DOCSLIB.ORG

Keeper of the City's Treasures

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Keeper of the City's Treasures SPRING 2020 A HIVE OF INDUSTRY Museum of Making gets ready for autumn opening THRILLS AND SKILLS The team designing the world’s top theme parks KEEPER OF THE CITY’S TREASURES Old Bell saviour’s rescue plan for world-famous store CELEBRATING THE CREATIVITY AND SUCCESS OF BUSINESSES IN DERBY AND DERBYSHIRE IT’S A FACT DID YOU KNOW THAT 11.8% WELCOME TO INNOVATE - A WINDOW INTO THE AMAZING AND INSPIRING DERBY OF DERBY’S WORKFORCE AND DERBYSHIRE BUSINESS SECTOR. BROUGHT TO YOU BY MARKETING DERBY, ARE IN HIGH-TECH ROLES? INNOVATE WILL SHOWCASE THE WORK OF BRILLIANT BONDHOLDERS AND LOCAL THAT’S 4X THE COMPANIES AND PROFILE THE TALENTED INDIVIDUALS LEADING THEM. ENJOY! NATIONAL AVERAGE. 2 SPRING 2020 3 CONTENTS 16 CONTRIBUTORS Star performers! How some of the world's biggest music stars are helping Derbyshire achieve cricketing success. Steve Hall Writing and editing: Steve Hall has worked in the media for more than 35 years and is a former Editor and Managing Director of the Derby Telegraph. He has won numerous industry awards, including UK 06 24 Newspaper of the Year Safe in his hands Riding high! and UK Editor of the Year. Paul Hurst has already rescued The creative business that He now runs his own the historic Old Bell Hotel - now theme parks all over the media consultancy. he's bringing back the world's globe are turning to for oldest department store. thrills and skills. 52Silk Mill - a glimpse behind the scenes 40 48 50 Andy Gilmore We take a look at progress as Derby's impressive new Breathing new life £200 million scheme Shaping up Museum of Making shapes up for its September opening. into heart of city takes a giant step for the future Design: Andy Gilmore Developers begin work Planners give their backing We look at the schemes is a creative designer on creating 800 homes at to proposals to reinvigorate that are set to transform with 12 years experience historic former hospital site. eyesore city site life in Derby city centre. in the design industry. Currently working at Katapult, Andy has worked internationally with some of the world's 62 70 76 biggest brands. We'll drink to that! Healthy ambitions 300 years of evidence Spring water company reveals Bosses at exciting new city John Forkin explains why Derby ambitious plans - after seven fitness studio want to open and Derbyshire can justifiably generations doing business dozens more operations claim to be the UK Capital of on same site. across the UK. Innovation. Ian Hodgkinson News The Last Word Images: Ian Hodgkinson 08/12/78 79 has been capturing Derbyshire life in pictures for 16 years. He's a former Deputy Picture Produced for Marketing Derby by Editor of the Derby 32 Want to get in touch? Email us at: Telegraph and now runs Talking Business - Beyond the 2020 vision [email protected] his own photography Derbyshire business leaders chat economic prospects, Brexit, business, PictureIt Media. skills, climate change and digital disruption. 4 SPRING 2020 5 PAUL HURST HAS ALREADY SAVED ONE OF DERBY’S MOST HISTORIC BUILDINGS FROM RUIN. NOW HE’S INTENT ON RESCUING THE WORLD’S OLDEST DEPARTMENT STORE. Paul Hurst’s face lights “There will be a gin bar in there. “We’ve lost so many fabulous up as he describes what There will be hair and beauty. buildings in the city and so much There will be fashion shows. There of our heritage but it’s never been customers can expect will be live painting and art classes. more important to have that when he relaunches heritage because people want the world’s oldest “There will be a lot of things experiences now,” he says. department store. happening every time you go in that you can engage with to “When they go out shopping, It won’t just be about make sure you stay a long time for a meal or a drink, they want shopping, Paul reveals. and want to keep coming back. experiences. It will be much more “There will be a fabulous food “People want to have that selfie, of an experience, hall. I looked at the original food that perfect Instagram picture. with features and hall and it’s given me all kinds People will specifically come to our entertainment designed of ideas for going forward. I’m Tudor Bar at The Old Bell to have a to drive visitors through dead excited. I have to check picture taken with a whisky by the myself because I want to share fire. You have to think about every the doors, keep them everything.” room and about whether there there and entice them is something in it that you would back time and time Most ordinary business people want to put on Instagram.” again. confronted with an opportunity to take on a failed department This brave new world, where Paul is the Derby lad who is on store, in a challenging building commerce mixes with theatre, a mission to rescue Bennetts, the and an even more challenging is a long way from Paul’s city institution which lost its way retail climate, would walk quickly career roots in engineering – and crashed into administration away. “that background gave me a last year. methodical thought process and But Paul, of course, is no ordinary that has always served me well” He is a huge enthusiast for the city business person. – and as a trouble-shooter for the and its heritage and is bursting to world’s largest printing company. share his plans with the world – but, He’s already transformed with obvious difficulty, is holding Derby’s historic The Old Bell Even in those days Paul was