Outground cricket. Bloomin Marvellous.

As we lick our wounds after the CT semi final, here’s Media Penguin to cheer us up. There ain’t nowt like watching county championship at traditional outgrounds …

Lancashire v Middlesex

Trafalgar Road, Southport.

Lancs won by 8 wickets

It had it all – a sun blazing on my baldy pate, a washed out day fit for gumboots or goloshes and two other days that at times required a jumper and an overcoat. The cricket weren’t bad either and even though just three days of play were possible, the Red Rose were able to inflict the champions first defeat in 21 outings.

There is something unique about outground cricket, especially at the seaside. But Birkdale is the posh bit of Southport, far from the commotion of the funfair or the whiff of fish and chips.

The cricket ground is not far from the golf club which will host the Open championship in July.

Birkdale has wide rolling boulevards and most homes have their own driveway – nevertheless at the southern approach the authorities have imposed a staggering mile-long parking exclusion zone.

I can’t quite make out if this is to funnel motorists to the designated car park zone (fiver a go and throw in a lengthy hike) or to ensure the top cops and senior Town Hall officials who inhabit these parts are not disrupted by the hoi polloi. One thing is certain, it is not on traffic management grounds.

At the ground there is something of a queue. Given the heightened atmosphere over security I imagined there was a frantic scrabble for exploding sandwiches.

In the event it was an alcohol search. A table had been put up for the contraband and was groaning with two cans of cider.

An old lad in the queue recalled the 1981 encounter with Middlesex at this very venue when the lines snaked down Trafalgar Road and the beer ran out by 2 p.m as Clive Lloyd knocked a few into the leafy avenues. The occasion? A day off for the common people while Charles and Di tied the knot.

A couple of temporary grandstands had been erected and chairs and benches dotted the ground which backs on the rail line ferrying passengers between Liverpool and Southport.  Even though a sign stated that no dogs were allowed on the ground I spied Jack Russell eager for a book signing to commence.

The first day really was a scorcher, ice creams and Crabbie’s ginger beer  being gobbled up greedily. Three chaps behind me were debating various matters relating to the game but the foremost question seemed to be when to get the first ale in.

‘Is the sun over the yardarm?’ one asked. ‘Who knows’ quoth another. They decided on 11.45.

After a slurp of lubrication they embarked on the highlights of their careers in organised cricket – top scores of 24, 20 and 9 respectively.

In the meantime the Londoners appeared to be ruing the decision to bat as wickets quickly fell. At lunchtime there were rumours of dark mutterings from the Middlesex players about the pitch.

I took a stroll around the boundary and bumped into an old colleague from Trinity Mirror. Inevitably it descended into him bemoaning his lot – forced to work from home on a rota made for a Roman galley slave. And one of the lads had to take a 25% pay cut! Imagine having to survive on 90 grand a year in austerity Britain.

Middlesex were skittled for 180 but cynical Lanky lags merely looked to the heavens when Davis and Livingstone departed in the opening over. The ship was steadied to leave Lancs 123-4 at the end of day one.

In contrast to sunburn weather on the first day, the following was a complete washout. Not many ice creams sold or £4 sausage barms for that matter.

Day three was decisive – particularly innings from MaClaren (75) and Bailey (58) which  propelled Lancs into a lead of 129.

I disappeared due to family commitments but was back on day four when Middlesex were struggling to build a lead with four wickets left.

This time the weather was a mixture of overcast condition and blue skies but still very much on the parky side.

Still a good crowd in but with an air of inevitability about it. The champions cobbled together a lead of 107 which was never enough to make a game of it. Lancs won by eight wickets with Hameed showing a glimmer of form by painstakingly making his way to 38. While most players are greedy for runs the young man ekes them out in miserly fashion, almost unhappy at having to leave his defensive pose.

A great day out is outground cricket and I am pleased to say Lancashire have also played at Liverpool and Blackpool this season. Sir Ian Botham has also made noises about taking Durham back out into the heartlands. Surely its time Yorkshire eyed up some of the haunts they abandoned? Eyy up lad, there’s nowt like it.

MediaPenguin

@BarryEditor1

5 comments

  • Hi James, I had a day at Guildford last weekend on a largely gloriously sunny day. I watched Jamie Porter confirm that he has real promise and he might, just might end up being a contender for an England test spot in the near future, although I would suggest that the Ashes this winter is probably not the tour for him. Neil Wagner confirmed that he is one of the best flat deck, 1st change bowlers going and that Essex as a unit then took advantage of an inadequate score with Ten Doeschate cashing in with a typically aggressive knock. This set up Essex for a fine win and they are now possible contenders for an unlikely county championship challenge. However with the relatively soon departure of a certain AN Cook for test match duties I am not sure that there is necessarily quite the depth of runs to sustain this and a lot is on the shoulders of Porter with the ball too.

    I love outground cricket and always have. Valentines Park in Ilford was the venue that first introduced me to the professional game as a very young boy. Have watched a fair bit myself both there, Guildford and a few venues around the South East such as Luton (Northants), Croydon (Surrey) and Merchant Taylor’s School for Middlesex.

  • I’ve always had a soft-spot for Portsmouth where I saw my first day of CC cricket:

    http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1980/ENG_LOCAL/CC/HANTS_SURREY_CC_23-25JUL1980.html

    The surrounding architecture may have been 60s’ brutalism but it was close to a railway station, had a fast pitch (Sylvester Clarke bowled at the speed of light that day in 1980) and had a good, raised view nearly behind the bowlers’ arm open to the public (my chief pet peev about outgrounds). Such a shame that Hampshire abandoned the USG to play all matches at that Bramsgrove folly.

    Colchester and Finedon are two other outgrounds I remember fondly.

    • Burnaby Road was a fine ground on which to watch cricket, outfield a bit bumpy but a place with character. http://bythesightscreen.com/watching-hampshire-in-the-arlott-era/. Kent (Tunbridge Wells, Folkestone), Sussex (Eastbourne, Horsham), Hants (Bournemouth and Basingstoke) and Somerset (Bath and Weston) all had out grounds that were a pleasure to go to.

      The interests of administrators and players swept many off the calendar, a return to at least some of them in 2020 would be good.

      • Not heard the word Buraby for many many years. Ashamed that I had forgotten it but not the ground and not the wicket.

        Bumpy outfield ? the problem was not so much the bumps as the speed the ball went across that turf – thanks to the biggest roller in world cricket history.

        It was the BEST place to bat. Thanks also to that roller. Value for shots. Plenty of hooking. Sheer pace and eventually bounce and turn for spinners. The advantage of having the world’s greatest naval dockyard alongside.

        If you never batted there you missed one of the key cricketing experiences.

        • Thanks for the replies.

          Of the grounds Stephen mentions, I never saw cricket at Folkestone or Weston but I’ve seen f/c cricket at all the others. I’m afraid I don’t have fond memories of Eastbourne – I saw a terrible day’s play there on a boiling hot day (David Smith made a slow century and every wicket fell LBW). I’ve much fonder memories of Hastings which was a tremendously pretty ground and was turned into a terrible shopping centre.

          Bath wasn’t as pretty as I’d hoped but I saw a terrific day’s play there with a century from a young Tres and a very fast spell from the demon Dutchman Andre Van Troost.

          My biggest regret about Portsmouth is that I could have gone to a Hampshire vs. Kent match but didn’t – and Rahul Dravid scored a reportedly brilliant hundred off Shane Warne.

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