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Now there's a name from the past. This is pretty much where it all started for me back in the MPA first XI days, but we were elbowed off the field by the local football fraternity based in the Pavillion pub on the edge of the field. There was some emails and contact made with the council that clarified the situation with regards whether we could use the field to have a knock about and the bottom line was that once the football season was finished - yes we could play cricket on the field as much as we liked and as often as we liked. The thing was it took so long for the situation to be clarified that the MPA 1st XI faded away into history and I joined Grays & Chadwell CC and that was the demise of our patronage of the field.
But 3 years on and with new friends that live in that area who use the Pavillion and are regulars of the pub there is now talk of Great Berry Open Space being used once again for cricket. So tonight there was the suggestion that maybe we start to roll a wicket in April and that the roller be stored in the Pavillion for the duration of Spring while the rolling took place? The initial reaction of the staff was positive, but then someone piped up "But you'll have to pay for it because we pay 900 quid a year to use it for football". This was the same issue that arose before and as with last time I had to point out the fact that we weren't going to play league cricket or organsied cricket we were just going to have a bit of a knock about in the evenings and maybe once or twice during the summer it might be the case that 22 blokes do turn up and have more or less a proper cricket match. There are no subs, there are no affliliations to the ECB - just a few blokes and their kids having a knock about. Maybe the big difference is because the game involves the aspect that you are trying to throw the ball at the oponents goolies at 90mph it's probably sensible that you make the surface that you play on as flat as physically possible - hence the need to at least try and roll the surface to make it flat! It's the use of the roller and the mower that seems to incite the reaction from the football players - sort of because you're using a roller that must mean that you're playing at a level that requires that you pay subs? What? No - we're rolling it because to play at any level with a cricket ball you're asking to have your teeth smashed out or your bollocks ripped from your torso if the surface isn't particularly flat!!!
I can see problems ahead..............
But 3 years on and with new friends that live in that area who use the Pavillion and are regulars of the pub there is now talk of Great Berry Open Space being used once again for cricket. So tonight there was the suggestion that maybe we start to roll a wicket in April and that the roller be stored in the Pavillion for the duration of Spring while the rolling took place? The initial reaction of the staff was positive, but then someone piped up "But you'll have to pay for it because we pay 900 quid a year to use it for football". This was the same issue that arose before and as with last time I had to point out the fact that we weren't going to play league cricket or organsied cricket we were just going to have a bit of a knock about in the evenings and maybe once or twice during the summer it might be the case that 22 blokes do turn up and have more or less a proper cricket match. There are no subs, there are no affliliations to the ECB - just a few blokes and their kids having a knock about. Maybe the big difference is because the game involves the aspect that you are trying to throw the ball at the oponents goolies at 90mph it's probably sensible that you make the surface that you play on as flat as physically possible - hence the need to at least try and roll the surface to make it flat! It's the use of the roller and the mower that seems to incite the reaction from the football players - sort of because you're using a roller that must mean that you're playing at a level that requires that you pay subs? What? No - we're rolling it because to play at any level with a cricket ball you're asking to have your teeth smashed out or your bollocks ripped from your torso if the surface isn't particularly flat!!!
I can see problems ahead..............
