Originally published on 15 May 2015
Re-published + Postscript 7 May 2020
The past is never dead.
It’s not even past.
Requiem for a Nun,
William Faulkner
Both the Wednesday and
Thursday were chilly and squally; the type of weather you often get in
Southern England in early May.
So when on the Friday afternoon the showers
were even heavier the Young Boy feared the worst: his
long awaited First Ever Visit (to watch Sussex at Hove) might well be off.
A few minutes before
six o’clock his mother turned on the wireless and tuned to the Home Service for
the weather forecast.
The Young Boy heard the forecaster say: “It will be much
warmer in the South East tomorrow, with temperatures in the mid-60s” [Fahrenheit; around 18 degrees Centigrade].
As Jack Vettriano would
say, it was: Game On.
The father and the Young
Boy were up early. The picnic was packed (it had a pork pie for each of them; obviously!!) in the boot of the Ford Zephyr and by just after 8.30 on the morning of Saturday 7th May 1960 they had left Tunbridge Wells, headed for Brighton.
In the next two decades father and son would travel together to many sporting events: football, rugby,
snooker and their beloved cricket.
But there would never be the heightened sense
of anticipation that the Young Boy felt that morning.
Through Crowborough, Ashdown Forest and then Uckfield. Onto Lewes and across the Downs where 40 years on the
Young Boy’s elder daughter would go to university.
(And his younger one would turn
down Sussex in favour of going to Exeter; Unbelievable, Jeff!!)
Round the back of Brighton
station and over Seven Dials.
Where Davigdor Road
becomes Cromwell Road the traffic lights were at red.
Did the Young Boy look
to his left down Holland Road towards the sea, where years later Chatsworth
Square would be built?
Or perhaps look
diagonally across to The Palmeira?
In a Lord Ric cricket
blog: Never in doubt!
The father easily
parked the car in Palmeira Avenue and together they entered the ground by the
top gate, sitting by the sight-screen at the Cromwell Round end.
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!!
They saw some of the
players warming up.
Yorkshire had a very
strong side; as in the previous year, that season they would go on to win the County
Championship. They had two future England Captains in Brian Close and Ray
Illingworth; and in Fred Trueman they had a great fast bowler,
who would become the first ever to take 300 Test wickets - at the Oval
in August 1964, with the Captain leading England v the Aussies and the Young
Boy & his father watching from the Archbishop Tenison School side of the ground.
But Sussex were also a
decent team; they would be 4th that season. Alan Oakman, a Test batsman, opened. At No.5, Ken Suttle would score almost 30,000 runs for Sussex,
the 2nd highest ever. The bowling was led by former captain Robin
Marlar, the only person ever to twice take 15 wickets in a match for Sussex and a future
Cricket Correspondent of the Sunday Times and President of the MCC.
But the heart of the Sussex
team were the Nos. 3 and 4, the Captain and Young
Jim Parks, both England players.
Plenty of tales to tell
on another day about Young Jim, for
today it is the turn to write of the Captain.
Sussex won the toss and
elected to bat.
When the score reached
15 Oakman was out for 4, caught Padgett bowled Ryan.
Down the steps of the
Pavilion came The Captain, in his first Championship game at Hove since being appointed Sussex Captain.
Of course, in England
it is always about Class.
The Captain was born in
Milan and educated at Radley and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he led the XI in 1958.
Fred Trueman, the son
of a coal miner, was born in the West Riding and educated at Maltby
Secondary School.
Did Trueman lengthen
his run up?
Did the Captain hit the
first ball through cover for 4?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
It proved to be a
spellbinding performance by the Captain, who scored a brilliant 96, before he
was out, caught Illingworth bowled Platt.
Half a century and more
later The Times reported on the Captain’s batting:
“You didn’t need to
look at the scoreboard to know when Ted Dexter was batting,” one old-timer told
his pals.
“You didn’t need to open your eyes. You could tell it was Dexter by
the sound of his bat on the ball. Like a rifle crack, it was.”
