Saturday, 6 October 2007

The English Summer's Done

There is some argument about whether the English summer ever arrived this year, given the amount of unusually rainy days. I can tell you categorically though that if it ever was here, it has now departed south for the winter.

Maybe its being a slightly fanatical supporter of cricket in general, but I always feel that the curtain on the summer is the first day I travel down the Edgbaston Road past the gates of Cannon Hill park and see the fixtures board of Edgbaston standing empty and unadorned. A final and unarguable reminder that there will be no more cricket and precious few pleasant days between now and April.

It is a fluke of nature, or possibly a trick of the mind that whenever this day arrives, it is invariably drizzling and a cold wind plucks brown leaves and waste paper, blowing them across the pavement and piling it up against the chain link fencing around the Colts ground. Everything seems grey and joyless.

For the interminable months of autumn and winter the pavilion, Eric Hollies and scoreboard will face the skeletal trees on the other side of the Edgbaston road, both patiently awaiting the first green shoots of spring and the promise of another season's cricket.

(Apologies to John Major for the title)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bit of a digression but have you seen new ECB Chief Executive's interview with Michael Atherton
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/10/28/scathe128.xml&page=1

His opinion on what county cricket should be like: "We are competing with every other sport for leisure time and leisure dollars[sic]. So we have to ask ourselves: do we have grounds that people want to come and watch cricket from? Was it a fun day out? Was I comfortable in my surroundings? Did I feel it was an environment where I could bring the kids and the grandparents? Was there a creche, or a bar serving decent grub? Was it a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere? Did I understand what was going on? In short, do I want to come again?"

Sounds like he wants to experience excellence... I particularly want your view on "Was it a fun day out?", with reference to WCCC in 2007.