Birthday party

Yesterday being my birthday I gave a small dinner for friends in the museum of Hove Cricket Ground. It’s a venue I know and I like being intimate, full of fascinating Sussex memorabilia and stories lovingly assembled by curator Jon Filby and just the right space for a dinner for 14.

It’s not always easy to assess how well such an event goes from the point of view of the host. Were there sufficient canapés? Was the table plan okay? Are guests enjoying themselves? In the end I took the view that it’s my party and I will go with the flow. The atmosphere and feedback were positive. On such occasions I think of my dear mother, an excellent hostess and entertainer.

I found a video of my 50th party which I replayed which culminates with my father who could never complete a story/joke as he found the punchline so funny that it got the better of him. The result was that unfailingly his story brought the house down although no one knows how it finishes. Think Aggers and Johnners in the famous duet.

The museum itself is a fitting tribute to Sussex cricket.

The club, founded in 1839, claims to be the oldest sporting club still going. One tale I liked in the Sussex in the Great War section was of Captain Alan Loftus who subsequently held office in the club. He was severely wounded. A German soldier searched him and found his MCC membership card. The German officer was a massive cricket fan and conducted the wounded soldier back to safety.