Howzat!! (Antigua)

 

There are a few bucket list items which from time to time occupy the back of my mind... Cheese rolling down a hill in Gloucestershire (which probably won’t do my back any good), Playing poker with friends in Hong Kong, and until a few days ago watching England play cricket in the West Indies - which happily is a box now ticked.

Day 1, we took the tender ashore at Jolly Harbour and met our taxi driver for the day, the ever smiling Glen (Glenmoore Junior to give him his full title).

After picking up 3 young lads from Nottingham, we headed into our first view of the Antiguan interior. There’s an abundance of lush vegetation, fruit laden trees and lots of roadside wooden shacks. Shacks is a bit harsh, they’re nice wooden slatted houses with tin roofs. Possibly built with an attitude of: ‘we’ll have to build this again after the next hurricane’, so not many architectural flourishes other than a shady balcony up front.

There’s a fair few goats and cattle around. The cows, almost all accompanied by a white stork next to their grazing head, there to pick up any disturbed tit bits.

There’s also a fair bit of traffic on the way there, steadily growing as we neared the stadium.

We pass a long long queue of almost 100% English supporters as we arrive at the main gate.

Hopped out and thanked Glen, then off to find some tickets.

The ticket booth is a light green painted breeze block rectangle with 6 windows at head size and height.

I ask the ladies face on the other side of the glass what options there are:

$40USD Adult ticket

$60USD Adult ticket (more shade from sun)

$250USD Box, celebrities, all you can eat and drink.

We opted for 2 ‘more shades’ please.

The Nottingham boys had headed off by this stage to join the end of the queue. We simply walked to the gate, showed our tickets and headed in - really not sure why everyone was lining up.

It’s always nice entering a cricket ground, seeing the pitch for the first time - and this is a great spot - two large stands and two wide tiered grass areas. The pitch itself is a relatively small one, with a clear camber down towards all boundaries. We take our allocated seats and settle in to watch England (having won the toss) have a knock.

There is, as is often the way, a flurry of early wickets, not an ideal start from an England perspective, but it makes for an interesting spectacle regardless.

We tour the ground during lulls or breaks in play. There are lots of cheap barbecuing stalls and rum punch stands. The ground has a nice buzzing atmosphere, punctuated at the end of each over by four booty shaking young ladies dancing in colourful red and yellow skirts to loud thumping speakers in the middle of the ‘Party stand’. Competing with the dancing girl’s sound system on the opposite grassy bank is the Barmy Army and their trumpeter. I have to say, they’re actually quite impressive: on day 2 from just after lunch until tea they chanted ‘Joe Root’s! Barmy Army’ constantly and loudly - whenever the chant began to fade the trumpeter would whip them back into voice with a few well timed bars of encouragement and they’d once again be in full song.

The whole spectacle of the day was a joy to behold. We joined up with the Nottingham boys once again at the end of play and headed back in Glen’s minivan taxi. They were well lubricated from a day drinking in the sun, and we enjoyed a significantly louder journey back to Jolly Harbour than the one in the morning.

Both the tender and Serenity Now were exactly where we left them when we got back.

Decided that we’d had so much fun on day 1, that we should head along for day 2 too.

Before doing that though, we need to catch the bus to St. John’s (the main town) and try and get some booster Covid jabs. The small bus was waiting for us when we arrived, and he’s got the cricket on. As we head towards St. John’s we drop off and pick up various locals - with the bus driver asking ‘where g’wan?’ each time someone new appears. We take a couple of requested rural detours to drop people off, have a chat with the driver about the state of play, and eventually end up at the West bus station in St. John’s.

It’s a bustling little town, shops similar to the houses I’ve previously described, with more corrugated iron and some bright paint here and there. Lots of locals around - no whitey tourists except us.

We get pointed in the right direction for the ‘Multipurpose Centre’ a large exam hall/basketball court/poll station/theatre/conference centre.

We explain to a lady at the front desk that we’d like booster shots. From there we’re spilt - me going through a series of three processing ladies the last of whom jabbed me in the least hurty way possible. Chez however needed to jump through a few more hoops than me to get hers, there only being a record of her second shot on her Greek certificate - well after some begged for wifi, a check of the emails, she was able to provide the info they needed, and in turn they jabbed her accordingly.

After a quick supermarket stop, we walked through town to the East bus station, where once again a bus awaited us to take us along to the cricket.

From the previous days ticket purchasing, I realised that paying an extra $20 for a shady spot wasn’t really worth it as the whole ground is accessible and only half full - with this in mind I asked the head at the window for the cheapest ticket. This turned out to be only $20 USD... wish I’d known that yesterday.

The afternoon sessions were - from a cricket perspective - laborious. That said, it was proper test cricket, batsmen being stoic, the pitch giving nothing (yet) and the bowlers keeping it tight - not a 6 fest, but great to see none the less. It’s been a wonderful two days, but we agreed that unless something a little special happens for day 5, that’s probably enough cricket visits for the moment. There’s good coverage on the local radio, so won’t miss out.

At the end of play - well at close to the end of play with rain pouring down, we were once again joined by our fellow passengers from Nottingham, and after a short wait, during which time we realised just quite how drunk they were, our taxi and Glen arrives.

After a raucous journey back we part ways - they’re only here for a week, and seem to be having a great time.

As the sun set, using my phone as a torch in front, we made it back to the boat, and spent the evening watching one of our favourite shows ‘The Amazing Race’ - which had been put on hold for 19 months because of Covid concerns.

...and that was last night. Today we took the boat round to Hermitage Bay. There we listened to further slow progress at the cricket on the radio.

Day three ended with a defiant, and, quite possibly, soon to be victorious West Indies at 373 for 9 against England’s first innings total of 311 all out. Could swing either way from here, but needs a strong start by England in the morning.

That’s it for now. x