himself back until the right moment Hotel from closed-down, falling a travelling ambassador for his within his marketing plan. down wreck to vibrant, successful home city. business – and now, with Bennetts I coax harder … and he cracks. as well, he is fast becoming “I just love what Derby does and A little! Derby’s Restoration Man. we are shocking at promoting 6 SPRING 2020 7 1 2 PAUL HURST ENJOYS THE AMBIANCE OF THE ‘NEW’ OLD BELL. 3 4 ourselves,” he says. a three-year, £1.3 million rescue million pounds just to make the The attic rooms, that offered know what you are going to get. of work which, alone, cost £30,000. project. place wind and watertight. cheaper accommodation and It was full of surprises – some nice, “All the years I used to travel were often home to loud and like when you uncover a fireplace, “The city council said it would around in my print job, I’d visit What he had purchased was But he was determined that a rowdy guests, had remained some pretty horrendous, like when help with a grant and we got the places where no-one had heard a grade II-listed coaching inn, building with such a rich history untouched for hundreds of years you discover the floor is completely restoration done. The pay-off is of Derby and I would tell them constructed in 1650, and, at the should be restored to its former and some still had their original rotten and needs to be replaced,” that when people now go into that how amazing the city is. We don’t time, considered to be one of the glories. numbers on the doors. says Paul. room, they just say ‘wow’. talk about it enough and push finest examples outside London. ourselves enough.” In its heyday, The Old Bell was The building had welcomed all He is grateful for the support he “The council also helped us with But what Paul actually got his a major stopping off point for kinds of visitors. In 1745, some of received from Derby City Council, the front windows of the pub. They His first foray into Derby’s leisure hands on was a crumbling, stagecoaches travelling all over Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops were advising on the conservation work all had to be taken out, numbered, sector came when he bought Café decaying hulk. the country and for mail coming in billeted in the upper rooms. In required and pointing him in the taken away, restored and then put B, on Sadler Gate, and then moved from across the world. the 1960s, John Lennon and Paul direction of grants he could access back in,” says Paul. across the street to Sadlergates. “It had been shut for a couple of McCartney called in for a drink. to help with the cost of repairs. But, although things were good, years before we bought it but it It had more than 50 hotel There have been other, smaller Paul’s head was turned by a had been neglected for a long rooms and had seven bars and And, for many years, the Tudor Bar “To be fair to the council, they were discoveries during this labour boarded-up, rundown building that time before that,” he recalls. restaurants on site. was the smoke-filled room where very good at holding our hand of love that have also left Paul he would pass each day as he Derby’s judges, politicians and and taking us through the process. amazed. made his way into work. “A lot of the rooms had been But it wasn’t just a coaching inn. police officers would gather to plot They also bought into the vision sealed up and left. There was Over the years, the building was the city’s future. and understood that this project “We pulled some floorboards up It was The Old Bell Hotel.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cassandra Willoughby's Visits to Country Houses
    Elizabeth Hagglund, ‘Cassandra Willoughby’s visits to country houses’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XI, 2001, pp. 185–202 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2001 CASSANDRA WILLOUGHBY’S VISITS TO COUNTRY HOUSES ELIZABETH HAGGLUND n , Cassandra Willoughby, a young woman of father and her late marriage, enabling her to travel I , began a series of journeys with her younger more widely than the majority of her contemporaries. brother Thomas. She recorded the details of her travels in a small notebook and continued to do so until , although after her marriage in her diary entries were largely restricted to a record of EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY moves between her husband’s estate in Edgware and Cassandra Willoughby was born at Middleton, their home in London. Warwickshire on April , the second child and The keeping of diaries and travel journals was only daughter of Francis Willoughby, by his wife, becoming fashionable at the time, and it was common formerly Emma Barnard. Her elder brother, Francis, for anyone travelling to record their impressions, had been born in ; her younger brother, even if they did so only for their own future Thomas, was born in . Middleton is near recollection. Books of instruction to travellers Tamworth, and the manor of Middleton had been in emphasised the importance of keeping records. The the family since . Middleton Hall, ‘a delicate and traveller ‘must alwayes have a Diary about him,’ wrote a delightful house’, according to Dugdale, is a James Howell, ‘when he is in motion of Iourneys ... medieval house, thinly classicised, and was the For the Penne maketh the deepest furrowes, and doth Willoughbys’ principal seat, although considerably fertilize, and enrich the memory more than anything less imposing than their secondary seat at Wollaton.
