A wish fulfilled in East Anglia

posted by John Winn

A weekend away in Norwich favoured by unbroken sunshine gave me the opportunity to satisfy an ambition to see cricket as part of the Norfolk Festival at Manor Park. That the opposition was East Anglian rivals Suffolk added a little spice to the cake and I joined a large crowd on Sunday afternoon with Norfolk having won the toss and chosen to bat..This cannot have been a hard decision for skipper Chris Brown, returning after injury, for runs have been plentiful at the Horsford ground this season with the previous weekend's game with Bedfordshire ending in a high scoring draw.

Any discussion with pcws familiar with Norfolk cricket almost invariably brings forth the lament that Manor Park is not as good as Lakenham, the ground which served as Norfolk's home ground for over two hundred years but with the traditional tents and a crowd in places two rows deep circling the arena it looked a treat and the affair certainly merited the title of 'festival', I had also been warned of its proximity to Norfolk Airport, which is just a mile or so away down the Cromer Road but during the three hours I was watching cricket there was just one flight overhead: hardly Heathrow.

As expected I was able to make contact with my friend Ray Parker, who although living in South Wales is a Norfolk member and regular attender at the festival. Ray and I had not met up for two years when we had watched Durham II together at Brandon so there was much to chew over as I spent the afternoon in his company and that of a former colleague of Ray's, John Cushing, very much a Norfolk man who was able to add local colour to proceedings.

The afternoon was dominated by a century from Norfolk number three Sam Arthurton, his second three figure knock in two weeks. He received good support from Ben France who was particularly severe on the Suffolk spinners and when Brown called time after 90 overs the homesters had made 392 for 6, a platform for their first three day victory of the season which was duly accomplished yesterday afternoon by 91 runs. Norfolk will complete their championship season with a visit to Tring to face Buckinghamshire
on Sunday week.

 

These  tents are characteristic of Norfolk Festival matches and invariably appear in the background of photographs taken at the Lakenham Ground. They put me in mind of Camelot and I half expected to see Sir Lancelot (Gibbs) ride forth to do battle.