Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2008 19:05:23 GMT
Once upon a time Torquay's Recreation Ground regularly hosted top-class cricket: 1950s festival games (designated "first class"); Somerset limited-overs matches; Minor Counties v the Tourists.
I certainly went to a few of these between 1968 and 1975. My first was Minor Counties v Australians in 1968, a two-day game which ended in a draw. The Australians, captained by Bill Lawry, included Ian Chappell, Neil Hawke, Doug Walters, Graham McKenzie, Ashley Mallett, Paul Sheahan and Bob Cowper.
Then, with the Sunday League starting in 1969, Somerset opted to play one game at Torquay each year. The first was against Sussex featuring Greg Chappell on one side; Tony Greig on the other. There seems to have been a gap before Surrey (fielding John Edrich, Graham Roope, Geoff Arnold, Micky Stewart and Robin Jackman) came in 1971 to face a team captained by Brian Close.
Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire followed between 1972 and 1975 by which time it was Somerset boasting the big names in Viv Richards and Ian Botham. Indeed Richards had played at Torquay in 1974 for Somerset as the away team in a Benson and Hedges Cup game against Minor Countes South. For those of us who didn't know about Richards before that day, we certainly knew about him afterwards...
And, from 1975, that was that as Somerset concentrated on playing Sunday League games at Taunton supplemented by their annual visits to Weston and Bath. Sunday cricket was big in those days - and the coming team was Somerset - so it was a commercial decision to focus on larger venues (even though the Torquay games usually attracted big crowds).
Other than that, I didn't see any cricket at Torquay until the 1990 Nat West game between Devon and Somerset, one of the most one-sided limited overs games ever: Somerset 413-4 (60 overs); Devon 67 all out (30.3 overs). Graham Rose scored one of the fastest-ever centuries; Roland Lefebvre took 7 for 15. After that Devon tended to play cup games against first-class teams at Exmouth rather than chance more thrashings on a Torquay ground with short boundaries.
I enjoyed those games in the 1960s and 1970s but suspect I missed the really big stuff back in the 1950s. This is when Torquay hosted a September festival comprising of South v North and England XI v Commonwealth XI matches. I've just looked at the scorecards: Barrington, Close, Illingworth, Tyson, Lock, Titmus, Hanif Mohammad, Worrell, Sobers, Ramadhin, Mankad, Headley...
Here - from Ted Gosling's book in the Britain in Old Photographs sereis - are the 1958 teams (not sure how if these are accurate given Fred Titmus is named twice!):
The Association of Cricket Statisticians site gives details of all the Torquay games (note: not all Minor Counties tourist games were first class):
acscricket.com/Archive/Grounds/11/793.html
The site also logs a few games played at Cricketfield Road, Torquay - including the (Twenty Two of) Devon v All England Eleven in 1853:
acscricket.com/Archive/Grounds/11/5235.html
I certainly went to a few of these between 1968 and 1975. My first was Minor Counties v Australians in 1968, a two-day game which ended in a draw. The Australians, captained by Bill Lawry, included Ian Chappell, Neil Hawke, Doug Walters, Graham McKenzie, Ashley Mallett, Paul Sheahan and Bob Cowper.
Then, with the Sunday League starting in 1969, Somerset opted to play one game at Torquay each year. The first was against Sussex featuring Greg Chappell on one side; Tony Greig on the other. There seems to have been a gap before Surrey (fielding John Edrich, Graham Roope, Geoff Arnold, Micky Stewart and Robin Jackman) came in 1971 to face a team captained by Brian Close.
Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire followed between 1972 and 1975 by which time it was Somerset boasting the big names in Viv Richards and Ian Botham. Indeed Richards had played at Torquay in 1974 for Somerset as the away team in a Benson and Hedges Cup game against Minor Countes South. For those of us who didn't know about Richards before that day, we certainly knew about him afterwards...
And, from 1975, that was that as Somerset concentrated on playing Sunday League games at Taunton supplemented by their annual visits to Weston and Bath. Sunday cricket was big in those days - and the coming team was Somerset - so it was a commercial decision to focus on larger venues (even though the Torquay games usually attracted big crowds).
Other than that, I didn't see any cricket at Torquay until the 1990 Nat West game between Devon and Somerset, one of the most one-sided limited overs games ever: Somerset 413-4 (60 overs); Devon 67 all out (30.3 overs). Graham Rose scored one of the fastest-ever centuries; Roland Lefebvre took 7 for 15. After that Devon tended to play cup games against first-class teams at Exmouth rather than chance more thrashings on a Torquay ground with short boundaries.
I enjoyed those games in the 1960s and 1970s but suspect I missed the really big stuff back in the 1950s. This is when Torquay hosted a September festival comprising of South v North and England XI v Commonwealth XI matches. I've just looked at the scorecards: Barrington, Close, Illingworth, Tyson, Lock, Titmus, Hanif Mohammad, Worrell, Sobers, Ramadhin, Mankad, Headley...
Here - from Ted Gosling's book in the Britain in Old Photographs sereis - are the 1958 teams (not sure how if these are accurate given Fred Titmus is named twice!):
The Association of Cricket Statisticians site gives details of all the Torquay games (note: not all Minor Counties tourist games were first class):
acscricket.com/Archive/Grounds/11/793.html
The site also logs a few games played at Cricketfield Road, Torquay - including the (Twenty Two of) Devon v All England Eleven in 1853:
acscricket.com/Archive/Grounds/11/5235.html
