Wickford 4th XI game 21st May.

Still no game at home for either me or Joe and Joe wasn't playing this week because he was on a Duke of Edinburgh award walk. So I was off to Wickford's memorial park ground...

I had to scam a lift off of Tony Harms and we arrived at dull cloudy day with the wind quite blustery from the top end of this image to the bottom end 'River Crouch end". I'll refer to the north end as 'The Pavilion End'. I was hoping to take some photo's of the team and other players for a photography project that I'm doing, but no knowing this team and where the pavilion was going to be (I'd got in the car not actually knowing we were off to this ground) I've left it till next week when Joe will be able to help me.

Tony and me were the first ones there apart from their players and it soon became apparent that the building in this image which is currently being refurbed was out of bounds and that there was no pavilion other than the one across the other side of another field 400 yards away.

Our players started to show up and it soon became apparent that we were probably going to be 3 men down with some of them not letting Dutton know it seemed, he wasn't that happy. What made it worse all over the ground we were going to play on there seemed to be the wrong team e.g. what looked like a group of athletic 17-20 year olds - 3rd of 2nd XI type players. Then a couple of older blokes turned up. It then began to sink in... this was the opposition... Nine big youths and two older blokes and these were relatively young too 40's? Whereas we had 8 players...Dutton and Tony in their 40's, me wrong end of my 50's then Gopal and Jay in their 20's early 30's. The rest were small boys all 13 years old. So a bit of an ask for us.

We walked over to the pavilion and got changed, talked about the batting order and I volunteered to open with Tony. Dutton had won the toss and oddly had decided to bat first, I think he was annoyed that we'd been let down by the blokes that hadn't shown up - leaving us in a hopeless situation, so opted to get it over and done with?

Their bowling was okay, nothing like facing Joe or spin and as a result I managed to last 10 or more overs and scored 6 including a 4 flicked off my pads down to fine leg. But eventually a straight one got me through the gate. Jay put a few more runs on the board and then there was a bit of a collapse until Dutton and Travis added a few at the end. There were quite a few extras and in the end we ended up with 77. Travis it must be said looked exceptionally confident with the bat, I reckon he's likely to score 50 at some point this season if he puts his mind to it.

With such a reduced team, not only is it difficult to make a game of it, but it then means we're short of umpires and scorers, so we struggled with that as well. Sam Goods Dad helped out with umpiring which saved us a bit, it would have been good if he could have played as well, maybe next time? Next time we play with a full team I'm going to try and get one of the kids to learn how to score, I always have a spare score sheet with me so there's no reason why one of them if not more shouldn't.

Similarly I'm going to see if I can get Joe to do it, he knows a lot of it, but needs to do it more and get better at it.

It ended up with us scoring 77 with extras added. We didn't bother with tea as it was no-where near tea, we'd only just had drinks at 23 overs when the last wicket fell at about 26 overs.

So out come their openers ex B&PCC player Jodie Reynolds and L.Keeley. With massive gaps in the field and only 77 to score, coupled with a team that looked like a 2nd or 3rd XI team V's a bunch of old blokes and small boys it was a lost cause. Dutton gave most of use a bowl, none of us come anywhere near threatening to get a wicket and both of the batsmen came away with not outs. Jodie Reynolds had a good knock dealing in fours primarily... 38 not out and his mate with 24 not out.

I didn't bowl anywhere near as good in comparison with last week. I chose to have the wind behind me which seemed to be a mistake as it meant I ended up bowling a no-ball and a couple of full tosses that went for 4. I bowled from the Pavilion end...

In the last few days it's rained a little and as you can see it's pretty green. The bounce was variable especially at the 'River Crouch' end Which I was bowling to, but this was found on a good length rather than at a full length which I was looking to bowl to. The other end 'Pavilion End' it tended to bounce a lot less and was more consistent. It turned a little, but to be honest I only bowled 3 overs and didn't bowl that well. There was some turn, but only average. I came away with 3-0-19-0.

