The Good Old Days



Harry Latchman super great cricketer and coach (sorry I was so rubbish H)

I, Lady Lainey have been having a little wander down cricket memory lane, I remember when I was nothing more than a ‘Ladyette’ going to stay with Uncle John the Joker and Aunt Eleanor the Elegant in Surrey ( yes I have many county mixes in my blood line).

His Royal Gorgeousness (my Daddy) and Uncle John the Joker would sit glued to the TV (yes it was around in those days!) watching the Test Match.

Her Serene Highness and Eleanor the Elegant would force little Ladyette Lainey to go shopping. (We would go into London and visit Harrods and Harvey Nicks and now my family wonder where my shopping addiction came from?????!!!!!)

Usually upon returning home we could hear Uncle John the Joker, screaming out encouragement (well that’s what my Her Serene highness told me) to the players. I am not sure that screaming at Ian Botham that ‘a b***dy girl can throw better than that’ would have motivated him to throw better, although maybe a better punch!

They would sometimes trot up to the Oval to see Surrey play, although Her Serene Highness would not allow her Ladyetteship to accompany them, saying it was no place for a young lady! Inferring that when Dad and said Uncle got out of the clutches of the woman they would go to the cricket match whoop it up on gin and tonic and then go down the pub at close of play, finally tipping up home in Oxted very late in the evening!

Sometimes we would go and visit other Royal relatives in sunny Essex and watch Graham Gooch play. In these halcyon days cricketers were gentlemen (well at least it was kept out of the newspapers (sometimes!) and tried hard to avoid letting team and country down. There would never have been a ‘pedalo’ incident at Southend now would there?

There also was no such thing as cricket in your ‘pyjamas’, I don’t remember seeing Mike Gatting wearing a diamond earring (extra weight yes! earring no!) and as for frolicking around on an open top bus waving bottles of champers…………no not the done thing.

However time and tide waits for no man as the saying goes and everything moves on. Today sponsorship is the way forward ( Emirates Durham ICG, WTF!!! Bring back ‘The Riverside’ and stop messing around!). Cricket in pyjamas is a money spinner, and finishing your career by dancing on TV seems to be the way forward. (note to self get the Strictly tape of Ramps out tonight!). And really who can blame them a cricketers shelf life is relatively short no matter how good a player he is.

However before you all start commenting on me being a grumpy old woman, let me just say, I truly love cricket , in whatever format, and  watch cricket at club, county and test level to this day. I love the excitement of club cricket on Saturdays (can be very very competitive!) as much as I love County cricket. Its in my blood ( well slightly diluted with Perrier Jouet!).

Oh yes I love it sooooo much I even make the sandwiches and tea!