Result: Bowdon CC 142-1 (29.4 overs) BEAT Marple CC 139ao (42.5 overs) by 9 wickets. (Cheshire County Cricket League Division 1) Venue: South Downs Road (Saturday 26th June 2021, 12pm) Att: ~50. So it was finally the last weekend of my cricketing season and, all things considered, I’ve had a long and pretty successful one. Apart from the shite weather of early-to-mid May, most weeks have seen a good amount of sunshine and, being in England and especially so in Manchester, that’s all you can expect, really! My main aim was to get through all the grounds within a certain distance and, bar one (Bowdon Vale), I’ve managed to get them all in. One did become two (Walkden), once I did a bit of extra research into the distances and the like but, whatever the case, I had always planned to end off at the hugely picturesque South Downs Road, home of Bowdon Cricket Club. So off I set, come the morning of the final Saturday of June, and as with many trips this season, it was a bus job once again. After funnelling through Altrincham, I caught one of the many local-loop services around the area which dropped me off at the foot of the hill, upon which Bowdon’s large church resides. From there, I had a quick tour of the sights of the village (a few old buildings and a fountain thing!) before making my way back downhill towards the ground. Situated upon a ridge that overlooks the Cheshire Plain, Bowdon is a village and electoral ward within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester. Historically a part of Cheshire, Bowdon – alongside near neighbours Hale and Hale Barns, are well known as some of the most wealthy areas in the country, outside of the capital and the nearby ‘Cheshire Golden Triangle’ of Alderley Edge, Wilmslow and Prestbury. From 1894-1974, Bowdon was its own Urban District within Cheshire, having previously held the title of a Local Board between 1864 and 1875, and Urban Sanitary Board between 1875 and 1894. Since the 1974 Local Government Act, it has been a part of Trafford. Both Bowdon and nearby Dunham Massey are mentioned in the Domesday Book, with the existence of a church and mill being notable within Bowdon; meanwhile Dunham Massey was noted as ‘Doneham: Hamo de Mascy’. Bowdon’s name likely derives from the Anglo-Saxon Old English words Boga-dūn meaning bow/curved hill. The aforementioned de Mascy clan had control over the area in Norman times and he was based out of a wooden castle situated in Dunham, whilst Watch Hill Castle was built on the border separating the two between the Conquest and its eventual loss of use in the 13th Century. This most likely also belonged to the de Mascys. The last of the de Mascy family was claimed by the great beyond in 1342 and after the ravages of the 1348 visit of the Black Death had passed, the Booth family came to prominence. It would be Sir Robert Booth who would purchase the ruins of the castle and it remained within the family until 1750, when it passed to the Stamford’s, upon the marriage of Lady Mary Booth and the Earl of Stamford. Upon the passing of the final Earl in 1796, his estates in Dunham Massey and Carrington were bequeathed to the National Trust. It’s now home to a large deer park and house. During the English Civil War, the area around Devisdale and the Downs was known as the Bowdon Downs and was used as a common. It was here that some of the 10,000-strong Royalist force, led by Prince Rupert, camped as they headed across from Shrewsbury to Marston Moor. In 1688, Lord Delamer rallied support from his tenants around the Dutch Prince of Orange, who’d later become King William III, and his support would allow him to later have bestowed upon him, the title of the Earl of Warrington. The development of Bowdon as a more suburban-based area began in the mid-1800’s, as land was slowly sold off by the owners and the addition of Bowdon Railway Station – now usurped by Hale – provided a route out to the leafy, cleaner environments of the Cheshire countryside. Its walks and plains therefore became something of a tourist attraction, for those looking to escape the smog of the city. Mains water and gas lighting were put in place by 1865 and terraced houses, ‘ villas & mansions’ and semi-detached properties continued to spring up at pace. It now takes in the areas of Bowdon Vale and Warburton, as well as Dunham Massey. I arrived at South Downs Road with a little over 20 minutes until the beginning of play. The players were going through their later stages of the warm-ups, before slowly heading into the pavilion dressing rooms to get their respective kits in order. It soon became apparent that it would be the visitors, Marple CC, who would be batting first, as the white-clad Bowdon players congregated upon the pavilion steps. The tractor was going about its business, pushing around the sightscreens into the correct positions, whilst the luminous yellow stumps were placed into the ground. It was already different!! The late-arriving second umpire finally came into view and we were all set to get play underway. The Bowdon players and the two umpires headed out to the middle, closely followed by the Marple opening pair. The home side were favourites going into the game, sitting in the upper reaches of the table as the were, whilst Marple were positioned towards