Sussex by The Sea Part 2

 posted by John Winn

 

Sussex CCC 1981

Stewart Storey (coach) Colin Wells, Tim Booth-Jones, Geoff Arnold, Garth le Roux, Imran Khan, Paul Phillipson

Ian Gould, Ian Greig, John Barclay, Paul Parker, Chris Waller, Gehan Mendis

(thanks to Tony for the photo)

1983 was something of a landmark year for me given that it was the first year since 1967 that I had not played club cricket. I did not sever my connection with Bexhill CC, becoming a regular watcher at Polegrove Sports Ground but it was also a pivotal year in my teaching career with the appointment of a new dynamic principal at the college where I was working. All work and no play did not become the norm however and my scorecards for that era show that I was no stranger to grounds where Sussex were in action. 

Although Sussex had been founder members of the County Championship they had never been champions, a state of affairs that continued until 2003, but in 1981 they came within a whisker of taking the pennant, losing out to Notts by just two points. It was not until the penultimate day of the season, September 14th, when the news from Trent Bridge that Clive Rice's boys had beaten Glamorgan by ten wickets meant that Sussex knew they could only finish runners up at best. An eight wicket win over Yorkshire at Hove which gave them 23 points did the trick. Wisden describes the 1981 XI as 'one of the best balanced (Sussex) have ever fielded'. Imran and le Roux were a fearsome opening attack and the former backed up his 66 wickets with 857 runs. Leading run scorers were Paul Parker and Gehan Mendis. 

A look in the loft yesterday found a file marked Scorecards 1951 to 1991 and one of the first from my time in Sussex dates from 1983 and a match at The Saffrons*, Eastbourne, when Hampshire made the short journey along the south coast. An attractive match on paper, Hants had Gordon Greenidge and Malcolm Marshall in their side, lived up to expectations with the visitors winning by three wickets off the penultimate ball. Those present on the first day saw a century by Imran  and one by Paul Terry on the last afternoon which brought Hants close to victory. Nigel Cowley and Tim Tremlett saw them home. This game was in contrast with one against Derbyshire played earlier in the week when according to Wisden 'the tempo of play was hardly more hectic than on the neighbouring croquet lawn'. Ah my Saffrons of nearly 40 years ago. 

The journey to Eastbourne from my home in  Bexhill began with a right turn on to the A259, for Hastings it meant turn left and although a shorter trip it involved numerous sets of traffic lights along the sea fronts of St Leonard's and Hastings and difficult parking when one reached the Central Ground. But it was a trip worth making to enjoy cricket on the historic ground where the game had been played for well over a hundred years. Alas first class cricket finished there in 1989 and where the greats of the game once entertained the likes of WG Grace and Bradman there is now a shopping centre. 

One of the most entertaining matches seen in Hastings must have been that between Sussex and Kent in 1984. It ended in the first tie in the championship for ten years when with victory for Sussex seeming inevitable they went from 186 for 6 to 192 all out, wickets for Terry Alderman and Richard Ellison at the death. As if the last afternoon did not provide enough excitement on the first morning Kent had been bowled out for 92, five wickets for Colin Wells who went on to score fifties in both Sussex innings. The most remarkable batting however came from Derek Underwood who batting as night watch man hit 111, his only century in first class cricket. In their brief summary of the game Wisden failed mention this feat. 

I lived almost 30 years in East Sussex and also saw county games at Horsham and Hove. At Horsham one could watch the trains pass by and a sunny afternoon in Hove's famous striped deckchairs was blissful whatever the state of play. Although by the time of Sussex's first championship in 2003 I had moved to Yorkshire I shared the the joy of the many good cricket loving friends I had made in the county and from more than 270 miles joined in their chorus of Good Old Sussex By The Sea. 

* a poignant moment at The |Saffrons came on August 8th 1990 on the first day of that season's match with Yorkshire. Just a few hundred yards from the ground came the sound of church bells tolling for the funeral of MP Ian Gow who had been murdered by an IRA bomb at his Pevensey home just along the coast a few days earlier. I am tempted to say that play was halted but I may be mistaken in this

 Central Ground Hastings, Sussex v Kent 1959