On Wednesday 6th June I set off once again on what was supposed to be four days of self-indulgent relaxation. Yorkshire were due to play a four-day County Championship fixture against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay and this was to be my first cricket 'road-trip' of the summer.
I started making an annual 'road-trip' in 2006. I decided life was too short, and 4-day cricket under too much threat, to miss out on watching county cricket at some different venues beyond the boundaries of the Broad Acres, where I had been brought up as an avid Yorkshire supporter. I started six years ago at the best possible venue, Arundel, said to be the most attractive first-class cricket ground in the country. The following year I went to Tunbridge Wells, almost its equal, and in 2008 to the Rose Bowl, Southampton, no match in atmosphere for the other two. In 2009 it was Hove and 2010, Taunton. In 2011 the fixture list and my diary just didn't coincide and I had to make do with a solitary day at Worcester during a glorious weekend in early April. So in this sabbatical year I planned to make up for last year with two 'road-trips' - to Colwyn Bay in June and Chesterfield in July.
As well as (hopefully) attractive new surroundings in which to watch cricket, the other ingredient of my 'road-trips' has been a carefully researched Bed and Breakfast, hopefully cheap, but well-reviewed on Tripadvisor. I'd been well served in this regard in the southern counties, but Colwyn Bay, on the North Wales coast presented a different challenge, especially as I came to book late.
In the 1980's, when I was a curate at St John's, Worksop, we held a couple of parish houseparties at a Christian guest house in Rhos-on-Sea, just round the corner from the cricket ground. We stopped going there, largely because the management insisted that we all sat in the same places at every meal and so the parish group couldn't mix as we would have liked. I was curious to find out whether it was still there and whether it might be a cheap option for B & B during the cricket. It was, and there was little else available, so I booked with some trepidation.
The four days didn't work out as planned. For two hours on the Wednesday morning it was like this:
For the rest of Wednesday, and all through Thursday, Friday and Saturday, this was the scene:
Cyclones swept across Britain, and Wales experienced some of the worst June weather in living memory. Not a single ball was bowled from soon after lunch on Wednesday until the match was finally called off before the scheduled start of play on Saturday.
So instead of a cricket 'road-trip' the four days in Wales took on something of the character of a retreat. Fortunately, I'd taken my books with me and there was a 'sun'-lounge at the guest house where I could sit and read, and watch the rain sweeping in from the sea. There was also wi-fi, so I could get to work setting up some of the appointments with Archdeacons in July. There was also the trip to Rome in a week's time to plan. With only 5 nights in the 'Eternal City' a game-plan is pretty much essential, so with the help of a Dorling-Kindersley Guide Book and the internet I was able to draw one up. I ventured out, too, in one downpour to another National Trust Property, Penrhyn Castle, the indulgence of a wealthy 19th century industrialist.
The guest house itself provided some diversion as well. Sadly it didn't seem to have moved on much in the thirty years since we had stayed there, and I learnt shortly before going that it will be closing its doors for the last time in July. The welcome and service were warm and friendly but it wasn't difficult to see that the world of Christian hospitality had overtaken it and left it behind in the intervening years. Two groups stayed there while I did, and at least one of them were under instructions to sit at the same places at every meal.
...for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:45
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