Cricket  Tour
Kent (1971)

The 1st XI Cricket Tour to East Anglia was a great success, and, before relating the repeatable incidents, I should like, on behalf of all the boys concerned, to thank Messrs Clarkson and Dixon, whose guidance proved to be the foundation of the tour.

The party left Northwood Hills on an extremely hot afternoon and made its way to Felixstowe. From the outside, the hotel looked like something from "The Munsters", this view being confirmed by the appearance of "mine host", whose fixed smile would have gone down well in Alice's Wonderland. From the first morning, the only words he was heard to utter were "Grand! Grand!" in a Lancastrian accent.

On the first evening, several members of the party availed themselves of the facilities at the "Ying Fong" before sampling the local hostelries. First night good spirits carried on well into the early hours, and it was a very drowsy set of boys who descended the stairs to be greeted with "Grand! Grand!"

The tiredness did not show in our cricket, though, and we were able to make a successful start to the tour against Woodbridge School. On a very good wicket, A. Wickison played a fine innings of 56, and we were all out for 145. A fine performance by the bowlers, backed up by some good fielding, helped to dismiss the Public School for 45. So, even more tired, we returned to the delights of a somewhat deserted Felixstowe, the various groups all descending later on the inn designated to be our H.Q.

Northgate G.S., Ipswich, was our next fixture. The school batted first, but a collapse of the recognized batsmen meant that we were all out for 87. Despite a fine spell of bowling by Newing, Northgate were able to overtake our total with six wickets down, mainly due to a solid innings by one of Mr. Birch’s former protégés. Undisturbed by the defeat, we again wined and dined, hoping for better things in the remaining fixtures.

They certainly improved next day at Bury St. Edmunds, where the ground was like a home from home – the game was played on a 1 in 4 slope with a suitable accompanying gale. The bowlers did well to remove King Edwards for a moderate total, but again our batting failed, only V. Probert holding it together with a fine skipper’s innings. It is appropriate here to thank Vince for a good season's captaincy.

Armed with our second victory, Felixstowe's nightlife was enjoyed for the last time, as we were due to leave Felixstowe for good the next morning. The hotel proprietor called us a "grand" bunch of lads and waved us off with tearful eyes.

At Colchester, the venue of our final game, nothing seemed to go right. After we had declared, the hard-hitting Essex team knocked off the runs quite easily against tired bowlers and lax fielding. This was a sorry end to the tour.

Nevertheless, we all returned home with a good deal of experience of fast flat East Anglian wickets, and I am sure that the only sadness felt was in having to come home so apparently early. Perhaps here I could echo the words of that by now famed hotelier and say that the tour was indeed "Grand, Grand!"

D. WARBY, M6A