THE GOOGLY: CRICKET ON THE GREEN BUT WHERE ARE THE PUBS?

FOLLOW HUW TURBERVILL @HUWZAT

Football and pies. Tennis and strawberries. Cricket and beer. Preferably foaming, in a watering can or jug, after someone has struck a fifty or taken a ‘Pfeiffer’. Cricket and beer just go together.

Or so it used to be. For not only are cricket clubs closing (in part because of diminishing takings at the bar), but so are the nearby boozers.

Take Mitcham Cricket Club, who play at Mitcham Cricket Green, in south London. The venue used to be notable for the number of pubs within a six hit. But now the area is drier than a camel’s jockstrap.

According to a lovely new book, Remarkable Cricket Grounds, by Brian Levison, “cricket has been played at the green since before 1685 and it is generally acknowledged to be the oldest continuously used ground anywhere in existence”.

WG Grace played at the venue; a women’s match between Surrey and the Australians in the 19th century attracted a crowd of 10,000; and Sir Ian Botham carried the Queen’s Jubilee Baton to the ground. Other famous names associated with the ground are Tom Richardson, Andrew Sandham and Herbert Strudwick.

You can still play cricket there, but the only hops are long ones served up by the bowlers.

Anyone who has driven past the green at the weekend in the summer will see an enchanting and fascinating scene. A sublime cricket pitch boxed in by busy roads and rows of houses. The club’s pavilion is over the A239 from the ground. Outgoing and incoming batsmen have to use the traffic lights if it is busy. Walking on tarmac in studs is never easy. The timing-out Law (31, allowing the next batsman three minutes to reach the crease) has – wisely – been suspended there.

Mitcham CC play in the first division of the Fuller’s Brewery (how inappropriate) Surrey County League and have 2nd and 3rd XIs, and a thriving colts section. But no pubs!

The Burn Bullock (also known as The King’s Head) was the most famous. The 18th century, Grade II-listed pub at 315 London Road was closed in September 2009 due to anti-social behaviour. It was in the upstairs room of this pub that the Association of Scorers and Umpires was formed, and Mitcham Cricket Club’s famous pavilion is part of The Burn Bullock freehold. 

The Cricketers pub, at 340 London Road, has been shut for about five years and has been the subject of a number of unsuccessful planning applications. The building there now was built in the 1950s, replacing the 17th century one that was damaged during the Blitz. It used to be used as the pavilion before the club’s purpose-built one was put up in 1903/04.

Surrey and England cricketer James Southerton, who (only) played in the first two Tests, between England and Australia in 1877, was the landlord, and he hosted the tourists that year. Mitcham Green was also their training base. 

At 49 and 119 days, Southerton was the oldest man to make his Test debut; he was also out ‘retired thinking he was out’ at Mitcham after being duped by WG. 

The Queen’s Head, at 70 Cricket Green, has also recently closed, and The Britannia Inn was another pub near the Green, but that has long since gone.

The White Hart, at 350 London Road, has shut its doors, but officially this is only closed for refurbishment. What about cricketers’ replenishment? Cricket is thirsty work, after all.