Spin check. This in my on going tally of spinners that I play with in our team and oppositions. I've been doing it in a particular way so far and from now on I'm just going to name them and identify their teams. Today they only had one spinner a bloke that lives right near the Rec and yet he plays for bloody Wickford!!! Guess what kind of spinner he was? Yep you guessed it he was a finger spinner. In the conversation I had with him and the captain they were trying to tell me about all the spinners in the adjacent game a few hundred yards away... all finger spinners, but I had to say, no they don't count I have to play in the game with them to count them.

Wrist Spinners -

1. Anonymous Chelmsford CC 3rd XI
2. Dave Thompson. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI

Wrist & Finger combined

Chris Debond. Basildon & Pitsea CC 3rd XI

Finger Spinners

1. Lee Dutton. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
2. Joe Thompson. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
3. Alistair Hayton. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
4. Luke Daw. Basildon & Pitsea CC 1st XI
5. Brandon DeBond. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
6. Farhan Malik. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
7. Brian Waterman. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
8. Kalai selven Kali. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI  
9. 'Don' Wickford CC 4th XI
10. J.Elliott - Leigh-On-Sea CC 3rd XI
11. H.Jeddy - Leigh-On-Sea CC 3rd XI
12. Anonymous Bloke. Basildon & Pitsea CC 3rd XI

With Joe not playing today and me not taking any wickets the situation between us is now...

Me 17-0-71-3 Strike Rate 23.7

Joe 26-2-65-4 Strike Rate 16.3

 Another view of the 4th XI Wicket - Wickford CC - Memorial Park

The pavilion at the Wickford Memorial Park. I'll add this to my photography project here which is a typology of cricket pavilions. This one used to be a lot uglier and more interesting with metal security doors, but it's been converted into a community café and doubles up as a pavilion too.

It was massively disappointing to play in a team of 8 players against a far superior team. Next week we'll be at Langdon hills, so I'll be able to shoot the pictures I've been trying to do now for the last 3 weeks and Joe will be back. Additionally over the week I'm going to try and get in touch with my mate Keith who lives over that way and bats a bit. He's had trouble with his knees or hips for years, but recently has had them fixed and has said in the last month or so, he'd be interested in playing. He'd be able to field in the slips, but his strength is he bats, oh yeah he's a finger spinner as well!

New content can be found via the links below. This blog is no longer updated.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s



Maidenbower cricket pavilion near Crawley Sussex

This is another of the Pavilions I shot last week. This one is in Maidenbower Drive, Maidenbower, near Crawley, West Sussex. I've done some research, but haven't been able to ascertain whether it's anyone's club base. It's almost certainly a council run building and looking around it's use has been changed in recent years and it now runs seemingly as a community centre. There's an existing image from 2008 on the Google maps website see here of the building in its previous incarnation.

 

So this image here above is the current version of the Maidenbower pavilion (Feb 2016) if you look at the link above, the original version was so much better aesthetically, designed in the classic style of a cricket pavilion. I would imagine the architect who designed the original building was mortified when he/she saw this modified version. For the moment the cricket pitch still remains, apparently without it's own caring team, so by my reckoning its days are probably numbered as the local community seems to care very little for the game of cricket despite the fact that cricket is one of the games that this country plays well and since 1966 has been world beaters on a number of occasions.

 

* Definitely click on the link above the difference (Before and after) is a travesty.

 



Whilst researching I came across a forum where there was a lot of discussion about the rights and wrongs of how this park area is managed and this is completely indicative of the issues that surround such facilities that are new and have no cricket history. This thread here http://www.maidenbower.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14262 has a discussion between someone with football interests and another who seems to be sticking up for the cricketers, but isn't a cricket player themselves. I have to admit that all of the pitches in this area were absolutely sodden with loads of standing water. The better pitches further afield were far better, but again these were pitches that have been around for generations and maintained to a far higher degree. Cricket in towns does seem to struggle against all sorts of issues and this is a good example of the issues that arise through conflict of interest and the facilities not being designated for any length of time to a club that cares.

It does seem that cricket is played on this wicket but no team has it as its home base. Reading the forum link above it also seems a similar situation stands for the football teams and that Crawley council do not allocate pitches to local teams as such. One of the points that neither of the forum writers doesn't seem to take into account is the H&S aspect relating to cricket. It's made with regards to football e.g. teams shouldn't be allowed to play on the pitches if they're 'wet' as people will skid and break bones. But they don't seem to realise that the wicket has to be maintained because of the nature of the game of cricket and the inherent increased need for H&S...

