Photograph of Park Road sparked some cricketing memories...
Discovered a treasure trove of local cricket history and memorabilia his father had researched and accumulated over the years.
A PHOTOGRAPH which appeared in the November 4 issue in Looking Back, prompted a reply from Neil Davidson, the president of Loughborough Town Cricket Club, who shed some light on the photo.
The photo is reproduced again, above, alongside two other photographs kindly supplied by Neil along with some interesting stories from the club’s history.
He said: “Many readers will recognise the Park Road cricket ground, where Loughborough Town have played since 1896, in your Looking Back photograph.
“The large crowd suggests a major match. Between 1913 and 1952, Leicestershire played 15 County Championship Matches at Park Road, the photograph is almost certainly one of those.
“When former Loughborough Town stalwart Barry Gidley passed away a few months ago, his son Martyn, who himself played for the Club and Leicestershire, discovered a treasure trove of local cricket history and memorabilia his father had researched and accumulated over the years, which he has donated to the club.
“Given the recent Remembrance Day commemorations, the most poignant is a club membership card from 1914. In mid-June, just a few weeks before the outbreak of war, Loughborough hosted a ‘County Week’ the highlight of which was a Championship match against Surrey.
“Nearly all the Surrey team were England Test players, including Jack Hobbs, probably the finest batsman of that era who played in over 60 Test Matches and scored 199 first class centuries despite his career being interrupted by WWI. Other well known names to play in the game included Percy Fender, Herbert Strudwick and Andrew Sandham.
“In contrast, the Leicestershire team were all born and bred in the County, only two played for England; George Geary, who played in 14 Tests and John King, who played in only one against Australia at Lord’s in 1909 in which he top-scored with 60 in the first innings. England lost by 9 wickets, and King was never picked again!
“Unsurprisingly the game was one-sided, Surrey winning by 157 runs, and went on to win the County Championship that year. Leicestershire were not bottom, coming thirteenth out of the then 16 counties in the Championship.
“Also in Barry’s treasure trove is a documented history of cricket in the Loughborough area from the 1780s until the formation of the current club in 1896.
“He documents the first two County games between Leicestershire and Notts, played in Loughborough in the Autumn of 1791. The prize money in each game was 50 guineas (£8,000 in today’s terms) and there was heavy betting on the matches.
“Notts won the first game easily, the return game on October 5th/6th was interrupted by a dispute and the match was finally concluded on November 2, Leicestershire winning by one run off the last ball!”