[Cricket] The Village / Amateur CRICKET Thread- 2025 Edition

[hans kraay fan club]

As well as weekend Cricket, being a big city we have a lot of opportunities to play midweek 'franchise Cricket but too many teams not enough players. So I am now 4 games into an eight game stretch playing for eight different teams...

Yes I am single.

I might also be single, if I play too many midweek games - and stay a bit too long in the pub afterwards like last night.

Decent win though, chasing down 92 with 3 overs to spare.

Especially pleased with my figures of 4/0/9/3, given that I had to bowl three of the overs before our last two fielders had arrived.

 

[Eeyore]

'We go again.....'

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Two !!!!!!

Ouch.

 

[Eeyore]

Two !!!!!!

Ouch.

One extra included !

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Another weekend of cricket.

Yesterday was played in absolutely horrible conditions. Bitter wind, cold and occasional spots of rain but not enough to bring the players in.

Playing the team that beat us by 7 wickets in our first game of the season and are top of the table we were expecting a tough afternoon and not just because of the weather. We won the toss and put them in. The boy was wicket keeping his first second XI game and we had instant success as he took a catch behind the stumps to remove one of their openers for 0.

In very difficult conditions they struggled to get going and only their captain made any real runs (68), helped by some questionable catching in the field. Thankfully our bowlers were taking wickets regularly and we ended up restricting them to just 158.

We also struggled to get going and lost some early wickets. Thankfully one of our openers (and former chairman who has come out of retirement at nearly 60) was going along quite nicely. The boy came in at 4 and played a few nice shots for 3 singles before he got bowled by one that tuned sharply by what was their best bowler (3-17). We were worried our former chairman would run out of partners but a couple of our youngsters held up their end well allowing us to end up with a 5 wicket win and our opener finishing on 97no.

Onto today and a development game locally. Both my boys were playing in this one, my younger boy making his debut at this level. We won the toss and decided to have a bat with the oldest boy opening. Unfortunately he lost his opening partner early but then dominated the strike batting with another lad who isn’t quite as confident with the bat, but these games are all about giving the younger lads a chance to learn so we put the pressure on my lad to take a lead role in the partnership and help talk his team mate through the overs.

It worked as when the other lad was out he’d gone for 14, which is his highest ever score. My boy went on and passed 50 for the second Sunday running. We thought he’d be called in at this point but our captain told him to stay out. He kept going and was helped by some good efforts from a couple of other lads who got into the 20s.

In the end my boy got caught on 92. So close to his first ever 100. But in a week he’s hit 78, 45 and 92. I’ve told him his next step is to get his second XI scores up where his highest is still only 15.

We ended up running up a decent 248/5 off 35 overs. Which we thought would give us a chance. They started cautiously and struggled to keep up with the run rate but we found wickets hard to come by. We eventually made a break through and this pattern seemed to repeat itself. My youngest came on to bowl (he wants to be a wicket keeper like his older brother) so his bowling isn’t the best but he had a go and was fairly economical. My older lad took a great catch at mid off (he wasn’t keeping this one), running backwards with the sun in his eyes he did well to hold it.

They couldn’t get their run rate up and even bringing my oldest lad on to bowl the last over we ran out winners by 72 runs.

I get two nights off cricket this week as our Slam game is Friday which gives me an unexpected Thursday night off.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Prem Century for Frank this weekend.
126 off 78 balls - 10x 4s, and 10x 6s
So pleased for him - and nice that the likes of Jamie Atkins and Alexia Walker messaged to congratulate him. Shame we weren't there to see it though!

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

View attachment 202647

'We go again.....'

Richmond are my best mates old team - he messaged me earlier having a good old giggle about it. One of his mates was playing for them in this game as well. Ouch!

 

[Badger]

View attachment 202647

'We go again.....'

If Richmond had batted first, they could have been in the pub by 2pm

 

[Audax]

Rinse and repeat for Uckfield 1sts, except this time we don't have the excuse of our opponents stacking their team with players from a higher div ... as it was also their 1sts.

We bowled first (similar reason to previous week, due to a player needing to leave early). Our openers kept them quiet initially, and the change bowlers carried that on for the first 20 overs. With scoreboard pressure mounting, we picked up a few wickets - but our bowlers were also very unlucky, beating the bat on countless occasions. After drinks it all went a bit pear-shaped with their #5 bat making a rapid (and well executed) 100 off 72 balls to lead them to a 221 total from their 40. As expected, I didn't bowl ... which was painful as the conditions were absolutely perfect for me. Bit of swing on offer, bit of nibble off the seam, and rewards for cutters if you can get enough rotation on the ball. Oh well - wasn't worth the risk just a week on, despite the groin coming out the other side of 40 overs fielding feeling absolutely fine.

Batting was forgettable. No one in our line up really got the measure of the pitch (was a bit two-paced from one end). One of our openers was looking very good with some find shots through the offside, but was given out LBW (oppo brought 2 umpires with them, in hindsight we should have insisted on umpiring one end) to one that was easily going over the top. From there it all fell apart, regular wickets dropping and we ended on 85. Made a scrappy 3 from 6 balls for myself, popping an absolute dolly of a catch back to the bowler after being suckered into coming forward to one that stuck in the pitch a little.

Weather (and wife's schedule) permitting I'll be back in the nets this week to a) test bowling ahead of the weekend, and b) keep working on my new batting stance.

 

[Billy in Bristol]

Played my first Bristol League cricket since COVID season...got a wicket with my first ball , inswinger through the left handers gate. "Have you missed me?" I smugly asked, the answer was a resounding "No!". 8-2-21-2 . We lost and irritatingly on 99 wickets for the club so I am going to have to play another for them.

 

[Audax]

Weather (and wife's schedule) permitting I'll be back in the nets this week to a) test bowling ahead of the weekend, and b) keep working on my new batting stance.

A) success! Fit to bowl.
B) fail. Schedule didn't permit getting to nets early enough to bat.