Cricket in Coventry (Courtaulds, etc.)

Anyone who, like me, remembers watching Warwickshire play at Courtaulds Cricket Ground will be interested to read this

I saw Warwickshire play Lancashire at Courtaulds in 1978, in a 3 day County match. I was living in Welford Place (more like Rillington Place!) at the time. It was quite surreal to walk across Lockhurst Lane and see the likes of Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran, Bob Willis and many other stars of cricket playing a mere 100 yards away from where I lived. The day I went they forgot to bring the beer tent, so the Crow in the Oak public house did a roaring trade!

I saw Warwickshire play Lancashire at Courtaulds in the 50s - Warwickshire were all out for 71 not long after lunch on the first day, with Brian Statham doing most of the damage! Cyril Washbrook also played in the match Just found the scorecard - Lancashire won by an innings, and Statham took 15 wickets (8 and 7)

And of course the ground was used in the 1980's film ‘Arthur’s Hollowed Ground’, with Jimmy Jewel as an old groundsman. Think it also featured Michael Elphick.

My buddy and I used to go and watch Warwickshire at Courtaulds, 57, 58 and 59, 2 games a season. We would watch all 3 days, kept a full scorecard. What we did, we paid the first day, then collected empty pop/beer bottles, 3d deposit, that paid our bus fare and entrance fee for remaining days. Remember seeing Lancashire, also Surrey on one occasion. At that time Surrey would have been full of England players, Bedser twins, Lock, Laker, Barrington, probably others. Happy, happy days. About 10 years ago, when I made contact with my buddy, Roy Deakin, after about 45 years, also in the meantime having moved away to Northamptonshire. He took me a ride, and we went to the Courtaulds ground, and the Pavilion was still standing. We were very lucky, we got to see Eric Hollies.

Is that the same Roy Deakin who played footie for Bedworth in the early 1970's On the cricket front, if you get the chance to read Lost Cricket Grounds of GB by local man Chris Arnot, great piece on Courtaulds

That would be correct. He was a brilliant footballer, captained the school team that Bobby Gould played in

I played there for the computer division on the Tuesday evening, then went to see Warwicks play on the Thursday. I had hit a 4 to win the game on the Tuesday and so thought I was cock of the roost. I watched Rohan Kanhai gently flick one off his toes which was still going up when it went through the upstairs window of the club-house. Put my skills firmly into position.

My grandfather on my mother’s side John Harris was a groundsman there. Before the 6 foot high galvanised fence along the length of the Kingfield Road boundary to the cricket ground, there used to be a high hedge. My grandfather would trim it on a regular basis, all by hand of course. No wonder he didn't live to a ripe old age.

Gosh that brings back memories. I used to go to some of those games mainly between 1948-1952. The seating was tiered and people used to throw their empty beer bottles under the seating, I crawled underneath collecting them and returning them to the marquee, a man asked how much I had made -10/6d I replied (a lot of money in those days) and that evening the conversation appeared in the Cov Telegraph.

Wonderful memories, that to me is the beauty of this site. Wonderful, wonderful memories. Myself and my friend Roy Deakin used to go and watch some games, at least 1 a year, if I recall correctly they played 2 a year. Looking at the fixtures, we saw Surrey, which according to fixture list was in 1955. I would have been 11 and Roy 10. We had the money for the bus fare and the entrance for the first day, then, has already been mentioned, we collected empties to get money for next day. We lived in Sewall Highway near the Devon, and I'm sure that we went on the bus, so not sure how we would have got there. Entrance for juniors was about 1 shilling (5p in new money). We would sit through 3 days and keep a scorecard, how many people would do that today, especially youngsters!! We loved it. I'm sure that we would have seen the Bedser twins, possibly Peter May, Ken Barrington, Lock and Loader. For Warwickshire, I think that our openers were Gardner and Horner, Hollies was still playing, as was Tom Cartwright, and one of the fast bowlers was Bannister. Such gloriously happy memories. When Roy and I caught up again after over 40 years, he took me to show me what was left, a run down old pavilion, how sad.

slash, as I said, the scorecards are clickable on that site! Click on "Warwickshire v Surrey" for the 1955 fixture and you'll see who played!

Thanks for opening this thread Midland Red, you have obviously awakened a lot of memories - not just mine - Courtaulds I more or less gave you them on another thread, but I am taking the liberty as a Coventry man talking more generally about my Warwickshire cricketing experience - as a young lad. I clicked quite a number of the scorecards you gave us access to and I would like to comment on some of the names. Fred Gardner - Bevin boy during the war seemingly dour, but a brilliant opener, but I remember him fielding on the boundary - who should he be talking to, but my dad! He was originally an old boy of Hen Lane School, taught by my father. Norman Horner - the waspish cover drive, which he almost ran down the wicket to execute. Alan Townsend and Bert Walton - imports from Durham (I think). Townsend, good bat and brilliant fielder. Seem to remember Walton had a "red letter day" against one of the Australian touring sides, he was taking a load of wickets in their second innings - I think Simpson was captain and they were "sitting on the splice" John Arlott was commentating and he said "If you are a lover of cricket, turn off your sets now". There was getting to Edgbaston by bike from Allesley - all the way through Meriden to the Swan at Yardley, turn left and make your way round the outskirts of Birmingham (was a place called Maypole on the way?) to the back end of the ground, cannot remember what we did with the bikes, but it was usually a long queue to get in especially for the tourists games, Don`t think I saw Bradman, but remember Arthur Morris, Lindwall, Benaud, Johnstone, Saggers, Tallon, Simpson (fantastic fielder) - do you have the scorecards for tourist games MR? One final favourite Abdul Hafez Kardar - a Pakistani (maybe the first) who played for Warwickshire and I think captained his country, If I remember correctly a left arm bowler, with a very upright stance and military bearing, always looked as he would stand "no nonsense". One knowledgeable person in the crown informed me "he`s a Pathan you know" (I still don`t know), but I loved it when he came on (as well as our Eric - if you look at the number of overs he bowled, it looks as though you could never get him off). Oh and one final twist (pre-war) - my mother was opening fast bowler for Warwickshire - I believe - coached by Yorkshire men Norman Kilner and (Croome?) "That`s the lass as `el get t`wickets" - my first bat was hers, I think she played for Kenilworth Ladies.

Play about on that same website, Roger, and you'll get virtually every cricket match! For example, I've got Warks v Australians 1956, which I went to, here!

Thanks, I`d forgotten Keith Miller - wonderful cricketer