A cricket ball as you're probably aware is rock hard in comparison with a football and the sole intention of a fast bowler is to hurt the bloke standing in front of the wickets (Within a set of rules). With a ball being thrown at you at anything up to 80mph you might be able to grasp that if the ball is bouncing off of an uneven surface e.g. a poorly maintained wicket, the chances of not being able to hit the ball and defend yourself become somewhat reduced, thus resulting in serious injuries (Death in rare instances). Needless to say, councils therefore tend to spend a lot more time, effort and no doubt money on maintaining cricket wickets.

Another thing to consider is the outfield - when the batsman hits the ball...

 

(1). It is in the air and the fielder has to run across a surface that needs to be maintained e.g. level because he does so whilst having to look up in order to catch the hard ball. Any unevenness in the surface when running after the ball may result in broken ankles or a ball on the head etc.

 

(2). If the ball is hit along the ground off the bat -  again it comes off the bat at around 90mph +. If when it hits the outfield it does so off of a true (maintained) surface the fielder is able to catch the ball. If the surface isn't maintained it's line and trajectory out of the bounce is wholly un-predictable -  resulting in broken jaws, loss of teeth etc. Again these are the reasons that a cricket pitch has to be maintained to a far higher level than a football pitch.

 

Without a club being completely affiliated to this facility and having the support of the local community and council at least to some extent, this grounds future looks fairly doomed. The pavilion has been vandalised (I'm sure the architect will agree) and all its aesthetic charm ruined.

Pavilion project update 2 of 11 - Tilgate Park Pavilion, Crawley, West Sussex.

Tilgate Park Pavilion, Crawley, West Sussex


This one is very different to the previously posted. One of the things I was initially looking at and exploring with this project was the fact that the smaller the local population, the bigger the clubhouse and the bigger the population the poorer the facilities. For instance the previously posted Bolney - beautiful ground and lovely traditional pavilion serving a population of 1200 people and here we have the Tilgate playing field pavilion in Crawley West Sussex - probably 25 miles away, with a population of 110,000 and they can only muster up this...

 

The main Cricket Pavilion Typology project can be found at the link below...

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

Pavilion project update

Bolney CC Pavilion

I spent yesterday driving around the Crawley area looking for Pavilions for my Typology project and managed to shoot 10 - 11 new pavilions which I'll upload in time. The best of the day was this one at Bolney just off the M23. This was a lovely little pitch adjacent to a church and an old school. Looking quickly at their website I discovered that this building was built in 2004 and as you can see they've opted quite rightly to stick to a traditional design...

Bolney CC Pavilion

http://bolneycricketclub.org.uk/history/

The other pavilions shot and added so far can be found here.

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

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.



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

 

 

Cricket Pavillions Typology

* I've got a new website. see the link below with more examples of this work in a Gallery format. Follow the link below to see the rest of the work...

http://www.wristspinbowling.com/pavilion-typology.html

Cricket Pavilions, clubhouses and changing facilities.

This is the start of a potential photography project which links to one I've already made a start on and at the moment haven't got very far with, but this project has potentially got a bit of chance of taking off and developing. The basic premise will be that I'm exploring the socio-economics of regions and areas through the recording of the cricket facilities in said localities. It's part inspired by the work of the Dutch photographer Hans Van Der Meers work in the European Fields series of images and the work of the German photographers Bernd and Hiller Becher.

31st August. Because of the way the project has developed, I'll be re-configuring the blog. Directly below the intro here I'll record the images and some basic info including a reference number. Below the images there'll then be the details and notes relating to the more socio-economic factors and possibly notes about the photography.

In the coming weeks I'll be shooting pavilions and other structures associated with cricket, primarily the clubhouses or the changing facilities. The initial job is to collate a series of examples using whatever cameras are at hand and the light that is there at the time. If it pans out that I feel there's something about the images that is worth pursuing I'll then have to start considering how I'd then go about the making of the images in a more serious way with a view to stepping the project up a level.

At the bottom there's a spoof interview as I use this as a resource to help my photography students.

(Updated 31st Aug 2015)

001 - Southend on Sea & EMT cricket clubs Pavilion, Shoebury, Essex.

