Leyton, Lord’s, Eastbourne, Maidstone

A bit weatherworn and in need some of tlc but the pavilion at the old county ground, Leyton, still makes a picture. Put on the wider cricket map by Holmes and Sutcliffe with their record breaking partnership of 555, it attracts visitors to go by the groundsman who volunteered info on where the commemorative blue plaque was; cheerfully he was also preparing four strips.

Lord’s, £5 for the 4th day of a County Championship fixture, a fair offer I think;  personally, two hours in  high church on a near perfect Sunday morning.  A two-ball cameo from Ben Stokes, well caught by Sam Robson off the bowling of Toby Roland-Jones, was one up for Division II. The MCC do get things right, although the cricket with a Jeroboam (£)370 coming along in the schedule is for others.

The Saffrons, Eastbourne,  well-maintained,  genteel…croquet was in progress away to the left.  Sussex last used the ground for an ODC match as recently as 2019 and in times past Gordon Greenidge made his career HS of 273no here, 202 of them in boundaries. As a trip revisiting the 1980s it was really quite recognisable.

Mote Park, Maidstone, pleasant, a secluded feel to it now. Kent days with 5,000 in attendance an increasingly distant past but a ground fondly remembered on social  media: Aravinda de Silva made a big 200 here in 1995. Some years before a Hillman Imp ensemble set off from Dean Park and saw Hants do well on a Sunday afternoon.