Taunton, Weston and Bath

Taunton 1974, Somerset playing Hants in a  one-day cup game; one of the teenage heads growing up in a long ago world where schools had playing fields that come summer were used for cricket. Among the things that weren’t better then, smoking, which was actively encouraged by the sponsors, but the county cricket season  had a flow, and  was done by a date that usually left people wanting more.

2024 and  the Colin Atkinson Pavilion making an attractive  background. Looking the other the way towards the corner the view more open and better for it, and  overall Taunton has the feel of a traditional  ground within a reduced scale TMG. Perambulating and  surprisingly or not  no sign of  cider sales.

The development of Somerset Cricket Museum from a derelict barn is very impressive, free, history  better presented than the one at Lord’s.  Prominent some fine paintings, a mobile scorecard maker and a display on women’s cricket. Personally for some reason I missed a trip to Street for a game played in 1977, and in 2024, missed the publication on it  from the Museum, sold out; closure, one to smile to about.

In all Somerset played at 11  outgrounds between 1969-2010,  chiefly Weston and Bath. Games, festivals at  Clarence Park until 1996 and some luck  to  have been in time to  snap Viv Richards here;  one into the pavilion or possibly Clarence Park West.

Passing by in 2024  Clarence Park East  was serenity itself, the cricket pavilion still identified as such on park maps, was doing a turn for  Men in Sheds, Hospice care support. The substantial properties by the roads nearby still there, the holiday-makers not so many.

Bath rec, county cricket in the days when the players sat one side of the pavilion, members the other and for days at the cricket one of the best.  Not as popular with the players, but a city that has generally prospered in globalising decades and not to play there at all seems  surprising from the outside.

So Bath for rugby; and Taunton, as Somerset, for cricket,  a success story? Not entirely, The Blast as successor to the Sunday League has been floodlights and £s,  transferring the game to a younger generation not so much. County cricket is now very dependent  on a small number of public schools for its players, Somerset more  than most, which given the way of things at the top here is a big change.

King’s Park (Bournemouth), Queen’s Park (Chesterfield)

The Edwardian pavilion in King’s Park, Bournemouth earlier this summer, at times understandably confused with  Dean Park (above) in a town blessed with fine pavilions, those at  Meyrick Park and Winton rec making four within a couple of miles of each other. While no gainsaying the decline in the sport, other recreational sport, cheerfully two are still in use for cricket.

A  six hit off to the left Dean Court, football  dominant  even in the summer months, county cricket in pleasant setting vibes harder to find. When things were very different a coach  from Dean Park to Darley Dale was organised in not much more than 30 minutes one Sunday evening, and later cricket trips to Derbyshire were  Derby and Heanor.

Finally, in 2024, Chesterfield, Queen’s Park for a Rachel Heyhoe Flint trophy game, The Blaze v The Sparks. High kudos to the ground staff who maintain the outfield to such a high standard in what is an open public park. The pavilion was hidden rather behind the sightscreen but as backdrops go a summerhouse type building adjacent that would not be out of place at Kew Gardens.

By comparison with an RHF fixture at Arundel 12 months ago,  Queen’s Park was every bit as charming, free to watch, cricket obviously a prominent part of the park’s life. Leaving a cloudy St Pancras on a day return to the 20th century  it exceeded expectations, and David Griffin’s book title ‘The Jewel in Derbyshire’s Crown’ certainly seems very apt.

Hove, Arundel, Eastbourne and Horsham.

Hove in 1978, a small number of mainly seniors watching a slow moving game; no future in that they said. Championship cricket in 2023: some deckchairs still, the tree alas gone, hospitality cabins and the Sharks stand in view at the other end. The PA  referred to the stadium, that way in some corners maybe although to this visitor it feels more like a ground still.

Arundel, timeless, beautiful with its easy aristocratic charm. Southern Vipers v Thunder  below in a September  heatwave, and  for spectators a hose-pipe refilling water containers, which  personally was a first. The last trip I made was for a T20 match in 2007, although its ambience if not everything else, feels more suited to the long(er) forms of the game.

Eastbourne, Sussex returned here before covid after an extended gap with three ODC games. Twinned in a rather particular way with St Helen’s Swansea, two grounds where records were made during the era of dominant WI cricketers; bats different  but not the biggest of boundaries either.  In 2023, essentially, if not entirely, club cricket.

Horsham, as second XI games go a well-supported T20 fixture v Hants, one of three played here this summer. As with Arundel, and Eastbourne for watchers very little changed over the decades, bar an electronic scoreboard. Why would it have done?

Upgraded facilities, hospitality important at the centre, outgrounds used less and no more is a common denominator with other counties. Yet with increased ECB monies from The 100 and the ‘development’ ODC played in August this direction of (non) travel could change, at least to an extent. Question is, will it?

Beckenham, Dartford, Gravesend.

Apart from Canterbury past excursions  to Kent  meant Folkestone, in 1985, when a Malcolm Marshall resistant playing surface dented Hants title hopes, Maidstone, for a Sunday League game,  and Tunbridge Wells when Shane Warne was a very big star. Good days out at the cricket, prompting the curiosity  to return last year to what now feel like vacated English idylls.

The cricket map of the 1971 season shows just how local county cricket was at one time, diverse folks watching in diverse places. In Kent seven outgrounds in a home  season of 53 days, even ‘nomadic’ Essex played at just four that year. The cathedral county a power in English cricket during that decade was also among the most local: in 1971 the first game was at Gravesend against Leicestershire, four of the Ashes’ winners three months earlier on the scorecard.

