Posted by Tony Hutton
Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd June - after yesterdays tour of the Cotswolds time to settle down and relax at the perfect venue for Minor Counties cricket - The Park at Brockhampton in the Wye Valley between Ross and Hereford. Visitors to these parts are often confused by the other Brockhampton further north in the county and even those who find the sign to Brockhampton church still have to negotiate narrow country lanes before you come across a drive which says 'Stables and Cricket Ground only'.
Once there you will be delighted with the ground surrounded by trees, the old fashioned pavilion with hanging flower baskets and the more modern clubhouse and bar which does not detract from the ideal surroundings for watching cricket. It was a visit here in the early 1990s which really got me into Minor Counties cricket, something I remain grateful for to this day. Some years now since my last visit but I was not disappointed.
Herefordshire were playing Cornwall in this three day championship match and had brought a fair few committee men and supporters with them which all added to the event. The Reverend Canon Ken Rogers, the Cornwall President, sat next to us for a while but failed to pull out one of our tickets when the raffle draw was made.
We recalled our visit to St Just, as near to Lands End as you can get to watch cricket, when the big event of the day was the announcement that the pasties had arrived. Obviously the Cornish equivalent of the Lancastrian 'The pies 'ave come'. There is a lot of cricket played in Cornwall, which suprised me at first but the strength of today's team reflected that.
Indluded in their ranks was none other than leg-spinner Michael Munday who we had seen performing for Somerset at Headingley only a week ago. He did not really have a great match there but did bowl Johnny Bairstow with what was described as a 'donkey drop', which hit the off bail.
He had more success here and it was really his bowling along with that of his off-spinning captain, Tom Sharp that won the match for Cornwall. The foundations though were laid on the first day by a splendid innings from an unknown 19 year old, Dan Davis, who made 153 in splendid style. I was told that he was a bowler until an injury made him concentrate on his batting. Keith Parsons, the former Somerset player, joined in with 84 and Cornwall made a very satisfactory 384 all out in only 83 overs.
Herefordshire's best bowler was Charlie Griffiths (no, not the West Indian of long ago) a left arm spinner who took 5-98. This set the tone for the rest of the match with spin bowling dominating and keeping up both a very brisk over rate but a fast scoring rate as well. Perfect for old fashioned cricket watchers like me. In reply Hereford's first innings was quite respectable with 299-8 in their 90 overs. This was thanks mainly to David Exall's splendid innings of 98 not out.
Exall was unlucky to be stranded just short of his maiden championship century, due in my opinion to the scoreboard not showing his individual score. I am sure he did not know how many he had got during the last over, although we did being sat just in front of the scorers' caravan.
He got to 97 with two balls remaining and took a single which could have been turned into two even with the risk of running out his partner, but he declined and did not face the last ball.
A minor point perhaps, but a better scoreboard could have added to the day. The spinners Munday and Sharp had bowled 61 overs between them and taken 7 wickets. The action continued fast and furious as Cornwall added to their first innings lead with 69 from opener Mark Robins and another 63 from first innings hero, Dan Davis. Griffiths the Hereford spinner took 5 more wicket to make it 10 for the match, but Cornwall set a target of 356 when they declared on the last morning and Hereford subsided to defeat with 231 all out. David Exall got some consolation for missing his hundred with another 46 not out.
Captain Sharp led from the front bowling 35.3 overs in the second innings and taking 5-78, whereas Michael Munday bowled only 29 overs and took 5-96. So the Cornishmen went home happy, as did most of the spectators after a real feast of Minor Counties cricket in the best possible surroundings. Roll on next season - we will be back.
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