Summer Sports - Cricket
Lose outgrounds and we start to lose touch ...
This abridged piece by Derek Pringle originally featured in The Cricket Paper, December 2016
Essex’s decision not to play cricket at Colchester next season looks like the further erosion of a tradition that goes back to the 19th century. For a game that sells itself as much on nostalgia as cutting edge modernity, cricket has an uncanny habit of yorking itself, middle stump. Castle Park in Colchester is the
last outground used by Essex, following the decommissioning of Valentines Park in Ilford and Garon’s Park in Southend over the past 15 years. There used to be others, especially when the county ground was based at Leyton rather than Chelmsford. Then, Clacton, Romford and Brentwood all staged first-class cricket, their heyday but a distant memory as Health and Safety, relocation costs, as well as those of general upkeep, made cricket there impractical. Yet Castle Park at Colchester
remains a gem, especially when set up for Essex matches. With a river one end and overlooked by a 900-year old Norman castle, the largest surviving example in Europe, it possesses a bucolic charm entirely absent from modern cricket stadia. It is, literally, the grass roots, with many Essex players like Graham Napier and Neil Foster having learnt the game playing for the Colchester and East Essex Club based there. Essex say that removing Castle
Park is entirely due to a quirk in next season’s fixture list and that they have every intention of returning to play cricket there again in future. But, like anything that requires that bit more effort and expense, once the bean counters see that you can cope without it, why go back? I always enjoyed playing at
Colchester, not least because it always seemed to provide exciting cricket. During my career, matches there have provided the best innings I have ever seen; an unbeaten double hundred by Javed Miandad; a record Sunday League score of 299, which was immediately beaten when Warwickshire chased it down; and a
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memorable Championship match against Glamorgan when I was run out by a brilliant piece of fielding by Matthew Maynard, attempting the winning run off the last ball of the match. From purely selfish reasons, I
enjoyed outgrounds, Essex’s as well as those of other counties. For one thing, they were never as manicured as many county grounds, while the pitches were rarely as well prepared as those at HQ, which usually meant there was a bit more in it for the bowlers. You never knew quite what to expect at outgrounds either, which made it a bit of a magical mystery tour for both players and spectators. Outgrounds didn’t always play
in our favour. A sub-standard pitch at Southchurch Park, for which Essex were docked 25 points, cost us the 1989 Championship, Worcestershire pipping us by six points. The punishment was scarcely
deserved as there had been other pitches, home and away that season, which had been tougher to bat on. Yet word had got round that Essex were performing something akin to sorcery on their outgrounds, so easily were their opponents being dispatched. So, out came Donald Carr, the inquisitor general, to see for himself. A few balls went through the
top and misbehaved, certainly, but both Essex’s opponents in that festival week, Kent and Yorkshire, had won the toss and batted first. Yet, both had lost despite having the pick of the conditions, a point Carr did not seem to consider when handing down his penalty. It was the only time an
outground, rather than the players, had really let Essex down, something the club needs to remember when they remove cricket, for whatever reason, from places like Colchester.
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