Lions & Unicorns

This article must be prefaced by a dedication to the memories of John “The Undertaker” Alder and Liam Sweeney, two Newcastle United fans who tragically lost their lives in the Malaysian Airlines plane shot down over Ukraine. While I couldn’t call John a friend, I had known him to talk to for many years and although I didn’t know Liam, I know of his father Barry, a Northern Alliance referee. It goes without saying such a tragedy merits more than a paragraph like this and I will return to their deaths at a later date. Suffice to say, two unassuming NUFC fanatics making the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand ought not to have died so tragically and should be remembered.

This piece also will not talk about the gigs I attended by British Sea Power and Midlake in the past week or the Summertyne Americana Festival at the Sage, or the trip I made to see Whitley Bay v Musselburgh Athletic friendly in a pre-season friendly played in monsoon conditions. Neither will it refer to next week’s piece about my trip to Ireland and proposed visits to Wexford Youths v Shamrock Rovers B in the company of Mick Wallace TD, or the 4A qualifiers in Tullamore or the hurling quarter finals in Thurles. Instead, this week’s piece will concentrate on the sound of leather on willow, or has been the case for much of this summer, rain on the outfield, as 2014 has been my debut season as a member of Northumberland County Cricket Club.

It wasn’t quite a JFK moment, but the question of where I was when Andy Murray won the Wimbledon men’s singles title on 7^th July 2013 is easy to answer; I was bathed in sunshine at what I still call County Club on Osborne Avenue in Jesmond, watching Northumberland amass 461/9 versus Bedfordshire. Prompted by my mate and co-attendee Harry Pearson, a cricket author of some repute, it was the first time I’d watched live cricket there since the 1980s. I can dimly recall attending the Callers Pegasus one-day challenge games in 1985, where the first was rained off and the second became a contrived, truncated slog and the year before seeing Mike Gatting carting the Northumberland bowling all round the ground in a Nat West Trophy game.

These weren’t the only cricket games I attended though; coincidentally I saw Middlesex again in the early 1990s. Once Durham had become a first class county but before the Riverside was open, they toured the region for home games. I saw the opening day of a rain ravaged fixture at Gateshead Fell in 1993, where Botham was out first ball. As regards the Riverside, I’ve been once; 19^th May 1996, a fortnight after Newcastle United lost the title to Manchester United in such heart-breaking terms, saw the arrival of Yorkshire for a Sunday league game. I went along with my ex-wife, a Yorkshire native, and the day was ruined by beered up Mackems in replica football shirts singing anti NUFC and anti Keegan in particular songs, which just made me feel so ulwelcome and jarred so badly with everything cricket should be about. Even though I still call Durham my first class county, I’ve not been back. For a start £15 for 20/20 game is half the price of my annual Northumberland membership…

You see my trip to Jesmond for the Bedfordshire game was a real epiphany; returning for the final day on the Tuesday, I saw Northumberland fall agonisingly short of a win in more glorious sunshine (Northumberland 461/9 dec and 325/6 dec; Bedfordshire 317 and 283/9) and knew from then on that my real county was the one I lived in, despite what the 1974 Local Government Act says. However, things moved slowly on the supporting front, as Minor Counties East cricket is a fairly complex nut to crack. It wasn’t until April 2014 that I made the decisive step of taking out membership. A freepost flyer came through the front door advertising Newcastle Cricket Club, as County Club are now known. To be honest, I’ve always regretted not continuing my cricket career as a dismal off-spinner and cowardly lower order batsmen after University, but football and music took up so much of my free time that it was impossible to actually have any other hobbies. Perhaps because of this 28 year hiatus, I didn’t feel inclined towards following club cricket, mainly because arriving to the party so late in life (50 on 11^th August remember), I would be faced with the prospect of a steep learning curve in terms of leagues, competitions and rivalries, not to mention players, before I could adequately understand the nature of the local game. Consequently, I decided to stay at a county level and purchased Northumberland membership for 2014; price £30.

It rained a lot early in the season; the MCCA Trophy games at Jesmond against Cheshire on 27^th April and Shropshire on 11^th May were both abandoned without a ball being bowled. I didn’t even bother going to the first one, but the second saw a few infrequent breaks in the drizzle, so I headed down to collect my membership from Dave Cartwright, the cheery and personable Northumberland secretary, and then watched the Shropshire players pile into the bookies on the corner of Shortridge Terrace when play was called off around 1.30. That was the only entertainment available that day; auspicious eh?

Despite this false start, things got a little better for the opening home fixture of the Minor Counties Eastern Division. The Unicorns Championship, as it is now known, has a charmingly eccentric constitution that sees 10 teams in this league, with the occasional geographical anomaly (Cumberland are in there and play a game at Barrow-in-Furness for instance), but only 6 games are played by each county. For 2014 Northumberland chose to play their three games at Tynemouth, South Northumberland in Gosforth and Jesmond, begging the question whether any other side plays all their home games away, unless we agree to ignore that pesky 1974 Local Government Act again.

