“There were giants in the land in those days”. There certainly were in the cricketing world and many of them were bowlers. Their names live on, Brian Statham, Fred Truman, Alec Bedser and for Gloucestershire, George Lambert, David Smith and Tony Brown. All those fast bowlers just bowled and bowled. Angus Frazer, probably the last of the great workhorses summed it up, by saying he got fit to bowl by bowling.

How different it is today. At County level we have three pace bowlers out of action at Gloucester, Dan Worall, (stress fracture) is back in Australia, Liam Norwell, (hamstring) returned to action too soon, broke down and is slowly recuperating, while David Payne returned from an ankle operation on Wednesday in the R.L. Cup against Middlesex only to hobble off the field having bowled six overs.

With all the fitness and conditioning experts now in the game one has to wonder if the old days were better, they were certainly different. Gloucestershire prepared in three different ways, the players reporting back on April 1st. If the weather was good there were outdoor nets, otherwise they had inadequate indoor facilities and spent most of the time playing football in front of the pavillion. Indoors was just a net in the tea rooms and if any batsman got too cocky Arthur Milton would start smoking, the atmosphere would thicken and the ball would swing around corners.

Locally it was the same. Bill Mitcheson and Dave Collis bowled for Cirencester, plugging away unstintingly. Dave, though moving slowly is still going strong. The Messenger Brothers, John and Mike bowled season after season for Duntisbourne, Birdlip and Chalford. The legendary Frank Mansell at Sheepscombe did not have the word injury in his vocabulary. I have to ask “are we a softer generation now”? Once at University I batted against John Snow (Sussex and England) without a box so I have views on this situation, Mrs. Light does not know this!

There is some fine local cricket being played. Top teams Frocester, Cirencester and Lechlade are having mixed fortunes, but at village level there have been fine games at Barnsley and between Minchinhampton and Dumbleton.

An extra dimension to the game at Barnsley would have been a pint in the Village Inn. Andrew Parrfrey, a veteran of local pitches (playing and preparing them) is now “Mine Host”. Youngsters Jack Clack for Whitminster and Tom Mustoe for Minety and Northleach, a seemingly successful amalgamation, take pride of place. Tom may be the Grandson of John Mustoe who served our County Club so well at committee level and is now Vice-President. We will meet at the Cheltenham Festival and confer.

On a personal level I received an email from Brian “Bonker” Newton. Do not draw conclusion from the nickname, the 1950’s were more innocent times!

Although primarily a bike man, Brian was an effective off break bowler for the Grammar School X1 that I played in at Victoria Road. He still has the school cricket cap he was awarded, probably in 1955, but it was the Phoenix Cycle Club that was to claim him. It was cricket’s loss.

I end with a quiz question, “Who was the last Millwall footballer to play cricket for England”? No prizes this week because I have mentioned him in this article.