Almost the full set of fixtures now available

Posted by Tony Hutton

As the 2020 season fast approaches the fixtures at nearly all levels are now available. The full set of county second eleven fixtures appeared on Cricket Archive a few weeks ago and are now available in the new County Second XI annual just published by the Association of Cricket Statisticians.

This invaluable publication not only has a full list of all Second XI fixtures in a tidy format of all matches under one heading, but an extremely useful who's who of all players who appeared in county second elevens last season. The new format, courtesy of the Hundred, is restricted to four day championship fixtures plus endless T20 games, with a few 50 over friendlies thrown in. No room now for the popular second XI Trophy one day competition. The player of the year for 2019 on the front cover is Liam Patterson-White who did well as an all rounder for Notts last season. Unfortunately like most Notts seconds' players he is unlikely to get a first team spot due to the number of imports from elsewhere.

As usual for cricket lovers like myself, who prefer the peace and quiet of cricket at the majority of second eleven and Minor Counties grounds, this publication is a mouth watering list of places one would wish to visit or re-visit. For instance the first round of championship matches includes Sussex 2nd XI v Durham 2nd XI at the wonderful Preston Nomads ground, Fulking close by the Sussex Downs. However, not only is it a long way to travel from the north of England but the start date of 13th April suggests that the weather might not be the best for sitting out in a deck chair.

Preston Nomads ground.

My first second XI game is likely to be at Darlington where Durham play Yorkshire over four days commencing on the 20th April with the added attraction of the wonderful catering if we are lucky. More grounds on my ever growing wanted list, but still a long way away soon appear like Polo Farm, Canterbury and the Blackstone Academy ground in Sussex.

Unfortunately the T20 competition commences early in May and continues for a month. For those capable of enduring two games in one day, with coloured clothing and black site screens, there are many attractive grounds on the list such as Sudbrook and St Fagans (both Glamorgan), Burnopfield (Durham), Stourport (Worcestershire), Denby and Glossop (both Derbyshire) and Worksop College (Notts). Yorkshire seconds return to Barnsley and Doncaster in a flag waving exercise for South Yorkshire, together with Middlesborough for the first time for a while.

Burnopfield pavilion.


When the championship season resumes there are again many tempting venues as far afield as New Close, Isle of Wight, Monmouth School and Yorkshire have four days at Neath against Glamorgan in August, very tempting to visit a ground which once held county championship games. Yorkshire also have two one day friendlies with Lancashire at Chester Boughton Hall at the end of July, at another highly recommended ground again with excellent catering facilities.

Chester Boughton Hall.

Leeds/Bradford University fixtures also now appear on their own website, although the other inter University games are hard to come by. Only one three-day game at Weetwood to look forward to against Cardiff at the beginning of May, but several BUCS one day home games and the usual friendly with MCC on 28th May. The University's opening game with Yorkshire has been moved from Weetwood to Headingley, but there seems some doubt whether the Long Room facilities, much needed in April's cold weather, will be available following improvements now going on.

United Services Portsmouth

posted by John Winn

The Burnaby Road Ground in Portsmouth hosted first class cricket from 1882 to 2000 and in its early days some intriguing fixtures took place including Cambridge University Past and Present v Australia, GH Wyatt's XI v Australia and East v West. Championship cricket made its debut in 1895 when Leicestershire were the visitors and were beaten by three wickets in a low scoring match. 105 years later Kent were Hampshire's opponents and were victors by six wickets and Dravid and Nixon were at the crease when the curtain came down. During this long history I made just three visits the first being in 1993 to see Hants v Worcestershire.

United Services ground, Portsmouth.

The ground, alongside which runs the railway line to Portsmouth Harbour, still hosts cricket today with United Services Portsmouth CC playing their home matches there in the Hampshire Cricket League Division 3 South. The match I saw against Worcestershire was severely affected by rain but the third day,a Saturday, when I attended was to quote Wisden 'mercifully sunny'. In the morning session Udal and Aymes completed a stand of 114 for the eighth wicket before Mark Nicholas declared at 334 for 9. By the close Worcestershire had reached 206 for 5, runs for Hick and Damien D'Oliveria and three wickets for Malcolm Marshall. And that was it, for the fourth day was washed out completely.

I returned to Portsmouth the following year when Durham, still finding their feet in championship cricket, were the visitors. I was there on the first day of four, a day dominated by a century from Paul Terry and at stumps Hampshire were 326 for 4 with Terry on 122 not out. Hampshire went on to be all out for 512.  Durham responded with a first innings century from John Morris and in their second knock a marathon 159 not out from Jimmy Daley, his maiden first class century and one which gave Durham a glimpse of victory. In the end the match was drawn and was perhaps most notable for the number of players for whom this was their last championship appearance, for Hampshire Martin Jean-Jacques and Norman Cowans and for Durham, David Graveney. I spent some time talking to Durham twelfth man Alan Walker who felt that his days with the club were numbered. 26 years later he is still on the staff as bowling coach.

