AN unexpected rescue saved a celebration cricket match which took place in Broughton Gifford last month.
John Payne explains, “Gatsby, a four-year old cocker spaniel plunged in bravely to retrieve the ball when a big hit for six landed in a muddy pond on the Common. As spectators and players shouted encouragement, a bedraggled Gatsby returned with the ball and play carried on.
“The match was one of a series of Frome Festival events commemorating the life and work of the poet Edward Thomas who died on the Western Front in 1917. The Broughton Gifford connection is that Thomas stayed at Broughton Gifford Manor on a number of occasions as guest of Arnold Bax (composer) and Clifford Bax (playwright) in the years before the First World War. Thomas scored 2 runs against the village team in 1912. He was a better poet than cricketer!
“Now 105 years later, the Bax eleven, captained by James Bax and including no less than six members of the Bax family, took on the village team captained by Tom Gerrish, great-grandson of one of the original Broughton Gifford team.
“Such cricket tours by the Baxes and their young friends were a regular feature of West Wiltshire life in the far-off years of endless summer before war changed everything.
“Exactly what the villagers thought of those Edwardian matches is not recorded. But everyone present on Sunday 16th July enjoyed it enormously. There was an ice-cream van at tea-time and lemon drizzle cake for spectators, while the cricketers enjoyed a drinks break with lemonade served by organiser Martin Bax, no less, founder and president of the Frome Festival.
“An afternoon to remember. The score? Oh yes, the Baxes won by 235 runs to 190.”
Some of them had ice-cream too! There were swifts and swallows. And Gatsby the hero dog, who is also a Bax (well, owned by a Bax).
“An afternoon to remember. The score? Oh yes, the Baxes won by 235 runs to 190.
Both teams scored quickly despite the rather long grass in the outfield, the direct route for six being the preferred option – including the afore-mentioned straight drive from Laurence Bax into the pond.
“Three batsmen reached the retirement figure of 50 – Archie Crawford and Bryan Jater for the Bax team and Tom Gerrish for Broughton Gifford. Everyone in both teams managed to walk to the middle to bat and most made a contribution to the total!
“The bowlers had a harder task given the prolific run scoring although Paul Girdler and Nick Gerrish for Broughton Gifford bowled magnificently with figures of 1 for 14 and 2 for 24 respectively. For the Bax XI the star performer with the ball was Nigel Arbury, bowling at the start of the innings and conceding just 24 runs from his eight overs with 2 wickets, while Mathew Bax was just as economical with 1 for 21 off 6.
“All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon’s cricket with the total runs scored of over 400 contrasting somewhat with the miserly figure of 159 made in 1912 when each team batted twice. And they say it’s now a batsman’s game!”
Photo credit: Mervyn Clingan
