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Wormsley

Back in June I revealed that Wormsley featured in my trio of favourite cricket grounds. Sadly its future had been cast into the hazard by the Chancellor's controversial moving of the capital gains tax goalposts.

Since her husband's death in April 2003, Lady Victoria Getty had generously ensured that country house cricket continued in this sublime setting. Originally she was to have remained in possession until April 2010 but that date has had to be brought forward by two years to avoid a massive (but refreshingly legal) contribution to this Government's coffers. The Wormsley Estate will pass to Sir Paul's second son, Mark. A business entrepreneur of exceptional ability, he does not share his late father's passion for cricket and it was feared that Wormsley would stage only corporate hospitality six-a-side champagnefests.

It was a great relief to those attending a lunch in Lady Victoria's honour in the MCC Pavilion at Lord's this week when it became known that the declaration matches featuring Sir Paul's XI would continue, albeit in a reduced quantity.

Notables from the arts world mingled with famous former Test cricketers at Tuesday's Long Room lunch. In a warm and witty tribute before proposing Victoria's health and presenting her with a specially commissioned objet d'art featuring the Wormsley Ground, Sir Tim Rice thanked her late husband for creating an instant tradition.' Most cricketers who have visited the late Sir Paul Getty's cricket ground on his estate on the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border would happily never play cricket anywhere else. Set in a wooded valley within the Chilterns, it has every amenity money can buy and, with exceptional views on all four sides, it is unrivalled for natural scenic beauty. An imposing thatched pavilion commands a bank alongside a large marquee dispensing massive hospitality. Champagne and Pimms are served by waitresses to invited guests and the lunch interval, officially an hour, once stretched to 89 minutes when Dickie' Bird was umpiring.

Across the immaculate playing area, with its stripes perfectly mown by groundsman Simon Tremlin and his staff of one, is a neat thatched scorebox. Behind that is a hillside once decimated by a massive gale but now flourishing with 90,000 trees planted by Sir Paul. It must have been a shock to the nursery orders department when they took the phone call. Nesting down the valley are Spanish red kites, reintroduced to England from Wales by the RSPB. Thriving in their dream environment, the little devils have bred their way down to the New Forest.

It was through Brian Johnston that I met John Paul Getty II and subsequently became his cricket archivist. During the 1980s Johnners frequently began his first session of commentary each day by greeting my friend who overlooks Green Park.' At first he was rather evasive about the identity of this mysterious friend. If we hadn't known him better we might have suspected an intriguing liaison with one of the ladies who baked cakes for TMS. No such fun, sadly.

We were all taken aback when his mystery friend was revealed as Paul Getty and even more astonished to discover that this reclusive American millionaire was hooked on cricket. We had read over the years that he'd been hooked on just about everything else. Anyone who named a son Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramophone must have been severely trolleyed at the time. That was in the 1960s when he was at the height of his hippy, velvet kaftan period when he had held open house in his Moorish palace in Marrakesh. There he bravely hosted the Rolling Stones and met Mick Jagger.

When Paul moved to England in 1971, he lived close to Jagger in Chelsea's Cheyne Walk. It was Jagger who introduced him to cricket, took him to Lord's and inspired him to buy his first Wisden. In 1993 he bought the entire John Wisden Company. Besides much of Britain's threatened heritage, his boundless philanthropy embraced many cricket clubs and grounds, including a £1.6 million donation towards the new Mound Stand at Lord's. There, at all major matches, he could be seen hosting a variety of celebrities and former international players in his private box. By 2002 he was confined to a wheelchair, as was the legendary Australian all-rounder, Keith Miller. They would greet each other with: Here we are again, clinging to the wreckage!' Paul adored Keith and arranged for a private car to bring him to Lord's for all the major matches as well as to his private ground at Wormsley where he was always sat at the host's exclusive table in the pavilion corner of the 200-seater marquee of overwhelming hospitality. The latter proved to be a vital factor in his Eleven winning 52 and losing only 22 of their 142 matches.

10:28am Thursday 29th November 2007

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