Park Cricket.

Was having a chat with a friend, who plays a fairly high standard of cricket, and he was showing me his new bat. It was a custom made one.
It brought back a few memories when we used to play park cricket.

I played for a club (and still do) many moons ago, and we used to play park cricket (i.e. each team had a home ground, which was, usually, a poorly created square in a park. (ours was Abbey Park).

The park contained several pitches, and at some grounds, namely, Western Park, you’d be fielding fine leg but in Gully position for another game….and Yes, you’d have to watch both games to avoid a peace of leather hitting your head.

Evington Park had a tree in the middle of the field, and it was usually agreed, that if it hit the tree, its a 4..weather or not the ball touched ground.

Anyway, we didn’t have that much money, so we had a shared Kit (barr a box, you brought your own), when we used to pad up, we’d hope the batsman with the good Bat got out, so we could take that bat in.

My Favourite was the Duncan Fearnley Attack, bit heavy, but, MAN, did it have a middle. Then along came a few Gray Nichols bats with some grooves on the back. Eventually we managed to get 1 Kookaburra.

It used to be quite funny, the batsman facing would go over to the other end to swap bats, one batsman used to do it every time he ran to face!!
Back in those days, we used those heavy buckle pads. Once we had some feather-ligh pads, and when a batsman went in, if the batsman who got out had them on, you’d walk out, take them off him, and quickly whip them on while half down he ground.

We used to have loads of theories back then, about what made a good Bat.
The more grains the better, the bigger the curve on the blade, the more deeper the grains etc…..

We used to even have bats, with some plastic face on, which you never needed to knock-in. (cant remember the make)

Even knocking in a bat, was a ball, in a sock, and just using that.

About 4-5 games used to take place, you’d be having banter with a few teams at lunch, and even on the pitch you’d shout at a fielder\batsman from another team, if you knew the team well enough
We eventually got out own kits and moved a private ground, but I have to admit..

It was way more fun back then..

Apologies if I bored you all….but it was nice to remember those days, and thought I’d share