Sunbury on Thames

After the conclusion of the Australian over 60s cricket tour of England we shifted location from Hounslow to the Travelodge at Sunbury where we stayed for three days. This gave us time to relax a little after a hectic month of touring and also to meet members of the Victorian over 60s team as they arrived. We also explored Sunbury on Thames.

The first challenge is this subway under the road which has multiple entrances and exits. By the end of the stay we had almost worked it out.

We found that the easiest way to get to the river was to walk a couple of kilometres down Green Street. The houses in this part of Sunbury are very different from what we saw in Hounslow, only a few miles away.

We walked to the river on a couple of days. Access to the river from Sunbury is limited however there are a few places where you can walk short distances along the banks.

The first evening at Sunbury a group of us had dinner at the Magpie Hotel overlooking the river. We passed the hotel when we went for a walk the next day.

We went back to Rivermead Island and watched rowers pass by.

At the end of the island there is a view of the residential area from the river.

Further on we found a small bridge that leads to another island of private homes.

There were some river views from the bridge.

The next day we went back to find the Walled Garden that we had seen signs for previously.

It was very colourful and tranquil though we found some squirrels enjoying a feed of the flowers.

Many of the others in the group went exploring on the local buses or train but we decided to conserve our energy for the next part of the adventure.

Last game and test decider against England at Sunbury on Thames

Our eighteenth match was a two day test match at Sunbury on Thames on 2nd and 3rd of July. Each team was to bat 80 overs with the game starting at 11 am. Once again the route to the ground took us near the Hampton Court Flower Show so it was an early start both days.

A sign near the bell shows that this ground was opened by Sir Leonard Hutton in 1959.

The cricket ground is part of a larger sporting complex.

The Sunbury Cricket Club was formed in 1938.

As this was a test match the team posed for their official photo.

The Australian Cricket Board had arranged for Catherine to record the proceedings of the match and there was also a reporter from Sky TV so there were additional, larger, cameras present when the national anthems were sung.

On the first day Australia batted and was all out for 263 runs in the last over of the day's play. England had bowled and fielded well making it difficult for our batsmen to make big scores. However, as the saying goes, we had the score on the board.

On day 2 Ian Caunce and Nigel Bloch opened the batting for England and got off to a good start assisted by several dropped catches despite some excellent bowling. The score reached 105 before James Martin took Caunces' wicket. The momentum changed as Phil Drescher joined the bowling attack and the score quickly became 2 for 105 then 3 for 108. At lunch England was 4 for 125. When the batsmen returned to the crease after lunch they now wore helmets instead of caps which was probably just as well Rex Bennett was bowling and in 8 balls took 3 wickets for only one run. The remaining English batsmen tried hard but the game was over after 51 overs with England all out for 192.

Australia had now won two of the three test matches against England and consequently the series.
Needless to say there were some very happy Australians after the game.

It was the end of a great tour with Australia winning 11 of the 14 county games played, a test match against Wales for the first time and, of course, two of the three test matches against England.

During the afternoon of the first day I went for a walk exploring the local area. Public access on this side of the river is limited but I did find a few places where the river could be enjoyed.

Rivermead Island is a grassy stretch of land reached by a small bridge. There are some very large trees on the island.

Large aeroplanes often flew over the ground on their way to or from Heathrow Airport.

For the players the hectic, but most enjoyable tour was over. Some were going home while others were visiting other parts of the UK or Europe first. For us, we moved from Hounslow to Sunbury on Thames to join the members of the Victorian over 60s team who had arrived for a tour of other counties in England. Our cricket holiday in England continues.