002
Basildon Councils 'Langdon Hills Recreation Ground' multi-function building used by Basildon & Pitsea Cricket Club, SRB cricket club and numerous football clubs in the winter.

003 Chigwell School "Fives and Heronians 4th XI ground". This wasn't the pavilion associated with the game we played, but was in the adjacent field on a different ground.

004 - Hornchurch Cricket Club 5th XI - Pitch-side changing facilities
Emerson Park School "Hornchurch 5th XI's changing facilities/pavilion. Not entirely true in that there was standard changing facilities within the actual building itself about 120 yards away, completely out of sight of the oval. Whereas this little structure which we all used for teas, changing, scoring and hanging out in whilst waiting to bat served as the 'Pavilion'. It's the case that medium sized clubs have two grounds and 4 teams that play on a Saturday. Two of the teams play on the clubs regular grounds, and the other two teams play at away venues and they rotate these venues each week. In cases where the club has a 5th XI - indication normally of a good club with lots of members, they then usually end up approaching schools as in the case of Hornchurch to access another cricket pitch. In these instances, often the changing facilities are some distance from the pitch and some temporary or alternative approach has to be sorted. In this case the schools has these structures situated adjacent to the wicket.

005 - Another pavilion/clubhouse; This one is the "Fives and Heronians" clubhouse in Chigwell, which I believe like the really traditional black and white building above is owned by The Chigwell School? Not so easy to photography and possibly one that I'd reject in the longer term because it's not that aesthetically pleasing. All of those that so far feature players, cars or other peripheral features I would need to go back and shoot again.

006 - This is the "Old Southendians 4th XI at the Victory Sports Ground, Southchurch, near Southend, Essex. I like this one - nice symmetry and traditional, albeit a bit dilapidated.

007 - Garon's Park pavilion, Southend, Essex

Population 177,000
Garon Park cricket ground is a ground where 1st class cricket has been played in the past, so has a fairly decent semi traditional club house with an incorporated score board. To be honest considering its status and intended use it's on par with some of the village pavilions in Cornwall (See below).
Southend with it's population of 177,000 and it's size and proximity to other densely populated urban areas has a number of grounds within a 10 mile radius and as far as I'm aware this isn't the grandest or best.

Update 15th Aug 2015

Just back from the Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall (Surfing Holiday) and the chance to add some Pavilions from the area. One of the things that this project is about is socio economics and therefore we need to consider that Cornwall is the UK's poorest areas, so there may be some expectation that the pavilions and facilities might reflect this. Other factors we might consider are the populations in the vicinity of the club. Penwith is a relatively small area, extremely rural and sparsely populated. Anecdotally the key industries appear to be farming, fishing and tourism.

008 - Paul Cricket Club Pavilion, Penwith, Cornwall.

Population 234 people.

009 - Penzance Cricket Club Pavilion, Penwith, Cornwall.
Population 21,200

010 - St Just Cricket Clubs Pavilion, St Just, Penwith, Cornwall.
Population 4637

011 - St Buryan Cricket Clubs Pavilion, St Buryan, Penwith, Cornwall.
Population 1377

012 - St Levan & Botalack Cricket Clubs Pavilion, Penwith, Cornwall.
Population 459

013 - Spondon Cricket Clubs Pavilion, Derby, Derbyshire.
Population 12,400

014 - Beech Lane Pavilion, West Hallam, Erewash, Derbyshire (White Rose CC 3rd XI Ground)
Population 4829

015 - Nutbrook Cricket Club, West Hallam, Erewash, Derbyshire pavilion.
Population 4829

016
017
018 - East Hanningfield & Great Burstead Cricket Club, Chelmsford, Essex.
Population 977

019 - Basildon and Pitsea Cricket Club
Population 107,123

020 - Bolney CC, Bolney, West Sussex
Population 1300

021 - Tilgate Playing field, Crawley West Sussex (Below).
Population 110,000
This is one of the many urban/municipal types that are a feature of bigger towns and cities and they usually double up as football changing rooms. A quick scout around the web and a couple of clubs that are associated with this venue are Ram CC and St Andrew CC. Like many such places it looks as though it's subjected to vandalism as it's encased in iron bars!

