cheltenham cricket festival…

Chris, Jeff and I went along to watch the third day of the Gloucestershire v Durham second division game at Cheltenham College yesterday. The Cheltenham Cricket Festival has been going for the past 140 years (apparently, it’s the world’s longest-running cricket festival) and yesterday everything was all rather lovely – the stunning setting of Cheltenham College (independent boarding school, of course!), idyllic sunny weather, good company, the odd beer tent and even the sight of England all-rounder Ben Stokes pounding in to bowl 18 overs… you get the general idea.
The cricket wasn’t bad either – some 350 runs scored in the day and 15 wickets falling. Somewhat predictably, given the sunny conditions, the only sources of shade to be found were in the beer tents and marquees.
Despite the school holidays, the age profile of the spectators was definitely on the ‘old’ side – we seemed quite sprightly by comparison with the average punter (the three of us being 68, 69 and 70 respectively!). The only youngsters on view were those who turned up for a mini-cricket tournament at lunchtime (they included a reasonable number of girls in the teams, which was good to see). In fact, the overall attendance was much less than I’d anticipated (I’d initially even wondered if we would have difficulty in getting into the ground). You could get a very decent view of the cricket from the seats scattered along the boundary edge or from the temporary ‘stands’ (which were somewhat mysteriously set back a fair way from the boundary - until one of the locals explained that the ‘real’ crowds these days turned up for one-day 50 over or 20twenty games – and this allowed them to put more seating in front of the temporary stands).
A delightful, typically-English, somewhat nostalgic, summer’s day.
Photo: The Durham slip cordon (including Ben Stokes, extreme left).