A Star Studded family

 posted by John Winn

Rain interfered seriously with cricket both locally and nationally over the weekend. League cricket in my part of the world had already got off to a bad start with the postponement of the entire NYSD opening programme on the traditional third Saturday in April and the almost complete washout of the Nidderdale league. Things were little better this week and my local side, Ouseburn CC saw both first and second eleven games on Saturday abandoned early in the day without a ball being bowled, indeed the first XI who were given the doubtful privilege of starting with two away games on their return to the First Division, have yet to bat or bowl. 

I spent much of yesterday, which was actually quite a nice day in the Lower Ure Valley, switching between commentaries and live feeds on county championship matches but even here rain had the upper hand. Yorkshire, Durham and Gloucestershire will all feel they were robbed of victory by the weather and Kent v Essex at Canterbury was a total washout on the last day. At Taunton, in spite of Anthony Gibson's rain dance, Somerset's middle order put up enough resistance to deny Lancashire a first victory but it was the action from Lord's that engaged my attention to the last, once that is I had stopped laughing at the news that Spurs' supporters had been filmed leaving St James's Park after 20 minutes. 

In the match at Lord's Notts bravely opened up the game with a declaration that invited Middlesex to go for a target which they duly did and succeeded with just a few balls to spare. This in spite of Notts' efforts to ensure a draw by some dubious tactics towards the end. The championship tables show that only Hants can claim two wins so far and are already sixteen points ahead of Lancs who have drawn all three. Durham top Division Two, despite only one win from three and much credit must go their batters who have already accumulated 12 bonus points. 

It is just possible that by now some of you are wondering if there is any link between what I have written so far and the title of the posting. The answer is no but given the lack of cricket to watch on Saturday I have fallen back on a subject I have been meaning to write about for a few weeks, namely the Studd brothers, a cricketing family of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and here they are, from left to right, Kynaston, Charles, and George.

Their father Edward Studd, who fathered eleven children in all, was born in Bombay and made his fortune in indigo manufacture, a fortune big enough for him to own Stratton Hall in Northamptonshire, Hallaton Hall in Leicestershire and Bedworth House in Wiltshire at various times. All three boys went to Eton, all captained the XI and all three went on to win blues at Cambridge. Kynaston (1858-1944), played occasionally for Middlesex and in 1928 became Lord Mayor of London and shortly afterwards President of MCC. Moving on to George (1859-1945) , the second of the three, he followed  Kynaston in going to and captaining Eton then got his blue at Cambridge and was more than a useful tennis player. 

Finally we come to Charles (1860-1931) who followed the same education and cricket careers as his older brothers but went a significant step further for in 1882 he and George were part of Bligh's team that went to Australia and brought back the Ashes. George's form was disappointing but Charles was one of the best all-round cricketers of his time and played five tests in all.

Meanwhile back in Wiltshire the boys' father became, in 1878, a born-again Christian and shortly afterwards all three embraced Christianity. I recently acquired a biography of Charles written by his son-in-law, Norman Grubb, but only two chapters are devoted to cricket, it is very much a story of his work as a missionary. Charles went to China in 1885 where he remained for ten years but illness brought him back to England from where he went to USA and then to the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, this very much against medical advice. In Wisden's words this was an 'uncivilised region' but CT devoted the rest of his life to missionary work there until his death in 1931 from untreated gallstones. George too became a missionary and did much of his work in the slums of Los Angeles (sic). 

I should just mention that there were four other Studd brothers, all good enough to play for Eton and MCC. Star-studded indeed. 

Down by The Riverside

 posted by John Winn

                                                                           

                                                                                    

A day at Aintree on Thursday delayed my start to the 2023 season at The Riverside but I was there in good time on Friday to see the second day of Durham's match with Worcestershire. Durham had had an excellent day on Thursday and Raine and Coughlin started where they had left off the evening before. Durham skipper Scott Borthwick eventually declared on 425 for 9, leaving the visitors about an hour's batting before lunch and what an hour it was. Pollock set about the Durham attack, shorn of Carse by the ECB, with Pollock hitting nine fours off 26 balls before he was cleaned up by Potts for 41, a scoring rate of 157.69. Azhar Ali went for 29, lbw Potts, but shortly afterwards rain sent the players from the field and that was it for the day, Worcestershire 96 for 2. 