As they drove back across
East Sussex, the Young Boy and his father talked about that day’s play.
It had
been a wonderful First Ever Visit, with the highlight being the Captain’s
innings.
When they got back home
to Farmcombe Road his mother asked the Young Boy, just as Dale Winton does on In It To Win It: Have you had a Good Day?
We’ve had a lovely day, he replied; just as Dale’s contestants always do!
When the father came to
give his son a goodnight kiss, the Young Boy asked:
Dad, do you think I could
go to Cambridge, like Mr Dexter?
When the Captain faced
Trueman bowling down the hill from the Cromwell Road end at well over 80 miles
an hour, he had less than half a second to decide on and then play his shot.
And the father knew
that he too must answer the Young Boy; without delay.
No one in his family
had ever been to university.
Although he Loved his
son Beyond Measure, the Young Boy seemed so ordinary, with no special academic ability;
though he showed all the early signs that his father and grandfather had of
being Determined (aka Cussed!)
If Paddy Power had
offered 1,000 to 1, they wouldn’t have been generous odds.
All these thoughts –
and more – must have gone through the father’s mind.
But fortune favours the brave: the father had the
wisdom and the quick thinking to give the Young Boy two pieces of advice.
They were to be the
Foundation for the Life Ahead, ones the Young Boy would in time give to his
two daughters, whom he too Loved Beyond Measure.
…. ….
It is many years since
the Young Boy’s First Ever Visit.
What can I tell you of
What Happened Next?
As for the Captain, he
would skipper Sussex to win the first two Gillette Cup Finals in 1963 and 1964.
He would play for
England in 62 Tests, averaging almost 50.
He played against every Test country, both at home and away, scoring
centuries in every country.
He captained England in
30 Tests, including on the blue riband Ashes tour to Australia in 1962/3.
After retiring from
playing professionally, inter alia he set up a PR company, had the idea for the
ICC Player Rankings and wrote for The Observer and The Sunday Mirror.
And twice won of the
Oxford and Cambridge President's Putter held at Rye Golf Club.
And still found time to be
Chairman of the England Selectors and President of both Sussex and the MCC.
In 2014 at the lunch to
celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the founding of Sussex CCC, when
asked to select the All Time Sussex Dream
XI I very much doubt if a single person among the upward of 250 people in
the room (least of all the Captain himself!!) even thought of another name to
bat at 3 and skipper the side.
Today, 15th
May 2015, just as he batted on that day of the First Ever Visit all those years
ago, he moves effortlessly into his 80’s.
His recipe for a long & happy Life: Drink the best affordable wine plus one large whisky per day.
He will be forever known as: Lord Ted.
And what of the Young Boy?
Well, 14 years after
his trip to Hove, on a gloriously sunny afternoon at the end of June 1974, the
Young Boy found himself sitting with his parents on the Fellows Court of
(probably) the Best College at the Best University in the world.
It was time to
celebrate a Double First in Economics.
(Ed: Far too much Fantasy,
even for a Lord Ric Cricket Blog !!)
In truth,
it was a moment to look ahead to the many Adventures of the years to come.
The Young
Boys’s father proposed the toast: To the Future.
But there
was half a glance to the Past - which indeed is never dead - when he coupled it
with the first piece of advice that he had given the Young Boy all those years
earlier:
Give It A Go!
I hope that Dad thinks I have - well most of the time!!
As the minute hand of the Clock of
Life tick-tocks insistently past quarter to the hour, I'm definitely working on the
assumption that there's
Lots More to Have a Go At; #JustHopeSo !!
Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace
PS
Plenty of you reading this Blog will have heard me tell the story of the First
Ever Visit many times before; some of you many, many times!!
You
will know that as I was going to sleep on that Saturday evening long, long ago I
asked Dad a Second Question:
Dad: like Mr Dexter, do you think I will play for England & captain the team?
Dad's
second piece of advice was:
What are Dreams for, but to come true.
