Berkshire's 1953 glory remembered

Cuthbertson was a left-arm fast-bowler for Berkshire

It is 55 years since Berkshire last won the Minor Counties Championship, but history could be made again this week when they play Lincolnshire in Newbury.

The four-day match starts on Sunday with the winners crowned champions.

Arthur Cuthbertson was a member of the 1953 side and told BBC Berkshire it was good to be in the headlines that year.

He said: "It was Coronation year and Hilary climbed Everest. And then there's Berkshire winning the Minor Counties Championship!"

The 81-year-old, who played his club cricket for Reading and also represented the army, was part of a squad of 16 that played for Berkshire throughout the summer.

Unlike their modern counterparts, the 1953 vintage did not have to go through an end of season play-off to decide the champions.

"That year was one of the few times where there was not a play-off, in other words a final game, which there is this year between Berkshire and Lincolnshire.

"The reason for that was that we'd already played - and beaten - the runners-up Buckinghamshire, so, therefore, we just became champions in our own right," Cuthbertson explained.

Berkshire also played out a draw against Buckingham that season, and it is that game which remains Cuthbertson's most vivid memory of the campaign.

"The game I really remember actually was when we played Bucks at High Wycombe," he added.

"They were skippered by Ben Barnett, who toured with the 1938 Australian side - he was the chap who, I think, dropped Len Hutton at the Oval when Len had got 50, and he went on to get 364.

"We then went on and won another couple of games and the Championship was ours."

The fielding is certainly better today. Personally, I don't think the batting and bowling is any better Arthur Cuthbertson, member of Berkshire's 1953 championship-winning team

Cuthbertson is still heavily involved with Berkshire cricket, coaching the county's Development XI, and he feels that the standard of play during his own career compares favourably with the modern game.

"We played on uncovered wickets, which were a little bit different - particularly if the sun came out and it had rained, the ball could do all sorts.

"The fielding is so much better today. I personally don't think the batting or bowling is any better," he said.

In some respects, however, the game has altered significantly.

"Certainly the big thing that's changed is the main cricket in those days - the better teams, or better cricket, to put it that way - was on Sundays.

"If you were playing for Surrey, or Essex, or any of them, and you hadn't got runs or wickets then you tended to play for your club on a Sunday and go all out."

Cuthbertson encountered some of the game's most famous figures during his lengthy career.

Cuthbertson is still actively involved with cricket in the Royal County

Foremost amongst these encounters was the time he faced Alec Bedser - the man who bowled Bradman with the ball the Don described as the best he had ever faced.

"The biggest lesson I ever had in my life - and I'd had a bit of success in the army and this and that - was in a benefit match for Jim Laker.

"I opened the bowling with Frank Pickett, who played for Dorset and the RAF, and when lunch came we hadn't got a ball stump high for about the last hour.

"As I walked off, somebody said to me, 'Arthur, what's the wicket like?' and I said, 'It's dead and needs a wreath on it!'

"I went out to bat later on, and Alec Bedser came on to bowl. The first ball he bowled me, I went forward and it hit me smack under the heart.

"He walked up the wicket with a smile on his face and said, 'Sonny, is it dead?'

"Now that is class, and I've never forgotten it."