A ramble through all our yesterdays!!!
Recently a few of us from my school days (when I was a pupil) have been in touch and have been sharing old photos. It prompted a long lost memory of the first time I went to international cricket without an adult I went with two others to the Oval (I was 14) to see the first three days of an Ashes Test. I find it quite amazing now-that we clambered onto a train in Hitchin in the early morning (North Herts) and went off to London not coming home till late at night. We organised everything ourselves. The cricket was memorable for the political fall out. South African born cape coloured Basil D’Oliveira scored a hundred but he was not picked by the cricket establishment for the subsequent tour of Apartheid South Africa (he later was brought into cover an injury and the tour was cancelled.) It was a political awakening for me (I never would buy anything South African for 12 long years till Apartheid ended); but that Test match saw something else for me that is the stuff of boyhood dreams and it doesn’t seem believable in this day and age.
At the end of play on the third day the three of us decided to wait outside the player’s entrance in the hope of autographs (selfies were along way off). A couple of Aussies came out and we got their autographs followed by one England bowler David Brown then dream time! England player Derek Underwood came out and asked for four volunteers (there were quite a few of us milling outside) to help him carry some autographed cricket bats from the England dressing room! Luckily three of the four volunteers he picked were three grubby urchins from Hitchin (when I saw my face later in a mirror my face was covered in dirt). Derek asked not to ask for autographs as we entered the inner sanctum. Players who spoke to us were Colin Cowdrey, Colin Milburn and Basil D’Oliveira these names might not mean anything to many of you reading this but to us…………….!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then Alan Knott burst out of the shower (no safe guarding procedures then!) How many people can say they have been in the England Dressing Room!!!!! When cricket was on TV and Derek Underwood appeared my Mum would always say ” There’s our Bill’s friend!”
Yesterday’s Quiz
a) Basil is the herb in Pesto b) A Tayberry is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry c) Hollandaise Sauce is made from Egg, lemon juice and melted butter d) Red Onions originated in Italy e) Paella gets the name from the shallow pan it is cooked in.
Today’s Quiz are on a cricket theme
a) Who play at Grace Road? b) How wide is the cricket wicket formed by three wooden stumps (and how tall)? c) What do the initials in W.G,.Grace stand for? d) What wood are cricket stumps made from?