Barely
55 years on, I guess some Dreams just take a little longer to come to fruition!!!
These
days when I look out across the Ground I still see parents playing tennis ball
cricket with their children.
And
at Close of Play it’s only a couple of minutes’ walk back to Chatsworth Square;
or half an hour, via a well-deserved diversion to The Palmeira for a pint or two
of Harveys!!
Season
2015 is still in its infancy.
Do
come & watch some cricket with me at Hove.
I
can't promise you that Your Dreams will come true.
Though I surely hope they will!
After
all:
Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can be in one ?
Postscript: Of Heroes
& Heartache
Writing this Postscript exactly 60 years on from that first
visit to Hove back on 7 May 1960, what do I Actually
Remember?
I took a quick glance on Cricinfo Archive at the Scorecard.
No Sussex Twitter account to follow remotely back in 1960 as
the game progressed on the Monday & Tuesday.
I remember avidly looking at the scores in the following day’s
newspaper.
It was a fantastic game …
Sussex were all out for 280, with Yorkshire replying with
281 for no wickets!
In their 2nd innings Sussex scored 250 for 2.
Needing 250 to win, Yorkshire were all out for 217 (Dexter
& Suttle each taking 3 wickets), with Sussex winning by 32 runs!!
So many familiar and much-loved names …
I would see those Heroes play at Hove plenty of times in the
‘60s.
Tony Buss (who would go on to become Sussex coach).
The Sussex Batsmen would go on to have a Golden Summer:
Ken Suttle scoring 1,830 runs
& Alan Oakman 1,730.
Lord Ted with 2,217.
But – of course – there is another Hero from the game.
Of all the players that day, he was The One I had gone to
see …
And when the 2nd Sussex wicket fell at 140 (Les
Lenham caught Trueman bowled Close for 47), the No.4 came down the Pavilion
steps.
What can I tell you about him?
Well, aged 28, he had been in the
team for about 10 seasons.
He would score 1,530 runs in
Season 1960.
By the end of his career he would
score 1,000 runs in a season 18 times. Only John Langridge has more - with 20.
He would score over 36,000 First
Class runs, including 29,000 for Sussex (3rd best behind John
Langridge & just 250 runs behind Ken Suttle).
No need to ever question this player’s Class!
But what of his Form?
Well, he was in Good Form.
Barely a month previously he had
been re-called to the England Team – after a gap of over 50 Tests and almost 6
years - for the game against the West Indies in Port of Spain.
As at today’s date England have
played 1,022 Tests.
Only once has an England player
returned to the team after a gap of 50+ Tests & scored a 100 … This player!
Even more recently, in the game a
few days before the Yorkshire game he had scored a 100 against Somerset at
Taunton.
When you’re a little boy aged 7 and a Hero comes to the
wicket …
Well, you are only thinking about
what you’ll be writing in your blog 60 years on!!
The No.4 was off the mark with a single off bowler Brian Close,
to fine leg – just near where Dad & I were sitting.
The next over he took guard to face Fred Trueman - bowling
down the hill from the Cromwell Road end …
The Scorecard never lies:
JM Parks bowled Trueman: 1
I cried … Dad
consoled me.
It was a hard, but necessary Lesson to learn …
Even the Best Players don’t score
a 100 every time they bat.
As I learnt that day when my Favourite Player was out for 1
…
Heartaches are to be Born with Fortitude.
---
I’ve been very, very lucky to watch so much Cricket,
especially from the Deckchairs up at the Cromwell Road end.
Plenty has changed, some not so good & some tremendous …
- ve: The bl**dy awful view of the flats down
at the Sea End
+ve: T20 Friday nights under the
floodlights & Women’s cricket
But one thing definitely has not changed:
Exactly 60 years ago tonight… a
Little Boy went to sleep knowing exactly who was his Favourite Player.
Tonight that Little Boy
may be an OAP…
But he will go sleep knowing the same thing !!
Mrs Parks & Young Jim
Watching from Up at the Cromwell Road end
Summer 2019
