There’s a lot going on in Nottingham this week. For starters, The Bell Inn has William Clarke beer on tap, offered as part of it’s 175 Not Out Beer Festival.
A stone’s throw away The Trent Navigation and the Stratford Haven both have Beer Festivals.
In England’s Oldest Pub – admittedly one of many making that claim – Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, nestling next to Nottingham Castle there is a Ale and Scrumpy Cider Festival.
For music there is the Fake Festival which has tribute acts to U2, The Killers and the Foo Fighters. And among the myriad of Robin Hood tours there are also Torvill and Dean ones too.
This heatwave weekend there is even a performance of Romeo and Juliet in the castle grounds.
All are good offerings, and each is no doubt absorbing and great entertainment in its own way.
But really there is only one show in town this week: the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.
Just typing that line just gave me goosebumps – especially as I have tickets in my possession for the first two days.
If the name Trent Bridge is evocative, then so is it’s history.
Travellers to Nottingham in centuries past only had access to the town via one bridge that spanned the Trent.
The Trent Bridge Inn was built at the south end of the bridge to accommodate those who got there late at night and weren’t able to enter the walled town of Nottingham.
As the popularity of cricket grew in the eighteenth century the first ever county game was staged between Nottinghamshire and Sussex. Because the ground was owned by the town council the club wasn’t allowed to charge admission.
In 1837 Captain and manager, the slightly shady William Clarke, decided on unusual plan to maximise revenue for his cricket team: he married the landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn.
It may have been the East Midlands version of Romeo and Juliet. It may not.
Either way the fact is that a short while later Clarke lay a cricket ground in the meadow next to the Inn he was now joint owner of.
Being the entrepreneurial type he also ensured that all cricketers who were there to play against Notts used the Inn as their accommodation and his step son later built a brick pavilion at the back of the pub.
Nottinghamshire has always had a tradition of fine cricketers – Broad and Swann play for them when International commitments allow (whisper it but KP also used to play for them, though don’t mention the fact the entire contents of his kitbag was dumped over the pavilion).
And even in William Clarke’s days they had George Parr, known as the best batsman in England, and a fearsome fast bowler named John Jackson.
Later, Notts had Larwood and Voce (honoured by a nearby pub if not their country when they returned from Australia in 32/33, especially Larwood).
They also had the enigmatic or arguably insane – in the nicest possible way – Derek Randall (the Notts legend also had the honour of hitting the winning runs in 1977 match).
Over a period of time they became the champion county in England as vast crowds and large takings were being seen at Trent Bridge. In 1872 a larger more ornate pavilion in the ground with white picket fences was built on the other side from the Inn.
By 1886 they boasted the country’s biggest pavilion.
Conditions were still relatively primitive as benches and tents were much in evidence, but when the Committee was granted the first Test Match against Australia of 1899 it all changed and a covered semi-circle of stands and a press box was built.
In 1919, the Club managed to buy the freehold of the ground and the Inn. They then sold the Inn to a brewery.
With the Club now owning the land a generous local benefactor then invested in the ground with capacity reaching 30,000 (the current capacity hovers around 19,000).
The Army used the Pavilion as a central mail sorting office during WWII. It was used as a military hospital during WWI. A bomb landed on a building next to the indoor nets but no fatalities were reported.
By the 60s Notts along with most other English counties were struggling financially.
The committee decided to gain planning permission for a multi-storey office block which combined with the disuse of benches and grass banks meant that capacity fell drastically.
It also meant that the scoreboard – an Australian-esque edifice was also demolished.
Yet the despite all the changes, Trent Bridge, the world’s third oldest major cricket ground, a 15 minute walk from the city centre, has always been known as one of the most evocative and pleasant in England.
The office block was sold off to make money while there is a pleasant blend of the old and the new with the three-tiered Radcliffe Road facing the venerable pavilion and the “wing roof” on the Fox Road stands and their sensitive architecture have allow for unrivalled views
Yet it doesn’t seem to have inspired the hosts, as statistics point to the fact that little over 30% of Test matches played there have resulted in victories for England.
If you are talking about Ashes contests it falls to a meagre 15%. Australia have won seven of the 19 matches.
Despite The Don scoring 131 in the first of his 11 Test centuries in England Australia also lost in 1930.
