recreational cricket Archives - Reed Cricket Club

“Splat!! Hitting the “Glass Ceiling in Recreational Cricket”!!

In September 2012 our Club had what most of us will agree was our very best ever weekend! On Saturday 8th September our 1st Xl won away at Dunstable, and for the first time in our Clubs history secured promotion to the Saracens Herts Cricket League Division 1, and the very next day we travelled to Lords and won the Yorkshire Tea National Village Cup Final at the home of Cricket! Nobody who was involved in, or associated with, our Club will ever forget that weekend! In 2015, we are still operating as a volunteer led club whose teams in the main comprise “home produced players”. So, almost 3 years on from “Lords”, where are we now? Player wise – bar one – we could field the same 1st Xl today that won the National Village Cup in 2012. Some more good youngsters have come through to the 1st Xl squad, and the previous team, bar one, remain with us. Our 1st Xl squeezed a little further forward in 2013 and finished 3rd in Division 1 in their first season at that level. After a League re-structure they are now playing their League Cricket in the newly formed Saracens Hertfordshire Championship League (equivalent to being at the very top end of the old Saracens Division 1), and we still play in the National Village Cup where in 2014 we went out, somewhat unluckily (damned weather!!), at the last 8 in the inter-county stage. In the Saracens Herts Championship League in 2014 we performed very well. We finished runners up in the league to a strong Hertford side reinforced that year by a very good Overseas Player seemingly playing well below his true ability level. Our [...]

The Slow Strangulation of Recreational Cricket Continues!

So the winter is behind us, the frenetic activity of spring as we re-activate our Club after the winter, has gone, and we settle down to either play or watch the game we love. After the several weeks of barely honoured friendly fixtures, when we struggle to pull players away from either their tuporic winter firesides, or the never-ending list of “key” football or rugby fixtures, and their seasons that will not die, we finally reach the promised land of competitive League Cricket. To welcome it this year we are also blessed with some sun, albeit accompanied by precious little heat! Bearable in the sun – freezing in the shade! Last season saw 3 of Reeds 4 most senior Xl’s achieve results that sees them performing in higher leagues this season. For the 2nd and 3rd Xl’s that just means a change of some opponents and a different “digit” at the top of their League Tables. For these players and members, the fairly long established, eminently sensible, and refined match playing rules and conditions are barely changed. However, at the top of the Reed tree, our 1st Xl have the new “Herts Championship” to contend with. 2013/14 saw a mega-upheaval in the very top end of Hertfordshire League cricket. After years of mumbling, grumbling, and moaning about the length of top tier matches, the high degree of travel involved at the top level, and the “family unfriendly” baggage that went with Fathers and Sons often disappearing from their families for virtually the entire Saturday, someone had to act. When also faced with documented reductions in Cricket Participation Levels and promised reductions in Sport England Funding to the ECB (and below), the issue was confronted. After [...]