the wrong end, but were not in too much strife, at this point in time. Before we get onto the action in hand, here’s the story of Bowdon Cricket Club… History Lesson: Bowdon Cricket Club was founded in 1856 and originally played out of a ground on nearby East Downs Road, before acquiring land that has since become the local lawn tennis club. They moved to their current home in 1865 and have spent the next 155 years playing out of South Downs Road. The ‘new’ pavilion was opened in 1874 (the original façade is still in situ, despite many renovations over the years) with this celebrated by a game between married and unmarried local members. It was built facing away from the sun, as to allow for gentlemen to avoid a sun-tan and be possibly seen as land-workers. How awful! There’s more notes about the club buildings themselves, here. On the field, Bowdon began life playing against other sides who were fairly local to railway lines; these included the likes of Urmston, Northwich, Trafford, Broughton Park, Rusholme and Cheetham Hill, as well as the Manchester Cricket Club – who played out of Old Trafford. They spent the inter-war years competing in the Manchester Association, with them gaining ownership of the ground via a purchase and awarding to the club in 1939. At the other end of WWII, in 1945, Bowdon celebrated VE Day in style (in more ways than one, I assume!), defeating Timperley CC, before league cricket’s resumption, post-war, saw them continue in the Manchester Association. Unfortunately, it’s pretty difficult to find much in the way of details, surrounding honours, during this period. They won the championship title in 1971, before moving into the Cheshire County Cricket League, upon its formation in 1975 – the league’s founders intention being to improve the standard of cricket within the ‘old’ county. As it was, Bowdon quickly became a big-hitter here, winning the title in 1976 and reached the final of the National Knock-Out Cup the following season, but their day at Lord’s would be curtailed, with only half the match able to take place. Unfortunately, the re-arranged final tie wouldn’t be at Lord’s and instead was hosted at Edgbaston – where Bowdon, including a young quick named Paul Allott, would be defeated by Southgate CC. Southgate winning, eh…? (NB: This may be outdated, I’m writing this on the day of England vs Germany!). The club did bounce back to win the Cheshire Cup in 1980 and after sharing the title in 1983 with Alderley Edge, won it outright for a second time in 1989. The Cheshire League’s format changed in the 1990’s, with an extra 10 clubs joining in 1993 and so promotion and relegation began to come into play for the first time. The ’90’s was to be a highly successful decade for Bowdon – the club achieving a hat-trick of, then named, Division ‘A’ title wins in each of 1996, ’97 and ’98, with a second Cheshire Cup arriving in the trophy cabinet in the middle year of the three. The club’s success continued into the new millennium, with titles being won in the year 2000, as well as another hat-trick between 2002-’04. Two more Cheshire Cups were won in the latter two years, whilst 2004 would end up as a treble-winning campaign, as a third (and the final ever to be played, to date) League Cup was won, following earlier successes in the 2000 and 2002 editions. Unfortunately, success is often hard to sustain and Bowdon suffered relegation in 2010 to the Division 1. However, their tenure outside of the Premier Division would prove a short one, as they won the Division 1 title and returned to the top-flight after just two seasons away. However, this remains their last league win to date. We were soon getting going with Marple opening pair James Crisall and Matt Barrow going along in fairly serene fashion. The visitors were on 33, by the time Crisall (20) would become the first man to fall, smacking one off the bowling of Matt Tulley straight down the throat of mid-off, where the catch was duly taken. And as can happen, one tends to bring two and it would be Crisall’s fellow opener who’d be joining him back in the hutch, Barrow being caught out by one that bounced a little more than expected, ending in the ball popping up to square-leg for a simple catch. Bowdon skipper Chris Ashling was on the board and Barrow was gone for 13. But the two Mark’s – skipper Mark Bennett and #4 Mark Makin – would see their side out of this spot of bother somewhat. They went about advancing the score from 35-2 to a much more healthy sounding 88-2; the only real scare being a nick which flew through the slip cordon. But Makin would be the third wicket to go down, as he was well snaffled by James Teasdale at slip off the bowling of the impressive-looking Alec McLoughlin for 23. This proved the catalyst for a mini-collapse; Bennett falling lbw to the spin of Suleiman Anis for 28, Max Fitzgerald failing to trouble the scorers before nicking behind off McLoughlin and when Andy Wild (one) was cleaned up by the pace of McLoughlin too, Marple had fallen to 98-6 and looked in some strife, to say the least! Jack Grundy and Conor Ramsey did take the visitors past the three-figure mark and up to 116, but their attempt at rescuing the innings came to an end as the former was bowled by the spin of Anis for six. Ramsey was the eight