Sunday 28th April and a leisurely day watching cricket at Ampleforth College, in the North Yorkshire countryside, one of my favourite all time venues. A season without a visit here is never complete. A slight delay as the schoolboys returned from Mass and then had to complete their warm up programme, which now seems to be compulsory in all forms of cricket - even Sunday friendlies. However at 11.45 the umpire rang the bell and the players took the field.
The school were playing their first game of the season against Emeriti, a wandering side made up of former Catholic public school boys. The visitors batted first and were putting on a good opening partnership before the first wicket fell with the total in the sixties. By then it was time to adjourn down the road, through the forest of rugby posts to the neighbouring village of Gilling East for a leisurely Sunday lunch.
When I saw the village church, almost opposite the pub, it reminded me of a visit here some ten years ago when my friend the late Mick Bourne told me of an article in the Dalesman magazine about a visit by the famous England and Sussex batsman Prince Ranjitsinhji in 1908. Details of the match he arranged to raise funds to repair the church tower are still on show in the church and I was able to take pictures of the documents and team picture which tell the story.
H.L. Simms (Sussex), C.L.A. Smith (Sussex), G.W. Beldem (Middlesex).
Front row:- C.B. Fry (Sussex), J.B. King (Philadelphia), K.S. Ranjitsinhji (Sussex), J. A. Lester (Philadelphia) and A.C. MacLaren (Lancashire).
Apparently Ranji's tutor at Cambridge University was the vicar of Gilling and lived in Gilling Castle which is now St Martin's school, the prep school for Ampleforth. Ranji regularly came for holidays and on learning of the need to raise funds arranged a special cricket match with some of the most famous names in English cricket of the time agreeing to play. Ranji's XI played the Gentlemen of Yorkshire, in what turned out to be a rather one sided encounter. The great man even went so far as to hire a special train to get all the players there in time.
Ranji's team batted first in a two day game and made the grand total of 361 all out with one of the two Americans, J.A. Lester making 115 not out. On the second day the Yorkshire Gentlemen were all out for 48 and followed on losing six wickets before rain stopped play and the game was officially declared a draw. As well as paying for the repairs to the church tower Ranji was also able to purchase a new clock and details of the amounts involved are shown on the following document.
So after gleaning all this information we were able to return to Ampleforth to find that the visitors had been dismissed for 161 and the school were well on their way to victory when we left. I was later reliably informed by one of the visitors batsmen (via the internet) that the school won by six wickets.
Another pleasant surprise awaited following our visit to the Abbey tea room and shop when I discovered a post card with a view of the cricket ground. Last year I searched the shop for such an item without success and suggested to the lady behind the counter that the should produce one.
When I retold this story I was given my 50p back and told I could have it for free as it had been my idea. I thought it better not to pursue the thought of royalties on all future sales.
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