COVERED WINTER 2020

COVERED 32 TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK sides composed of people stationed in the local area, but there were also Notts games against Derbyshire åand Leices- tershire. The Notts captain, Heane, was in a reserved occupation, being a farmer, and was available for 33 of the 55 matches the county played. The most prolific batsman was Reg Simpson, who was a serving police officer, but then decided to join the RAF and spent 1944 and 1945 in India. He scored 1,048 runs at an average of 74.85. Many of the professionals had joined up, but were stationed locally, or worked in the mines, so were able to turn out quite often. Simpson had yet to make his First-Class bow for Notts, but curiously made his debut in the Ranji Trophy for Sind. According to the club’s Annual Reports, about 1,000 members renewed and the Army paid rent for the use of the Pavilion as a postal sorting office.TheWestWing Stand was reserved for members. The secretarial salaries balanced the Pavilion rent, while the members’ subs and the money taken at the gate paid for the groundsmen, ground caretaker and sundry expenses, so a small surplus was obtained annually.The office staff comprised Capt Brown and a typist/ telephone operator. Before going further with the events of 1944-45, I should make clear that my remit for writing this piece was to scour historical records and find a period in the past that most resembles the disruptions of today. I shall briefly outline the other seasons I inspected before choosing 1944-45. In May 1926 came the General Strike. Fortunately for cricket this only lasted a week or so.The Australian tourists of that summer had some difficulty reaching venues on time, but crowds were about average. The weather was terrible and in early May most games were rain-ruined draws.The First Test at Trent Bridge was virtually washed out, though that was not until June. The first season after the FirstWorldWar might too be described as normal. The war ended in November 1918, except that Lancashire persuaded the authorities to organise two-day Cham- pionship matches – every one of the matches at Trent Bridge was drawn (the Australian ForcesTeam were allowed to play three-day games!). A hasty return to three-day matches resumed in 1920.The terrible Spanish Flu epidemic swept Europe, but did not interrupt the First-Class cricket programme. The 1899 to 1902 BoerWar had little effect. An EnglandTeam toured South Africa in the 1898-99 winter playing Test Matches, without F.W. Milligan who joined the British Forces and was killed in action. South Africa sent a team to England in 1901. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the touring team, saying the players ought to have remained at home and fought the Boers. Instead they came to Trent Bridge and beat Notts by 94 runs. The CrimeanWar had no obvious effects on the cricket seasons of 1854, 1855 and 1856.William Clarke’s All England Eleven and the rival United England Eleven toured the country extensively and rather swamped the inter-county match programme. Cricket in general had grown steadily through the 18th century. From 1771 Nottingham had played Sheffield and Leicester at fairly regular intervals, but the NapoleonicWars made serious inroads into the popularity of cricket – the wars caused extremely hard times for the general public. Returning to 1944-45, when the battle of the bulge occurred, I blamed it on Borrington as his pins moved backwards. The disaster at Arnhem also was laid at Borrington’s door. Many years later the books attributed it to the work of double agents – by then I had no contact with Borrington. I did glimpse him at the Festival of Britain in 1951, but naturally ignored him. I’ve not seen him since, though I did check with our membership department to make certain he wasn’t a Notts member. “THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP HAD BEEN ABSENT FOR FIVE WHOLE SUMMERS, 1940 TO 1944. DURING THOSE FIVE BLANK YEARS, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE WERE THE ONLY COUNTY TO ARRANGE MATCHES EVERY YEAR. ” PeterWynne-Thomas