    [Show full text]
  • BRAND NAME PRODUCTS Branded Male Marketing to Men.Pdf
    Branded Male hb aw:Branded Male 15/1/08 10:10 Page 1 BRANDED MALE Mark Tungate is the “Tungate dissects the social trends that have been shaping the male consumer across a Men are not what they were. In article after author of the variety of sectors in recent years… Provides insights on how brands can tackle the article we’re told a new type of man is bestselling Fashion business of engaging men in a relevant way – and the influential role that the women in abroad – he’s more interested in looking Brands, as well as the their lives play.” good and he’s a lot keener on shopping. highly acclaimed Carisa Bianchi, President, TBWA / Chiat / Day, Los Angeles Adland: A Global Branded Male sets out to discover what History of Advertising, “Finally a book that uses humour, examples and clever storytelling to shed a new light on makes men tick as consumers and how both published by male trends. Helps us approach male consumers as human beings and not simply as products and services are effectively Kogan Page. Based in marketing targets.” branded for the male market. Using a day Photography: Philippe Lemaire Paris, he is a journalist in the life of a fictional “branded male”, specializing in media, marketing and Roberto Passariello, Marketing Director, Eurosport International Mark Tungate looks at communication. Mark has a weekly column BRANDED male-orientated brands and their in the French media magazine Stratégies, “Ideas, advice and insights that will help anyone aiming to get messages across marketing strategies in areas as diverse as: and writes regularly about advertising, style to men.” and popular culture for the trends David Wilkins, Special Projects Officer, Men’s Health Forum • grooming and skincare; intelligence service WGSN and the • clothes; magazine Campaign.
    [Show full text]
  • From the World's First Factory, to a Museum of Making
    From the world’s first factory, to a Museum of Making Derby’s rich history and heritage is going to be celebrated in 2020 on the site of the world’s first factory, when the city opens a major new £17m museum. Run by Derby Museums, the Museum of Making - in the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site - will be a contemporary space telling Derby’s 300-year history of innovation and “making”. It will also be aimed, partly, at inspiring new creativity. Designed and made by the people and industries of Derby it will become a focal point for a dynamic calendar of exhibitions, workshops, activities and events. Revealing the whole building to the public for the very first time, the new Museum will display over 50,000 objects including the Rolls-Royce Eagle Engine, which helped power the first transatlantic flight 100 years ago in June 1919. This concept has been developed by Derby Museums in collaboration with the local community, it will help to shape the way in which Derby is understood and appreciated - thanks to the long list of innovators, makers and creators associated with the city. The Silk Mill of John and Thomas Lombe itself is believed to be the world’s first factory. The silk throwing machines in this building were based on machines studied by John Lombe in Italy - the designs of these having been copied and smuggled into England in an early example of industrial espionage. The layout of the mills, with a large number of people in two buildings doing a number of processes, was the prototype for the modern factory and was a model for the later textile mills built for Arkwright and partners 50 years later.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future of Derby Museums Service a Review of Alternative
    Ab Derby City Council The Future of Derby Museums Service A Review of Alternative Governance Models August 2011 CONTENTS 1. PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW ..................................................................................................1 2. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE REVIEW ....................................................2 3. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................5 4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................................................7 5. POLICY BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................13 6. LOCAL AUTHORITY MUSEUMS IN THE NATIONAL CONTEXT .......................................17 7. OVERVIEW OF DERBY MUSEUMS SERVICE ....................................................................22 Deleted: 30 8. ALTERNATIVE GOVERNANCE MODELS...........................................................................24 Deleted: 40 9. FEEDBACK FROM KEY STAKEHOLDERS.........................................................................24 Deleted: 45 10. EVALUATION OF GOVERNANCE MODELS.......................................................................24 Deleted: 46 11. FINANCIAL OVERVIEW .......................................................................................................24 Deleted: 50 12. THE NDPO GOVERNANCE MODEL....................................................................................24 Deleted: 59