022 - Gasson Road Pavilion, Bewbush, Crawley, West Sussex.

023 - East Dean CC Pavilion, near Beachy Head, West Sussex.
Population 206

024 - Hawthwood Park Pavilion, Crawley, West Sussex (Below).
Population Crawley 110,000

025 - Maidenbower Pavilion - Maidenbowe, Crawley, West Sussex
Click here for the woeful story of this pavilion

026 - Chelmsford CC, Chelmsford, Essex

 027 - Galleywood CC, Galleywood, Chelmsford, Essex (Below)

028 - Leigh-On-Sea CC - Belfairs Park No.1

028 - Leigh-On-Sea CC - Belfairs Park No.2

029 - Wickfords 4th XI ground - Wickford Memorial Park Pavilion (Essex).

030 - Mistley Cricket club pavilion - North Essex

 001 - Southend on Sea & and EMT's Victorian pavilion at the Garrison ground in Shoebury, Essex. 31st August. At the moment I've little on this club and will need to do more research on it, but the building itself has got to be one of the prettiest and most traditional and is the inspiration for starting the project.

The ground is situated within an old Army Garrison which has been de-commissioned and is now a private housing estate. On three sides of the pitch are the original Victorian buildings and on one side modern houses. The pavilion was built around 1875.

What's it about - what does it mean?

Well, My early experiences and memories of cricket as a kid are based on what I saw around Tilbury in Essex. Back in the late 1960's I used to see cricket being played on the 'Daisy Field' along St Chads road in Tilbury and there was a sense that cricket was different to football and it seemed really posh with the whites and the fact that where they played was cordoned off with a fence and no-one was allowed on the wicket. It may have been that there was never any rowdy Mums and Dads or fans shouting and hollering at the referee, so cricket just came across as being sedate and well-mannered in comparison with football. I think I was also aware of the fact that if you wanted to play cricket you had to have a lot of stuff, so again that seemed to make unobtainable because there was so much kit you had to buy, so the whole aura of cricket was one of it being a bit snooty and the game of people with money.

The other place I used to see cricket being played was at West Tilbury at Condovers next to the scout campsite there. Again West Tilbury to me as a kid was a posh place... little village, private houses, farms, village green, church, leafy and rural the typical image of cricket back in the 1950's and 60's I would imagine, so when the players turned up to play next to the scout camp, again it had that aura about it, polite clapping, when someone made runs or was bowled, the breaks where they came off the field and sat around drinking tea and eating sand-whiches, so for me it always seemed as it seemingly does still for many people to be steeped in class.

Then in 2006 because of an incident with one of my sons where he broke his arm we had to look for an alternative game to play and we picked cricket as he could bat with his right arm using a tennis racket. One thing led to another and I found myself at Grays and Chadwell CC trying to bowl wrist-spin!

Playing you find yourself travelling around your local area, visiting different grounds using different facilities and I started to notice that the clubs all have a basic structure and are for the most part very similar in size with regards to how many players they have and how many teams they get out at the weekend. As a student I was the treasurer of Plymouth College of Art and Design student union for three years and was in charge of their accounts and the way money was raised and spent, so have a bit of an insight as to how small organisations with voluntary memberships work and one thing struck quite quickly and that was how different the facilities at the clubs I visited were in relation to their membership and this was very much apparent in the design and structure of their club houses/pavilions. Why do clubs with very similar numbers have very different facilities, surely their income is relative to their membership - that kind of thing?

This was further reinforced when travelling around and visiting more rural areas, where there were denser populations. The comparison that kicked off the project was that of my own club Basildon and Pitsea CC based in an area with a population of over 174,500 had what I would describe as basic facilities whereas West Hallam village in Erewash in Derbyshire has a population of around 3000 and yet has two clubs of a similar size to Basildon and yet both clubs have grounds and facilities that are far better than Basildon and Pitsea. So I felt that this had the potential for a photographic project - do the pavilions reflect the local economy and other socio-economic factors? What was going on?

What influences your photography?

