A Cricket Tea Kind Of Day

Today, far from the safe environs of the county of Somerset, I found myself walking in the pleasant countryside afforded by the Meon Valley in Hampshire.

At lunchtime, on a day when no meaningful professional cricket was being played anywhere in the country, I sought solace in a public house named after the founder of the well known cricket ground that can be found in the St. John’s Wood area of London.

There I learnt two things.

Firstly, Thomas Lord played 59 games for Middlesex and the MCC. As well as scoring 899 at an average of 9.87, he took 148 wickets including 5 wickets in an innings on five separate occasions. Secondly, though not as good as a pint of Sheppy’s, it is nonetheless possible to find a decent cider in the home of this year’s T20 champions.

Later, in the churchyard of nearby St. John’s Church, West Meon, I came across the grave where, after a good innings, Thomas Lord was eventually laid to rest in 1832. I may have imagined it, but as I reflected on the fact that this evening a certain competition will reach it’s inevitable anticlimax, I swear I heard something, or someone, rotating within the stony confines of the tomb.

Unsettled I rambled on and my sense of unease was soon remedied when I came across a game of meaningful village cricket being played at the home of the Hampshire Hogs at Warnford. As I passed the ground I imagine tea was being taken – a fact that was itself enough to reassure me that, even in these troubled times, not all is yet lost.

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Other cricket related posts

To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here

To read ‘A Tale of Two Tons’, click here

To read ‘A Somerset Cricket Players Emporium’, click here

To read ‘A Cricket Taunt’, click here

To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here

To read ‘Life in the slow lane’, click here

To read ‘If Only’, click here

To read ‘I’ve got a little CRICKET list’, click here

To read ‘How Covid-19 stole the the cricket season’, click here

To read ‘Eve of the RLODC limericks’ click here

To read ‘It’s coming home…’, click here

To read ‘A Song for Ben Green’, click here

To read ‘Enough Said…’, the last section of which is cricket related, click here

A Jack Leach Trilogy:

To read ‘For when we can’t see why’, click here

To read ‘WWJD – What would Jack Do?’, click here

To read ‘On Playing a Blinder’, click here

To read ‘Coping with Disappointment’, click here

And to finish – a couple with a theological flavour

To read ‘Somerset CCC – Good for the soul’, click here

To read ‘Longing for the pavilion whilst enjoying a good innings’, click here