At close of play the buses lined up in Edgbaston Road just like they did at Villa Park, though fewer in number. I have no record of my childhood visits to Edgbaston but I do recall sitting on the green park bench-type seats at the far end. Not least because I remember the panic of taking off to the loo and not being able to find where my brother was sitting when I got back. But from now on cricket was to be a solitary experience. The young neighbour who might on rare occasions came with me to watch the Villa reserves had no interest in cricket. Besides, his mother would net let him cross town.

It was another twelve months before I was to become a junior member with one of the few bicycle tickets for the members car park and another twelve months before I was to sit fastidiously in the new west wing and record every dot, run and wicket in my new scorebook. It’s still the source of immense annoyance that the said scoring books were eventually to become part of what I can only describe as a ‘marital clear out’. Not least the fact that twelve months later I recorded every ball of the 99 overs bowled by Ramadin when test cricket returned to Edgbaston. England v West Indies. Still one of the most exciting tests ever played.

Meanwhile the ground was undergoing improvements in advance of that forthcoming test match and my place would have been on the new Rae Bank. In the absence of any scorebooks I must now admit to cheating and rely on the internet for a bit of help although even that has proved to be a frustration exercise. Any road up, Warwickshire won the toss and batted. Bearing in mind that we scored 359 in 132 overs we must have batted all day. Every hour spectators expected to see 20 overs and 60 runs and felt cheated if either target fell short.

Sunday cricket was for the future and three-day games did not resume until Monday. The records show that Somerset made 231 then we made 159 for 3 before Tom Dollery declared in the vain hopes of victory. 66 for 1, vain indeed. Match drawn.

Rugby occupied two of the three terms in the school year. The summer term was for gentler sports but annoyingly my school divided it into two halves. Athletics up to mid-term then cricket for the second half. It’s worth noting that back then half-term amounted to only a long weekend, Friday to Monday. Two days off, not a whole week.

Putting the shot and throwing the javelin were way beyond my capabilities and the high jump had to be the Western Roll. I am pleased to say I did do myself proud in winning a point for my house in achieving some unknown standard in the long jump and the one hundred yards but cricket was to be my forte.

On the outbreak of the Great War my father had apparently signed for the lesser Warwickshire Club and Ground team on his birthday only to enlist a few days later. He was never able to fulfill whatever potential he possessed though he continued to play for a works team into his sixties. More importantly he showed me how to spin a ball. I say showed rather than taught because it was more by way of a demonstration than a lesson. He was right-handed and easily demonstrated the off-break. I was left-handed but discovered that the only way I could get the ball to spin the same direction as he did was to bowl it out of the back of the hand. Known as a Chinaman this was a skill known to only a very few regular players in county cricket.

At about noon every matchday Saturday morning a group of about thirty youngsters would wander across the greensward at Edgbaston clutching their gear having been to practice on the spare ground across the River Rae. Any thoughts that I should be there with them were destroyed by the fact that these were obviously private schoolboys dressed immaculately in whites and I was never going to be able to afford whites. So much as I would like to have joined them to show them what a chinaman was is was a talent destined to remain hidden.

Whitsun Bank Holiday could meant only one thing, the interminably boring Derbyshire. Winning the toss and batting turned out to be not such a good idea and their captain, Carr and spinner Smith had us back in the pavilion by mid-afternoon. 114. 253 for 7 declared in 95 overs suggests that the visitors were true to form in the manner of the run rate. This would have taken into Monday afternoon. I was not there on the Tuesday and a score of 145 for 5, match drawn suggests that the weather may have played its part.

This was the last year in which the General Certificate examinations were held at the end of May, early June before being moved to July. This meant that the fifth form virtually closed down and attendance became voluntary. Never volunteer. Which accounts for why I was in attendance against Lancashire on both the Wednesday and Thursday. The weather must again have played its part, which accounts for the scores. Lancashire 291 for 9 declared. Warwickshire 147. I am puzzled that Warwickshire must have followed on because the follow-on meant 150 runs in arrears, not 144. Be that as it may the captains shook hands at 64 for 0.

As if 28 championship matches was not enough Warwickshire used to fill their fixture list with games against Oxford and Cambridge Universities or the Combined Universities These games were never walkovers as the students often included international players of no mean repute, as in this season when Mike Smith was captaining Oxford. But the light blues were our lot this season including none other than one of my favourite cricketers, the great Gamini Goonesena, later the talisman for Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Worth the admission money alone and so I was there for all three days for a game which started on a Saturday. Being there on Monday and Tuesday meant that I exercised my option to miss out on school.

The scoresheet makes fascinating reason, as if to prove my comment about the competitive nature of the fixture. Gamini scored 118 in the Cambridge total of 325. We then declared at 216 for 9. Normally declaring with nine wickets down meant having to avoid sending the ultimate rabbit to the crease, Eric Hollies, so saving on a few minutes. Or in this instance depriving Gamini another victim to add to the five he had already secured. But Hollis was given the weekend off. Hollies possibly took more wickets than he scored runs and if he managed to score a run at all the cheer from the terraces was only bettered by those for a centurymaker.

Scoring only 172 in their second innings the likelihood was of a win for the Bears, although the sobriquet ‘Bears’ was not yet in common use at the time. But the master leg spinner took another five scalps and no one could begrudge the students their 53 run win.

Saturday and a rare treat, a journey on the diesel rail car that used to ply between Snow Hill and Dudley. Worcestershire were probably not exactly over-enthusiastic at having to play their most remunerative fixture of the season in the shadow of the season but that is the way the fixtures fell. I was not altogether thrilled either at having to spend a Saturday in the sun on a less than comfortable seat surrounded by hordes of aliens. We amassed 340 (Wolton 99) with Rolly Jenkins taking 5 for 106.

