Cricket Tales (1) Gone for a Burton

I enjoy watching cricket. Unfortunately I was not very good at playing the game, although I held on to a few catches at first slip: dropped a few as well!

In the 1970s I was employed as a lecturer and had plenty of time during the summer holidays to watch cricket.

I used to take my friend Dennis Webster, who was the paid agent for the Labour Party in Chesterfield, to watch matches at the county ground in Derby. The stand at Derby is an old racecourse stand. Games were often brought to a premature close in the evenings by sunlight reflecting off the glass roofs of factory buildings on the opposite side of the ground.

We would visit Trent Bridge and spend some time in the Trent Bridge Inn, strategically located between Trent Bridge and the cricket ground.

Our favourite trip was to Burton-on-Trent, which was always made by train. The cricket was sponsored by one of the breweries and a fine time was had by all drinking the excellent local brew. One year we set off in rain for Burton and when we reached the ground play had been abandoned for the day. Nothing daunted Dennis set course for a street-corner pub (there were a lot of these in Burton) at which he was greeted like a long lost friend. The rest of the day was spent visiting a host of pubs all run by members of the same family. I met grandfathers, uncles, nieces, sisters, nephews, mothers: you name it we met them! Best day not watching cricket I had spent in a long time!