The time is fair again

Hi everyone!

I am not a day of season,

For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail

In me at once; but to the brightest beams

Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth;

The time is fair again.

All's Well That Ends Well, William Shakespeare

I hope that you’ve Wintered well.

(Or Summered well if you’re based in the Southern Hemisphere!).

We’ll erase all memory of England’s Ashes tour Down Under.

Lost 4 – 0; lucky to score Nil!

With Easter now behind us and ‘hopes’ of some warmer, dryer days ahead – that The time is fair again -  thoughts inevitably turn to Season 2018.

There’s an ambitious – you’d expect no less – list of games.

Old Favourites:

Lords & the Oval for those sell out Thursday & Friday night T20 games.

Along the Coast to Arundel for that most wonderful of outgrounds.

And to the Ageas Bowl outside Southampton for Sussex’s usual easy win over Hampshire!!

Fortunately the Nevill at Tunbridge Wells has been spared for another year. 

This year’s annual visit will be a special day, which I’ll tell you a little more about below …

Time too for Beckenham, Canterbury, Chelmsford & Taunton.

There’ll be New Grounds too: to Bristol, Northampton, Radlett & to Scarborough for Yorkshire v Surrey.

And – as always – lots & lots of days in the deckchairs at the Cromwell Road end at my beloved Hove; Never in Doubt!!!

Jason ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie has recently joined as Sussex’s coach & there is a strong squad - especially the bowlers  - and a newly appointed Captain in wicketkeeper Ben Brown. Luke Wright skippers in the T20.

Sussex’s T20 overseas player is Rashid Khan, a 19 year old leg spinner from Afghanistan who holds the record for the milestone to 100 One Day International (ODI) wickets in just 44 matches, beating Mitchell Starc’s previous record by 8 matches.

As for my targets for Sussex this Season:

Championship: Promotion back to Division 1

RL50: Win half the games

T20: Reach Finals Day

We’ll see …

Every season brings memories of earlier years, of games & players that will Never Be Forgotten.

And Season 2018 has three Special Anniversaries.

Firstly, in May I’ll be remembering 50 years ago: Wednesday 29^th May 1968.

It was – of course - the night before my Latin O Level set books exam: Caesar’s Gallic Wars & the Poems of Erasmus.

But no time for revision that evening for Dad & I were in North London … …

Where were we?

And just what happened?

On 20^th July it will be 50 years since a famous comeback game.

That Saturday in 1968 the Central Recreation Ground, Hastings for Sussex v Kent was the place to be.

Did Lord Ted really land his plane on the outfield?

And hit Derek Underwood for 6 into Queen’s Road?

Well perhaps he did!!

And the 3^rd Anniversary is on 7^th June, when it will be 60 years since a 5 year old little boy watched his first game of County cricket.

The Nevill, Tunbridge Wells for Kent v Sussex.

Sussex won the toss and batted.

The second Sussex wicket fell at 58 and a 26 year old walked down the Pavilion steps …

Who was he?

What did he do first ball?

I’m looking forward a tremendous season of cricket.

And I hope you are too!

So get your diary out & remember what Jack Kerouac (almost) said in On the Road:  

 Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. 

Come to the goddamn cricket.

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