I think the biggest influence was a bloke I used to work with - Matt Lyndsey. I'm old enough to be his Dad and when he joined us he was only about 23 or 24 years old as I recall, but what he didn't know about German Photography and the New Topographics wasn't worth knowing. It was completely new to me, I hadn't seen any of this stuff as my education had been via a HND, so all my learning was hands on doing it rather than looking and exploring photography as an academic subject. Matts education was via a degree so he came at it from a totally different perspective. Initially, I wasn't sold on his approach, but the more I talked to him about it and the more he showed me, the more I bought into it and gradually fell in love with German photography, typologies, objectivity and the New Topographics. So the work is very much inspired by the work of people like The Bechers and Hans Van Der Meer. I've been looking at Van Der Meers "European Fields" recently and that's brilliant work and again has at the centre of it working class-ness which always floats my boat, sport and in his case landscape. Another person's whose work I really like and I'm inspired by is the Spanish photographer Xavier Ribas, especially his 'Barcelona' images and the theme of space utilisation.

The work has a definite Typology feel about it, tell us about that?

Yeah as I said one of the main influences is The Bechers see below.

I like the way that the subjects are shot in a uniform way known as a Typology, so I'm trying to do something similar. The intention is that all of the pavilions irrespective of their surroundings are shot as objectively as possible so that they're all treated with a sense of neutrality, like the Bechers a catalogue of pavilions. One of the driving forces behind the project is the fact that my involvement in cricket is short in comparison with most people but cricket is in a massive state of flux and I can see and feel that even though I've only been involved in it since 2006. The sense I get is that it's difficult to engage kids with the sport and even when they do they're very easily lost to it and one of the answers seems to be making the game shorter for the new generations of people with limited attention spans and time on their hands hence the rise of T20. I have another project running alongside this one that is about places where there were cricket grounds and since I've been around in my local area there are a number of cricket grounds and their pavilions that have been lost, so this project is also recording something that might disappear in the coming decades and again that's a connection with the work of The Bechers.

The work as you see it here is on-going and is nowhere near finished, but the general approach is one of setting a series of parameters to work within in order to create that sense of uniformity. I would like to have shot everything using what I call 'German light' e.g. soft diffuse light created by 100% cloud cover, but given the time I have to shoot these images at the moment I take what I can get, but I do try and hang around and shoot in diffuse light where possible waiting for cloud cover. Doing this makes you realise what a massive task the Bechers work was. I'm using DSLR's with a tripod, if I had to use a massive lens and a view camera like they did and wait for the right light I reckon I'd have had about 2 images so far, it makes you realise how hard their process of taking the images was and how much time and effort must have been put into creating those images.

Tell us about your approach and equipment

In an ideal world I'd have used a view camera, and I did at the start with the idea I'd shoot a few and see how it went and then use a view camera. But, it involves so much time planning and travelling round and the weather dictates what you can do, I've pretty much scrapped the idea of the view camera and I'm currently using DSLR's. As I said I try and go out and shoot when the weather is over-cast. I try and shoot at 100 or 200 ISO and keep that consistent. I don't always use a tripod and when I do it's a Benbo one of the big ones. I use the lens at about 80mm and I'm not fussed on the aperture as I'm so far away, I'm more interested in the shutter speed being high so that the image is sharp. At the moment I just shoot using JPEGs and bracket the shots and do very little in the way of post production work. When I'm there I look at what I'm shooting and move stuff around. The pavilion at Chigwell school No.3 for instance had two ugly great bins at the front, so rather than leave them there and photoshop them out, I simply rolled them round to the side of the building out of sight. The same with paper in the shot. The less Photoshop I do the better. What I should do though and I think I'm going to regret in the future is not shooting everything in RAW as I'm not 100% sure how the images will cope with being blown up large.

I try and shoot from a good distance to eliminate converging verticals and keep everything central shooting in landscape format. While I'm there I shoot a load of the other surrounding stuff... The wicket, scoring boxes, rollers, the surrounding space, so there is scope for the project to be much bigger and broader.



















002 - Langdon Hills Rec, Langdon Hills, Essex.

