A full set of Worcesterhire

Posted by John Winn

The journey I made to Worcester earlier this week began at 9:35 at York Station on Monday morning but in a cricketing sense it began more than sixty years ago when I saw my first first class match when Yorkshire entertained Worcestershire at Scarborough. For the record it was on August 15th 1951 in a game Yorkshire appeared to have in the bag but lost by 8 runs. My trip to New Road on Monday means that I have now seen Worcestershire play in championship cricket against all other 17 counties. The Pears now join a list with Durham, Yorkshire, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex and Notts: a total of seven counties that are no longer part of  my list of 'must see' matches to complete the pursuit of 'the 153 club'.

 

Given reasonable weather, and that would have to be much better than this morning's gloom, the magnificent seven should be joined by Essex, Surrey, Glamorgan, Northants and Hampshire before the end of this season. Completing the full set of Worcestershire has taken me to fourteen different grounds including a number where first class cricket is unlikely to be played again. Buxton,Portsmouth and Weston-super-Mare would seem to definitely fall under the heading of 'lost grounds' and Blackpool and Kidderminster are very much on the reserve list.

Nearer to home Brian was kind enough to mention my article about The Langbaurgh League published recently on Cricket Yorkshire. Readers who have not looked at the league's website recently may find it of interest for the detailed history of the league now covers the  period from 1947 to 1972 as well as from its founding in 1920 up to WWII. An excellent read and the next instalment will cover 1973 to 2000.