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A FLAVOUR OF THE SOUTH AFRICA v ENGLAND TEST SERIES

Date: 24th January 2016

A FLAVOUR OF THE SOUTH AFRICA v ENGLAND TEST SERIES

An extract from a daily blog produced by Geoff Wellsteed, Author and Secretary of the Cheshire County Cricket League

CENTURION - Day 10 (Saturday)

I should have mentioned in yesterday’s blog that on the way back to the hotel after Friday’s play I saw a beaming Jimmy Cook, Stephen’s father, in the car park.  What a very proud day for the whole family.

 In response to my Friday blog a Nottinghamshire friend emailed me and steered me towards the scorecard of the Notts v Somerset match played at Trent Bridge in July 1989. It revealed Notts won by an innings and that Jimmy Cook opening for Somerset carried his bat in both innings  and managed a century in both knocks – 120* (out of 186) and 131* (out of 218). I’m told this is the only time in the history of the County Championship cricket that this has occurred.  Nice stat? Coincidentally Stuart Broad’s dad, Chris, was playing for Notts (and scored 70). 

As I walked to the ground this morning  -  even at 9.30am it’s was pretty hot  -  I sensed a feeling of expectation in the air and the near capacity crowd could not, surely, have been disappointed with the way the day unfolded?   Unfit for Jo’burg having tripped over his pet terrier, Quentin de Kock played a lovely forcing innings and recorded his maiden Test century. His pulling, and especially his cutting, was a joy to watch.  A wagging tail helped SA post a very commendable 475 all out.

A Saturday of a Test match is always special and today was no exception. The locals were pouring into the ground laden with chairs, sun-shades and ice-boxes. In Australia the boxes are filled with tinnies but here they are bulging with T-bone steaks and boerewors which all get thrown onto the lunchtime braai. There are dozens of brick-built cooking stations spread around the perimeter of the ground for public use.  As I approach the turnstile a girl in a blue jacket working for a sun-cream company offers a guy in a Newcastle United football shirt a sachet of their product.  When she tells him the sun is very hot he replies in his best Geordie tongue “I wouldn’t know pet we haven’t seen it on Tyneside for more than three months”. Looking non-plussed she put the freebie back in her bag. There are a good number of spectators arriving in fancy dress. As I wait to have my haversack searched I am standing behind someone in a zebra suit and as I approach the grandstand a dozen or so Roman Centurions, some of them speaking, what I took to be Afrikaans, are walking towards the grassed area. They are all carrying a plastic sword in hand and a plastic glass of Castle lager in the other.  A gang of guys in orange wigs are waving a banner announcing themselves as ‘Polly’s Army, the Ninja Gingers’.  The face painters are doing brisk business but appear to be quite liberal in their interpretation of which parts of the body can be painted. I spot a very attractive blonde haired girl in a skimpy cerise vest with two neatly painted, strategically placed, rainbow flags wobbling gently in the non-existent breeze.  Her buxom friend was rather more discreetly clad in a grey T-shirt but had the slogan ’weapons of mass destruction’ emblazoned across the front.  Do these people really come to watch the cricket?

When England eventually came to bat Hales failed again. His balance was all wrong and he offered a very tame catch. He walked back to the pavilion head bowed like a condemned man. Compton, largely strokeless, dug in but was undone by a delivery that failed to bounce above shin height. Thereafter Joe Root (31*) and Alistair Cook (67*) saw England safely through to the close. The captain needs another 50 runs to become the first Englishman to record Test 10,000 runs.   He is extremely popular with the travelling fans who will be hoping he reaches the target sometime on Sunday morning. The bookies will be offering very short odds.

Back at the hotel in the evening Graeme Pollock, one of South Africa’s finest batsmen, addressed the Howzat Travel group.  He spoke about his career for half an hour or so and then took questions. I reminded him he had taken four Test match wickets, all of them Englishmen, and asked him if he could recall the detail going back to 1964/65. He immediately volunteered Ted Dexter, Jim Parks, MJK Smith and with a little prompting, David Brown of Warwickshire, as his victims. It was a lovely session with one of the finest left-handers to have played the game.

Great day, great fun, great cricket and it was only 120 Rand to get into the ground. That’s less than £6. The equivalent day at Lord’s is close to £100.

Geoff Wellsteed

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