Scores
Middlesex v
Hampshire
May 30, Merchant
Taylors’ School,
Northwood.
Mid 199-8 in 45
ov (RJW Topley
4-40); Ham
200 - 5 in 38.4 ov
(JM Vince 56).
Ham won by
5 wktsLeicestershire v
Lancashire
May 31, Oakham
School.
Lei 172 in 49 ov
(MJ Cosgrove
52); Lan 175-1
in 25.5 ov (H
Hameed 55*, LS
Livingstone 90*).
Lan won by
9 wktsKent v Surrey
Jun 1, Beckenham.
Ken 384-8 in 50
ov (HG Kuhn
117, JL Denly
78, AJ Blake 59,
TK Curran 4-75);
Sur 164 in 30.1
ov (JJ Roy 68,
DI Stevens 6-25).
Ken won by
220 runsSussex v Essex
Jun 3, Eastbourne.
Sus 281-7 in 50
ov (HZ Finch 56,
LJ Evans 107*);
Ess 285-6 in 48
ov (AJA Wheater
60, T Westley 88).
Ess won by
4 wktsregistered a hefty reading on the
Hussain–Root index.
The modest crowd seemed a little
lost amid the 285 acres but there
was little escaping the privilege. Not
every school in England boasts two
grounds judged fit to host county
cricket. The under-17 team won
the national competition last year
and some enterprising soul has
photoshopped a number of team
pictures into one long photograph
comprising perhaps 40 players
from different decades. To the
right, tousle-headed and grinning
confidently, is the 2017 side. The
most distant players were stern-
faced and wear striped blazers along
with those small, nearly peakless
caps from the late-Victorian era.
Cricketers about to rule an Empire.
Middlesex made only 199 for 8 in a
45-over match and Hampshire won
with 38 balls to spare, the fielders
still sliding on the damp outfield.
Lewis McManus reminded us what
an effective player he is by making
a very shrewd 30 not out. As we left,
pale sunlight was shining on the
beeches, copper beeches and oaks.
For much of the following morning
the chances of cricket starting
promptly at Oakham seemed slim.
The 7.30am from King’s Cross to
Peterborough arrowed through
thick mist and past a blur of station
names. Then a line of poplars stood
sentinel in the lowland gloom.
Oakham was a little clearer, though,
and spirits were lifted by the sight of
Louise Hitchen, the school’s excellent
press officer, bearing cartons of real
coffee towards the gazebos under
which the press were to work.
The ground, ringed by school
houses and a sports hall, is situated
on Kilburn Road, prompting
memories of reading the famous
Yorkshire Post correspondent. I
pondered what he or RC Robertson-
Glasgow might have thought
of Oakham. No laptops then, of
course, or typewriters either for
some journalists. Write it down
and phone it in. But ‘Crusoe’ would
probably have enjoyed watching
that ragamuffin of a leg-spinner,
Matt Parkinson. I imagined his roars
of laughter at the googlies which
deceived both Colin Ackermann
and Mark Cosgrove. Leicestershire
managed 172, which was never
nearly enough, but at least the sun
came out as Lancashire stormed
home in Liam Livingstone’s welter
of sixes. It became an afternoon of
hampers and of drowning slight
sorrows. “It isn’t a wine you’veever tasted, so don’t pretend.”
A blast from a horn acclaimed
Leicestershire’s only wicket and I
was reminded this is still hunting
country. “Jenkinson, the stuffed fox,
was outside my room this morning,”
said BBC Lancashire’s Scott Read.
The sun did not desert the cricketers
on the rest of my tour. It blessed
the thousands of spectators at
Beckenham and it welcomed the
even larger crowd which turned up
at Eastbourne. The previous morning
I had travelled down from Victoria
and it had shone on the South Downs,
trees like huge florets of broccoli
studding their slopes. And the heat
baked Eastbourne’s perfect lawns on
which white-clothed figures played
bowls, tennis and croquet, those
sports of obvious etiquette and
refined cruelty. The town itself is
nothing like so Bohemian as Brighton
but it has its quirky side. There is, for
example, the Higgs-Boson Café, wherepresumably they fire the ingredients
towards each other at an appalling
velocity in the hope of creating a
completely new dish.
Essex arrived at the Saffrons
needing a win to sustain their
hopes of progress. They left with
the points secured after a rather
straightforward pursuit of 282,
their four-wicket margin and two
spare overs concealing the ease of
their victory. Sussex’s innings had
been held together by Laurie Evans’
century, the applause for which
was immediately followed by the
Town Hall clock chiming municipal
approval of the batsman’s efforts.
Two hours later we heard the first
chorus of ‘Good Old Sussex by the
Sea’ but any optimism was fuelled
by Harvey’s Brewery. The crowd
had to be consoled by the first home
appearances of Jofra Archer and
Chris Jordan, both of whom marked
their return from the IPL by hitting
three sixes. “At Eastbourne cricket
is played to a background of croquet
and bowls, old Colonels and straight-
backed memsahibs going about their
daily ritual, indifferent to the pock
of bat on ball and the marauding
seagulls,” wrote Alan Ross more
than 30 years ago. There are different
Indian influences at work now.
Just before six o’clock, Ryan ten
Doeschate flicked Ollie Robinson to
the backward square-leg boundary.
The crowd funnelled out of the
Saffrons and the clink of glasses
from the corporate marquee abated
a little. At Beckenham another Royal
London game was ending in a Kent
victory. At Oakham and Merchant
Taylors’ they were preparing for the
return of pupils from their half-term
break. By Tuesday morning, year 11
candidates were sitting their English
Language GCSE exam and I was
covering the Roses match at Old
Trafford. “Did your Royal London
trip go well?” asked someone.A blast from a horn acclaimed
Leicestershire’s only wicket at
Oakham, and I was reminded
this is still hunting country
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