Such were conditions on Saturday that my repeating the exercise on Monday and Tuesday was a journey to far. Had I been there I would have seen a famous victory as anything Jenkins can do, Hollies could do as well and 5 for 65 saw them dismissed for 228. With 112 in credit Norman Horner set about Perks & co and his 90 enabled us to finish on 226. Needing 339 to win there was only going to be one winning on a turning strip. Hollies 4 for 67 but are unlikely match winning was Ray Hictchcock, 6, also for 67. Back home following a sensational victory but I was only there for the Saturday.

Middlesex, Leslie Compton, Bill Edrich et al managed a modest 206 in 93 overs. I do not have the overnight score but it cannot have been very many because we were all out on Monday morning for a mere 136. Edrich then scored 125 and Warr must have been confident when he declared leaving us needing an unlikely 284 to win. Gardner, Wolton and Spooner made major contributions but in view of my comments above it is barely possible to describe the tension when the ninth wicket fell at278. Six to win and Warr with the ball in hand bowling to Hollis. But sensationally Thompson 0 not out, Hollies a magnificent 6 not out This should still have you cheering nearly seventy years on.

At which point school was over for the year and I no longer have to feel guilty at taking up residence on the Rae bank. Except I know with absolute certainty that I sat in the sunshine at the north end to watch Yorkshire. The reason is unclear, perhaps things were a touch crowded because I had an aversion to sitting facing the sun in the certain knowledge that I would get a headache before the afternoon was out.

Yorkshire, but no longer the all-conquering Yorkshire because that title was now held by Surrey. The Tykes were plodding along in ideal batting conditions. Wilson was looking invincible when he thrashed the ball in my direction. Norman Horner, who used to patrol the outfield at a hundred miles per hour, dived but the ball passed underneath his outstretched arms. Whereupon he turned around, grabbed the ball, threw it hard and fast and Wilson was run out by the proverbial mile. He was halfway up the pavilion steps when bedlam broke out to my right. Unbeknown to Horner, the umpire or anyone else afield, the ball had struck a small flag which marked the boundary and bounced back into play. Four runs, as yelled by an increasing crescendo of onlookers such that notable umpire Spencer came to see what all the fuss was about and reversed his ruling. Wilson sheepishly returned to add more to our misery before they declared at 354 for 3.

In the face of fiery Fred Trueman (5 for 31) we surrendered for 98 all out. I often felt that Trueman cheated in leaving a bottle of water on the boundary so he could take refreshment when he was less than active.Following on we did better second time around. 298, thanks mainly to Wolton, 107. But it was nowhere near enough and it speaks volumes that I was still there when it was all over at 46-0.

Next day I persuaded my father to come with me to Coventry. I emphasise come with me not take me because I wanted him to see the spinning twins Laker and Lock to remind him what I had missed out on. The Courtaulds Ground in Coventry is to Warwickshire as Dudley is to Worcestershire. Except that the Coventry ground was so narrow as to be totally unsuitable for first-class cricket. It came as no surprise when Surrey opened with Laker and Lock. 210 (Laker 7 for 95) is only a good score in relation to what follows. Perhaps Hollis in scoring 11 showed that he knew how to play spin bowling as well as perform it. Then what followed was Bannister and Thompson proving it was more than a spinner’s wicket. 29 for 4. As at Dudley, Coventry was a journey to far and I was not there for the remainder of the match. Pity. Every bowler contributed and at 154 we were in the driving seat.

It was Lock this time 5 for 68 but our 250 was a possible winning score if we could do again what we did first time around. Thanks to Jack Bannister (5 for 57) and Hollies (4 for 57) we achieved a famous victory. Not entirely surprising, though, to those who knew the history of games between these two counties

Surrey had just won the championship losing just 5 of 23 games. Significantly draws. In four seasons Surrey had lost only 13 times in winning the flag and four of those defeats were by Warwickshire. But my memory allows me to go back three more years to our post-championship year when we encountered a ‘doctored’ pitch at the Oval. We were all out for 45 before the caterers had set out the lunch table. Ditto the tea interval when Surrey were all out for 146 with Lock (27) the top scorer. It did not last as long as 7 o’clock stumps. Bedser took twelve wickets, Laker five of the others including a hat-trick Interesting not one of the Warwickshire 20 dismissals was out bowled. A game over in a day for the first time this century.

Edgbaston was invariably a guaranteed full house for the overseas visitors, this time South Africa. Worse, young spectators were considered a bit of a nuisance and an ever-lengthening queue was kept outside until long after the game had started. Then, even worse we were made to give up our seats to an adult and sit on the grass. I do not recommend sitting on the grass at Edgbaston to be the ideal position for watching cricket. But somehow I was otherwise there for nearly every minute of the game. Fuller took 7 for 60 as we went from 160 for 4 to be all out for a disappointing 188.

McGlew, Goddard, Endean and Mclean made this look small beer as they totalled 382 for 9 declared. Only Hollies (4 for 100) looked test standard. No-one expected any great things second time around and at 210 the best that can be said is that that had to bat again to take the win, Horner sending down the last ball.

Enter Leicestershire. 292 ((Spooner 125) was not enough to gain first innings points when they amassed 392 for 9 declared Then not a lot happened and the captains shook hands at 165 for 5.and that was it at Edgbaston for another year. And ‘it’ full stop for captain Tom Dollery who had chosen to retire.