you have read this far, I hope you will allow me to show you Blog No.1 …

When it comes to Lord Ric’s Blogs … it's always best to remember:

Never let the Truth get in the way of what Really Happened !!

PPS

So, Ol’ Ric, do you have a Favourite Blog ?

Well – of course - plenty involve my Favourite Cricketer: Young Jim and my Favourite Outground: The Nevill.

But you might like to read Blog No. 70  For I know the plans I have for you.

https://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2022/06/for-i-know-plans-i-have-for-you.html

Written in June 2022, it is based on Jeremiah Chapter 29 Verse 11:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The Blog tells of a day watching Cambridge at Fenners in 1972.

What really did happen that Saturday now long, long ago ??!!

And what has happened in the half a century Since …

Don’t Worry: Young Jim was playing !!!

Lies, Damn Lies and …

 

Hi everyone!

Some thoughts from up in the Deckchairs

at Hove Actually

on

The first Home game of Season 2025 🏏

Sussex’s first home game in Division 1 since way back in 2015.

Up in the Deckchairs at the Cromwell Road end there was plenty of chat about what the Season might bring for the Mighty Sussex …

In the modern age, time – methinks - for Data Analytics!!

    One ol’ boy even got his slide rule out.

    Lies, Damn Lies … he declaimed!

I’ve spent half a century & more in professional life on the dreaded KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

In the end … there is only one KPI that really matters.

But which one?

 

Please enjoy:

Lies, Damn Lies and … Statistics

Ever since the end of Season 2024 - when Sussex were promoted as Division 2 Champions to Division 1 - I’d been looking forward to the first Home game of Season 2025.

On Day 1 I took my seat a few minutes before the Start of Play at 11.00 hours.

Somerset were the visitors, just as they had been in Sussex’s last home in Division 1 in mid-September 2015, prior to Sussex’s relegation to Division 2 for 9 long years.

Looking at the Sussex XI in the 2015 game, there were plenty of #SussexLegends. Including:

Captain Ed Joyce, best friends in cricket Chris Nash & Luke Wright and Chris Jordan.

Only two of the XI are still playing First Class cricket: Ben Brown, who is now Hampshire captain, and Luke Wells, who plays for Lancashire.

A decade on & the Sussex XI of 2024 also has plenty of #SussexLegends. Including:

Captain & Wicketkeeper John Simpson, who joined Sussex from Middlesex for the start of Season 2024. An inspired signing; the best since … well, Mustaq Ahmed, who during his time with Sussex, was the leading wicket-taker in the County Championship for five successive seasons, and helped the county win the competition for the first time.

A couple of good overseas players in Daniel Hughes from Australia and Jayden Seales from the West Indies.

And a handful of players who have developed through the Sussex Pathway: The Toms – Haines & Clark, Jack Carson, James Coles and Fynn Hudson-Prentice.

I’ve long had a soft spot for Fynn, who began his Sussex career playing Softball Cricket on the Outfield with his Mum. Just as I did all those years ago with Dad.

Sadly: I haven’t gone on the play for the First XI. 

Well… not yet !!

Tea on Day 1

No Ollie Robinson, who had a foot injury.

His replacement was Sean Hunt, a left arm quickie who joined Sussex from Surrey in 2021. 

Word quickly spread that Somerset had rested the England allrounder Craig Overton. The Times reported:

"Craig Overton has been rested by Somerset for upcoming battles against [ the three leading Counties] Hampshire, Surrey and Essex"

I remember thinking of what that great German cricket lover Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said …

 ---

Looking back over the game, the Key Session was the morning on Day 1.

The first Sussex wicket fell in the sixth over with the score on 24: Tom Haines bowled by Somerset captain Lewis Gregory.

A few Seasons ago there might well have been a Sussex collapse, with Lunch taken at 80 for 5 – or even worse!

But under coach Paul Farbrace, these days Sussex are made of much sterner stuff.  The second wicket didn’t fall until after Lunch, with Sussex on 127.

There was a bit of a middle order collapse, with 127 for 2 becoming 180 for 7.

But the last two wickets took Sussex from 233 for 8 to 294 all out. A respectable score!

When Somerset batted, they lost wickets regularly, with only one significant partnership: 112 by wicketkeeper James Rew and Lewis Gregory for the eighth wicket.

A total of 201 all out left Somerset 93 behind Sussex.

Sean Hunt took 5 for 48, a maiden fifer, and Fynn Hudson-Prentice 4 for 31.

Sussex’s 2^nd Innings was a run fest. Centuries from Tom Haines and John Simpson helped Sussex to a mammoth 501 for 7 declared.

Set an unlikely 595 to win, Somerset did make a fight of it into the last session of Day 4.

But all out for 334 gave a Sussex victory by 260 runs.

There were 4 wickets for Sean Hunt (notwithstanding an injury to his bowling arm which meant he couldn’t bowl on the final day) and 3 wickets for Jayden Seales.

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It was the first home victory in Division 1 since the game v Warwickshire in May 2015.

Who remembers me wondering - so many times - across the Division 2 Seasons if if I’d ever live long enough to see Sussex back in Division 1, never mind winning a game …

 

So, after two rounds of the Championship, Sussex are on 35 points, level on top with Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.

 

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And what of the only one KPI that really matters?

Up in the Deckchairs indeed there was plenty of chat about what the Season might bring for the Mighty Sussex …

I was reminded of what Rowan Foster, latterly Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford, wrote:

History is not about manifest destinies, but unexpected and unforeseen futures.

All those who believe they can anticipate and shape events, beware.

The most illuminating history is often written to show how people acted in the expectation of a future that never happened. 

Even the most passionate of Sussex fans probably didn’t anticipate that after two rounds of the Championship that Sussex would be level on points at the top of the table!

And as for the KPI, well …

This is my 66^th Season Up in the Deckchairs.

My first game was on Saturday 7^th May 1960: versus Yorkshire

Young Jim bowled Fred Trueman for 1.

I must have looked at the scorecard on Cricinfo a million times. I’m still hoping Jim scored a 100 that Saturday now long, long ago !!!!

Of course, like Jim Parks I always want to be Young (Jim).

As POTUS Bill Clinton said:

When our Memories outweigh our Dreams, we have grown Old

And so for me - in the end – there is only one KPI that really matters.

Dreams & Memories Ratio = Years To Go / Years Gone

I’ll leave You to estimate yours… 

And in terms of My Dreams.

Just in case you’ve forgotten… Top of My Bucket List is:

2039

·         Turn 87

·         Attend the Lunch to celebrate the 200^th Anniversary of the founding of Sussex County Cricket Club

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Ahead of 2039, there’s still plenty of Season 2025 to watch.

I really hope you will come down to Hove Actually … I’ve Saved a Deckchair for YOU!!!

 

After all ….

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

 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Dozing up in the Deckchairs

PS

That just leaves … Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.

As Somerset lost the game and found themselves 8^th of 10 in Division 1, did they  - perhaps – regret resting Craig Overton against newly promoted Sussex ahead of the games against their fellow members of the so-calledTop Four in Division 1: Hampshire, Surrey and Essex ?

As the Field Marshal said:

No plan survives contact with the enemy !