Northants v Gloucestershire, County Ground Northampton, County Championship, Friday 25th May 2012
There was a pleasant piece about Wantage Road in The Guardian last week by Mike Selvey http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/may/23/northants-county-ground-cricket . He described it as
“an airy but intimate ground, a proper county ground for county cricket without pretensions beyond its status or means”
Which is about right (somehow the floodlights seem to add to the airiness), though I’d say the same is true of Grace Road. So it was a pity to find Matthew Engel, in the course of an otherwise hear hear-provoking article about outgrounds in The Cricketer writing
‘So they [Leicestershire] stay in unloved Grace Road, mouldering towards oblivion”
It’s not clear whether it’s the ground or Leicestershire itself that he thinks is mouldering towards oblivion, but although he is – or was – a habituee of Wantage Road, I wonder when he last set foot in Grace Road. I can assure him it’s not entirely unloved.
Wantage Road was at its best on Friday, when the real star of the show – making its first appearance of the season – was the sun.
The flags fluttered topically in the breeze
and Gallone’s found their business picking up at last.
There was plenty of slow and steady batting, from Marshall of Gloucestershire, to avoid the follow on, and Peters and Coetzer of Northants, to bat Gloucestershire out of the game, which they succeeded in doing. The sort of third day that’s necessary to set up an interesting fourth.*
I sometimes wish Leicestershire (who are rarely dull, and were losing by an innings at Canterbury at the time) were capable of playing in this unmemorable way.
The only really surprising incident came when play was held up for a few minutes by what sounded like an explosion from the general direction of the scorebox. The players and umpires looked up at the floodlights, as though worried that one of them was about to topple over on to the pitch. I worked out that, if this were to happen, the flat end would land on the square. The incident remains unexplained.
Another possible safety hazard, I’d say, is the huge skip full of grass cuttings to one side of the scoreboard
A few more days of fierce heat and there’s a definite risk of spontaneous combustion. Another possibility would be to use it – on the principle of the hay box – for toasting sandwiches and reheating pies.
In his piece, Selvey reminiscences about
“The tiny cobbler’s shop of Albert Whiting just around the corner from the ground”
where he used to get his boots made and repaired.
There is a tiny shop near the ground, which looks very much the kind of workshop shoemakers and cobblers used to operate out of, which is now occupied by a man (African, I supect) who makes and repairs false teeth. I’m sure this says something significant about the Way We Live Now, but I can’t quite think what it is.
*On the Saturday, Northants won in the last over. Delayed gratification in action.
The Crimson Rambler 