    [Show full text]
  • Soho Depicted: Prints, Drawings and Watercolours of Matthew Boulton, His Manufactory and Estate, 1760-1809
    SOHO DEPICTED: PRINTS, DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS OF MATTHEW BOULTON, HIS MANUFACTORY AND ESTATE, 1760-1809 by VALERIE ANN LOGGIE A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History of Art College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham January 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis explores the ways in which the industrialist Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) used images of his manufactory and of himself to help develop what would now be considered a ‘brand’. The argument draws heavily on archival research into the commissioning process, authorship and reception of these depictions. Such information is rarely available when studying prints and allows consideration of these images in a new light but also contributes to a wider debate on British eighteenth-century print culture. The first chapter argues that Boulton used images to convey messages about the output of his businesses, to draw together a diverse range of products and associate them with one site. Chapter two explores the setting of the manufactory and the surrounding estate, outlining Boulton’s motivation for creating the parkland and considering the ways in which it was depicted.
    [Show full text]
  • NEDIAS Newsletter No. 29 February 2008
    North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society NEDIAS Newsletter No. 29 – February 2008 Price: £1.00 (Free to Members) Contents: Chairman’s Comments ............................................................................... 1 Meetings Diary ............................................................................... 2 Excavations at The Moor, Sheffield ............................................................................... 3 The industrial archaeology debate ............................................................................... 3 NEDIAS Archives ............................................................................... 4 Industrial sites in Chesterfield – Fieldwork ............................................................................... 8 Project Derbyshire Archaeology Day ............................................................................... 9 IA News and Notes ............................................................................. 11 ….. And Finally ............................................................................. 12 Chairman’s Comments: As members who attended the January talk will be aware, thanks to the efforts of Les Mather and David Palmer, we are now making progress with the oft discussed survey of industrial buildings in the Chesterfield area. The main topic for January, Malcolm Dungworth’s talk on Sheffield automobile manufacturing was so well received, we are currently discussing his return visit for January 2009. Both auger well for the coming year but,
    [Show full text]
  • “Service Innovation: Managing Innovation from Idea Generation to Innovative Offer”
    “Service Innovation: Managing Innovation from Idea Generation to Innovative Offer” Date: August 2010 Author: A.H. (Hanneke) Vos University of Twente Faculty of Management and Governance Master thesis, Business Administration, Service Management Track Supervisory committee Internal supervisors: prof.dr.ir. L.J.M. Nieuwenhuis, University of Twente prof.dr. C.P.M. Wilderom, University of Twente External supervisor: F.D. Spaargaren Msc Exser, Dutch centre for service innovation prof.dr. F. Kwakman, Nyenrode Business University dr. M.J. Flikkema, VU Amsterdam Project initiator: Exser, Dutch centre for service innovation Page 1 van 91 Abstract This descriptive report has explored the relation between management in service firms, service characteristics and firm characteristics during the innovation processes of service firms operating at the Dutch market. The research items have been profiled on the basis of a theoretical review of the service management literature. Differences in definitions, typologies, approaches, schools of thought, characteristics, innovation types, dominant innovation motives, service design, organizational features and management have been considered, and it is proposed that the organization of an innovation process within service firms is contingent with the type of service offered. The report concentrates on the relation between service firm characteristics, service characteristics and management aspects of the innovation process within service firms. In order to highlight these differences, the service framework of Slivestro et al. 1992, extended with a new description “installation service” and the innovation descriptions of the community innovation survey (CIS) extended with the new description “recombinatorial innovation” are used to guide the research activities. Research in service innovation is highly relevant since great changes take part in this growing industry.
