Bright lights, garish colours and silly names: My first experience of The Hundred

HUW TURBERVILL AT THE KIA OVAL: Loud music, plenty of enthusiasm and some poor shots. Everyone remembers their first time watching a new competition, and this was unforgettable for the right and wrong reasons

Do you remember your first time? 

Mine was Sussex v Middlesex at Hove in 1983 (my maiden professional cricket match, that is). My first Test was England v Australia at The Oval in 1985. My first T20 was on its very first night in 2003: Hampshire v Sussex at the Rose Bowl.

So here I was for my first ‘in the flesh’ taste of The Hundred, the ECB’s new tournament. The one that has so upset traditional and county cricket fans; that seems to force commentators to spontaneously combust live on air with the fabulousness of it all, but does seem to have piqued the interest of many youngsters.

Oval Invincibles (silly name) against Welsh Fire (a bit better).

My thesis coming to this wonderful old ground that I have probably spent more time at than any other is that the 100-ball format is not that much different to T20, and it’s true that the night did resemble that one 18 years ago. 

I was a representative of The Sunday Telegraph and went down to Hampshire’s ground in a minibus put on by the England and Wales Cricket Board. In it were several employees of the aforementioned organisation who gushed lyrically about their new baby – in much the same way Sanjay Patel has been ‘sharenting’ what he sees as the early highlights of this one.

My pre-match perambulation at the Kia Oval didn’t feel that different. There still looked to be a fair bit of booze being sold.

The crowd was decent: 10,193 for the women’s match (then up to 21,279 for the men’s – up from the 18,000 here for the opening night against Manchester Originals).

There were perhaps fewer Surrey members, we speculated: out of the 4,000 seats allocated for them in the pavilion and Galadari Stand, only 2,000 were taken for the opening night against the Originals. That is despite the dearth of cricket they have been allowed to watch in the last two summers because of the pandemic.

Their patience is wearing thin actually – Gus Atkinson is the latest to be seconded from Surrey. He is now playing for Southern Brave. That makes it nine of their players in The Hundred: Atkinson, Jordan Clark, Tom Curran, Jade Dernbach, Laurie Evans, Will Jacks, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy and Reece Topley. Ben Foakes and Jamie Overton are injured. Rory Burns, Sam Curran and Ollie Pope were in it but are now with England. Remarkably Surrey have still beaten Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup (remember that competition?).

So what was it like when the men’s match started?

Anybody with an ounce of cricket knowledge would have been disappointed when Tom Banton (2) departed. When Josh Cobb pulled Reece Topley for six there were some serious decibels – spectators certainly seemed to want to enjoy it. There was a big ‘crowd catch’ to Saqib Mahmood’s first ball, suggesting that the ECB might have got their wish for a few more newbies than usual to be here.

The Welsh Fire total of 121 seemed pretty ordinary. Ben Duckett scored most of them (65), and cuts powerfully, although we knew that already. Tom Curran – looking like Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn with his headband – bowled well.

The first three ‘Invincibles’ all swatted the ball high into the air and were caught at mid-on or mid-off.

^{The Hundred has produced the full entertainment experience}

The Fire’s ‘celebappeal’ for the stumping of Colin Ingram off Qais Ahmed was a classic of the genre.

The Invincibles’ win was never really in doubt as long as their classy captain, Sam Billings, stayed in. Laurie Evans also flexed his muscles at the end.

I can honestly say that the cricket highlight of the evening was Katie George’s catch to dismiss Invincibles’ skipper Dane Van Niekerk, however.

There were some jarring sights – the traditional scoreboards were not in use. The DJ booth with its purple and limelights looked incongruous in the shadow of the classical Archbishop Tenison’s School. At least The Oval playing surface and the illuminated pavilion both looked sumptuous.

The bowling figures still take some working out. For instance, Sunil Narine’s 20 balls cost 19 runs, which in my head I have to convert to 3.2 overs for 19 – which was decent. I wonder if Mike Atherton is right and they will switch to T20 in due course.

My word the music was loud – not good for those with a hangover. The acoustics were terrible, and none of the journalists in my row could identify who was singing. There was also a man near me who kept standing up and making raucous whooping noises, which was irritating.

^{The Invincibles prevailed against Fire}

The other older people sitting nearby honestly didn’t look that absorbed, as if they were there under sufferance for the sake of their kids – who did look genuinely excited. I couldn’t get that wrapped up in the ephemeral nature of it all, but then it’s not for me apparently. The free nosh was good, though: chicken, mushroom and tarragon pie (narrowly pipping fish pie, and veggie chilli). Again, the ECB have spared no expense.

Who can forget Julie Andrews singing My Favourite Things in The Sound of Music?

Among mine are the pavilion at Hove with its many pictures, especially those of Imran Khan and Tony Greig; the giant, manual scoreboard and the old-school wooden Frank Woolley Stand at Canterbury; and catching the train down from London to Chelmsford and meeting my best friend from Suffolk for a pint as we watch Essex.

If the bright lights, garish colours and silly names of The Hundred float the boat of the next generation, then counties only have themselves to blame after letting the genie out of the bottle and voting it in.