400 miles for 20 balls

posted by John Winn

When, in early April, I booked my train tickets for yesterday's trip to The Oval it never occurred to me that wickets would be pitched other than at eleven o'clock, but because, unlike young offenders, Surrey and Hampshire had gone to bed after 10:30 on Friday night, the championship game between the two sides could not start until noon. All of which explains why, taking advantage of a member's guest pass kindly supplied by my friend Steve Marchant,, I walked into the members' pavilion there were still 90 minutes before I would see the one ball needed to tick off match 146 in my pursuit of membership of the 153 club*.

In the event I had to wait much longer for shortly after eleven it began to rain, the full covers were brought out and I recalled a visit I made to the same ground two seasons ago when there was a complete washout. While I waited there was much to occupy my time: a good selection of newspapers in The Long Room, a small but interesting museum and a comprehensive library and when Steve arrived at 11:30, plenty of chat about cricket. The umpires inspected at 12:15 by which time the rain had stopped and it was announced that lunch would be taken at 1:30. We were left to assume that play would therefore begin at 2:10 but although there was some blue sky there was plenty of the other sort and the threat of a wasted journey was by no means over.

Steve suggested various ways of passing the time and we enjoyed a walk through a nearby multi cultural market before taking our seats in the sunshine at The Vauxhall end. Messrs Gale and Kettleborough must have sensed my anxiety for play actually began at 2:07 with Surrey batting. Three overs and two balls were bowled before the rain returned, 20 balls in which Surrey lost the wicket of Ansari, four runs were scored and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that by my rules at least the job was done. And that was it. We repaired to the pavilion, found a small bar where we could watch Notts vYorks on TV, and where we joined by two friends of Steve whose globetrotting cricket watching puts my efforts not so much in the shade but in the complete dark. 'Didn't we meet in Mumbai?' or 'Do you remember Mark Saggers getting wickets in Chittagong?', beats 'I was at Weetwood when the sun shone' into a cocked  hat. Nevertheless it proved an excellent diversion from watching the rain fall on the covers, somehow made worse by the light from the floodlights and horror of horrors, Wimbledon on the big screen. If play stops at the tennis will they show replays of the Headingley test?

Play did eventually resume and by stumps 26 overs had been bowled but by then I was safe in the arms of East Coast trains which saw me back in York by 8:30, disappointed of course that I had seen so little cricket but able to satisfy myself, if not others, that I have now seen Surrey play all other 17 counties, a journey which has taken me to 11 different grounds and which began at Guildford in 1991 when Yorkshire were the visitors and Surrey won by 1 wicket with two balls to spare. Were you there too?

*I have no idea whether such a club exists which means for the time being at least I make the rules.