In the exhilarating event of Somerset managing to sneak past Surrey and being on their way to claim their first county cricket championship since the Norman Conquest – or since Vic Marks was playing – they would owe one of their captains from long ago, an eccentric gentleman by the name of Jack Meyer, a big debt of gratitude. Without Meyer it is unlikely that Somerset would have snared Archie Vaughan, the 18-year-old son of Michael and the hero of Somerset’s nerve-racking win over Surrey, the defending champions, last week.
The list of Millfield’s exceptional players, past and present, is eye- watering
Meyer, a firm believer in the power of sport to make lives better, founded Millfield School in 1935 after a spell planting tea in India, and since then it has churned out some of the finest sports people in the country. Cricket is its big calling card, fielding 17 teams across all abilities, with the Meyer all-star XI playing counties and university sides. Archie himself was captain of the Millfield first XI, which puts him easily at county standard.
The school’s facilities are all top class and my sources tell me that Millfield is pulling all the best 14- to 15-year-olds out of the state system as well as club cricket. The list of its exceptional players, past and present, is eye-watering but here are just a few: Will Smeed, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Simon Jones, Tony Lewis, Lewis Goldsworthy, David Graveney and Craig Kieswetter, whom I was lucky enough to share a cricket pitch with the other day and who can still whack the ball with the velocity of a space rocket. You could also field a pretty good rugby team from Millfield Old Boys, including J.P.R. Williams, Chris Robshaw, Mako Vunipola and Gareth Edwards.
Edwards was brought up in poverty, a miner’s son from Glamorgan who won a scholarship to Millfield, and is recognised as one of the greatest rugby players of all time. Without schools like Millfield and their belief in excellence, would he have ever made it to the top? You might also meet Lando Norris, the McLaren F1 driver chasing Max Verstappen to the chequered flag, at an old boys’ reunion. Oh, and Lily Allen, though sport probably wasn’t really her priority.
It has always baffled me why there aren’t more prestige match-play golf tournaments. The four stroke-play majors can get pretty tiresome as beefy guys from Texas whack the ball 350 yards down the middle of the fairway. The only drama usually comes at the end of day four. Contrast that with the tension and excitement of the three-day women’s Solheim Cup, which ended in a nail-biting win for America in Virginia last weekend. Women’s golf is far more interesting to watch than men’s anyway: the swings are better and more complete, and their game is more precise, graceful and usually more accurate.
Where else apart from match-play could you have seen the wonderful Charley Hull thrash the world No. 1, Nelly Korda, in the opening match of the singles to set up a riveting day? The next big match-play tournament is the President’s Cup, next week in Montreal, where the US take on the rest of the world (minus Europe). No one seems to care much about it: a women’s version, however, would be watched all over the world.
If you get a moment raise a glass of superstrength lager to the extraordinary darts wizard Luke Littler, who is still only 17. He might look as if he’s wandered off the set of the latest James Graham misery drama about the plight of the working class in some Red Wall seat, but put three darts in his hand and he rules the world. At the weekend, in front of several thousand riotous and roaring Dutch fans in Amsterdam, he won £80,000 and the World Series of Darts final, swiping all his opponents effortlessly aside. How do you get to be that good?
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