Falklands head for England

The Falkland Islands are playing their first matches as members of the ICC in southern England next week, and one of the seven tour fixtures is against Outwood, the Surrey village who played Argentina in 1979, three years before the south Atlantic war broke out.

Outwood are looking forward to the match on July 12, proud of their unusual double. Keith Barham, the club’s fixture secretary, said: “We flew the Argentinian flag on our ground when we played them, and I have asked the Falkland Islanders to bring theirs so that we can fly that – blue with union jack and Falkland coat of arms.

He added: “We got soundly beaten by Argentina in a 60 overs match when they were over for the ICC Trophy, though we weren’t as strong as we are now. We don’t expect the Falkland Islands to be very good. They’ve only got a population of 2,500, and they are a bit limited who they can play. They can’t really tour Argentina.”

Barham arranged the Falkland fixture when he discovered their intention to tour. “I have several investments down in the Falkland Islands and subscribe to their local weekly newspaper Penguin News ,” he said. “On the front page it mentioned plans to tour England, so I picked up the phone and suggested a date. In two days it was fixed.”

The Falkland Islands, recently granted affiliate status by the ICC at Lord’s, open their tour next Tuesday against a Foreign and Commonwealth Office XI in London. Another game is against their namesakes Falkland, a club defined by a Victorian memorial to the Civil War commander Lord Falkland, killed at Newbury in 1643. The islands’ name originates from Viscount Falkland, an Admiralty commissioner in 1690.