An eventful year with Cumberland county cricket

 Posted by Tony Hutton

Have just finished reading yet another remarkable cricket book. I have already got through quite a few in the last few months, but this one was rather special in several ways. The Wicket Men by Tony Hannan, an author probably best known for his writing on Rugby League, tells the story of Cumberland County Cricket club's season of 2018. The significant sub-title is for me a most disturbing one - 'The last rites of Minor Counties cricket'.

The reason I say that is due to the fact that I have spent parts of the last twenty seven years, since enforced early retirement, visiting all twenty Minor Counties to watch a particularly attractive form of cricket which as the title of the book suggests is very much on it's way out. As most true cricket lovers will know the game which we have known and loved all our lives is being altered in many ways by the money men who now govern proceedings.

The proposed changes affect not only the first class game, but further down the scale where the long traditions of the Minor Counties game and University cricket are being decimated. Tony Hannan tells the story of how the proposed changes were to be implemented during the current season with the word 'Minor' being considered a negative aspect for possible sponsors. The new title being the National Counties Cricket Association. The major changes involve much more one day and T20 cricket at the expense of the more traditional three day games which are to be reduced to only four games for each side per season.

However, with all that lurking in the future during the year in question, we are able to follow the Cumberland team as they tour their own county and much further afield. The author is party to much of the off field events which make such interesting reading as the problems of selection, travelling late on Saturday nights after league cricket to distant destinations for Sunday morning starts, and eventually to real controversy and falling out amongst players and officials.

Having met the author during his travels during 2018 it is flattering to receive several mentions throughout the book, none more so than in the summing up when an extract from one of my blogs outlines my own feelings about the changes in format quite clearly. I understand that the basic problem is all about central funding from the ECB, which in effect seems to have blackmailed people into accepting the new proposals without much protest at all.

A very sad day for all traditionalists like myself who feel that we have been robbed of something very special. Four championship games a season, of which at least one is likely to be affected by the weather makes for poor fare all round. For ground hoppers like myself the possibility of distant journeys to such lovely grounds like Sedbergh, Brockhampton, Eastnor, Colwall, Sidmouth, Exmouth, Instow, Truro, North Perrott and many many more will become a thing of the past.

I have enjoyed my travels with Cumberland in the past and it is now sad to see that the proposed name change to the modern day county of Cumbria has at last come to pass. Another consequence of the fall out at the end of the season has now seen the team's leading spin bowler and greatest character, Toby Bulcock, depart to pastures new in Staffordshire.

I have perhaps been sidetracked by the changes and controversy but there is plenty more to this book as Tony Hannon travels to many off the beaten track league grounds throughout the county, soaking up the atmosphere of some very remote places and the people who inhabit them. What is more he gets to know all the players and officials of the club as the season progresses and describes the very special atmosphere of Minor Counties cricket which it will always remain to me.