Leyton County Ground

[IlfordEagle]

A good article, always enjoyed Leyton as it used to be my local ground, many a school holiday spent there& Keith Boyce (the local hero) invariably produced something special. As we won't get to play at Stratford after all this may be a good replacement.

[oldhasbeen]

Apparently Waltham Forest Council are tarting the ground up with a view to hosting pro cricket.

Hopefully it will come off as the pavilion is a historic building that should be used for what it was designed for.

I'd love to see it happen, Essex's LEyton festival was a a major hihglight of so many of my teenage summers. Anyone else remember the 29 wickets in a day (v Northants), 23 wickets in a day (v Warwicks), us managing to lose against kent after bowling them out for under 100, Brian Edmeades 160-odd & Ray East 89 no in the same game.... makes me go all soggy and weak in the knees with nostalgai.

Even though Leyton is a far more inconvenient place for me to get to than Chelmsford, I'd really make the effort to see games there. 

[smandlej]

My abiding memory isn't batting or bowling, but Michael Bear crashing into the metal signs round the boundary when making a very modern-day attempt to stop a four.

Lynda

[IlfordEagle]

Again mentioning the great Keith Boyce, I can never forget his huge (& I do mean huge ) 6 against Derby, I think, thst was some hit, also he first began to run round the boundary scoop the ball up & return it perfectly flat & low right over the stumps time after time - absolutely superb, something that John Lever also did very well.
Robin Hobbs used to bowl very well there as did Ray East, oh such happy days, crowds were also pretty good even for the CC.

[Blocky]

Great thread.  I've had it on good authority that the local community uses it for an Islamic school.  Make of that what you will.

5 years ago, I did a security job looking after the artists at a pop festival that the Council put on there.  the main stage was away from the pavilion and the square was still there, covered up, but Leyton County had gone under so a Bangladeshi league was using the ground , but not regularly.

The caretaker was a really nice chap and showed me round the pavilion and they have a great little "museum" with some superb photo's of the  Australian and I think West Indies visits to the grounds way back in the days of yore.
I think Sutcliffe and Hobbs also scored a lot of runs against Essex (is that correct folks?), but it's a fantastic place and on the Friday before it all (the job) started I had a nice little 30 mins sitting on the pavilion steps and thinking that Bradman had walked where I was sitting.
Fantastic moment for me personally.
I'd love to see Essex play there again, but I reckon the pitch would really need some work.  The far end of the ground is(or certainly was) in some state of disrepair, but nothing that a good bunch of volunteers couldn't put right.

Bring it on!

[feralkitten]

It looks like the Essex Women's team are playing at Leyton on 16th June with two T20 games.  Waltham Forest Council seem sure that the ground will be fully ready for use this summer.  If so, I think I'll pop along.