In the week that England won the 2019 Cricket World Cup it made me
recall how for one long summer we played cricket in Oxgangs, incongruous as
that may sound.
Football of course was the bread ‘n butter game throughout the four seasons
of the year. Because of the dark evenings it got quieter in the
winter. Whilst the English upper classes are renowned for enjoying ‘The Season’
– Henley Regatta; Wimbledon; Royal Ascot etc. we youngsters at Oxgangs also
enjoyed our season too where each one followed a certain pattern for over a
decade.
Activities would just seem to occur naturally – by happenstance – somehow it
was ingrained into us perhaps like the other creatures of the water, the land or of the air – governed by the weather and the light and the temperature and the
opportunities and the time available - and one of those was that come the
summertime we would take part in other activities than just football up at The Field behind Oxgangs Avenue and adjacent to Oxgangs Road North.
One regular activity during the long summer holidays was playing
rounders with an old wooden tennis racquet and ball.
These games were gender neutral
and all the better for it allowing girls and
boys to play together. Rounders was great fun
and
normally no
team
was
in bat for too long which kept the
interest going.
When recalling
summers from the 1960s Pat Rafferty said ‘I loved
the openness of the area (Oxgangs) - the hills, the walks
and the hours spent on
the Pentland Hills or Hillend
and the Braid Hills too. As a family we used
to go to Spylaw Park, Colinton
with a picnic - soggy tomato sandwiches and a bottle
of water
which
we
all shared but I loved
it and as there was seven of us we could play rounders too - great fun!
Occasionally someone
would fly a kite out on The Field and for one
extraordinary summer we played cricket.
This was courtesy of Norman Stewart (6/3 Oxgangs Avenue) who had received
a cricket
set
from
his
grandparents for his birthday. It was
actually good fun. No doubt there
would have been some basic rules with the set but it was probably the Oxgangs
version of the game!
Cricket Match Castle Leod (Peter Hoffmann)
And half a century
on whilst I’m still not overly au-fait with all the rules but of a weekend I enjoy
going down to Castle Leod at Strathpeffer and settling down in my deck chair to
settle back and watch the UK’s most northerly based team, Ross County (founded
1902) play.
Photograph courtesy Eileen Cameron
Whilst the game was alien to many members of the Oxgangs community some
people had more than a passing interest. Recently when I’d asked if anyone
could recall the cricket pitch that was part of the former City Hospital
grounds my good friend and former Hunters Tryst and Boroughmuir Secondary
School classmate Geoff Hunter said he used to sometimes play for the hospital’s
side. Now that I think about it he probably played for the school back in the
late 1960s.
My father was different
from many of the other local fathers in the Oxgangs
neighbourhood in that
he played cricket all
summer and rugby all
winter. He played full back for Boroughmuir FP
at rugby and cricket for of all
clubs, The Grange,
perhaps
the poshest club in
town. Sometimes he also played
cricket
for
Boroughmuir too
- perhaps that
was
when he couldn't afford
the Grange subscription
fees!
Army Polo Fields, Dreghorn SPL
There were a few Saturday evenings when after playing locally say at Penicuik or the Army
Polo Fields at Dreghorn he turned
up at 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue with the whole of the cricket team.
When he played for
Boroughmuir down at Meggetland an ongoing tradition in the game was to bring
along a contribution to the spread for afternoon tea.
St Cuthbert's Cooperative SPL
It was a Hoffmann team
effort in this endeavour as I had to nip down to The Store (St Cuthbert’s
Cooperative) at Oxgangs Road North to buy in a couple of large jars of Shippam’s
Paste and a Sliced Pan loaf. Mother would then make up the sandwiches spreading
them with Stork margarine and applying the paste; the sandwiches were then
wrapped up in the the bread-wrapper; Father had the glory leg - his role was to carry it down in the
27 bus along with his cricket grip (bag) and put them on the very long trestle table inside the pavilion concourse.
On occasion my brother Iain
and I and perhaps a pal were allowed to go down with him on condition that we
behaved.
Apart from enjoying the
afternoon tea served up in the old Meggetland Pavilion (a former aircraft
hangar from East Lothian) I enjoyed being able to go into the dinky wee green metal cabin with
its flip up window to watch Boroughmuir’s inimitable former secretary and
president Ronnie Tait record the scores; apart from finding it intriguing
watching him record the statistics I had to make myself useful and fetch him a
cup of tea or go outside to adjust the manual scores hanging outside on the
front of the green cabin.
Having grown up as a
massive fan of Wilson the Wonder Athlete I was less enamoured of his adventures
when he was a World War II pilot or as a bowler on the infamous 1930s England tour
to Australia but as I had a passing familiarity with the game the stories still
had a passing appeal. It was cricket Jim but not
as we know it.