This building is a council facility situated at the Recreation Ground, Langdon Hills, Essex (My teams home ground). The building serves as the changing rooms, toilets and tea rooms for the club and other clubs that wish to hire it. In the winter it's used for football, so it's a general use multi-function facility operated and looked after by Basildon Council. It's non-descript and it's probably been built in the way that it has in order to survive repeated attempts to vandalise it and break-ins, looking to steal anything that is kept there including the copper plumbing fittings. There are no windows and the heavy-duty door is electronic with a very secure 3 system lock set up.
The previous building which was only there a few years ago and I don't now recall at all! Was susceptible to damage with windows and was frequently broken into. The building is used by Basildon & Pitsea CC and serves as their second ground with the 3rd and 4th XI playing their home games at this venue.
The ground is relatively established with a very good wicket maintained by Basildon Council. It's unusual in that the wicket runs East to West as it's situated on a fairly steep slope. The immediate surroundings are fairly impressive and the ground is a 'Pretty ground' situated in a park area with mature trees.

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009 - Penzance Cricket Club, Penzance, Cornwall.

Penzance CC is a good example of collaboration with another organisation to get things done. The ground is next door to Penwith 6th form college (Further education) notoriously under-funded as a rule, but seemingly ready to put a lot of money in the cricket club in order that they have access to the facilities in order the students can play cricket on the ground. The whole project cost in the region of £650,000 with the college contributing £400,000, the ECB £200,000 and club itself £25,000. http://www.cornishman.co.uk/New-cricket-facility-make-impact-women-s-game/story-15041214-detail/story.html
When I shot the images I met a bloke - Godfrey Adams who seems to be an integral part of the club and gave me some of the background info about the project and the clubs history and some useful info relating to how clubs can generate cash for such projects and realise their ambitions.

From Wikipedia...

The economy of Penzance has, like those of many Cornish communities, suffered from the decline of the traditional industries of fishing, mining and agriculture. Penzance now has a mixed economy consisting of light industrial, tourism and retail businesses. However, like the rest of Cornwall, housing remains comparatively expensive, wages low and unemployment high. In 2007, house prices rose 274% from 10 years prior, the fastest rise in the UK.^[59] The fishing port of Newlyn, which falls within the parish boundaries, provides some employment in the area, but has also been greatly affected by the decline in the fishing industry over the last 30 years. In the 2004 index of deprivation Penzance is listed as having 3 wards within the top 10% for employment deprivation, Penzance East (125th most deprived in England) Penzance West (200th most deprived in England), and Penzance Central (712th most deprived in England).^[60] 18-31% of households in the parish are described as "poor households".^[61] The Penzance East Ward also has one of the highest unemployment rates in Cornwall, stated as 15.4%.^[61]

Researching further I've found this...

Penzance Cricket Club was formed in 1829, the year of the first Varsity Boat Race, and the St Clare playing field became the permanent home of Penzance Cricket Club in the early 1900's.  This was when the ground was given to them by the widow of a prominent local businessman and Penzance cricketer W E T Bolitho.  (Source - http://penzance.play-cricket.com/ ).

The Penzance pavilion, I'm discovering through my research is pretty significant and is featured on a specific part of the ECB's (English Cricket Board) website in a section where they detail the development and design of such buildings see here http://www.ecb.co.uk/development/facilities-funding/facilities-guidance-and-project-development/ts5-pavilions-and-clubhouses
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013 - Spondon Cricket Clubs Pavilion, Derby, Derbyshire. (Population 12,400)

Shot this one over the Bank holiday so the ground was busy, but was able to speak to the vice chairman who gave me load of information about the clubs history and some explanations and ideas as to why the club is so successful and has such a nice clubhouse.
Similar to Penzance there was a legacy aspect to their current success combined with culture and community. The ground that they currently occupy (Locko Road) is relatively new having only been there since 2006. The clubs rich history is very well recorded see the link here at the MCC's taking the field website. The clinching factor to me seems to be that their original ground was offered to them in 1924 to buy outright, they went for it and it took a further 21 years lead primarily by a group of local women -  Mrs Benniston, Mrs Dally and Mrs Walker-Smith.
Having secured the ground as their own, this meant that they were able to sell the ground to developers and move to a new location slightly out of town with scope to expand. The new location includes a secondary pitch down a slight incline which in recent years they've worked on shoring up an unsecure bank/slope between the two pitches.
The club seemingly is in a very secure financial state put down to a exceptionally strong local community aspect to the clubs whole outlook. Speaking to the vice chairman about their success which he was obviously very proud of, he explained that they look at every opportunity they can to include the local community and they use cricket to engage with people across a diverse and all-inclusive range.
http://takingthefield.com/stories/girls-and-girlies-spondon-cc
Looking around the 'Taking the field' link there's an amazing series of links to the history of this club which is explained by someone saying that once offered the opportunity to record their history in this manner, they took the opportunity without hesitation as another local club, who's clubhouse was destroyed in a fire took with it all of it's historical records.
http://www.spondoncricketclub.co.uk/news-and-features/taking-the-field/spondon-and-thr-grounds-3

