A Preston cricket club had an unexpected visitor during their Saturday fixture as one man’s groundhopping quest can be revealed.
Peter Tomlins parked himself on a bench at Grimsargh Cricket Club in Whittingham Lane to see them take on Chorley.
And in doing so notched up his 738th cricket ground on his travels.
Read more: Longridge, Ribchester and Grimsargh Field Days – all you need to know
He’s aiming to get to 1,000 grounds visited ‘while he still can’ and is averaging up to 30 grounds each summer during the season.
The 66-year-old from Chester told Blog Preston: “It’s nice to get out and about and watch some cricket on a Saturday afternoon. I love the mystery of it all, you just never know where the games will go – particularly at this level.
“You get one score or one spell from a bowler and the whole thing will completely change.
“I’ve been right up into Cumbria and down towards Warwickshire too on my day trips.”
Peter keeps a logbook of each of the matches he sees and always travels by public transport.
He said: “I’ll get my bus pass this year so I am very much looking forward to that.”
Asked about his trip to Grimsargh he said: “It’s a nice ground this and I like how open it is, and a short walk from the bus stop too which was good.
“And there’s a tree on the pitch as well. It’s four runs if it’s hit by batter or bowler they were telling me which adds a bit of extra interest.”
Grimsargh Cricket Club’s first-team captain Dominic Gerencser said: “We got chatting while I was fielding out near the bench and I couldn’t believe it when he said we were the 738th ground to be visited and he’d come all that way.
“It was a shame we couldn’t get the win but I hope Peter enjoyed his trip to Grimsargh and also seeing the unique feature that is the tree on our ground. We wish him all the best on getting his total of 1,000 grounds up!”
This isn’t Peter’s first groundhopping effort. As a long-suffering Chester FC fan he was featured in the Chester Chronicle for his chronicling of his travels watching the Blues since the early 1970s and become a member of the ’92 Club’ when he visited all 92 grounds in the Football League.