The opening fixture was at Preston Road, Tynemouth against Norfolk. After a lengthy dry spell leading up to the game, rain fell torrentially and predictably from Saturday tea-time, meaning the start on Sunday was delayed until 3pm. Cycling up to the ground, I was unsure what to expect, but I was afforded a reassuringly warm welcome, as I knew several of the smattering of spectators from the non-league football circuit and could make idle conversation on what turned out to be a pleasant Summer evening, as Northumberland made up for lost time, closing on 242/6. The batting was led by Jacques Du Toit, a South African batsmen of superb elegance and power. Formerly of Leicestershire, Jacques not only follows me on Twitter and sends score updates, but along with opener Karl Turner he makes watching Northumberland bat a truly enjoyable experience. Sadly further cloudbursts on Sunday night restricted play with Suffolk teetering on 67/5 in reply to 326 (Du Toit 118), before Monday night’s downpour was so severe that play was abandoned entirely on the final day, leaving Northumberland to collect 10 points when they ought to have won the game.

Never mind, a fortnight later we moved on to the fabulously appointed South Northumberland (South North to true aficionados) ground in Gosforth for the visit of Lincolnshire, with no rain to interrupt this one. A fabulously tight first innings saw Northumberland make 337 (Turner 175, Du Toit 84) in reply to Lincolnshire’s 325. My friend Gary, a resident of leafy NE3, had accompanied me on the Sunday, which also marked the end of South North’s inaugural beer festival; an occasion so munificent and so charitable that by 5.30 in the late afternoon, all drinks were free to enable them to close up. Perhaps it was the complimentary gallon of various real ales that did it, but Gary was back on his day off on the Monday to see Lincolnshire declare on 351/4. I turned up on the Tuesday to see Northumberland capitulate to 167 all out. It was disappointing but not a tragedy; what I love about cricket is the sporting nature and the lack of hysteria over defeat. I often think the media frenzy over Test Matches is an overspill from Sky era Premiership football and nothing to do with the game per se. Mind when I finally got to find out the result of the Staffordshire game that was played at West Bromwich between 6^th and 8^th July, I was more than a little disappointed to say the least; Northumberland 245 and 160, Staffordshire 364/8 dec and 47/0.

So we came to the final home game of the season against Suffolk, back at Jesmond. A biblical thunderstorm on the Saturday seemed likely to wash play out and so I arranged to do my mam’s shopping and washing on the Sunday morning, intending to have a cursory look in at Jesmond, before heading down to the final day of the Americana Festival. Who the hell was bothered about Rory McIlroy and the bloody open golf? However, the NE2 micro climate came into play and Suffolk, having been reduced to 52/6, ended up on 221 all out as I celebrated with 3 very palatable pints of Banks’ New World bitter; a lovely, fresh, hoppy number. Every time I watch the cricket, I delay my drinking until at least the tea interval as on hot afternoons, the temptation would be to down too many in trying to keep cool. A large bottle of fizzy water does me until 5pm; otherwise I’d be stretched out asleep on the boundary.

Returning on the Monday, I saw Northumberland struggle to 203 (Du Toit 50), before a fabulously exciting opening saw Suffolk in all kinds of bother at 3-3, but they recovered and as I left at 5.30 to play 6 a side, they were 234-6. Later in the evening, unable to find the score anywhere on the net (am I looking in the right places?), I tweeted Jacques Du Toit to ask the score and learned Suffolk had advanced to 384/9, with Michael Comber making 194, including about a dozen 6s into the graveyard. Without being too gloomy, it looks like this one has got away from the home side and that their only chances for a win this summer are at March versus Cambridgeshire and then Sedbergh School for Cumberland in August; sadly I won’t make those games. Equally sadly, I won’t make the final day against suffolk at Jesmond as I’m getting ready to fly off to Ireland this evening.

When I look back on my experiences of watching Northumberland in 2014, I can state without any hesitation that I will renew this membership of mine, intending it now to be a lifelong commitment to the county, so much have I enjoyed being in the loose amalgam of 50 or so hardly souls watching them play. I have no criticisms of my experiences watching Northumberland, but a few points have occurred to me as I do think though that cricket at this level can learn things from non-league football.

For a start, the internet and social media; Northumberland do not seem to have a fully up-to-date website, nor any Twitter presence, meaning it can be impossible to keep up to date with scores. It’s great Jacques Du Toit sends me the close of play, but if someone could take on the responsibility of posting scores after each session, that would be so helpful not just for me, but many other followers of the game in the region and elsewhere.

Secondly, maximising income; I’m not suggesting football style souvenir stuff, but the only place I’ve been asked to show my membership card was at County club. Ensuring that a gate is charged, where scorecards and raffle tickets can be sold at the same time, will help to bring in a few extra quid. Surely that would help? Obviously this and the point about the net and social media would require input from volunteers, but I’m sure there are those willing to help. I know I would.

Finally, and I say this from a position of ignorance, would crowds not be increased and interest generated by playing the 3 day games over a weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, meaning those who work would be able to theoretically see two and a bit days of cricket? Perhaps this is impossible, but it would seem logical to a neophyte like me.

However, regardless of day, location or opposition, I will be back next year, watching Jacques Du Toit chain smoking each lunch interval and manager Stuart Tiffin making endless circles of the boundary, encouraging the team, because that team, Northumberland, are my team. Here’s hoping for a miracle against Suffolk.