Oh my Sugg and my Sharp long ago!

I do not watch cricket as much as some other sports, and have never tried photographing it. For a couple of seasons I was following my local amateur rugby league club, Liverpool Buccaneers, during the summer, and although they decided not to field a team this year, I did not take up another sport or attach myself to a club between the end of the rugby union County Championships in May, and the pre season fixtures for football in July.

However, with my home county, Surrey, playing at Liverpool last week, and people I know from London coming up for a day's play it seemed a good time to renew my acquaintance with the game.

Liverpool Cricket Club (not at the current ground) hosted the city's first First Class game, Lancashire v Surrey in 1866. There has been a hiatus in Surrey's visits to the city since then, with one of our party reporting that the fixture had last been played at Aigburth in 1905

When I came to Liverpool as a student in the 1980s, I heard tales of crowds at Aigburth being quite lively. A fellow student reported he had watched his home county of Gloucestershire in a one day game, sitting in front of a boisterous group with an extensive repertoire of combine harvester songs. He was not put off by the experience, as he worked as a GP in the City for some years, and served for a term on the City Council. With little riding on the game, results the previous week having seen Lancashire relegated and Surrey avoid the drop, the crowd was much more subdued. My friend and I attracted a few looks that would not have been out of place in a library when we applauded a particularly well hit six.

I did not take a proper camera, as I think the ground regulations do not permit it, although I took a couple of pictures of the ground with my mobile. I noticed a couple of official looking photographers (possibly press, as they were only at the morning session) next to the sight screen. I have never been keen on this vantage point, preferring to be square on to the wicket. I imagine it is easier to take pictures end on, as there is little sideways movement.

As for the title of this post, the sentence is of course taken from Francis Thompson's poem At Lord's, replacing the Lancashire and England batsmen A.N. Hornby and R.G. Barlow, with two great all rounders from Liverpool from a slightly later era. Frank Sugg and Jack Sharp both represented Lancashire at cricket and Everton at football, and England in both sports, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries: Sugg was Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890, and Sharp was a County Championship winner with Lancashire in 1904 and FA Cup winner with Everton in 1906. As if that were not enough, both ran successful sports outfitters' shops in Liverpool until they died in the 1930s, Sharp in Whitechapel, and Sugg barely the distance of a boundary away away in Lord Street.

Is there honey still for tea?

Football's pre season games seem to start earlier every year. In part this seems to accommodate an earlier finish to the season to make way for international fixtures, which rarely trouble the sides I watch. Also, managers at all levels want to have a better preparation for the season than in days gone by, when the drill was a couple of warm up games against traditional opponents and letting players run off the summer in the first couple of games of the season.

The latter is not an option these days, there are important games in the first few weeks of the season with the FA Cup Preliminary Round on the August Bank Holiday weekend (with County League clubs starting 2 weeks earlier in the Extra Preliminary Round), and the FA Trophy in September. Clubs at our level are unlikely to win these competitions, but there is prize money for all rounds, so a successful couple of games can bring in the equivalent of about a month's gate receipts - valuable help paying the bills - so good preparation for the season can make all the difference.

It means that those of us who like to follow the pre season schedule are treated to the ambience usually associated with cricket, relaxing on the grass in the summer sunshine in the shadow of historic church towers peeping out from behind the trees.

Maghull FC, whom Prescot were visiting for their second pre season game, share a field with the local cricket club, who were also playing. So, the question was, to watch the game from the clubhouse side with the barrier a few yards from the touchline, from behind the goal looking into the sun, or from the far side avoiding both disadvantages at the risk of being felled by a well hit six. As it turned out, I think our ball was causing more hazard to the cricketers than theirs was to us.

Half a second later the score was 140-2

The grass was looking as healthy as one might expect with the watering it has had, and the ground looks well drained, as it was dry to sit on only a couple of days after we had to cancel a game elsewhere due to a waterlogged pitch.

Even though it was only the second game, we could see a team taking shape. The more I see of the players, the easier it is to anticipate their movements, and the way they play the ball, making a better chance of getting a good shot.

The better weather brought a few of our regular supporters along (to be fair, a majority of those pictured had been at the Stockport Sports game last week), and Dave Powell took the opportunity to introduce himself to some of those he had not met before.

The away support hanging on for the ride ahead

The results of these pre season games are not too significant, as they are more about preparing the team for the season ahead, but some well taken goals in a 5-0 win will have done no harm to the players' confidence.

After the game I headed back to the station with a vague sense I had forgotten something. When I sat back in my seat on the train I remembered - my friend Mice (his name is Mike, but Mice has become the usual greeting for Christmas and birthday cards from humorous e-mails lost in the mists of time) lives about 300 yards from the ground, and I was going to check if he was in and arrange to call round before or after the game. With the weather, I wanted wait and to see if I would be travelling before doing so ... so, er, sorry about that if you are reading!