Phew what a scorcher! Summer at last.
Not that we scorers get that much benefit cooped up under cover Friday night, Saturday and Sunday but watching lads visibly flagging in the Bacup heat – yes you read that right – on Sunday, I have to concede we’re probably in the safest, most comfortable place.
The weather conditions could not be blamed for a second successive Accrington defeat although a few of our lads had a bit to say about the pitch but in truth they had to hold their hands up and admit that they were outgunned having chosen to take first use of it on a baking afternoon.
In retrospect the tea time roller might have flattened it out a bit when Bacup replied needing just 132 after bowling the visitors out.
There’d been a few looks of disdain at the dusty track as Accrington tumbled to 66 for six and a couple of choice words exchanged. At least that’s what it looked like, with umpires regularly taking a few notes.
It’s always tempting to bat first on a belting day but the Lanehead pitches were marked well down last year by the umps so perhaps a bit of uneven bounce wasn’t a complete shock.
A couple of the dismissals looked to be from deliveries which ‘popped’ a little but as my old editor Mervyn used to say, I’m here to report history not to participate in it so I’ll leave it there.
Ali Hasham and Kian Farnworth did well to almost double the score but as so often when one of a partnership departs, the other soon follows and the innings fell away.
I must admit I had high hopes we’d tear into Bacup at some lick after tea but we were already a bowler down with Oliver Lowe pulling a hamstring making his ground while batting and in fairness, Bacup batted responsibly and sensibly from the off and only when losing a couple of wickets around the 100 mark did they look momentarily discomfited.
Disappointing day at the office but this weekend sees the Lancs League’s Friday night T20 kick off with Burnley visiting Thorneyhome Road and on Sunday there’s an important derby at home to Rishton.
My journey to Bacup was as picturesque and pleasant as predicted taking the high roads.
I once visited Venice by train and would specifically recommend that experience to anyone – stepping out of a pretty bog-standard European station doors into the enchanted wonderworld of the canals is an utterly surreal moment, especially in bright sunshine.
If I ever picked a first-time visitor to Lancashire up at the airport on a nice day I’d drive them over Newchurch and the tops of Haslingden to introduce them to the rolling-hills wonderment of our county.
There was a lovely surprise for me when I arrived at Lanehead.
When I walked into my first day at St Mary’s College, Blackburn in September 1970 – actually the second day of term after I’d typically missed the first with one of the asthma attacks which plagued my youth – I found myself sat next to one Michael Hammond of Rossendale.
Goalkeeper for the school football team (which I never made), Mike was a teammate in the college cricket team too, a tall fast bowler who batted low down the order.
In later years he developed his batting to such an extent that after leaving his first club Rawtenstall, he chalked up a few 50’s for Bacup including at one point an innings which won him the Lancashire Evening Telegraph tankard for the season’s quickest half-century.
Tod’s pacey Barbadian pro Rod Estwick had struck him a blow early doors so Mike figured the best form of defence and self-preservation was all-out attack and he rapidly blitzed his way to a collection. (Note to Nigel – it would make a great feature).
I played against him in an exciting Second XI cup game in 1986 at Rawtenstall which carried on to the Monday night, despite me getting three early wickets and bowling very well he was winning the game until my favourite captain Eric Barnes had him caught and bowled in fading light for 72. We went off soon after.
On the Monday evening the left-handed former Stanley footballer Graeme Lord, who died recently, kept gently lapping me over the 30-yard boundary at one side but Eric kept faith with me and another beloved old skipper, John Hall and I wrapped the other end up for a 10-run win.
I finished up with five for 111 from 21 overs and walked off as proud of punch! Within weeks I had some kind of nervous breakdown and packed up playing cricket for some time.
Not long after Mike, with one Lancs League Wicket in one over to his name at Bacup – the late Neil Jones of Accrington -was in the First XI, put on to bowl at Rawtenstall by Peter Wood and went for 20 in another solitary over.
He never bowled in the first team again. His captain wasn’t as encouraging as mine..
