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Wayne Larkins, Huntingdons's top scorer, faces a delivery from Ian Evans, at Challow and Childrey Cricket Club yesterday

Larkins hits high notes on a perfect pitch

Traditional rustic values help Huntingdon to a suprise first-round success in the C&G Trophy. By David Llewely

The inaugural Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy could not have chosen a finer setting for the first round match between Oxfordshire and Huntingdonshire. The very name Challow and Childrey, where the match took place, conjures up images of rural England, a world of village fetes, the Women's institute, homemade chutneys, jams  and cakes and church hall jumble sales.                        

The reality could not be further from the traditional village green. It is set on he high edge of the Berkshire Downs, although the redrawn county boundaries moved the villages of Challow and Childrey into Oxfordshire. "We would to think we are still in Berkshire" said one club member, Ian Pert, who has been helping with the groundsman's duties for 30 years at the club's present home and 10 at the previous one.              

But this is racing country, cricket is very much a minor sport around here. Lambourn lies just over a distant crest a few miles away and the training gallops and stables are every where. However the 4C's as Challow and Childrey is known locally, has not stinted in what it has given to cricket              

The six acre - site boasts a well appointed club-house, new electronic scoreboard, parking facilities that would not disgrace a first class arena and a ground that matches many a top arena anywhere in the country. The square is home to an incredible 19 pitches - more than some leading counties  - and with the boundaries 80 yards deep on each side of the wicket it is little wonder that from east to west the ground measures 220 yards- appropriately enough in such a racy setting, a furlong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the opinion of Huntingdonshire's opener Wayne Larkins is anything to go by, he quality of the pitch used was as good as any track he has bated on in his long career with Northamptonshire, Durham and England.

What brings the 4 C's ground back into the realms of traditional rustic is the army of volunteers who maintain it. From Ethel Lester who prepared 42 lunches and June Young who helped clear things away and filled in behind the bar, to John Pilcher and Pert who tend the square and its billiard table outfield with such tenderness, there is no shortage of the village ethic.

Pilcher, a retired managing director, reckons he and Pert spend at least 20 hours a week each preparing the ground. "The irony is" said Pilcher as he gave yesterday's pitch its final cut and roll "I spend so much time up here that I have to employ someone to come in and look after my own lawn"

Pert whose farm is just over the road, is the outfield man. "Four hours to mow" he said provided the mower starts first time". It was Pert who spotted that a local firm was throwing away small pallets, just three slats wide. He collected around 200 of hem, painted them white, then placed them beyond the boundary, giving the four acre playing area an even more stadium-like look to it.

With the meticulous care of Pilcher and Pert it was little wonder Larkins looked so comfortable as he drove and pulled his way to a classy half century - his 14th in the tournament - in an easterly wind that cut through flannels and sweaters, reducing Oxfordshire's fielders to numb-fingered, red nosed wrecks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The 47 year old Larkins treated their attack to an old fashioned "neding"a word coined from his nickname Ned and used to describe his regular savaging of bowlers in20 odd years of first-class cricket

Larkins scored 73 off 93 balls and hit a six and 11 fours. He shared in a third wicket partnership of 82 with Martin Burton (34) and there then followed an enterprising 94 run partnership between David Gillet and Chris Malton, which all helped Huntingdonshire, an E.C.B Board team, not as you might have believed a Minor County side like Oxfordshire, turn the formbook on its head and compile an impressive 50-over score of 252 for 5. A total that proved as steep as the hills hereabouts, because Oxfordshire slithered to a surprise defeat, all out for 175, in the miserable drizzle which drew a grey curtain over their day.

The Independent Wednesday 2nd. May 2001