In 2023 37 of the 39 men’s home days are at Canterbury, although credit the fact Kent do have a second ground at Beckenham, one they are committed to:  two ODC matches and a base for the South-East Stars this season. Big, almost farmland big to one side, to this visitor it fell between being a major stadium and the appeal of many outgrounds, a place for others to watch their cricket. The immediate environs are very leafy suburb, which might be one clue to the future  of diversity in Kent cricket.

Hesketh Park, Dartford, on a non-matchday the cricket ground was tranquility itself,  an oasis of sorts given the urban nature of the approach to it from the railway station. It’s on a scale more sympathetic to traditional supporters with a taste for outgrounds, in the years when Kent played here the largest attendance was 3,750.

Gravesend, historic is a good word to characterise the The Bat and Ball Ground,  first-class games played here according to Cricket Archive between 1849-1971. In past the pub of the same name in 2023 a functional nature, but still atmospheric, with club cricket strong enough for a midweek afternoon fixture.

Colchester, Ilford, Leyton and Westcliff.

Sunday League days  included a trip to Castle Park, Colchester, which Stephen Chalke in Summer’s Crown understandably describes  as the most attractive of Essex’s former outgrounds.  If Cheltenham and Chesterfield work as places for cricket festivals in 2023, the ground, a stage for 2nd XI games currently, looked under-used to this visitor.

Valentines Park, Ilford; last time in 1986 when Allan Border was the overseas player for Essex, Malcolm Marshall for Hants, all seemed quite normal at the time.  On a second look the cricket ground is strikingly small, the outfield, as public parks tend to be, no bowling green.  But no doubting the fun of the those playing who were very amiable towards this passing perambulator.

Leyton, a ground with a storied history that dates back to the 19th century: a blue plaque  on the pavilion records Holmes and Sutcliffe 555 partnership in 1932. If the building  is looking a bit weather-worn now, it is still a dominating feature. Rat Pack  v Noak Hill Stars   this month.

Chalkwell Park, Westcliff, one of three grounds that were used by Essex CCC within about 5 miles of one another. Like Leyton a stage until the 1970s, but coming to it from the railway station is more like Maidstone or Tunbridge Wells, roads with large detached houses. Essex reached  diverse places  when nomadic. A home ground to  Trevor Bailey, who was born here and Barry Richards made one of his highest scores in England here.

Scyld Berry suggests that Essex have become the New Zealand of county cricket;  well-earthed and good at what they do. The appeal of a success story built from local roots obvious: in 2022 their players were drawn from state schools in the county and east London as much as elsewhere, which does help give  meaning to being a county side.

Old Deer Park, Preston Park (Brighton), Guildford

ODP as seen from the Kew Pagoda, a SET20 fixture going on down below. An  oasis of sorts, even in leafy Richmond; and one with good access:  a bus stop  outside and railway station  nearby. A bit posh? A bit, a sign round the corner  directed  those wanting to give Archery a go, but the pavilion is a friendly place and gives the venue  hearth, in part thanks to its history with London Welsh RFC.

Preston Park,  home to St Peter’s CC, a club that has been going since the 1800s, and the rather unusual feature of cricket being played  within a velodrome, the country’s oldest.  Atmospheric.

One previous visit to Guildford in 1997, Sunday League days and an innings of 203 from pinch hitter Ali Brown against a visibly shell-shocked Hants attack. A modern pavilion in 2023, but otherwise recognisably similar although what once seemed like (very) short boundaries side-on not so much so now. A county game between Surrey and Middlesex women in progress.

The Oval, Horsham, Folkestone and Hove

The One-Day Cup was in situ as a Sunday League fixture last month and it was just like some old times for spectators, the power of the outfield as remarked on twitter. Good job the Surrey ground staff and management.

Sussex Martlets v The Forty Club at Cricket Field Road, Horsham.  A county List A game was last scheduled for 2020, so perhaps Sussex will return  in the not too distant future.  Very pleasant.

Cheriton Road, Folkestone, Kent 2nd XI v Hants 2nd XI and  37 years to the day since one previous visit. A half bowl and still a fine view from where the old pavilion was (now no more), 30 minutes there good for the equilibrium.

Hove, season’s end at a ground that makes me want to return.

Tunbridge Wells, Luton and Worthing

From some angles the Nevill Ground could almost be Dean Park, known for Kapil Dev’s big innings in the 1983 World Cup (‘carnage among the rhododendrons’), Shane Warne was playing for Hants on my  one previous visit. Kent have a long history of playing here and, hopefully, a future as well to go with it.

Wardown Park (‘Luton’s Jewel’), the upper ground in particular, home to Luton Town and Indians CC. The pavilion has a  modest-looking exterior, but otherwise much greenery and a feel to it that is not so very different to  Tunbridge Wells, which was a bit surprising. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Northamptonshire played a Gillette Cup tie here in 1967, Bedfordshire a game as recently as 2019 but in truth it is an urban area the professional game has left behind.

Art Deco in Worthing; Sussex first played here in 1935 and cricket weeks were staged post WWII until 1964. A large enough playing area  for two games, although it is really the pavilion that makes the Manor Sports Ground, with its lines and symmetries: as to the cricket in front of it this month a leg-slip and mid-on would  have completed the picture.