Thursdays. Sundays were left free for players to take part in benefit games, go for a round of golf or spend time with their families. Whitsuntide and August Bank Holiday were focal points with the earlier holiday fixtures helping shape the course of the Championship and some of the August matches crucial to its outcome. Vast crowds saw counties at full strength, with no Test matches diluting the occasion. For generations such fixtures were virtually set in stone: Derbyshire-Warwickshire, Essex-Worcestershire, Gloucestershire- Somerset, Kent-Hampshire, Lancashire-Yorkshire, Leicestershire- Northamptonshire, Middlesex-Sussex, Nottinghamshire-Surrey and Glamorgan against the tourists. Changes had to occur, of course, but could Cardus and Thomson have come to terms with a Roses match played early in July? And they would never have imagined that because the counties were in different divisions, there might not be one at all or, indeed, no first-class cricket played on some Bank Holiday Mondays. Much has been lost but although the future might rest in Twenty20 there are welcome signs of a revival of the old traditional fixtures. There was certainly something different about them. Seeing a match start on the Saturday and then being able to watch the second day’s play instead of attending school or work counted as a privilege. Here I have been able to draw on personal recollections of golden Mondays at Derby, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge or the Roses venues, both as schoolboy and young adult. Of course, not all the Mondays were golden. A wet Whit or August Bank Holiday formed the staple diet of many a music hall comedian. Memory is littered with ruined cricket days, seaside excursions turned into endurance tests because of the cold and wet and, particularly, of one spectacular failure, an expedition to the source of Derbyshire’s River Derwent on Howden Moor, aborted near to our goal as common sense prevailed. But among the disastrous Mondays, enough of them were golden to enrich the summers and earn places in cricket’s heritage. Enough, too, to illuminate the new-style holidays with their magic as fresh visitors arrived at Trent Bridge, Derby and the other county grounds and first-class cricket took place at Easter and during the May Day holiday. A personal pilgrimage over the past few seasons to see old holiday opponents clash (although seldom at holiday times} has been enlightening. Nottinghamshire and Surrey produced some excellent cricket at Trent Bridge, Gloucestershire followers found little joy in a Somerset upsurge, Yorkshire and Lancashire fought tooth and nail in the old manner at Headingley, and Grace Road, Lord’s, Worcester and Edgbaston revealed stirrings of old rivalries. And one could continue, with memorable holiday battles between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston, Derby and Trent Bridge. I must thank fellow members of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS), not only for making the publication of this book possible but also for unstinting and freely-given assistance, particularly the former Warwickshire and England captain Mike Smith (who made his fair share of Bank Holiday hundreds) for kindly writing the foreword and Roger Moulton, who has acted as my editor and provided much useful information, advice and helpful comment, David Baggett. Robert Brooke, David Harvey, AndrewHignell, David Jeater, Roger Mann and Peter Wynne-Thomas. Players past and present, notably John Clay and Jim Parks and, sadly, many, who are no longer with us, have shared their memories. I would also like to thank my wife Gill and our son and daughter-in-law Stephen and Tracey for their encouragement and support and Introduction 7