Middlesex v Leicestershire at Lord’s, County Championship Division Two

Today is Tuesday, which normally means no blog at all, so…

Wait a minute…

I seriously have no idea why I start every post like that – with an explanation about why there was no post last week or why this post will be short.  How about, instead, I just write a damn post?  How’s that for novel?

The title of yesterday’s post was a match taking place at the Wormsley Cricket Ground in Buckinghamshire.  I didn’t think much of the ground at the time.  I just like poking subtle fun at the Unicorns, and the name Wormsley reminded me of a character from the Lord of the Rings.  Lord of the Rings, Unicorns…perfect.

But then I did some googling, and wow – what an interesting ground.

The ground is also known as Sir Paul Getty’s Ground, and is located inside the late philanthropist’s sprawling park, Wormsley.

The story goes, according to Wikipedia and Cricinfo, that after Mick Jagger introduced Sir Paul to cricket, he had a replica of the Oval built on his Wormsley estate, opening in 1992.  The Queen, the Prime Minister, Michael Caine, and Brian Johnston, among others, attended the opening.

At the opening ceremony, the 60 year old Getty remarked that it was the “happiest summer since his boyhood.”

The ground still regularly hosts first class domestic cricket as well as touring international sides, despite Getty’s death in 2003.   The matches are commercial and gimmick free, and are true village cricket games.

Thanks to ESPNCricinfo for the following images:

Until tomorrow.