FROM WHERE?

Where you come from is important to some and much less important to others. For international sports of course the country counts – who can forget Andy Murray the Scottish tennis players comment on England in the World Cup (football) last year. Then for many it is the town, city, and region in terms of the football club. I have been pulled up on this many a time – my team should be and is to a certain extent Brighton and Hove Albion. But the debacle that is there stadium furore and the fact that John Prescott (as it was) / Lewis Council and those goddamn awful residents of Falmer cannot agree has, well irritated me beyond belief.

Living in London means it is even harder to go to the athletics, sorry football stadium that is the Withdean (and home to the um, seagulls – all 6,000 of them). So there you go, I am a traitor and also now support Arsenal – blame bumping, as in literally walking into, Thierry Henry in Selfridges about 2 years ago and being so completely dumbfounded by his beauty, that I couldn’t even stutter an apology and so just stood, starred and kind of gurgled. A strange occurrence for a continual verbaliser such as myself (i.e. when watching cricket I actually think I am a commentator).

Anyway, enough on the football – of course for cricket lovers, the county should be everything. Easily forgettable for me is the fact that I was born in Brighton and brought up in Hastings (no comments please, no I wasn’t a teenager mother), I am instead a Sussex girl, pleased as punch to support the current County Champions and C&G Trophy Holders.

However on a recent trip to Devon and Dorset (to the fabulously titled Durdle Door), I started thinking about the number of first class cricketing counties vs. the number of actual counties. According to the ABC’s (the Association of British Counties – who knew they existed) 86 historic or traditional counties in Great Britain. 39 in England, 13 in Wales and 34 in Scotland. But only 18 first class cricketing counties in England and Wales. Again I can blow my Sussex horn (so the speak), Sussex was the first established county club way back when in the 19th Century with the creation of the County Cricket Championship in 1890, replacing ad hoc championships as had been the case.

Over time the other counties joined with Durham the latest to join in 1992. Both Buckinghamshire (1921) and Devon (1948) applied to join the first class cricket but were rejected*. This is all to do with facilities etc and nothing to do with strange accents or a love of Morris dancing I am sure.

Of those counties in the first class county championship, it has to be noted that some counties have better chants than others. My Dad is a man of Kent and so much rivalry has often arisen – but I ask you which is the better song / chant, the military band song of Good old Sussex by the Sea or as my Dad so loves to say, Super Kent from heaven sent….

*Of course, I know that first class cricket isn’t everything, that there are the minor counties and then all of the other cricket played around the country, come on Oliver’s Eleven!