The Vauxhall End

The naming of this end of the pitch at Surrey's Kensington Oval ground is often wrongly attributed to an incident during the England v West Indies Test Match of 1966, when the hosts, desperate for a wicket, brought Geoffrey Boycott into the bowling attack for a rare spell, only to see Garfield Sobers thump the very first ball into the players' car park and through the windscreen of Boycott's brand new Vauxhall Astra.

In fact the name dates back almost twenty years previously, when during a 1948 County Championship match between Surrey and Hampshire, Alec Bedser delivered several balls from the open window of a moving Vauxhall Wyvern. The tactic was abandoned after the umpire warned Bedser for encroaching on the pitch with the right rear wheel in his follow-through.

The escapade led to the addition to the rule-book of Law 168.32 “Automotive Vehicles and the Field of Play” which of course we are all nowadays so familiar with.