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

[hans kraay fan club]

Excellent win on Saturday. Nearly dropped out the night before as my Achilles was hurting badly after the Thursday evening game. But strapped on my high boots and took some painkillers, and managed to reel off my best 9 overs of the season. Only 1 wicket, but deserved more than 9/2/25/1. Kept them to 190/8, and controlled the chase really well, winning by 4 wickets with 5 overs to spare.

I came in at the heady heights of 7, with 8 runs needed, and skilfully steered a perfectly executed late cut, straight into gully’s hands, first ball.

 

[Audax]

Weather permitting, I'll be with Uckfield 2's away to Tunbridge Wells Borderers tomorrow. Thunderstorm warnings for tomorrow, following possibly heavy over night rain, could be a stop to that though...

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Good win for Roffey 1st XI today v Cuckfield, even if it was via DLS because of the weather.
Another couple of wickets for Frankie, including Henry Rogers, the young Sussex pro that Frank was in the Academy with a couple of years ago.
So, in the last three matches, he's bowled out Bertie Foreman, Archie Lenham, and Henry Rogers
No rest for the lad though. He's off to Cambridge at 6am to coach the Sussex U14s in their game tomorrow.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Game called off this morning due to the soaked pitch - which was a blessing, as I was fearing a crappy day of pretending we were going to get a game in. It hosed down all afternoon

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

We actually got a game in. We had a very young side with 5 teenagers playing. Batting first and off to the worse possible start as our opener got bowled first ball of the match. Last season he scored a century in the same game (that was his only score of the season that wasn’t single figures last season). Next in was a solid lad who will hold his end up but is very risk averse. Thankfully our other opener was the former chairman who has scored 97 and 124 in the last two weeks. He was on form again racing to 50 while the other lad held his end up before getting lbw for 12 off 60 balls (I said he was risk averse).

Our captain was in next and wasn’t there long before we lost our former chairman for 55 of 56 balls. The boy came in at 5 and we needed to put together a partnership. Thankfully they put on about 60 runs quite quickly before the captain fell 3 runs shorts of his 50. They boy stuck around though before being bowled looking to sweep as he tried to accelerate the score. He’d got 34 off 38 which is his best score for our seconds. We lost a couple of more wickets before one of our other youngsters was in for the last 3 overs and scored a cracking 13 off 13 balls including a lovely 6. We ended 186/7 which we knew was too short.

They weren’t hanging around (we all wanted to beat the rain). Both their openers made 50, with our only wicket removing one of them the ball after he’d made his 50. They cruised to victory by 9 wickets and 13 overs to spare. Perfect timing as the rain came pretty much 30 seconds after we left the pitch.

So a bit of a thrashing but another very mature batting performance from the boy, playing aggressively when the ball allowed but defending his wicket well when he had to. As a couple of players from the other team said, he’s not the most graceful player but he’s difficult to set a field for as his shot selection is quite unorthodox and if he can hit a ball like he does now at 14, when he’s fully grown he’ll be a very effective player.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I was actually shocked to hear that one of my old teams, Lewes St Michael’s have only 1 team on a weekend now ( in div 8) and 1 in a midweek t20 thing.

when I played we were in division 1 East Sussex league ( firsts) , seconds in div 4 and thirds in div 6 and we had a Sunday x1 and an weekday team.

i looked at the league tables and was saddened to see so many clubs with far reduced teams.

 

[Eeyore]

I was actually shocked to hear that one of my old teams, Lewes St Michael’s have only 1 team on a weekend now ( in div 8) and 1 in a midweek t20 thing.

when I played we were in division 1 East Sussex league ( firsts) , seconds in div 4 and thirds in div 6 and we had a Sunday x1 and an weekday team.

i looked at the league tables and was saddened to see so many clubs with far reduced teams.

We used to play their 3rds way back when. So three Sunday teams. Sad decline in Sundays, alas.

 

[Brian Fantana]

I was actually shocked to hear that one of my old teams, Lewes St Michael’s have only 1 team on a weekend now ( in div 8) and 1 in a midweek t20 thing.

when I played we were in division 1 East Sussex league ( firsts) , seconds in div 4 and thirds in div 6 and we had a Sunday x1 and an weekday team.

i looked at the league tables and was saddened to see so many clubs with far reduced teams.

Similar when I lived in Cambridge. The team I grew up playing (this was early 00s) for had an under-13, under-15, 1st XI, 2nd XI, Sunday XI and a midweek team, which was decent for a small suburb/village.

I’ve recently joined their Facebook group and was dismayed to see they now only have a 1st XI playing on a Saturday and no other teams.

 

[Audax]

Valuable day out for me with Uckfield 2s vs Tunbridge Wells Borderers 2s. We arrived to find the groundsman had assumed the game would be rained off and hadn't marked the pitch, so the start was delayed ... which likely cost us the chance to get enough overs in later in the day.

