From Laker to Lara, and Sydney to Susex — this cricketing life

[admin]

Cricket hooked me early in life. With a bat and a ball it is easy to explain why. The sheer pleasure of timing a stroke for the first time, the sound of that resonant “tock”, the swift dispatch of the ball to some gratifyingly distant place can be enough to hook anyone with an eye for a ball. For the fielder it is the catch that sticks in an outstretched hand or the throw that hits the stumps. As for the bowler’s joy in hitting the stumps and hearing that distinctive clip of parting bails! It could conjure up images and analogies that would not be appropriate.So let’s just call them champagne moments. I should have had one as a schoolboy at Lord’s in 1963, but I was out for 99. At least Mike Atherton and I have that in common, but his 99 was against Australia at Lord’s. I would not have minded that on my CV.Reporting and commentating have been extremely fortunate alternatives, however, so here are 25 of the happiest memories, starting with some experienced only from a distance.1953England regained the Ashes at the Oval after (just on) 19 years. Hutton, Edrich, May, Compton, Graveney, Bailey, Evans, Laker, Lock, Trueman, Bedser. If ever a team deserved MBEs to a man it was that one. Happily, most of them eventually got honours of one kind or another. 1954-55Sydney. The game that sparked that rarity - a comprehensive England win in a series in Australia. It was cold at home and I remember my father in his dressing-gown coming in to tell me that Tyson, Statham, Bailey and Appleyard - but especially the ferociously fast Frank Tyson - had bowled out Australia. 1956Jim Laker's incredible 19 wickets at Old Trafford. I have clear memories of every phase of that extraordinary match and of going outside to play cricket in the garden as soon as Len Maddocks had been leg-before to complete the rout. Off went Jim to his immortality with his sweater over his left shoulder and everyone's ecstasy carefully suppressed. 1958Surrey's seventh county championship title in a row. All the usual suspects: May, Barrington, Bedser and Loader, Laker and Lock. Micky Stewart brilliant at short leg. Arthur McIntyre neat as a pin behind the stumps. 1960The tied Test in Brisbane. Three wickets in the last over, Wes Hall with his shirt hanging out and mayhem. Frank Worrell the personification of dignity. Joe Solomon the unlikely hero. 1963The never-to-be-forgotten draw at Lord's. Ted Dexter in his pomp. Hall and Worrell again; Brian Close in his finest hour. A radio experience this time - John Arlott, Robert Hudson and, at the death, Alan Gibson, calmly and clearly taking us through that last, pulsating over. 1966Lord's. Garry Sobers supreme with ball and bat and Colin Milburn's roistering 126 not out. 1968Derek Underwood's ruthless hounding of Australia after the rain at the Oval. Nine fieldsmen round the bat and sawdust everywhere. No Ashes, but a drawn series and justice at last, after a succession of series in which England were as good. 1973Trent Bridge, the friendliest ground of all. Bevan Congdon's 176 to delay an England victory. I dash down the M1 to be in time for our elder son to be delivered. Brian Johnston announces the birth and an astrologist writes to say the stars portend that he will become a cricket commentator. Close, he is a barrister. 1974Sabina Park. Dennis Amiss saves England with a noble 262 not out on my first tour for the BBC. There is a romance about breaking such news. 1975Lord's. The first World Cup final. Clive Lloyd in his pomp, Viv Richards brilliant in the covers, West Indies triumphant but Australia tough to beat as always. The limited-overs game at its captivating best, in the days before it became tired and overdone. 1981Headingley. This has to be the Dom Perignon 2000. The match that England could not win but did. Ian Botham's wonderfully free-spirited innings and Bob Willis's sensational fast bowling on a horribly tricky pitch on the last day. As in 2005, the matches that followed, at Edgbaston and Old Trafford, were scarcely less inspiring. 1985Edgbaston in glorious weather and more Aussie bashing. David Gower in supreme form, ten wickets in the match for Richard Ellison, and Edmonds and Emburey in harness. 1986-87The MCG: The most recent series victory in Australia. I was on the air when Gladstone Small took the catch off Phil Edmonds that won the Ashes. 1991Graham Gooch's masterly 154 under heavy clouds at Headingley against Marshall, Patterson, Ambrose and Walsh. 1993Shane Warne's astounding first ball in a Test match in England. Poor Gatt! 1994West Indies had been invincible for a decade, so the Barbados Test, when Alec Stewart scored a hundred in each innings and Angus Fraser took eight for 75, was probably Atherton's finest hour as captain. 1994Antigua. Brian Lara breaking Sobers' Test record score, for the first time. No batsman gave me more pleasure. 1995-96Atherton again: the famous rearguard at the Wanderers. Ten hours and 45 minutes of unyielding concentration. 2001Robin Martin-Jenkins, down breeze for once, taking seven for 51 at Horsham in a season when he also scored a double hundred at Taunton. Chris Adams, the Sussex captain, called him a “complete” cricketer and England class. There would be champagne then! 2003Sussex's long-awaited first championship title. Mushtaq Ahmed's genius, Murray Goodwin's winning runs on a sunlit afternoon at Hove but the ultimate team performance. 2004Kensington Oval. A sultry Saturday morning. Matthew Hoggard takes a hat-trick to complete what Stephen Harmison started at Sabina Park. 2005Edgbaston, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. Three of the best Tests of all packed into a few heady weeks, followed by Kevin Pietersen's clinching tour de force. The desperate finish at Edgbaston has to be the pick. 2006Bombay. An England victory against the odds, always the most exciting. It all went wrong for Andrew Flintoff, the captain, soon after, but this was a great team effort, with Strauss, Panesar and Udal. 2006James Kirtley's sensational burst of bowling to win the C&G final at Lord's. Sussex, again. Sorry! — Christopher Martin-Jenkins will continue to contribute regularly to The Times after stepping down from his role as Chief Cricket Correspondent.

More... (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3835479.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=796995)