My last appearance at USP was in August 1998 for a four day match when Essex provided the opposition. I was present on the second day, a Saturday, when with Essex having been bowled out cheaply Robin Smith made 138 and with support from a wagging tail Hants led by 349 on first innings. The match ended shortly after lunch on the third day, Essex's seventh defeat of the season. They went on to rack up four more and finished bottom of the championship table for only the second time in their history. Not for the first time there were complaints about the Portsmouth wicket, this time from Essex coach Keith Fletcher who complained it was unfit for four day cricket. Whatever the truth of this no championship cricket was played at the ground the following season and as I have described 2000 saw the last such match.

Twenty two years on my clearest memory of that Saturday in 1998 sadly does not relate to the cricket for as I left the ground shortly before five o'clock I switched on my car radio expecting to hear the football results on Sports Report only to hear news of the tragic events that had occurred two hours earlier in Omagh when a car bomb had been responsible for the deaths of 29 people. A day of entertaining cricket seemed irrelevant as I made the two hour journey home to East Sussex.

Cricket at Dean Park

posted by John Winn

In my most recent posting I referred to a family holiday in Bournemouth in 1959, the last time I went on holiday with my parents. Wisden described that summer as 'wonderful...with days on end of glorious sunshine' and the two weeks we spent at Mr Scott's guest house in Boscombe certainly lived up to that description with only one short shower on our penultimate day to cause us any inconvenience. Given such lovely weather much of our time was spent on the beach but on Wednesday 26th September we made our way to Dean Park for the first day of a three day match between Hampshire and that year's tourists, India.

India came to the coast having two days earlier lost the fifth and final test at the Oval by an innings and 27 runs, their fifth test defeat of the summer when despite the excellent batting conditions they failed to reach 200 seven times out of ten attempts. Only 8500 attended on the Saturday of the match, how times change for such an event would be a sell out now one imagines. At Dean Park the cavalier Roy Marshall opened the batting for Hants with his usual partner Jimmy Gray. Marshall did not disappoint this fifteen year old for his first eight scoring shots were fours and with Mike Barnard hitting a century the home team finished the day on 360 for 9, at which point they declared. What we paid for admission I have no idea but given that India bowled 129 overs in the day it is unlikely that we felt short changed.

We did not see any more of the match but those there on the last afternoon saw India save the match following a characteristically challenging declaration by Hants skipper Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie. Stubborn defence by Baig and Joshi saw India to 96 for 8 at stumps.

Dean Park, Bournemouth.

First class cricket had been played at Dean Park since 1897 when the Gentlemen of Philadelphia came to sniff the briny and the following year the first championship match was played there with Somerset the visitors. After that,with the exception of the war years, championship matches were played at the ground, as many as five in some seasons, without a break until 1992 when beginning on August 18th the last first class match took place with Middlesex as Hampshire's opponents. Too significant an occasion for me to miss and I duly made the 125 mile journey from my East Sussex home in plenty of time for the start on what I recall was a pleasant day. Winning the toss and batting Hampshire were 341 for 8 at the close. Top scorer was Mark Nicholas with 95 and there were good contributions down the order from Jonathan Ayling and Adrian Aymes. With Emburey bowling 40 overs in the innings and Tufnell 23 the over rate was not as desultory as one might imagine.


In reply Middlesex struggled against the spin of Ayling but 93 not out from Mike Gatting and 77 not out from John Carr on the last day meant that Hampshire could not turn this historic occasion into a winning one. After the match a single rose was left on the wicket with message 'Will ye no come back again?' With Hampshire  administratively at least  becoming part of Dorset, Minor Counties matches were played there until 2015 but Hampshire have not returned except for a Nat West Trophy match in 1998 when Robin Smith feasted on the host's bowling.

The Torquay Festival

posted by John Winn

In 1958 a major change took place in the Winn household when, for the first time, my mother and father went on holiday without me, my consolation was that I travelled abroad for the first time, with a school excursion to Belgium. Prior to this family holidays had seen us progress down the North Yorkshire coast eventually reaching Scarborough in 1951 followed by return visits in 53, 55, 56 and 57. On the first of these occasions we lodged at Miss Pinkney's guest house in Prospect Road, handy for the station and only a short walk to North Marine Road where we saw Yorkshire lose (sic) to Worcestershire by eight runs.

In 1953 we changed digs to be even nearer the cricket ground, less than two minutes walk, and this time, and on the other three visits our week's holiday coincided with the Scarborough Festival when the touring side were the star attraction. Australia in 1953, South Africa in 55, Australia again in 56  and West Indies in 57. It is not perhaps coincidence that in the missing years the opposition, India in 52 and Pakistan in 54, were not considered top drawer.

To return to 1958 when my sister was deemed responsible enough to look after her brother my parents broke with tradition and went to Torquay. This did not mean they went without cricket for on the same three September days that the Gentlemen were playing Players at Scarborough, North were playing South at The Recreation Ground, Sea Front, Torquay, followed later in the week by an England XI v A Commonwealth XI, a pair of matches that had been the basis of The Torquay Festival since its inception in 1954. I can recall my mother bringing back photographs of some of the players involved in these matches who included Ken Barrington, Tony Lock, Gary Sobers and Frank Worrell

Picture of North v South teams at Torquay Festival 1955 (from the Cricketer Magazine).