 Rather than return home I had booked accommodation in Durham for the night and thus was at the ground early on Saturday to see Worcestershire resume their innings. I was slightly concerned that mopping up was still going on when the five minute bell was rung but play started on time. Coughlin, who I thought the pick of the bowlers, had Libby caught at slip and to a man the Durham side thought they had D'Oliveira next ball but umpire White stood firm and the Pears' skipper proceeded to play a lively innings before being caught and bowled by Kuhnemann. I thought the Durham attack especially the seamers gave away too many easy leg side runs. The photo up above was taken just after lunch and suggests a cloudy day but for much of the day there was lovely sunshine.

I had originally intended to leave about 2:30 and catch some league cricket in East Durham on the way home but news of widespread postponements dissuaded me from this idea and instead I stayed until shortly before tea and got home just in time to see the delayed Grand National. Sam Brown who carried my hopes but fortunately not my money fell at the 16th. Perhaps his belt was too tight. 

After I left Worcestershire made a somewhat surprising declaration and with Borthwick hitting a century Durham have set Worcestershire 314 to win, as I type they are 3 for 2. 

In last week's posting I commented on the dismay felt in Somerset when they lost the first day of their opening match to rain, imagine the disappointment yesterday morning when the game at Bristol between Gloucestershire and Yorkshire was abandoned without a ball being bowled, a fairly rare occurrence these days. The decision provoked plenty of bile on social media but my main sympathy lies with Yorkshire supporters who booked accommodation for a couple of nights or more. They should have better look at Hove next week.

Not a bad start

posted by John Winn

At 9:20 on Thursday morning I was not going to Headingley, at 9:25 I was on my way. I had vacillated all week whether to attend the first day of the first class cricket season and after seeing Paul Hudson's forecast on Wednesday evening which promised a showery opening day I decided not to attend, a state of mind which did not change until shortly before half past nine the next morning. What caused this abrupt change?  The sun came out, I remembered how much I had been looking forward to meeting old friends and my wife told me to stop dilly dalllying and I was on my way. 

Having paid the tax now imposed on members to enter the long room, £15 for the season, I met up with old friends Jennifer Ellison and Stuart Wrigley for coffee, shared our varying opinions on the rights and wrongs of the signing of SD Hope and took our seats to see Leicestershire, having won the toss, take the field with Messrs Lyth and Bean opening for Yorkshire. No Root, Brook or Bairstow of course, although encouragingly the last of these was seen in the nets before the call of play. The sun shone and Yorkshire made good progress so that by the time Hudson's revenge arrived mid afternoon in the shape of a heavy almost wintery shower which caused an influx of taxpayers* to seek the shelter of the long room, last year's wooden spoonists found themselves in a familiar position with Malan and Bean enjoying some fairly moderate bowling. Mr Bean feasted on Rehan Ahmed's opening over to the tune of 22 runs and throughout the day Malan showed what a class act he is. 

The severity of the rain convinced that there would be a long wait before there was any more play and so I left but returned on Friday when a better forecast had increased the crowd considerably and by the time I left at tea, Leicestershire had lost three wickets in response to Yorkshire's 517.

                                                                              

                                                   Friday afternoon in the Upper North East 

As I type, 11:45 Sunday morning,Yorkshire  despite a lead of almost four hundred, continue their second innings but with a scoring rate of over five an over surely a declaration cannot be far away. Elsewhere, in Division One Hampshire have beaten Notts inside two days, Lancashire probably need to bat all day to avoid defeat against Surrey at Old Trafford, at Canterbury Kent need to score a trifle more than they did in their first innings to beat Northants while at Lord's Middlesex are now seven down in their second innings and facing defeat against Essex. At Taunton where the first day was washed out, more of which anon, a draw seems the only outcome. In Division Two a decent last day is in prospect at Derby where Worcestershire are the visitors, a draw seems likely between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire at Cardiff and Sussex should just scrape home against Durham at Hove. 

The second round of matches begins on Thursday with sixteen counties in action, Glamorgan and Sussex are resting, and Surrey v Hants looks the pick in Division One. 

Finally and back to Taunton where there was no play on Thursday, the game eventually started at noon on Friday, the county's Facebook page has presented some Somerset supporters with the opportunity to vent their spleens especially those who travelled quite long distances to find there would be no cricket.  Mr Charles Maggs took the biscuit and opened a can of worms, mixed metaphor there John,  and proposed that all these opening matches should have been played in the Middle East. And there's me thinking I was ill served by having to pay to go into the Long Room. 

* Given the absence of a steward on one of the doors there may even have been some non doms.