The Summer Field

33 estate workers’ sweat – ‘nor expense’ - presumably the nobleman’s. Music featured sometimes. On Wednesday, May 16, 1898, E.C.Jones made 114 not out of Wisbech Town’s 236 for seven against visiting Dereham: ‘Upon reaching the pavilion he was accorded hearty cheers and a string band present played “See the Conquering Hero Comes”,’ the Wisbech Advertiser reported. And in Somerset, ‘some strolling musicians’ turned up at Ilminster’s first match of the 1874 season, an innings win over Hinton St George. Usually, lordly hosts had some purpose, whether their own pleasure, to impress neighbours, or pay back favours, most blatantly in Dorset after the 1874 election when the new Liberal MP, Evelyn Ashley, hosted Ringwood and St Giles clubs, ‘a large number of the elite of the neighbourhood’, and a brass band ‘to enliven the proceedings’. Just as Victorian clubs made their relations more formal, in leagues, so they made their fields more formal by marking the boundary. Royston Town club was an exception in 1913 with its new rule to disallow boundaries, whereas before batsmen scored four for a boundary. As they played on Royston Heath, other locals – farmers, golfers – with claims on the historic grazing land resented boundaries. Without a boundary, just as teams negotiated numbers of players, men could argue over how many runs a hit to local landmarks earned. An undated document from Corfe club near Taunton hinted at arguments; a hit northwards, ‘Poundisford side’, ‘into the ditch between flags’ counted as two, and had the number three crossed out. Into the hedge ‘anywhere’ counted four, over the road six, and into the pond three (or four, if a clean hit). Or, if you had enough room, you could have a rule of ‘everything had to be run out, save the front of the pavilion’, which counted four, so Plaindealer recalled of Lady Katharine What Was Cricket Like? The field changes between overs at No Mans Land Common, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire.