SHIPLEY HALL
The scent of freshly mown grass ..
The warmth of the early summer sun …
Birdsong ; a gentle breeze - The scene is set ....I am relaxed :
This rural idyll unlikely to be outdone.
The velvety sward before me a verdant green...
Could anyone wish a more perfect rural scene ?
Derbyshire at its beautiful best :
Paradise at my behest
Could anyone wish for more reason ?
Ah, Yes ... The first day of the cricket season !
The pavilion retains its familiar format, though larger now …
Resplendent with added wings, balconies ....
And, a separate scoreboard building.....Whow !
But the changes are in keeping with the remembered scene...
Changes which I could not have foreseen ....
It's more than fifty years ... But no need to rush ....
I wonder what happened to the old 'Bull and Bush' ?
The fielding side. - it's Shipley Hall I see - take the field …
The sun so bright my eyes I must shield..
I look for those I recall : Names and faces from that happy past
Baker, Bottomley, Priestley, Grainger, Sumner, Hunter,
Waltham, Young .... and Cokayne ....he really was fast.
And, Mellors the 'keeper - 'Butch' of that ilk -but unrelated to he of Chatterley fame.
'Though the Hall was the setting of Lawrence's novel all the same.
I feel foolish as I remember - it's all so many years ago .....
Though a Cokayne , third generation, now plays it seems.
I close my eyes .... drift into nostalgic mode ....
Games and events from those early years ...All those teams....
Fifty years ? All those matches.... All those dreams.
The Hall has gone though the grounds remain ..
But the cricket field is still my memory's domain.
4/19
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