Monday 13th July saw me travelling south following my three night stay in Banbury, a much changed town since I last visited on business in the late 1960s. I was heading for Sussex and the ground at Arundel Castle, which I thought was scheduled to hold a game against the Australian Crusaders today. They are regular visitors to this country during Ashes years and I had found the website with a very attractive itinerary mainly in the south of England.
Up till now everything had gone to plan, but knowing the Australians plans often change felt I should check. Fortunately I found a phone number for the Friends of Arundel Cricket. Unfortunately the lady who answered the phone said there was no cricket at Arundel today and she knew nothing about the Australian Crusaders, promptly ending our conversation.
Time to put plan B into operation. I headed a few miles further east to the attractive Downs village of Fulking (hope I have spelt that correctly!). This proved to be a most attractive spot as you can see from the picture, with a very impressive pavilion fully justifying its choice as venue for a county second XI game between Sussex and Glamorgan. This was the club of the late Spen Cama, who left a huge amount of money both to the club and to Sussex county cricket club, who have used it wisely in the improvements to the ground at Hove. A real benefactor of cricket.
Preston Nomads cricket club
The weather had been drizzly all morning and there was no play before lunch, but soon afterwards the players emerged. My second surprise of the day was to see them in coloured clothing whereas I was expecting day one of a three day championship game normally played in whites. However plans had been changed due to the late start and Thursday's second XI trophy game changed to Monday with the three day game to start tomorrow.
Unexpected coloured clothing
After all that it was a relief when play actually started with overs reduced to 34 per side. Glamorgan batted first after being inserted by Sussex and were soon 19-2 but Kettleborough (no relation to the umpire) who I had previously seen with Northants and Bedfordshire got his head down and made 31 before becoming the first victim of spinner Luke Wells, normally a first team opening bat. Wells is the son of former county captain Alan Wells and is described as an off spinner on Cricinfo. However today he looked suspiciously like a leg spinner.
Hard core spectators at Preston Nomads
His other claim to fame is apparently being the most sledged cricketer in England with an ability to get up other peoples noses! Not something I was aware of before. The new batsman was Ben Wright, a Lancastrian from Preston, who was captaining Glamorgan. He certainly got the show on the road with a hard hitting 62 off only 46 balls, with eleven fours, before Wells clean bowled him with what might have been a googly. That was 116-4 and apart from 22 from young wicketkeeper Milton, from Malvern Collage and 26 not out from the ubiquitous Joe Ellis Grewell, Leeds/Bradford University and many other clubs, batting at No. 10, not much else.
Whatever Luke Wells was bowling was highly successful and he finished with the remarkable figures of 7-1-21-6 whereas the more regular bowlers like Mike Yardy and Will Beer only collected one wicket between them. Glamorgan's innings rather tailed off and they finished at 178-9 in their 34 overs.
The weather was still not ideal and cold and miserable conditions did not seem to agree with the Glamorgan bowlers. They did dismiss opener Finch for a duck but after that they were taken apart by Ben Brown, 47 off 49 balls and Australian Test player, George Bailey, signed by Sussex for T20 duties, who smashed 109 not out off only 71 balls, with thirteen fours and five sixes. A bit like men against boys, Sussex winning by eight wickets in only 23.1 overs.
I returned the following day in somewhat better weather to see proper cricket, in whites, get underway. This time the Australian Bailey was rested and two young trialists were given a chance by Sussex, Alex Lilley another Leeds/Bradford University product, and Peter Burgoyne an off spinner from Derbyshire. It was a slow, hard graft day by Sussex with opener Harry Finch, another England Under 19 player getting 52 in just over two hours and then Burgoyne proving his worth as an all rounder with 76.
Dean Cosker bowling
A good long spell of left arm spin from veteran Dean Cosker during the afternoon saw him claim two wickets but the best figures went to off spinner Bull with 3-28. Sussex all out for 257. The cricket was nothing special, except for the wonderful surroundings. A real pleasure to have spent two days at this marvellous setting. I have since been told it must have changed considerably since my co-blogger John Winn played there many years ago.
Fulking - beyond the boundary
During the following two days, when I had moved on, Sussex won the game by 43 runs after Mike Yardy had scored 131 in their second innings before the declaration. Yardy himself declared a few days later announcing his retirement from first class cricket. Glamorgan made a good effort to get the 326 required to win but good bowling by the two trialists, Lilley with 4-26 and Burgoyne with 4-85 saw Sussex home, despite another 60 from Wright and 47 from Cosker.
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