Yet more Brighton sport
Saturday I returned to Hove for the third day against Middlesex and went to the greyhound stadium in the evening.
The day was memorable more for the people I met then the sport I watched. Cricket is very much a social game. Although I packed the morning papers, I had little expectation of reading them as I knew I would bump into someone.
In the morning I fell into conversation with Ian “Gunner” Gould, an ex-wicket keeper and now senior international umpire. Umpiring is a lonely occupation with all those hours at the crease but clearly one Gunner enjoyed not least for month long trips to Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
He was a stalwart of Sussex cricket and his picture hangs with the other legends on a wall in the ground.
I was delighted too that my ex-bank manager and friend, a stalwart of Middlesex cricket too now in his mid-80s, had made the journey and I was able to catch up with him on the balcony of the board room.
We reflected that once, when Sussex was in its poorer days, we were in the same room and there was was a bucket to catch water dripping in from the roof. Like many old people his memory was not what it was but he was able to recall in detail Middlesex’s poor performance that day.
I slipped back to the Players Club. The afternoon sun – in full force yesterday – catches the enclosure and it’s a popular meeting place.
For the first time I had a chat with Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew.
We recalled the 1991 World Cup Rugby final in which England were mugged out of our normal, spoiling game. He said his lifetime wish was to replay that game again as it’s so rare to play a World Cup final in your own country.
To cap an eventful day I was then invited by Ted Dexter to dinner at the dog track.
Ted is not one of those old cricketers who is either resentful of the money earned or overly-critical of the state of modern cricket.
Sussex dominated the first years of the Gillette Cup and there was as much controversy and concern about this new format as there is about T20 today.
Once, after a high total at Kent, he put all his fielders on the boundary to stop singles thereby incurring a wrath bordering on contempt from the game’s traditionalists.
He said he only ever places one bet and always wins which he did with a dual forecast on 3 and 4 track dogs noting the winners were coming from the centre pack.
There was a demonstration of animal rights outside and inside, quite raucous. The food would not excite Daffers but it was still a most enjoyable evening, indeed day.
