Garth Lawson's walk: Three-and-a-half miles around Shobdon

The pavilion sits disconsolate at the end of the grand beech-lined east drive, a latter-day folly.

Nearby are the Arches, the medieval remains of part of a church re-sited as a 17th-century folly. Just over the boundary are the church and Shobdon Court, home of the Corbett family, traditional cricket club patrons.

Below the court are Rookery, Swan and Canal Pool, which the traditional blacksmith might just about ripple with a heave from the pitch.

Rockery Pool

With an engaging hostelry, the Bateman Arms, half a mile further down the majestic south drive, it is an archetypal setting for the sound of willow on leather.

Shobdon played here at The Hayes between 1921 and 1970, when the clubrooms were housed in buildings adjacent to the court stable block.

One of the highlights was a game against Leintwardine when the visitors were all out for a total of two, and one of those, apparently, was a leg bye.

In the 1950s, a demon left-arm bowler called Ernie Smith came down from the Lancashire League to return a series of amazing bowling feats.

In true rustic fashion, captain of the club for about 23 years was Archdeacon Simpson, who was still invoking his team at the age of 75.

After that Jon Ammonds took over for about 21 years, but the club was disbanded in 1970 and the ground was returned to farmland. The club was to re-form, however, in 1984, playing in exile, first at Torvale, then in the Herefordshire League at the Grange in Leominster.

Following that, Shobdon made a welcome return to the familiar surroundings of The Hayes.

Now enjoying its heyday before the turn of the century, the club received a lottery grant and built its own pavilion. In April 1996 England player Graeme Hick brought his Worcestershire colleagues to “open” the pavilion.

By the time 2013 came around the picture was changing. Club stalwart Chris Ammonds announced that the club was facing closure after an appeal for help had fallen on deaf ears.

Shobdon resigned from the GB Liners Marches League in April and, sadly, in the September, Matt Teale, whose dad Terry was club chairman, and the fourth generation of Teales to represent Shobdon, said there was every likelihood that the field would be ploughed up the following week.

“We’re unable to field sides,” he said, “The writing has been on the wall for the past two or three seasons.”

Ammonds added: “We signed off with a win against Chaldon Cricket Club, got Matt and Andy Teale out of retirement for the day – and it was great to play a game at Shobdon with my six-year-old lad, Freddie.”

In a trend that mirrors the closure of country pubs, it is not just this village in the Marches that has lost its cricket team. In a by no means exhaustive list,

the likes of Bosbury, Bringsty, Dilwyn, Ewyas Harold, Ivington, Kimbolton, Marden, Merry Millers at Garway, Michaelchurch Escley, Pembridge, Peterchurch, Talgarth, Weobley (before joining others), and Withington have fallen by the wayside.

Cricket is no longer played at its traditional home in Hereford on Widemarsh Common, nor is there cricket on the King George playing fields, Holmer (now exclusively the home of Pegasus Football Club), the Essex Arms, or the racecourse where City Sports held sway for 30 years. If you throw in the towns of Knighton and Leominster – where you only had to shout down Etnam Street and a strapping fast bowler would come running – the prospects are looking bleak.

It was fitting that the last wicket at Shobdon was a run out contrived by former captain Ammonds and Matt Teale.

“It was an emotional day on Sunday,” said Teale. “We raised a glass and then locked the door.”

While England were capturing the imagination on the international stage in 2019, it seems that cricket at the local grass roots level may have got stuck in the nervous Nineties.

Does the folly on Hayes Field foreshadow the destiny of our village cricket?

Easy three-and-a-half mile walk around Shobdon.

Village, arable fields, cricket memories, stately drives and fine pools.

Map: OS Explorer 203, Ludlow.

The Route

1. Roadside parking in Shobdon. With your back to the Great War Memorial on the village green, with cider press, TL for 100m. Cross road to TR up School Lane, passing to the right of 1 Sunnyview. Pass through gate into field along Williams’ Walk, Shobdon Memorial Footpaths. Steer a little left along L edge, through walkers’ gate at field division. Cross arable field, now in Fuller’s Footsteps. Cross ditch, thus bearing R slightly up next arable field, just left of lone tree. Continue down through iron gate in corner, next to Canal Pool.
2. TL up surfaced drive, past flats at old Shobdon Court to St John the Evangelist church. At the intersection of drives, TR to put the old cricket pavilion on your left. (Shobdon Arches are ahead, up the grassy drive, if you want a little diversion.) Follow surfaced, tree-lined drive to the end. (TR to point 5 for short cut to reduce walk by one mile.)
3. At junction go straight ahead along country lane past Hopes Cottage. Opposite drive to Easthampton Farm, TR through gate into pasture. Stroll down, picking up L edge, through gap at field division, along L edge, behind TyCoed Cottage, to road. Go through gate, slightly R across busy road. Head down country lane.
4. Just before detached house, TR off lane, up bank into field. Proceed along bank above L edge. Go through gate, beneath trees, cross eddy and go up bank into arable field. TR along near edge.TL in corner and follow R edge of same field to find and cross stile in R corner. Follow avenue and grassy L edge of campsite to road, via Fullers Footsteps stile.
5. Cross road and stile between pillars and strike out across arable field, skirting to L of two spinneys and straight ahead under telegraph line, to go through gap in trees on far side of field. Arrive at Rookery Pool (R) and go through waymarked gate to reach Swan Pool. Pass between pools, favouring right, up minor embankment, through iron gate, to surfaced drive. (Near point 2.)
6. TL, still with lake views, down through four pillared gate to road at Shobdon. Cross and TR, past Bateman Arms and Methodist chapel to start point.