He did have the consolation of being on the winning side in 1934 and again for the immortal Invincibles of 1948.
The record Ashes partnership at Trent Bridge was the 329 scored by Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor for the first wicket 1989.They batted through the whole first day without loss.
As a cricket lover I am still full of admiration for that achievement I watched on TV as a teenager, but as an Englishman the day still makes me shudder.
The highest individual score was 232, set by Stan McCabe in 1938, with Bill O’Reilly four years earlier recording the best Australian match figures of 11-129 (4-75 and 7-54).
It is debatable whether the Australians will ever get near those figures again at Trent Bridge.
But if Michael Clarke’s back allows him to dominate the bowling as we know he can, this supreme scorer of double and triple centuries has a chance, or if Mitchell Starc et al hit their straps you just never know.
That’s the beauty of the Ashes.
It’s just that I won’t be putting any money on either of those things happening.
Just out of interest the highest English partnership was 219, also for the first wicket, set by CJ Barnett and Len Hutton in the same game as McCabe’s top 232.
If the conditions are benign and the track is not doing anything, it may well be worth looking at the prices for a century opening stand between Cook and Root or the Aussie combination.
But then I would say that I’m English.
In 2001 Australia actually won the Ashes at Trent Bridge. It was a Game I had the pleasure of attending.
Sat in the ramshackle yet homely William Clarke Stand (he who married the landlady of the Inn) my friends and I watched open mouthed at one of the most spell-binding days of Test cricket I have attended.
Considering my first Ashes game in the flesh was back as a small kid at the Oval in 1985 I have seen a lot of Ashes cricket – funnily enough most seem to be from the various thrashings handed out from 1989 – 2003.
And that’s without recounting the full five days of a riotous Australia v England at the SCG I went to when I lived in Australia.
This is along with a mate who somehow managed to get to the first two days in Sydney despite being on his honeymoon. But that’s a different story.
Back to Trent Bridge in 2001. Gilchrist hit a half century, Alex Tudor claimed 5-44, Iron Mike Atherton also hit a half century before Shane Warne showed his craft by claiming late English wickets. It was spellbinding, crazy, mesmerising stuff.
It was also a privilege to be able to tell my grandchildren that I saw SK Warne took five wickets in an afternoon.
I also seem to recall my friends and I had a rare old time in Nottingham that night.
Incidentally, as all the hotels were booked we actually stayed at a campsite that night, near a forest a few miles outside the city.
A good friend managed to lose his house keys. Later, he asked the owner if he had come across any. “Where did you lose them?” came the not unreasonable reply.
“I think it was near some trees”, came the befuddled answer.
“You need to be more precise than that me duck”, the man laughed in the local vernacular, “we’ve got 50,000 of ’em!”.
Trent Bridge is well renowned for favouring swing. Jimmy Anderson must be hoping the heat wave breaks and some cloud cover returns.
I was there the day he achieved his best figures in Test cricket, 7-43 against the Kiwis back in 2008.
He was unplayable that day and if the same conditions prevail he must be licking his lips.
Yet the beauty of Trent Bridge is that is it also one of the truest batting surfaces in world cricket.
If Michael Clarke’s back holds up then the contest between our world class bowler and your world class batsmen will stop the cricket world.
If you also thrown in the fact that statistically, Trent Bridge has been the hardest place for England to win for teams batting first over the last ten years or so, the toss alone will be gripping viewing.
A evenly matched contest between bat and ball is what most fans are looking for.
It is also worth noting that Graeme Swann’s Trent Bridge average leaps far higher than his normal one.
He will play of course, but with that in mind it will be interesting to see whether the Aussies pick an all seam attack.
The phoney war – which seems to have been going on forever – is finally over.
Interest is at fever pitch over here.
The teams are chomping at the bit, the grounds will be full of passionate, knowledgeable and in some cases very drunk fans (hasn’t it always been thus?)
I have my Trent Bridge Ashes tickets firmly in my pocket, with my “lucky” Middlesex sunhat, and ragged Barmy Army 2002/03 Ashes tour T-shirt in hand.
Far more importantly the beautiful Trent Bridge is ready.
So are the teams after months of shenanigans.
Are you?
Let the Ashes commence. I for one can’t bloody wait.
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