MIchael had cycled up to Bacup on Sunday to see me. A rugby man these days he doesn’t bother with the cricket but what a joy to see him. In the way of things in your late sixties the last time we met was at a funeral of an old mate so chatting without any pervading sadness to bring us together was a pleasure.
With Peter Mulderigg, Neal Wilkinson and Terry Lord, all lads I played Seconds against, still helping behind the scenes at Bacup it was a real 1980s reunion! So nice to see a bunch of brilliant guys who love and nurture their club.
Friendship was very much a theme of the weekend with another game at Cherry Tree against Oswaldtwistle Immanuel on Friday night and a trip to Brinscall on Saturday.
An afternoon with Brinscall scorer Bryn Huddart is always time well spent. The scoreboard at the Armstrong Arena is named after him and so it ought to be, he paid for it.
At one point a very nice lady around our vintage came over and announced she was delighted to see him as she had heard he was ‘no longer with us.” He explained that he wasn’t in a sense as he had moved to Hoghton, almost regarded as a similar fate by the tight-knit everyone-knows-everyone community in Brinscall.
Happily he is in rude good health, and like me rude enough to complain bitterly about idiots walking in front of us but mastering the art of not quite letting them hear your more guttural complaints after politely requesting they move in.
The village was out en masse for the club’s Beer Festival with an extraordinary long marquee and numerous, cake, pizza, gin and other food trucks. They got a perfect day for it.
At one point a band rehearsed REM’s ‘The One I Love’ so expertly you might have thought you were in the 40 Watt Club, Athens GA but even I, a big fan, could do with clearly hearing ‘no-ball’ calls rather than expertly-played indie classics at the cricket.
Cherry Tree won well, as they did on Friday evening, but it was disappointing not to see our old boy Owen Ellwood who joined the villagers in winter but has now decided to move to Baxenden. We won’t have long to wait to renew acquaintances as we play Bash in the T20 at Back Lane on Friday night. Then Saturday is a free date, a curiosity of the NWCL this season.
I can revert back to ‘pimping myself out” as Brinscall’s Andrew Scambler described my “scorer-for-hire” seasons after Covid when I was unattached but with numerous suitors. If only life had been like that I might not have had the shed collapse in ‘86.
Innings of the weekend (until some remarkable events at Longridge on Monday) was the 52 out of 55 for two off 26 balls made by Brinscall’s Lamar Springer – who sounds like one of Elvis’s TCB Memphis Mafia but is actually a genial Barbadian of considerable heft.
Lamar asks you to call him “Bruiser’ when introduced. There’s no record of anyone arguing.
When he was out there were two extras and one run by another batsman on the board. Extraordinary hitting. Brinscall subsided to 114 after his departure.
The continually-admirable Mark Hadfield won Cherry Tree the game with a typically impish and creative not-out 60-odd.
On Friday night Min Bhada made a half-century and young Harvey O’Toole batted well while it was good to see an old Church fave Joel Gaskill make runs for Oswy, one of my ‘pre-pimping’ clubs.
Another of my old Church heroes Levi Wolfenden was absent for Whalley’s Monday Cup game at Longridge which saw the home side amass 447 from 40 overs with Matthew De Villiers striking 23 foursand 22 sixes in his 247
It’s one thing being forced to play cricket on Bank Holiday, quite another to endure a mauling like that. Simply walking around central London and taking in a couple of exhibitions was exhausting.
Sadly no cricket in London during my stay, I narrowly missed the Sunday T20 at Lords when members were given the option of not wearing jackets owing to the heat.
Whatever next – loosening of cravats?
Take care if the heatwave continues into weekend – that lucky old sun can do you more harm than “Bruiser’ or young De Villiers if you’re not slapped and hated up .
Quiz Last week’s answers – Mark Bailey and Graham Lloyd.
This week. In the Accrington v Bacup in 1982 when Neil Jones became my pl ‘Hammy’s” only LL victim, Neil put on 90 with a batsman who played just 53 times for Accrington but also played for Nottinghamshire Seconds and Lincolnshire. Can you name him?
