| As we publish his new book Adventures in the Wine Trade, Ben Howkins remembers high jinks in the Douro with a couple of legendary cricketers and a motley (if enthusiastic) collection of wine professionals |
| The cricket pitch at the Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club in Oporto has seen many stalwart players taking their cricket and their port very seriously. Some years ago there took place an historic encounter. Tim Stanley-Clark, who represented the Symington portfolio of ports in the UK, persuaded his friend David Gower, the then English Test Cricket captain, to bring his touring team to Oporto to play against the English port trade. Allan Lamb, middle-order batsman and lynchpin of the England side for 10 years, as well as the well-known TV actor Dennis Waterman, were there. In the end, the two teams were captained by Gower and Lamb. I played on Gower’s team. The match went back and forth and I honestly can’t remember who won, but chilled white port did very well. The next day we took the scenic train from Oporto to the Douro. Naturally Messrs Gower and Lamb had brought their bats with them; tennis balls appeared from nowhere and, after draining a few bottles of Bollinger, suddenly we had three stumps. As train wound its way along the beautiful river, play commenced. In the old Douro trains (this was the end of the 1980s) the corridor ran through all the carriages, to the guard’s van at the end. The bowler sashayed past, gathering speed, ready to deliver – and the shock on the faces of the unsuspecting passengers was wonderful to behold. None of us has ever forgotten this episode. I wondered how I could explain a slight bruise on my forehead to my wife: bowled by Lamb, hit by Gower? More was to follow. On arrival at Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos, the sporting instinct was undimmed in our captains, and they wasted no time. In this case, they attempted to throw oranges from the terrace of the quinta into the River Douro. It’s not an easy feat – it’s a distance of about 140 yards – but the ultra-competitive spirit shone through and the odd faraway splash was proof of success. Some years later, I happened to be strolling in the City of London when I saw David Gower coming towards me. We stopped and reminisced. The damage he did to his left arm throwing oranges into the river had certainly not improved his cricket, he admitted. |
| Adventures in the Wine Trade, the new book by Ben Howkins, is available now here. |
