PICTURE a young lad who jumped on one of those English double decker buses with his big sister, seventy odd years ago.
They were going for a week’s holiday, staying with their rather well-off auntie on the Essex coast in the early summer.
It was that exciting time of year when the opening overs of a brand spanking new test cricket series were about to be bowled, although neither child was aware that these sorts of goings on actually happened.
“Have I got a surprise for you. Guess what?” were the first words Auntie Flo smiled when they got off the bus.
“Give us a clue. What does it begin with Auntie?” chortled the little mite as he started to sense a little excitement in the air.
“TV” replied the kind lady.
It is a rather startling measure of just what a huge metamorphosis has taken place since those far off days that the lad still had absolutely no idea about his aunty’s surprise until Big Sis gave him a nudge.
However, from then on, he could only be removed with extreme difficulty from the chair in front of the television as he consumed the four test series against India…along with the occasional Malteser of course.
Bedser, Evans, Trueman, Hutton, along with Mankad, Hazare, Manjrekar [no room for any racism in that front room] were famous names, which lived with the young lad forever from that first day in front of the goggle box.
These names featured in many an Essex backyard imaginative test match in the following decades.
The boy had suffered from an extremely severe bite of the early summer cricket bug, from which he never recovered.
Flannelled fools the world over will know exactly what this means.
Excuse me while I take a quick break now. I must just check on proceedings from Perth. They were 6 for 119.
Oops – all out for 150 but what about that incredible six over fine leg from Risbah Pant and that team slip catch by Labuschagne and McSweeney.
Those first few overs, on the first morning of the first test match of a season, are unbeatable. The air positively bristles with anticipation.
Who remembers Harmison’s first delivery in Brisbane a few years ago? It created a new word in cricket vernacular….‘a harmy.’
Flannelled Fool.
