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CRICKET


Published in autumn 2018, Remarkable Village Cricket Groundsis a splendid book to dip into, even if you have only a passing interest in cricket.


Featuring stunning photography, courtesy of David Major, it is authored by Brian Levison and comes hot on the heels of his Remarkable Cricket Grounds, published in 2017, which was shortlisted for Sports Book of the Year.


As you might expect, a number of the grounds feature castles and stately homes as their backdrop, but the majority are simply just rural grounds in glorious locations.


Amongst these are Ambleside in Cumbria, Old Town in Yorkshire, Leigh in Kent, Valley of the Rocks in Devon, and Abbotsbury in Dorset, a ground I played at on a number of occasions, usually without success!


Of the more ‘stately’ variety, Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire and Raby Castle in Co. Durham ooze grandeur.


If I have a personal favourite, it is Goodwood where its quaint thatched pavilion faces up to the magnificent house in some quirky architectural stand- off. It is here that I used to watch my uncle and cousin play, both of whom captained the home side.


So, keep it on the coffee table and open it up when Brexit news becomes too tiresome. It is guaranteed to lighten your soul.


Remarkable Village Cricket Groundsis published by Pavilion and is available from all good bookshops and online for £25. www.pavilionbooks.com


About the author: Brian Levison has a lifelong interest in cricket and played club cricket for several years. His books include the highly acclaimed cricket anthology All in a Day’s Play(Constable, 2012) and Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Cricket(David & Charles, 2012). He was one of six writers and commentators selected for the MCC’s ‘Cricket’s Crown Jewels’ exhibition in the Lord’s Museum celebrating 150 years of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 2014.


Review by Peter Britton 102 PC February/March 2019 The roll-on roll-off covers courtesy of an ECB Grant The square looking good after its first cut since autumn


now realise why we’re relying on shafts of outdoor light through the shutters! Though not a trained groundsman as such, Jake is a bit more than a typical keen club doer. Level 3-trained at Hadlow College, he is a horticulturalist by profession, working as a gardener on the 1000-acre Fairlawne Estate at nearby Shipbourne, long-associated with racehorse training. Outdoor work is his life and he loves it. It’s just a matter of arranging tasks at the ground to fit in with his working day at Fairlawne. Jake tells me the square generally drains quite well and, during the season, irrigation is by good old-fashioned hosepipe and moveable sprinkler. A job not too far away is giving the outfield a trim as he knows it can quickly get out of hand pre-season. He has a couple of decent, but seasoned 36-inch cylinder machines for this; one a Ransomes Mastiff, the other a Dennis. They still do a very good job, he says. However, he is busy right now trying to get other grant funds to upgrade his mowers


as well as restarting a club junior section. The club owns all its kit and Jake has a couple of reliable club mates to help him with upkeep routines: Graham Nicholls for the outfield and John Boyden on the square. A few weeks earlier, Jake had called in local pitch contractor Jason Carr to aerate the square, but he is definitely looking to get a new square mower with drop-in cassettes that would enable him to do his own spiking. An up to £5,000 annual grant from Gatwick Airport, available to organisations and clubs like Penshurst Park CC inconvenienced by low flying jets coming in and out of London’s second airport, would do the trick and Jake is very much on the case.


The club found out about this potential source of funds just a couple of years ago because another local club had tapped into it. Last year, Jake did likewise and managed to get £3,000, courtesy of London’s second airport, to upgrade its boundary fence. Several Jumbos flying in from far distant parts certainly loomed large on the skyline in the hour or two I was there, a passing


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