    [Show full text]
  • BHS Catalogue 1
    BHS Catalogue Author, Compiler or Title Publisher Recipes and Quotations. 19th Annual sale of work 1910 Haynes, Mrs John A Textile Community in the Industrial Revolution Power, E.G. A Textile Community in the Industrial Revolution Power, E.G. A Textile Community in the Industrial Revolution Power, E.G. Herbert Strutt School 1909-1959. Sutton, Roland Herbert Strutt School 1909-1959. Sutton, Roland Herbert Strutt School 1909-1959. Sutton, Roland HistoryDerbyshire. of Derby The Peak& District Country affiliated Free Mee, Arthur. Churches Alger B A M Memorials of J. Horner Jenkins, First Vicar of Hazlewood Bland, William. The Official Guide to Belper History of the Fifth Battalion the Sherwood Foresters, Notts and Derby Regiment Grave, L.W. de Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire. Vol 1 Cox, Charles J. Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire. Vol 2 Cox, Charles J. Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire. Vol 3 Cox, Charles J. Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire. Vol 4 Cox, Charles J. The Ancient Customs of Derbyshire Porteous, Crichton Notes on the History of the County Borough of Derby, for exhibition at Derby Art Gallery Hanbury, W.H. The Evolution of Industry D M McGregor Flora of Derbyshire: flowering plants, higher Linton, William cryptogams, mosses and hepatics Richardson The Medieval Village Coulton, G.G. Memories of Paris, 1914-1919 Vincent, Mary 1 BHS Catalogue Author, Compiler or Title Publisher Memories of Paris, 1914-1920 Vincent, Mary Memories of Paris, 1914-1921 Vincent, Mary The story of the shire being the lore, history & evolution of English county Institutions Hackwood, Frederick W.
    [Show full text]
  • The Derbyshire General Infirmary and The
    Medical History, 2000, 46: 65-92 The Derbyshire General Infirmary and the Derby Philosophers: The Application of Industrial Architecture and Technology to Medical Institutions in Early-Nineteenth-Century England PAUL ELLIOTT* Though there have been various studies ofhospital architecture, few have examined in detail the application of industrial technology to medical institutions in the Enlightenment and early-nineteenth-century periods.' This paper tries to rectify this by offering a case study of one hospital, the Derbyshire General Infirmary (1810), where, principally under the inspiration of the cotton manufacturer, William Strutt FRS (1756-1830), a deliberate attempt was made to incorporate into a medical institution the latest "fireproof' building techniques with technology developed for * Paul Elliott, School of Geography, University of medicine in Manchester, 1788-1792: hospital Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 reform and public health services in the early 2RD. industrial city', Med. Hist., 1984, 28: 227-49; F N L Poynter (ed.), The evolution of hospitals in I am grateful to Desmond King-Hele, Jonathan Britain, London, Pitman Medical, 1968; L Prior, Barry, Anne Borsay, William F Bynum and John 'The architecture of the hospital: a study of Pickstone for their helpful criticisms, and to John spatial organisation and medical knowledge', Br Pickstone for sending me copies of a couple of J. Sociol., 1988, 39: pp. 86-113; H Richardson his papers. (ed.), English hospitals, 1660-1948: a survey of their architecture and design, Swindon, Royal 'B Abel-Smith, The hospitals 1880-1948: a Commission on the Historical Monuments of study in social administration in England and England, 1998; E M Sigsworth, 'Gateways to Wales, London, Heinemann, 1964; A Berry, death? Medicine, hospitals and mortality, 'Patronage, funding and the hospital patient c.