014 - Beech Lane Pavilion, West Hallam, Erewash, Derbyshire (White Rose CC 3rd XI Ground)
Population 4829

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018 - East Hanningfield & Great Burstead Cricket Club, Essex. 
Population 977
Beautiful ground with history that extends more than 120 years. The pavilion here is a very good example built recently in a traditional style. Cost of the new build was £120,000 with money coming from 3 main sources.

019 - Basildon & Pitsea Cricket Club
Population 107,123
Basildon's history being a 'New Town' is relatively new, so as a consequence up until 1949, Basildon as a town was pretty much non-existent apart from a cluster of small villages. In the Basildon area there were a number of small clubs which until fairly recently have all but disappeared. Scattered around the town in a number of different locations are other cricket pitches with lesser facilities making Basildon & Pitsea the biggest club in the Basildon area. The clubhouse here (Which is my own club) is located on Mopsies Park a council owned ground which we have to pay rent for. The ground appears to have been around since 1973 and the image here from 1976 when it was in its early years and the surrounding tress were non existent. More precise details are to be found here http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/2274752.Basildon_and_Pitsea/

One of the main reasons I started the project was I couldn't understand why some clubs that were situated in densely populated areas with large memberships seemed to be poorly funded. Whereas clubs situated in villages of a couple of hundred people had unbelievable facilities and grounds. What was going on? It turns out that it's an historical thing often dependent on local benefactors. The older the club is the more likely it's going to be financially sound. Or the closer its ties with the local community the better off it's going to be and this tends to be relative to the size of the local community. Another factor is regional historic preferences towards cricket or football and this seems to be closely linked to urbanisation. Urban areas seem to adopt football as their choice of sport and the social make-up of the players seems to be wholly working class. But, in rural areas where again the players traditionally come from working class backgrounds for the most part - cricket has a stronger hold.

I've found that in rural areas, cricket clubs in the past have seemingly had strong ties with local industry or employers. St Just in Cornwall whose facilities are staggering given the size of the town have had close associations with a local baking company and anecdotally I've been told that the club is sponsored by Warrens the Bakers.



The Photography aspects

At this stage I'm using either a digital Nikon compact camera or an old Canon 450D just to get the buildings recorded and just play around with the idea. At the moment I'm liking the uniformity of the composition and the way that both buildings sit within the frame neatly. I know though as I travel around this isn't always going to be the case. We'll just have to see how it develops?

One I know I do want to include at this stage is the one at Lake Meadows in Billericay and also Grays &; Chadwells (AKA Thurrock CC). They're both very different.

31st Aug

I guess I'm being relatively lazy with most of the photography as I'm kind of doing it on the hoof. I've been using a Nikon D3100 with a 18mm-105mm lens, 3.5-5.6. As it's summer and the lights good I'm getting away with the fact that I'm hand holding the lens. The intention is that this series of images are only the preliminary 'test shoots'  and that these locations are all relatively easy to access at this stage and therefore next summer, I'll go back and shoot properly in a more consistent way with the use of a big tripod using raw files.

For the most part I am trying to shoot the locations when the light is flat, so hand holding the camera I'm generally shooting at about F4-F5.6 and making the exposure adjustments with the shutter speed. At the next stage of development, I'll be looking to shoot the places when there are no players and things that clutter up the image. On the subject of clutter in some instances I do Photoshop some elements out of the images occasionally - things such as bins, especially if they're bright colours drawing your eye to them in the image. If I can I do this when I'm shooting - move the bins around to the side of the building out of shoot I will do it when possible.

peppercorn payements - leases

348 views 21st Feb

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