Reminiscing cricket at Buxton

1970 saw another Sunday game but Lancashire thrashed us in the game I referred to earlier in the week, making 229-5 in 39 overs, way ahead of par at that time. Among the carnage, Phil Russell bowled a very good 8 overs for just 20 from the pavilion end, but Peter Eyre’s seven overs went for 75, in stark contrast to his Queens Park heroics of the previous year’s Gillette Cup semi-final.

We only made 115 in reply, with Wilkins hitting some brave blows, including a massive straight six, before hitting a huge skier that Jack Bond took with ease.

We were beaten there again in 1971, which was when Brian ‘Tonker’ Taylor of Essex hit the first Sunday century I saw. They were not far short of 200, and despite a vigorous 71 from Ian Buxton, we lost out by around 20 runs in a rain-reduced game of thirty overs a side.

We didn’t go up in 1972 as the weather was poor and both the Sunday and championship matches there that season were washed out, but in 1973 we saw Glamorgan beaten by one run in a thrilling finish, as their batting fell apart when it seemed impossible to lose. Venkat and Mike Hendrick bowled well in that one, but the running of the Glamorgan batsmen at the death lives with me to this day as shambolic.

The last game we saw at Buxton was in 1976, the first day against Lancashire of an extraordinary match. We did well to bowl them out for 290 on the first day, but were 72-5 at the end of the day and in big trouble. I remember us coming home in the car and Dad muttering ‘bloody rubbish’ on a regular basis as we talked about the play, ignoring earlier good bowling by Keith Stevenson, who took five wickets.

On the second day we followed on and got to the close at 224-6, around seventy ahead with Eddie Barlow injured and unlikely to bat. Yet bat he did, and on the last day he made a typical 73, batting at number nine, which left Lancashire 202 to win. A very well balanced attack put them out for 186 and a win by fifteen runs. Barlow was unable to bowl, but Hendrick and Stevenson did well before Geoff Miller and Fred Swarbrook tied up the win with their spin.

That was it at Buxton until 1980, but by then I was on the verge of moving to Scotland after my degree. Matches were sporadic thereafter, but the last county game there was in August 1986, when we were again in action against Lancashire in - surprise, surprise – a rain affected draw.

They were great days; fun days, with memories of portable toilets, spartan facilities, ice creams, tarpaulin sightscreens but good, competitive cricket.

Not to mention a lot of laughs and music with my old man in that Anglia.