The Winds of Change

Hi everyone!

 Some thoughts from Up in the Deckchairs

on

Sussex v Worcestershire

Paul Farbrace, the Sussex coach, tells you what you need to know about the match:

“It was an outstanding game and I'm delighted we came out on top.”

Whilst, as you would expect, I will briefly summarise what happened in the game,

     the Clue to the Blog is Day 1 and a couple of Ol’ Boys watching from Up in the Deckchairs …

Gently dozing in the afternoon sun at Hove Actually, one of them remembered the words of the greatest of all Dylan songs … …

Please enjoy:

The Winds of Change

May you have a strong foundation
When the Winds of Changes shift

 
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay … Forever Young

Forever Young by Bob Dylan

65 years ago, on Saturday 7^th May 1960, as a 7 year old little boy, I was watching with Dad from Up in the Deckchairs.

My first ever game at Hove Actually.

Have I ever told you about the game?

[Editor:

Anyone who has ever watched cricket with Ric knows all too well The Story of Sussex v Yorkshire!!

By the way …

If Ric ever tells you that Young Jim scored a 100, just tell him that the scorecard still shows:

JM Parks bowled Trueman: 1.

Indeed … Heartaches are to be Born with Fortitude.]

Fast forward from 1960 to 2025 & now in my (early !!) 70s, it was a privilege to be back …

A mere 1,287 County Championship games later!

For those who enjoy the Stats:

Wins	332	Win Rate: 25.8%
Losses	408
Draws	532
Total	1,287

If Sussex have to Win for you to Enjoy the game … Prepare for Disappointment 3 times out of 4!

---

The latest visitors to Hove were Worcestershire.

The 169^th meeting between the two Counties. The Sussex Cricket Museum had all the grounds where the teams have played each other.

169 & Counting

Looking through the list of games, I spotted the one at The Saffrons in August 1960. My first visit to Eastbourne.

I remember being disappointed that there was no Lord Ted & Young Jim, both playing in the Test at the Oval v South Africa.

The Sussex XI had plenty of #SussexLegends: including Alan Oakman, Les Lenham, Ian Thomson & Don Bates.

There were 3 Oxbridge Blues:

Hubert Doggart	Winchester & Cambridge	Sussex Captain in 1954 & MCC President
Nawab of Pataudi	Winchester & Oxford	Sussex Captain in 1966 & Captain of India
Chris Howland	Dulwich & Cambridge	Played for both Sussex & the Old Rivals: Kent

Where have the Oxbridge Blues all gone in Professional Cricket?

Abi Sakande (Ardingly & Oxford) was the latest one to play for Sussex.

When – if ever – will we see the next one?

[Editor

I’ve been taking a look at Ric’s Guest List for Hove this season.

The Yorkshire game has just the initials:  JJ.

No more needs to be said…

JJ’s LinkedIn Profile has:

Education	Skinners’ & Cambridge
Cricket	Tunbridge Wells Borderers, Cambridge, Sussex & England

As Grandad Ric so often says:

What else are Dreams for, but to come true !! ] 

---

Worcestershire won the toss and put Sussex in.

Openers Tom Haines & Daniel Hughes made a good start. But 80 without loss suddenly became 88 for 6.

In recovering to 284 all out, Sussex were indebted to a maiden century from Jack Carson (102 from 138 balls) and 33 not out from debutant No.11 Jack Hayes.

At start of play I had never heard of Jack.

But a quick check of Wikipedia identified that he was on loan from Nottinghamshire.

Born in Haywards Heath – a pleasant half an hour on the train from Hove – his cricket journey had taken him to King’s College in Taunton, Somerset and on to Nottinghamshire.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost 

Jack’s 33 not out was the highest score ever made by a Sussex No.11 on First Class Debut. Beating 27 by Frank Collins v Notts in 1923, in his only FC match.

The previous highest not out score was 17 by Jim Parks Senior v Surrey in 1924.

By co-incidence, both Jack & Jim were born in Haywards Heath !

Worcestershire  replied with 180.

Fynn Hudson-Prentice got his third fifer (1 previously for Derbyshire, 1 for Sussex) with a career best 5 for 40.

Batting again Sussex scored 256, leaving Worcestershire 361 to win.

Helped a high quality 167 by Jake Libby, they put up a good fight to reach 313, losing by 47 runs.

There were 3 wickets each for Ollie Robinson & Ari ‘King of Athens’ Karvelas.

 

So – as they did 65 years ago in the match v Yorkshire – Sussex won a close game.

And  - after 5 rounds of the County Championship -  go 3^rd in the table.

 Exactly as Paul Farbrace said:

“It was an outstanding game and I'm delighted we came out on top.”

--- 

It just remains for me to tell you the about the greatest of all Dylan songs that the Ol’ Boy remembered  whilst gently dozing in the afternoon sun at Hove Actually. 

