A good day at Hove

One of the highlights of my trip to the UK was a day at the Sussex County Cricket Club, at their County Ground, Hove. (Sussex was the first first- class county, formed in 1839.)

I attended the second day of the match with Leicestershire on 2nd May, 2016. The English weather late April/early May was unusually cold. In the county round late April it snowed at some games, including The Oval during the Middlesex/ Durham game. I took a train from Sevenoaks to London and then another to Hove arriving around 11.00am.

The temperature was 3 degrees and visibility was poor. The gatekeepers were not hopeful of play. I told them I had come from Australia and was at least keen to see the ground and facilities. The officious gateman said it would cost £12 to get in. This, after suggesting the prospect of play was remote. Another groundsman suggested I could view the ground from outside, through a gap in the fence further along the Northern end.

I wandered to the gap indicated and struck up a conversation with a couple of fellows who were infinitely friendlier than the gatekeepers. These gentlemen were obviously very keen cricketers. They were also optimistic play would get under way early afternoon when the light improved as long as the rain held off. I told them my exchange with the gatekeepers. Their response – “Stuff them, we are members and we would be delighted to show you around starting with a beer in the Members Bar”. In we went, past the grumpy gatekeepers who did not question my presence or entry.

My new-found friends knew their cricket. One, Rob had worked for a long time with the Kookaburra Sports Group, an Australian company, who sell a broad range of cricket and hockey gear in the UK. He had a very sound knowledge of New Zealand and Australian cricket. The first New Zealand team he saw was the 1969 tourists and was asking after B.A.G. Murray, Vic Pollard, Bruce Taylor, Dick Motz, Mark Burgess and others (Turner, Wadsworth and Yuile). He had remembered the 1973 Nottingham test, New Zealand chasing down something like 475 fell short by around 38 runs. He also talked about the Lords test with centuries from Congdon, Burgess and Pollard. He rattled off some of the Australian teams. I felt quite good as he actually was discussing ANZAC cricketers in the same context.

It turned out the younger guy was the brother of Mike Yardy. Yardy had played 28 one day games and 14 T20 games for England, and also for Sussex 1999-2015. He was a Sussex Captain and won three Division One County Championships. Sadly in latter years his form was adversely affected by widely reported severe bouts of depression.

Play got under way about 1.45pm and the temperature had climbed to 7-8 degrees. My new-found friends said they always watched the cricket from “the Northern end behind the bowlers arm”. The ground had quite a marked slope from north to south. They lent me a jacket and with some warm pale ales we headed for the deck chairs where we were joined by about another half dozen fanatics. The Hove ground is one of the few county grounds with deck chairs (in the Sussex County colours of blue and white stripes) and they are only found at the northern end. It was bitterly cold but this did not seem to have an impact on the standard of cricket. It may have on crowd numbers which were around 1,000. Sussex had been bundled out for 162 on day one and Leicester started day two at 2 for 142.

After a highly successful decade in Division One with three County Championships Sussex had been relegated to Division Two and were in a rebuilding phase. (Ross Taylor is the overseas professional for Sussex but he only scored 36 in the first innings and is yet to consistently score runs). Leicester had languished at the bottom of Division Two for some years but had shown marked improvement in 2015 under the coaching of Andrew McDonald, the young Victorian who had played four tests for Australia. They had also acquired a couple of senior county players in Peter Horton, ex Lancashire opening batsman and Mark Pettini a middle order batsman from Essex. According to my new friends McDonald is building a good reputation as a very competent young coach. He is around 38 years of age.

Leicester finished the day on 4 for 300. Horton got a 100. Mark Cosgrove the overweight South Australian, compiled a tidy 80 and Pettini went on to make an unbeaten 142. Sussex managed a reasonable score in the second innings to hold out for a draw.

A very nice ground and on a good day Sussex is very well supported. There are excellent members facilities which I was fortunate to experience first-hand. It is steeped in history with Ted Dexter, Jim Parks (father and son) and Tony Greig, a legend as far as Members are concerned. His brother Ian also played for Sussex and two tests for England. Ian has recently retired as Cricket Director of Church of England Grammar School (Churchie), Brisbane, a position he held for over 12 years and during Jonathan Hensman’s (a Willower) time as Headmaster.

Overall, it was an enjoyable day with thoroughly nice people. I returned to London early evening and found a warm pub for a few beers to discuss the day’s play with my son.