    [Show full text]
  • Brassington Conservation Area Appraisal
    Brassington Conservation Area Appraisal January 2008 BRASSINGTON CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL page Summary 1 1. Brassington in Context 2 2 Origins & Development 3 • Topography & Geology • Historic Development 3. Archaeological Significance 13 4. Architectural and Historic Quality 15 • Key Buildings • Building Materials & Architectural Details 5. Setting of the Conservation Area 44 6. Landscape Appraisal 47 7. Analysis of Character 60 8. Negative Factors 71 9. Neutral Factors 75 10. Justification for Boundary 76 • Recommendations for Amendment 11. Conservation Policies & Legislation 78 • National Planning Guidance • Regional Planning Guidance • Local Planning Guidance Appendix 1 Statutory Designations (Listed Buildings) Sections 1-5 & 7-10 prepared by Mel Morris Conservation , Ipstones, Staffordshire ST10 2LY on behalf of Derbyshire Dales District Council All photographs within these sections have been taken by Mel Morris Conservation © September 2007 i BRASSINGTON CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL List of Figures Fig. 1 Aerial Photograph Fig. 2 Brassington in the Derbyshire Dales Fig. 3 Brassington Conservation Area Fig. 4 Brassington - Enclosure Map (inset of town plan) 1808 Fig. 5 First edition Ordnance Survey map of 1880 Fig. 6 Building Chronology Fig. 7 Historic Landscape Setting Fig. 8 Planning Designations: Trees & Woodlands Fig. 9 Landscape Appraisal Zones Fig. 10 Relationship of Structures & Spaces Fig. 11 Conservation Area Boundary - proposed areas for extension & exclusion Fig. 12 Conservation Area Boundary Approved January 2008 List of Historic Illustrations & Acknowledgements Pl. 1 Extract from aerial photograph (1974) showing lead mining landscape (© Derbyshire County Council 2006) Pl. 2 Late 19th century view of Well Street, Brassington (reproduced by kind permission of Tony Holmes) Pl. 3 Extract from Sanderson’s map of 20 Miles round Mansfield 1835 (by kind permission of Local Studies Library, Derbyshire County Council) Pl.
    [Show full text]
  • River Derwent: Darley Abbey to Derby
    PADDLING TRAIL River Derwent: Darley Abbey to Derby Key Information This is a nice straightforward short paddle, through a revived city centre on an easy river. The start and finish are almost out in the countryside, and the city centre from the river is very pleasant. Start: Car Park, Poplar Portages: 1 Weir For more Row, Darley Abbey, Time: 1 - 2 Hours information DE22 1DU Distance: 3 Miles scan the QR Finish: Pride Park, OS Map: Explorer 259 Derby code or visit Derby County F.C. bit.ly/Darley- DE24 8XL Abbey 1. Put in down the bank, below the shallows at the bottom of the weir and turn right, towards Derby city centre. 2. The river is quite narrow and overhung by trees, creating a green tunnel in summer. After the first mile the suburbs crowd in and a quiet stretch leads to a road bridge before the busy inner ring road bridge. 3. Once under this, the paddler is in the middle of Derby, and on the right bank is a former Silk Mill, now restored and a tourist attraction. A pleasant, more open part of the river is crossed by a new and modern pedestrian bridge. On your right is Derby Cathedral, with new flats on the left and paths either side of the river. 4. After the next road bridge, the river broadens out into a lake, with County Council buildings on the right bank and much open ground. There are many ducks and geese. This is a favorite walking, lounging and picnicking space and also a possible egress.
    [Show full text]
  • The Big Three Era Starts
    151 editions of the world’s most famous sports book WisdenEXTRA No. 12, July 2014 England v India Test series The Big Three era starts now Given that you can bet on almost anything these most recent book was a lovely biography of Bishan days, it would have been interesting to know the odds Bedi – a stylist who played all his international cricket on the first Test series under N. Srinivasan’s ICC before India’s 1983 World Cup win and the country’s chairmanship running to five matches. (Actually, on wider liberalisation. Since then, the IPL has moved the reflection, let’s steer clear of the betting issue.) But goalposts once again. Menon is in an ideal position to certainly, until this summer, many assumed that – examine what Test cricket means to Indians across the barring the Ashes – the five-Test series was extinct. Yet, social spectrum. here we are, embarking on the first since 2004-05 – The Ranji Trophy has withstood all this to remain when England clung on to win 2–1 in South Africa. the breeding ground for Indian Test cricketers. Although Not so long ago, five- or even six-match series it has never commanded quite the same affection as between the leading Test nations were the core of the the County Championship, it can still produce its fair calendar. Sometimes, when it rained in England or share of romance. We delve into the Wisden archives someone took an early lead in the subcontinent, the to reproduce Siddhartha Vaidyanathan’s account of cricket could be dreary in the extreme.
    [Show full text]