man to go, bowled by the returning Ashling for 21, but some late resistance by #9 and #10 – namely Ed Saxelby and Joe Cash – would see Marple approach the 150 mark and at least give them something to bowl at. Alas, they wouldn’t get there, as spin cleaned them both up. First, Anis claimed his third scalp of the match, having Saxelby (11) smartly caught by the slip fieldsman – this time Ross Zelem – before the recently introduced second spinner James Teasdale trapped Cash lbw for eight. Cash wasn’t rolling in it today. However, Teasdale’s wicket did ensure that each of the five bowlers used by Bowdon all had something in the wickets column; Anis was impressive for his 3-28 (off 14 overs), McLoughlin likewise in taking 3-35 (from 7), whilst Ashling set the tone early on with an eventual 2-37 (off 13). Tully and Teasdale weighed in with 1-28 (off 7) and 1-9 (off 1.5) respectively. Heading back into the pavilion bar area during the break to continue my tour de Bowdon pavilion bar draft/cask beers, I settled on remaining on lager for the day, with a couple of Beck’s and Staropramen’s following off a fine Swan Gold ale – or something along those lines! Extra props for having different, seemingly correct glasses for each and every drink on the go too! Also, Bowdon is very welcoming in the hospitality, so well worth going, if not just for that! Now unfortunately, the second innings gives me very little to write about, so please do accept my apologies if the pics in this part seem a little more packed in than they would usually. You see, Bowdon went about knocking off the runs in quite some style and with a high degree of comfort. As you may be able to tell, I’m kind of trying to expand this paragraph for as long as possible, so it’s not quite so obvious! Now, what else can I describe…oh, there’s a door to a garden that is reminiscent of an old jail cell…yeah. Okay, okay, I’ll get back to the game at hand. It turned out it’d be a good day for the Ashling clan, as opening batsman, and wicket-‘keeper, Patrick went about knocking off the majority of the 140-run target. Indeed, for most of the innings, it looked as though they may get there without losing a wicket, as the two passed their half-century partnership, before continuing on up towards the three-figure milestone. Sadly for the pair, not too long after Ashling, P. had gone to his own personal 50, Jack Tipton would be prized from the crease, just eight runs short of the openers getting to their 100 partnership. As luck would have it, it was when I decided to talk to a lady who’d brought her dog, Millie(?), along and I was going about having a chat and giving out some tickles…to the dog, I mean. Come on now. As such, I had no idea what had happened, but apparently it was the medium-pacer George Clarke who’d got the wicket, Tipton being caught by Ed Saxelby and being dismissed for 36. But there’d be no miraculous come back for the visitors and Ashling and Ross Zelem continued about knocking off the remaining 48 runs in fairly quick fashion. Indeed, Ashling began to open up more and more and I returned back from my second lap to find a group of lads had taken up residence on my table. How terrible. Unfortunately, I’ve managed to forget some of their names (including the fella who kind of knows Michael Vaughan – yes, I remember that part!) but I do remember Stuart and Pat who were still there upon the last ball. They didn’t particularly care for the cricket, being part of the wider club at Bowdon, but did care for the beer, so they’d do for me! In the end, Ashling cracked away a four to seal the victory (and a 50 partnership!) and I had a little time to finish up my last pint of the day, before bidding goodbye to Stuart and Pat and heading off for the bus back into Alty. This all went rather smoothly and I was dropped off with a couple of minutes in hand before my connection homewards. And thus my 2021 summer of cricket came to its end in, perhaps fittingly, pretty smooth style. As I intimated earlier, bar those few weeks in May, it’d all gone largely to plan. I’d even squeezed a visit to long-term target Alderley Edge in their too, just to top it all off. Next season, I hope to get in a few of the more notable grounds in picturesque settings, hopefully up in the hills of the High Peak and the Pennines, or around the seaside. There will still be room to hopefully get in the aforementioned pairing I didn’t quite get in this season too, so I can complete my ‘local’ club quest. After a couple of years of struggle and not overly enjoying my cricket trips quite so much, this was just the year I needed – especially as all the lockdown nonsense had made the very idea of getting out all the more attractive! Thanks to all those at all the clubs involved in the games I’ve been to for their efforts and their play! Many a warm welcome was had and the action in most, if not all, games were of good quality – in terms of the overall contest at hand. If not in the closeness of the result, than there was quality batting or bowling in each one, at one point or another. Thanks all and, all being well, I’ll surely see some of you again next year. For now, it’s all the best for the rest of the season; I’ll be keeping a watchful eye… RATINGS: Game: 6 Ground: 9 Food: N/A Beer: 7 Value For Money: 8