Wormsley, in deepest Buckinghamshire, built by the American anglophile philanthropist Sir John Paul Getty, played host on Wednesday to a private game of cricket played by ex-Australian and England legends.
Thanks to a good friend at an Australian wine company I was kindly invited along.
To those who aren’t acquainted with this glorious setting, Wormsley has a splendid oval pitch, framed by dramatic wooded hills in a perfectly bucolic setting.
The thatched pavilion is perfect representation of an evocative English ideal – a leitmotiv that always intrigued the American Getty – and an equally English touch of quirkiness is shown by the tufted roof nestling comfortably on top of the hand operated scoreboard.
The pitch was impeccably flattened when Getty decided to purchase the estate and turn it into a version of English cricketing arcadia.
The wicket, according to my conversations with people who played on it was as true as Getty’s love of cricket was genuine.
As an aside, Getty, who suffered from addiction issues, was introduced to the noble sport of cricket by Mick Jagger when the two were neighbours in a fashionable Mews area in central London in the sixties.
The story goes that Jagger knocked on his neighbour’s door to check he was ok.
Once inside he switched on the TV to watch a cricket match. The previously unresponsive Getty, who had been suffering withdrawal symptoms to his addiction, immediately sat up and became absorbed in the game we all love. And the rest they say is history.
During another day of this outstanding English heatwave that is as welcomed as the tube trains are hot, Australia legends including Jeff Thompson and Rodney Hogg faced up against a little younger English team including Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough.
It was clear to all present that these legends of the game enjoyed every minute of being back amongst old friends and colleagues playing the glorious game.
Talk immediately centred on Stuart Broad, although there was levity in the proceedings when the legend that is Jeff Thompson joked with Rodney Hogg, that “(Hogg) wouldn’t have got close enough to the ball to nick it anyway”. (I can also tell my grandchildren I saw the great Jeff Thompson bowl – albeit off three paces – yet he still looked frightening enough to me though).
Darren Gough when asked his views on the gripping first Test was as forthright as a Yorkshireman can be stating: “Australia’s performance in the first Test didn’t surprise me – their number eleven got 98 – otherwise they would have lost by even more!”
I couldn’t even tell whether he had his tongue in his cheek, although, as someone who played in a few Ashes contests throughout his career he probably wasn’t.
Mark Ramprakash was a little more circumspect saying that as a fellow Middlesex man he would, “like Steven Finn to play at Lord’s – but whether he will or not is a different matter”.
But it was three-times Ashes winner and one of those rare creatures in English cricket, a captain who had won the Ashes in Australia, Andrew Strauss, whose views I was mostly after:
Strauss on the first Test
“The Aussies got bailed out by the tail but they must be quite buoyed by looking at their lower order and think the higher order batsmen can do what they did at Nottingham, in the second Test at Lord’s.
“But having said that England are 1-0 up and all talk of what we would do without Jimmy Anderson is irrelevant: the fact is we do have Jimmy.
“Trent Bridge was an unbelievable game of cricket. It was a great advert for the game and a great advert for the Ashes as a brand.”
On the Mickeyleaks saga
“I haven’t seen in any great detail what has happened but I’m sure Australia don’t want such character clashes – but that sort of thing is what you get in Ashes series. I’m sure they just want to get back to playing cricket.
“I don’t think it’s important that the players get on with the captain or coach but what is important is the players respect you. Only the guys who know what is going on are aware of the issues.”
On Graeme Swann
“There was a low slow wicket at Trent Bridge – Lords has been turning a bit more so there may be more in it for Graeme Swann.”
A short while after Strauss finished speaking Rodney Hogg walked past. He was asked what he thought of Stuart Broad not walking.
In typical Aussie fashion Hogg pulled no punches: “I’m very disappointed in the English – it was a bloody disgrace,” he replied.
Again, I couldn’t tell whether a portion of his tongue was located in his cheek, but for all Australian and English bombast at what happened in the stunning first Test that has already been lifted into the higher echelons of great Ashes contests, the anticipation levels for tomorrows second Test at Lord’s are already at fever pitch.
I even overheard a spectator say to his friend, at this wonderfully apportioned ground: “I don’t know how my heart is going to take another four Tests this summer”.
As I walked away from the perfectly appointed ground set amongst the stunning Chilterns Hills in Buckinghamshire I took one last glance at the Gerald Laing sculpture of a cricketer suspiciously like Getty himself – and I swear even the cast iron statue looked excited at the prospect of the second Test at Lord’s.
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