B&PCC Sunday XI v East Hanningfield & Great Burstead Cricket Club

 More pavilions here - http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cricket-pavillions-typology.html

 East Hanningfield pavilion

 The wicket at East Hanningfield

 The wicket at East Hanningfield.

During the last match with Belhus Liam Harms mentioned that he had bailed out of a Sunday game against East Hanningfield and that they may have been scratching around for another player. This was in the earliest phases of working with my new bowling approach and I thought that this might be an opportunity to give the new approach a go against batsmen.

So Sunday morning I hitched a lift with Tony Harms and Jamie Britton and headed out to East Hanningfield which was a double bonus as it meant that I could also shoot their Pavilion for my Pavilion Typology project.

We arrived first and the weather was classic early September - puffy white Cumulus clouds set against a blue sky.

Hanningfield Game.

I volunteered to score and did a pretty good job of it, filling in the book and putting up the scores on the scoreboard at the same time. I even got parts of the scoring wrong and was able to figure out what I’d done and reconcile the whole thing quite easily and when it was all added up at the end it all worked out fine. A massive improvement from last year and I now like to score especially as it keeps me out of having to umpire! That went well and we seemed to do okay and we finished with a reasonable score 170ish? We had a nice tea in their lovely pavilion/clubhouse and took to the field on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Earlier in the day I’d watched 4 Buzzards soaring on the updrafts above the pitch something which would have been unheard of 20 years ago, but Buzzards along with Kites, Peregrines, Hobbies and Merlins are all making a strong comeback in Essex despite the fact that it has a number of large urban areas. Thankfully in between our urban and industrial areas, Essex has some surprisingly beautiful and classic countryside (Think Constables Haywain).

Having been a late addition to this Sunday side and seeing that it was made up of some quality players, I didn’t know whether I’d get to bowl? I had no idea of how regular this side was and how they’d done over the season, so whether Jack would throw me the ball or not remained to be seen. The obvious bowlers all bowled first and then Jack indicated that I'd get an over or two.

This game was on Sunday after the Belhus game the day before, so whether that was a contributory factor or not I'm not sure or convinced as I played two games back to back earlier in the season and did okay, wasn't knackered at all? Or was it the Yips? Was it the fact that I was playing in a team full up with first and 2nd team players including the clubs best bowler Luke Dawe (Finger Spinner)? Or was it because this was one of the first attempts with the new re-configured bowling action? Whatever it was - it was embarrassing  - wides, balls landing half way down the strip and bouncing twice - all those horrific things that happen to wrist spinners when you start out. I went for a few fours and then hoped I'd settle down a bit in the 2nd over, but the same thing pretty much happened again and I thought that I'd be off after that. But, no, Jack gave me another over and changed the field around a bit. The 3rd over was marginally better as I went back to bowling off of one step and it worked and in the end I had 5 maybe six overs and pulled it back a bit. But to be honest so many runs were piled on during that spell I thought I'd lost us the  game. Meanwhile at the other end Luke Dawe had started taking wickets on his way to another fiver-fer.

With Luke bowling well, he pulled it back and once the two good blokes that I was bowling against had been dismissed, there was a massive collapse and we won the game easily.



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Condovers + West Tilbury + Cricket + campsite

I'm still after information with regards the cricket pitch at Condovers campsite in West Tilbury, Essex. Double click on the image below for a larger image of it.




Ultimately, I'm after images of cricket either being played there or images of the ground, pavillion, teams that played there or scenic images shot there featuring the pitch. The best image would be of a game being played with the West Tilbury Church visible in the background shot by someone who was a bit handy with a camera (Black and white or colour).


I'm after information with regards who's home ground it was, what the team was called and their history. Ideally I'd like to be able to establish how long the pitch was there and whether its history is long and linked to the local community e.g. who's land it was and who leased it to the cricket team. If anyone has any anecdotal info about it please get in touch with me via the email address on this blog or email me direct at stupidaddress@hotmail.co.uk
8th Feb 2012

I stumbled upon some old photos of Langdon Hills cricket teams and discovered that in addition to the de-commissioned pitch opposite the Crown Pub at the top of the hill there, there was another probably older pitch heading S/E towards Horndon on the Hill. About 50 yeards along the High Rd, is the junction of Dry Street and on that corner there's a field currently with a beacon in it and a small car park. This rather rectangular field was in fact a cricket pitch in the 1950's and no doubt earlier.

Enthused by the Langdon Hills pitch No.3 find, I set out to look to see if there was any more info on the Condovers pitch and came across this entry in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Tilbury and in the section on development and industry there's this note - Random surface destruction in the form of scattered gravel workings (‘ballast-holes’) either open or infilled, is evident in places, one of the 19th century quarries being now overgrown and serving as a pleasant scouting camp-ground. Which indicates that the cricket pitch is likely to be no older than around 100 years at the most? But, still no images and only one account by Allan Fullbrook at Thurrock Cricket Club (Formerly Grays and Chadwell Cricket Club) who prior to that were Tilbury CC and it was during that time I recall in the 196o's that Allan 'Fozzy' Fullbrook played at the ground. He remembers the pavillion, saying that it wasn't much more than two rooms to get changed in.


Cheers.
Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.