Pitch was damp, but played OK. I was asked to open the batting as we batted first. First ball I got lucky, gloving a short ball legside but the keeper dropped it. Didn't last much longer, though ... uncharacteristically chased a wide one 4th ball and nicked behind for 1. Oops.

Oue captain and his son shared a wonderful partnership for the third wicket, before a late flurry of big hitting saw us post 204 from our 40.

We knew from looking at the radar the rain was coming. Estimate was that we had until 6ish to get enough overs in.

Another of our juniors started our bowling innings perfectly with a wicket in the first over. I was handed the 2nd over. Appeal for caught behind turned down first ball. To be fair I didn't hear it either ... but when the ball came back there was a tell tale mark on the ball. Wide next ball as I discovered some hooping outswing. Slight adjustment and a low, swinging full toss was feebly driven at and looped back to me for an easy catch. 2 down. Lefty came out next, and really didn't like the ball swinging in. Last ball of the over I went cross seam and took the top of his off stump. 3 down inside 2 overs.

The next pair survived a hostile first 13 overs before the rain arrived at 5:30. We had them 34/3, and that was where it stayed.

6/1/15/2. First 3 overs were a mixed bag as I struggled to control the swing. Next three began to find my rhythm, which showed going down to the 2s was worth it. In the 1s world have been off after 3 (even with the 2 early wickets).

 

[Seagull on the Hill]

St. James under 9's beat Brighton and Hove's under 9's, and my grandson took 3 wickets including 2 caught and bowled.

 

[Audax]

I was actually shocked to hear that one of my old teams, Lewes St Michael’s have only 1 team on a weekend now ( in div 8) and 1 in a midweek t20 thing.

when I played we were in division 1 East Sussex league ( firsts) , seconds in div 4 and thirds in div 6 and we had a Sunday x1 and an weekday team.

i looked at the league tables and was saddened to see so many clubs with far reduced teams.

Played against them last season (before we got relegated...). Pitch was barely playable after over night / morning rain. By the time we batted on it, it was full of dimples from when we bowled and a bit of minefield. Very low scoring game in the end.

Seeing this across the southeast (eg Laughton down from 2 teams to just 1, and it's mostly players who were in their seconds a few years back), although some clubs (with strong junior set ups) appear to be surviving and growing. We're struggling for results at the moment, but Uckfield's junior set up has been resurrected in recent years and we've now got junior teams playing and the first juniors coming through into the senior sides. There were 50's for both the 1s and 2s weekend before last scored by juniors coming through. One of those nearly repeated the feat on Saturday (fell on 44). Green shoots are there, won't be long before I'm permanently playing with the 2's I think, as the strongest 1's line up will see 3 juniors pulled up (batting 'keeper, batter who can bowl a bit of spin [already with the 1s], and a very decent young quick) and the senior who coaches the juniors likely steps up with them, which will bolster the batting line up. I already put my hand up last year to play in the 2s and support juniors coming through, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where I am next year once the 3 quality juniors we have progress into the 1s regularly and a few more juniors begin to have the confidence for senior cricket.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Just to lift a bit of the gloom, my own club had 2 Saturday sides and a Tuesday evening side, when I joined fully for the 2022 season.

We now have 3 Saturday sides, the Tuesday evening league side, a Thursday evening league side, 8 junior sides, a women’s team and around 120 young kids in the All-stars sessions.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Found these online...Frankies 2 wickets from Saturday


https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_013_04

https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_041_06

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Found these online...Frankies 2 wickets from Saturday


https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_013_04

https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_041_06

Sounded very windy there

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Sounded very windy there

It was. And cold & damp. The club is on the top of a plateau, so you get the winds blowing across quite strong. We only stayed a couple of hours.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Found these online...Frankies 2 wickets from Saturday


https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_013_04

https://roffey.play-cricket.com/website/results/6884995?video=v1_041_06

Doesn't anyone play in whites these day?

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Shropshire u14 vs Staffordshire u14 ECB championship match today was umpired by Nick Wide and Malcolm Edge.

How appropriate....
Made me chuckle

 

[Eeyore]

Just to lift a bit of the gloom, my own club had 2 Saturday sides and a Tuesday evening side, when I joined fully for the 2022 season.

We now have 3 Saturday sides, the Tuesday evening league side, a Thursday evening league side, 8 junior sides, a women’s team and around 120 young kids in the All-stars sessions.

Did you get funding for the all stars thingy ?

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Doesn't anyone play in whites these day?

They do later in the season for other format games.

 

[Mikey_JB]

Did you get funding for the all stars thingy ?

I run the AllStars programme for my local club, and essentially it funds itself as well as contributing materially to the club. Each participant gets you a credit to spend on all the gear, and the club also gets a kickback into its own coffers.
It is the same setup with the Dynamos programme, for 8-11 year old cricketers.