AUSTRALIA 050S UK TOUR 2017

GAME 14 AUSTRALIA 050S VS ENGLISH COUNTIES 050S

AT WELWYN GARDEN CITY HERTFORDSHIRE

FRIDAY 4th AUG 2017

After some testing county games in the first 3 weeks of our tour and losses in the ODI v Wales on the last ball and English Counties in the first ODI the time had arrived for the 2^nd ODI vs English Counties at Welwyn Garden City in picturesque Hertfordshire.

Welwyn Garden City along with Letchworth Garden City and Welling Garden City was a 1920s housing concept after the ravages of World War I. Its aim was to move poorer folk out of London into the countryside on rail heads and to build and improve their housing stock within planned areas including extensive gardens. It is a shame that the NSW government doesn’t use the same concept for modern day high- priced Sydney.

Captain Reiss who masterminded and constructed the project was a keen cricketer and relocated the cricket ground so the previous oval could be used for houses and a lovely new cricket ground built on this location surrounded by mighty trees and gardens. It was an ideal setting for our final momentous and epic encounter with the British on their home soil for the “Silver Ashes”. Lord McLaurin of MCC fame who about 15 years ago reconstructed 10,000 English cricket clubs along the lines of Australia’s pathway system is a local resident but wasn’t on hand today.

The weather was overcast with rain threatening but none eventuated. The match was scheduled to start at 12 noon.

Another long trip today of 150 kilometers took us into the Dartford Tunnel again and north of London. We were shocked to find that despite us arriving 90 minutes before start of play the English Counties XI players were fitted out in their track uniforms warming up and doing their practice drills already! Although plagiarism is a form of flattery we knew we were in for a decently serious game as we had never seen this before in any game involving the poms.