Sadly this proved to be the last such festival for, as Wisden reports despite fine weather there was a loss of £900, over £21000 at today's prices. In addition since its inception in 1954 the festival had incurred losses and the Torquay Council which sponsored the festival decided they could no longer support it and all arrangements for 1959 were cancelled. Wisden had struck a more positive note saying when reporting on its first year  that it had produced 'keen cricket'. For the record here is the England XI that lost by two wickets to the Commonwealth in 1958. D Brookes, D Kenyon, B Close, K Barrington, R Simpson, R Illingworth, F Titmus, GAR Lock, K Andrew, C Gladwin and L Jackson. Close and Illingworth did a bit of travelling for they played for Yorkshire against MCC at Scarborough on September 3,4, 5 and reached Torquay in time to take the field for The North the following day with Illingworth called into action soon enough to take the wicket of South opener Jack Robertson, stumped by Keith Andrew for 34.

This was not the end of my parents' excursions to the south coast for in 1959 I accompanied them to Bournemouth and yes we did see some cricket. More of which in my next posting. A footnote to this account of the short lived Torquay festival is that in 1979 while touring with Bexhill CC I played against Torquay at The Rec.

This photograph, taken in 1953 at The Spa Scarborough may explain why my parents opted to have a change of scene in later years. 

Under 19 world cup reaching final stages

Posted by Tony Hutton

The Under 19 cricket world cup has been taking place in South Africa with quite a few of the games being shown live on Sky Sports. Unfortunately the England side have not really distinguished themselves, as they failed to qualify for the quarter final stage, after losing to Australia off the last ball of their decisive group game. That contest all came down to some fine hitting at the end by the Australian tail-enders.

However England have the chance of a consolation prize by qualifying for the Plate Final (the second tier competition) when they play Sri Lanka on Monday. They got there by beating Zimbabwe yesterday in a fairly high scoring affair, in which England made 286-9 and then bowled Zimbabwe out for 211.Top score for England came from Yorkshireman George Hill, who did not play in the early games, followed by Kent wicket keeper Jordan Cox with 59 and skipper George Balderson, from Lancashire with 45 not out.

                                           England's George Hill.

England's bowling honours also went to Balderson who took 3-29 and Somerset left arm spinner Lewis Goldsworthy, who comes from Cornwall originally, with 2-29 in ten very tidy overs. Goldsworthy, one of three Somerset youngsters in the side, has been one of the most consistent performers in a team which has really failed to live up to it's potential. The only other Yorkshire player in the side is reserve wicket keeper Harry Duke, who managed a couple of games against the lesser opposition of Nigeria and Japan.

              Jordan Cox of Kent, England's first choice wicket keeper.                           

The two semi-finals take place next week, between India and Pakistan on Tuesday and New Zealand face Bangladesh on Thursday. The favourites may well be the winners of the first game and New Zealand, following the recent performance of their senior side, may well be glad the 'super over' does not apply in this competition. The final takes place a week tomorrow on Sunday 9th February.

All the other teams are still involved playing for each place in the final table. West Indies, who looked very strong in the group matches, surprisingly failed to qualify for the semi-finals, but today beat South Africa in their play off match. The highlight today was perhaps the battle for 15th place between Nigeria and Japan!  Nigeria were easy winners bowling out Japan for 115 and winning by 8 wickets with plenty of overs to spare. Two names in this game for cricket quizzers of the future with Mba and Aho both playing for Nigeria.

One final note of interest for followers of cricket in the lower reaches. Both Yorkshire and Surrey are the first in the field to announce their second eleven fixtures for 2020 on their respective websites. Some confusion has arisen already as the Second XI Trophy (50 overs - one innings competition) has been removed completely, although Surrey still refer to it in error in place of their T20 fixtures.

Yorkshire seem to have got it right with four day championship fixtures, the T20 competition and four 50 over friendlies later in the season. So yet another change to the cricketing calender which, together with the ubiquitous health and safety legislation, means the loss of several favourite venues not only effecting second eleven cricket but Minor Counties (now the National Counties) as well.

Stamford Bridge, in North Yorkshire, has always attracted large crowds for second eleven games for many seasons now, but apparently has been struck off because of the lack of medical facilities in the pavilion and complaints from the umpires about the wicket last season. No Minor Counties games for Cumberland at Sedbergh, now taken over by Lancashire, or Netherfield. This partly because of the large reduction in championship games.

Todmorden has also always had large attendances for both Lancashire and Yorkshire second eleven games in the past, but had already been dispensed with as the wicket was allegedly not up to standard. Even the six counties under 19 competition, which Lancashire played there, has now been abolished as well, due to the Under 17s now becoming the Under 18s (Try to keep up!). All very puzzling but not a surprise in this modern ECB dominated era.