Thursday 9th June saw the last day of our five day tour. Heading north we made for Loughborough, apparently often pronounced by Australian visitors as Loogerberooga!
The campus of the local University, known for its sporting excellence, is vast and as Brian has pointed out very difficult to find anywhere near the cricket ground to park.
Fortunately he was already in position and able to assist us with the unloading of baggage and seats to watch Loughborough MCCU take on Leeds/Bradford MCCU in the final two day match of the season.
The Haselgrave ground, Loughborough University
Loughborough had compiled a huge score yesterday thanks mainly to R.G. White of Middlesex with a brilliant innings of 174. They batted on this morning to make an unassailable total of 514-9 before declaring. The visitors, despite a good start from Andersson (another Middlesex man) and Bullen, were never going to overhaul this target and finished the day on a creditable 309-7. This means Loughborough will take on Oxford in the final at Lord's on 21st June.
During the lunch interval we wandered round the corner to the Brockington ground where England's women cricketers were taking part in an inter-squad practice match ahead of the forthcoming series with Pakistan. Mark Robinson, the new England coach and all his accolites were in position to assess the enthusiastic players on show. Good to meet up with Steve Oldham, former Yorkshire Academy coach now involved with the England women's set up. Brian has already produced a picture of the Graham Dilley pavilion at this ground - a fitting tribute to the man who coached Loughborough for many years.
As the men's game at the Haselgrave ground meandered towards a draw with nothing now at stake, we decided to move to a third venue not far away at the Loughborough Town ground. Here again catching up with Brian and Bob sitting in the shade away from the powerful sunshine. After a poor start Leicester 2nd XI achieved a notable victory over Notts 2nd XI in their 50 over trophy clash. Robson and Eckersley in particular making substantial contributions.
Loughborough Town cricket club
Good to read the report of the day's events later from the Leicester scorer Peter Johnson who writes some extremely humourous reports of all Leicester's second eleven games on the county website. Worth looking at these and no doubt he will be in action at York and Pudsey Congs next week.
We had discovered that another women's match between England and Ireland was going on at a fourth venue in Loughborough at the Carillon ground near the old Grand Central Railway station and the canal. Despite all these attractions we decided it was time to turn for home and did so with a host of happy memories of some good cricket and attractive grounds throughout our five day tour in the sunshine. Next time it will be back to reality in the cold at Weetwood, where Leeds/Bradford will take on Loughborough yet again on Monday 13th June in the BUCS one day semi-final.
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