BATTING ON
‘Thank you for my dinner, may I get down please?’
can now be seen on the front pages of both Publishers Weekly and Booklife
magazines, and I have over half a century ‘following’ on Instagram
(pariscelia_author). I am still looking for ‘Reviews’ so if anyone feels like
writing a couple of lines that would be much appreciated and give my book a
nice boost.
Thinking of centuries brings me onto the field of
cricket which was a huge interest, almost an obsession with my father. On a
busy farm, Saturday afternoons in summer were sacrosanct for him, and nothing
would prevent his appearance at the wicket, favouring the bat over the ball in
later years due to his immobility. In my book, I say of Daddy:- “Cricket was
his lifelong passion, a member of Somerset Members Club and a keen supporter of
village, county and Test Matches”. When he was no longer able to play himself
he took up umpiring matches, mainly for the nearby village of Charlton Musgrove
– just over the hill from Wincanton, next to the Race Course. I often used to
accompany him and looked forward especially to the superb cricket tea which
came any time from 4 – 4.30pm, depending on the state of play. In the final
‘Tea Leaves’ section of ‘My Cup of Tea’ (unpublished) I give these teas an
excellent revue and comment:- “Somerset cricketers’ wives were experts at
serving teas from the pavilion, and the second half of the match always seemed
to slip by more quickly than the first…!”
Sometimes we travelled further afield to ‘away’
matches and I remember 2 in particular……..the first was on a lovely summer’s
afternoon in the 1960’s at a beautiful little village called Mells at the foot of
the Mendips. Lying on the grass with my book opened out in front of me and
glancing up at the match every so often was a wonderful way to spend an
afternoon – not forgetting the half-time tea of course! And the other occasion
was down on the Somerset Levels at West Pennard where a group of ducks wandered
across the pitch and gave rise to a much repeated joke when the unfortunate
batsman at the wicket was ‘out for a duck’!
Pictures show a painting of the old pavilion at
Taunton County ground,
a Spitfire flying low over a village match, and
my father ready to bat c1940.
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