We played 3 games, losing 2 and winning 1, which wasn’t good enough to get us through to the next round but since we must surely have been the team there with the least match experience (since we have virtally none), it wasn’t too bad a display.

Indeed, we didn’t get destroyed by any team and we generally fielded and bowled well, so it’s a promising start to Cotford St Luke Cricket Club for this season.

There was a decent turn out (for us) too with 7 seniors (out of 9) and 4 juniors turning up to play. We still need more players but – painfully slowly – we’re building a squad.

It was a surprising day in that, even though there was a cool wind and intermittently overcast weather, we all seemed to get a bit frazzled by the sun. I was quite sore the next day and had some bizarre stripes where my shades had been. My wife took some snaps and I’ve included a selection of those here (click on a picture to see a bigger version):

Rules as follows:

Competition rules

• Entry fee of £30 per team.
• 5 overs per innings (maximum of 1 over per bowler).
• Batsmen retire on 30 and can return during the innings should all other wickets fall.
• Any wides – two runs and no extra ball (except in final over).
• Any no-balls – two runs plus any runs scored off the ball (no extra ball – except in final over).
• The team with the most runs wins the game. Should it be a tie, the team to lose the least wickets wins.

Competition format:

• 10 am welcome and briefing, 10.30 am start.
• To save time during innings, two games will run simultaneously (ie. When the first innings of a match ends, a second match will begin its first innings to save ‘changeover’ time. After that, the respective second innings will be played).
• Round robin group stage (4 teams per group) leading to semi-finals and then finals.
• The two bottom placed teams to play each other for the wooden spoon.
• Minimum of 3 games per team.
• Unlimited amount of squad members per team, however only six playing at a time.
• Match fee includes cricket tea (served from midday onwards).
• Barbeque available in the evening.
• Fully stocked bar.
• Lots of fun, a great setting and hopefully some good cricket!

Given that we can have any number of players on the squad and we get a minimum of 3 matches, we’ll try to give everyone who turns up a game. We’ll canvas for interest a bit closer to the date.