Now I’m not a person for Covers. Give me an Original.

But ever Rule has an Exception …

My favourite version of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young was sung by Norah Jones at a Celebration of the Life of Steve Jobs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMoDDewkFuA

You may well be reading this blog on technology from Apple, the company founded by Steve Jobs.

Born on Friday 24 February 1955, Steve’s genetic parents gave him up for Adoption.

His first adopted parents decided they wanted a Girl.

But Paul & Clara took him it. Paul was a car mechanic & in their house’s garage in Mountain View in California he taught his son the love of making things.

His son went on to found a business that would help Change the World.

He would become a Billionaire.

Indeed Steve’s story is the story of all our lives…

No matter how Unpromising Our Beginnings… We can all help Change the World.

But at any point - & often completely out of the blue - whatever we have or haven’t achieved… … as John Lennon said:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1975: Imagine by John Lennon

On Wednesday 5 October 2011 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, died of respiratory failure related to a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.

He was just 56.

Maybe you can afford to wait.

Maybe for you there's a tomorrow.

Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through your fingers.

So much time you can waste it.

But for some of us there's only today.

And the truth is, you never really know.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

  

Up in the Deckchairs ... I wondered how many more tomorrows I will have ... ....

---

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

It was always going to be a game of Memories.

---

Barely a handful of you reading the blog will have known Dad.

It is over 40 years since he died, but Dad's influence on me - how I see the world and value the people in it -  is still as strong ever. 

I have felt him walking by my side every day of my life. 

His hand in mine on days of Triumph and of Disaster; I’ve always tried, as Kipling wrote, to treat those two Impostors just the same.

For what it's worth, Graham Greene, that quintessentially English novelist, was right: 

Success is more dangerous than Failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline. 

 I learnt from Dad - just as Dylan wrote in 1973:

May you have a strong foundation

When the Winds of Changes shift

Up in the Deckchairs we can see those Winds of Change only too clearly.

The deckchairs and benches that we so love have been shuffled up to allow for the temporary stands needed for the Vitality Blast T20’s bigger crowds.

Heather & Paul are regulars up at the Cromwell Road end.

They travel along the coast from near Hastings in 1066 Country.

Like me, they were both born in the Fernbank Maternity Home in Old London Road in the Old Town. 

Their regular bench between the sightscreen and the stairs to the Players’ Pavilion had been moved and they found themselves - with a sense of grumpiness - sitting in the front row of the temporary stand.

Speaking to them on Day 3, I remembered what Matthew Parris had written about Prince Philip on his 95^th birthday in 2016:

We shall all become figures from the past.

The spirit of our age, for much of our lives lagging annoyingly behind the pace we try to force, will eventually pass us on the road and earn our grumpiness instead for going too fast.

On Day 1 I was joined by three Guests.

 

Phil, Mike & Andrew

I always really look forward to being joined by Guests, whether I have been watching with them for half a century & more or whether it is their first time ever watching cricket.

I have been watching with Phil for well over a decade. 

He used to live in one of the top floor flats in Cromwell House at the top corner of the ground and these days lives in The Drive, a couple of roads away from the ground.

Elton in 2011 

View from Phil's flat

It was Mike and his son Andrew’s third visit to Hove.

Both are lifelong cricket fans, supporting Gloucestershire and Surrey respectively, and MCC Members.

I hope that Mike will allow me to say that he is 93! #ForeverYoung.

The doctor at his birth was EM Grace, Dr WG Grace’s nephew. WG was captain of Gloucestershire in 1872 at the first game ever played at the current ground in Hove !

As all 93 years olds should …

Mike had brought his cricket bat & tennis ball for Softball Cricket on the Outfield at Tea.

But … Spectators were not allowed on the Outfield at Tea.

Disappointed does not begin to cover what Mike & I felt.

Perhaps Mike will come back next Season.

Perhaps Spectators will be allowed onto the Outfield then

When you are 93 – OK, even if you are still in your(early!) 70s… Maybe you can afford to wait.

But for some of us there's only today.

And the truth is, you never really know.

---

10 years ago, in May 2015 to celebrate Lord Ted’s 80^th Birthday I wrote about my First Ever Visit to Hove:

https://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-tale-of-two-lords-captain-young-boy.html

There was time before Start of Play for the father to bowl a tennis ball to the Young Boy on the outfield. 

Just as Gibraltar will be lost if ever the Barbary Macaques leave the Rock, so will Sussex cricket be dead if ever outfield cricket is banned at Hove; #JustSaying!!

As Mike & I sat in our Deckchairs after Tea …

I suddenly realised that I hadn’t seen any Barbary Macaques up at the Cromwell Road End for quite a while …

 "Just as Gibraltar will be lost "

Might the Sussex Committee like to have re-think about what Spectators really value ??!!

#LoveSoftballCricketOnTheOutfield