WHISPERING SMITH: Rubble bars the way to my sporting Paradise

I tried this walk last week and was so disappointed to find that the path was no longer a clearway. At the road bridge end, there are heaps of unsightly dumped hardcore and the tow path is overgrown with long grass, thistles and bindweed, making walking difficult.

I do not know who or what authority is responsible for keeping this a working footway, but I do intend to find out and do my level best to make it once again a local attraction of some rare beauty.

A LOT of folk find cricket boring and, sure, it does go on a bit longer than a football match, even in the shorter forms of the game – a bit slow maybe but, in the right company, never boring.

My favourite ground is Arundel Castle’s, probably the prettiest cricket ground in the world, set in a bowl, surrounded by woodland, a glimpse of the castle through the leaves and with its own bar and long room.

The game is not all about that old cliché of ‘the sound of leather hitting willow’, it’s about the people you are with.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon at Arundel, it may be only a hundred or so, but with martins and swallows clearing insects from the outfield, a pint of good ale, a sausage roll of majestic proportions on a paper plate, a dollop of English mustard, a chunk of lemon drizzle cake and good company sitting ’neath the horse chestnut tree, it is hard not to drift into a reverie and make believe you are in Paradise…

LOTS going on in LA over the next couple of weekends, with the Littlehampton Arts Week kicking off on Saturday, with a day of live music at the Festival in the Park on Caffyn’s Field.

A very busy week indeed, with my pick being the Arts in Harbour Park on July 26, including workshops and photographic displays and a chance to win a portrait of yourself by a top local LA photographer.

Check out the full programme in the Gazette’s special two-page feature, on pages 44/77.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW: LA’s last movie showing was 155 days ago and counting…