Cricket up and running

Posted by Tony Hutton

Fenner's Pavilion

My season opened on Tuesday 28th March with a visit to Fenner's, Cambridge to see the University take on the might of Nottinghamshire. The first shock came on entering the ground, much changed since my last visit about thirty years ago. It is the custom for games between the counties and universities to be free of charge, but here we were asked for £5 per person and £5 to park the car on the ground. Not that I begrudge this especially as we got two scorecards included with a price of £3 each marked on them !

Managed to have a chat with the Cambridge coach Chris Scott, former wicketkeeper with Notts and Durham. I remember seeing him play for Yorkshire Bank in the Bradford League at their attractive ground in Moortown, Leeds during the 1980s. We both remember that period with affection and bemoaned the fact that the ground after lying derelict for years has now been built on.

Chris Scott (right) chatting with Clive Radley

The good news was that the sun was shining and we were told we had access to the pavilion, something I remember being refused all those years ago when strictly only University members were admitted. In fact it turned out to be a good news sort of day. Predictably Notts batted first, something which hasn't changed in these games, with Mullaney and Libby opening the innings. I recall both of them scoring centuries in different games last season, but although Mullaney looked on the verge of getting another he rather got bogged down in the eighties and was dismissed for 89.

Notts in the runs early on

The bowler who took the first two wickets, including that of Libby, was Luke Chapman, an off spinner from Felsted School in Essex. Both he and his spin partner Guest managed to get some turn and it was quite a bonus to see two spinners bowling in tandem before lunch during the month of March. Alex Hales came in at number four and played a typically aggressive innings of 35 before being caught off the bowling of Barton to make the score 212-3. Chapman, bowling beautifully, then instigated a mid innings collapse by dismissing both Wessels and Patel for ducks. So 217-5 and Smith, who was finding scoring difficult, had to dig in to restore the position for Notts.

Professional cricket watchers out in force in front of the pavilion.

During the lunch interval a pleasant walk around Parker's Piece the open space just across the road, where Jack Hobbs started his illustrious cricket career produced a photo opportunity not only of the pavilion and cricketing weather vane, but the blue plaque commemorating Hobbs shown below.

The pavilion also had University teams of the past on the wall and I managed to capture a picture of the great sides of the 1950s containing many Test players such as Dewes, Doggart, Shepherd, May, Warr, Subba Row, Alexander and McCarthy. I remember seeing the 1951 side at Worcester when both David Shepherd and Peter May got runs. A very different set up today and the scorecard showed that only one of the current side is actually at Cambridge University, the other ten are all students at Anglia Ruskin University.

Back to the cricket and Smith ground his way to a very slow 73 before Chapman bowled him with another beauty to make it 246-6 and Notts were struggling. As so often skipper Chris Read, who announced yesterday that he will be retiring at the end of the season, came to the rescue putting on a partnership of 41 with Luke Wood. Read was bowled by Rippington, who had taken the new ball, but Chapman soon returned to take his sixth wicket when Wood was caught for 36. Broad made 18 before he was also bowled by Rippington, who finished with tidy figures of 3-51.

The undoubted star of the day was Luke Chapman, making his first class debut he ended with the splendid analysis of 32-11-78-6. I felt a bit sorry for his spin partner Guest, who failed to take a wicket but bowled well particularly early on. We also saw six overs of leg spin from Misem Zaidi - so a good day for devotees of the almost lost art of spin bowling. Notts were all out for a respectable total of 339, but had a bit of a struggle to get there.
                                        (Cutting from the Cambridge News)

A splendid day in the sunshine, but we moved on to Leicester the following day and of course Notts won the game in the next two days by a considerable margin, bowling Cambridge out cheaply in each innings for 123 and 79. They did not enforce the follow on and added 207-2 before declaring their second innings closed. Notts won by 344 runs.