Sussex v Middlesex (second day)
Ivan Conway kindly invited me to the second day at Hove because of my Middlesex allegiances.
Stumps were drawn with Middlesex trailing by 108 runs with 6 wickets down. As Shaheen Afredi was so effective from the Cromwell Road End down the slope, so was Ollie Robinson, taking 3 wickets.
Anderson and Hollman mount are a stout rearguard action and are still at the crease with 41 and 52 respectively.
I could hardly recognise any of the Middlesex team.
Mark Stoneman came across London from Surrey and Irishman Simpson has been around for a while but the rest looked fresh-faced young hopefuls whom I did not recognise.
I could only ruminate and rue the decline of Middlesex as a cricketing force.
It was my grandfather Ernie who lived in St. John’s Wood, next door to Middlesex legend Walter Robins, who first took me to Lords.
Grandma grew up in Hendon with Dennis Compton and her cousin Ronnie was at school with Ron Hooker, an all-rounder who played for Middlesex in the 60s.
Grandad often recalled that summer of 1947 when Compo scored 3,800 runs and Bill Edrich 3,500.
Grandad’s hero was Jack Robertson who scored 2,130 runs in that golden season.
Jack did play 21 Tests but was in the England shadow of the two Roses openers Len Hutton of Yorkshire and Cyril Washbrook of Lancashire.
Similarly, and understandably, Compo and Edrich had to be the stars before him.
Nonetheless over his career he accumulated 27,000 runs.
Like many of his era Robertson’s career was affected by war service in the Army. Famously, in a match against the RAF, a flying bomb descended requiring both teams to lie flat on the turf.
When play resumed captain Robertson struck the ball for four. He returned to play for Middlesex after the end of the war aged 29.
My first team was the Sixties one of Fred Titmus, Peter Parfitt, Eric “Legs” Russell, Bob Gale, J.T Murray – who contested an England place for wicketkeeper with Sussex’s Jim Parks, Mike Smith and J.S. E Price.
Then we were into the trophy era (1971-87) of the two Mikes: Brearley and Gatting.
They had at their disposal overseas players of quality like the two Bajans, Wayne Daniel and Des Haynes, South Africans Vincent van der Bijl and Jaques Kallis, as well as home grown talent like Angus Fraser, Phil Edmonds, Phil Tufnell, John Emburey and the emerging Mark Ramprakash.
That golden era was never recreated though I recall going to Lords in 1998 with Grandad, after he was in a wheel chair with a stroke, as a guest of lifelong friend and advisor Geoff Norris, then treasurer of Middlesex and seeing a youngster called Andrew Strauss strike the ball ferociously.
Geoff and his committee delegated authority to another star of the golden era – Angus Fraser – but the club’s fortunes waned as Surrey’s improved.
Middlesex are no longer a force in any form of cricket.
We always had two problems: identity – as Middlesex as a county was subsumed by Greater London – and, secondly, they are just tenants of the MCC at Lords.
As for yesterday, it was as ever a pleasure to be at Hove in the company of Ivan. He introduced me to GP, a man who played for Fulham in the 60s, became a referee and now, with his son – also a Fulham supporter and a successful Insurance broker – are members of the Players Club.
This charming old boy informed me that Jack Robertson was dismissed for 99 more times than any other batter and even started a 99 club with its own tie.
When a batsman reached 99 he would wave his tie from the pavilion. The ghost of Jack Robertson must have been in the Pavilion yesterday when Ali Orr was dismissed for 99.
