England’s splendid win in the World T20 Cup was crowned by two players with Cumbrian connections being there to secure the winning runs.
Adopted Cumbrian Ben Stokes and Barrow-born Liam Livingstone saw England through to victory.
Ben’s progress from junior cricket at Cockermouth to Durham county and then to England has been well documented.
But it was really the rugby league connection that shaped Stokes’ future and how it took off from Cumbria.
His father Ged was approached by Workington Town’s Ike Southward about taking the coaching job at Derwent Park when he was over here with New Zealand A.
Stokes senior accepted; the family was based in Cockermouth; Stokes junior developed his cricket at Sandair and as they say the rest is history.
There’s no-one who would have enjoyed Ben’s cricketing success more than Ike, who sadly died three years after the Stokes family arrived in west Cumbria.
You see Ike, as well as being a rugby league legend, was also a very keen and useful cricketer – which brings me to the game I saw!
We are going back to 1952 and Ike, just 18 and lean as a whippet, played in the local Midweek League for Ellenborough.
The cricket team had been started by a chap from the village called Jack Fulton and my dad had been invited to captain them.
They played on The Croft which was the big field behind my two uncles’ Ellenborough Farm. Lord’s it was not!
Thistles, cow clap and divots were everywhere and the lads actually did well to produce a playing strip which did allow for a reasonable attempt at a game of cricket.
I used to be taken along by my mother, and on at least one occasion had followed my dad out to bat before being retrieved and plonked back on the boundary edge.
A lot of factory teams competed in the Midweek League at the time and I can’t remember whom Ellenborough’s opponents were on this occasion.
But what I haven’t forgotten is the sight of Ike tearing in to bowl and hurling the cricket ball at what seemed lightning speed – either bouncing over the startled batsman or shattering his stumps.
What was also remarkable was that he insisted on bowling in his stocking feet. He actually took his boots off to bowl.
Here he was thundering in past the telegraph pole at mid-off, ignoring the various deposits from the Holliday family’s dairy cows and sending down some pearlers.
How many he took that night I’m not absolutely sure. I can’t even remember whether Ellenborough won but the enthusiasm, enjoyment and sheer simple delights of playing a game of cricket on a cow patch have stayed with me ever since…….
