Resisting the chance to comment on the performances of the South of England XI (with the token addition of Root and Stokes) in New Zealand and having lost track of the number of outside signings by the Rest of the World XI (formally known as Yorkshire county cricket club), I will once again retreat to a nostalgic trip from the past.
The year 2000 was probably the peak period of my long cricket watching career, with more cricket seen and more grounds visited than ever before, or since. One of the most memorable trips was a southern tour in August which took in a rather special tournament for wandering cricket clubs based around Oxford University with an absolute plethora of fixtures and grounds to visit. After that it was on to our then regular holiday haunt of Lymington in Hampshire with a good deal of club cricket and a final visit to Hampshire's old ground at Northlands Road in Southampton. The trip home by a rather devious route took in further county cricket in Sussex and Essex.
It all started with a couple of Minor Counties games on our way south. Firstly Campbell Park, Milton Keynes where Buckinghamshire were playing Suffolk at this quite modern ground, before travelling on to the delightful Thame ground where Oxfordshire were playing Herefordshire. The highlights at Milton Keynes were a fifty from Derek Randall, seeing out his career with a spell at Suffolk, and a century from Bruce Percy, who played with distinction for both Buckinghamshire and Rawdon in the Aire/Wharfe league.
Oxfordshire had a very easy ten wicket victory over Herefordshire at Thame thanks mainly to the bowling of veteran paceman Keith Arnold who took fifteen wickets in the match including an incredible 9-19 when Hereford were all out for 80 in their second innings. Arnold was a true Minor Counties legend who played for Oxfordshire for thirty years from 1980 taking well over 600 wickets.
The next three days, with the very necessary help of a detailed street map of Oxford, were spent touring the many college and neighbouring school grounds for the wonderful millenium festival of wandering cricket teams from far and wide. It got off to a good start with two games on neighbouring grounds at St Edward's School - Incogniti v The Stage on the main ground and The Cryptics v The Butterflies on the other ground interestingly known as 'The Piggeries'. The most famous old boy of the school was Douglas Bader, the RAF fighter pilot and hero of the film 'Reach for the Sky'.
On next door to Keble College ground in Woodstock Road where The Frogs were playing against a very historic side, The Gentlemen of Philadephia no less, all the way from the USA. No sense of former glories from the visitors as the Frogs won rather comfortably.
Still on Woodstock Road for a visit to St John's College ground where South Oxfordshire Amateurs were playing the Gentlemen of Leicestershire in a a high scoring game with two hyphenated Oxfordians stole the show - M. Winfield-Digby and A. Prior-Wandesford. Finally turning off the Woodstock Road onto Marston Ferry road, we came to the Wadham College ground. Here we saw Hampshire Hogs beat De Flamingos by some margin thanks to the third century of the day so far.
This came from Rupert Cox, who played quite a few games for Hampshire county cricket club in his younger days. 109 not out from a total of 249-4 proved a useful winning score.
This long day was rounded off with visits to Oxford University Press, Trinity College and two grounds at Radley College (Bigside and Secondside). The Gentlemen of Yorkshire were playing at Oxford University Press ground, which always recalls the persistent comment of my Lancashire friends, who wonder where they find eleven men from. Radley College public school was a delight with what appeared to be endless cricket grounds going off towards the horizon. This is of course where England captains such as Ted Dexter and Andrew Strauss learned to play the game. Not quite up to that standard today but The Stragglers of Asia and The Sunday Barbarians certainly added to the day's remarkable entertainment.
To be continued in the next blog.
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