Match Reports
Match Reports
31st May 2025
Sporting success is often secured by one individual or team trying to exert a level of pressure on their opponent until it becomes so great to bear that in the end no manner of wonderous individual shot, punch or goal can overcome in growing inevitable outcome. And despite the great Keith Millar believing that pressure in a sporting sense is not worthy of the subject compared to that faced in the ‘real’ world, all cricketers experience that feeling of the fielding team making run scoring difficult, and then having to force the issue with a series of ‘stick or twist’ decisions. So it proved on the final day of May when the Town and Country took to the field first and excellent bowling and fielding, from an inter-generational team – always lovely to see from a ‘future of cricket’ point of view, and for the ageing members of a team […]
24th May 2025
The Invalids fixture is one of the longer standing on the V&A list, and the Invalids themselves are a club of rich history who have recently brought up their century. They were founded in 1919 by the poet and critic, J.C.Squire, as activity for chaps injured in the First World War and were soon immortalised in perhaps the most famous of cricketing novels, England, Their England by A.G.Macdonell. Happily, such distinction has not gone to their heads, as we have seen with other clubs of similar longevity, and they are as affable and convey the same degree of pleasantly organised chaos as Macdonell depicted back in 1933. During the week, our captain, Jasper Arnold, had informed Adam Jacot that he would be batting at number eleven, an act Adam found demotivating. Nevertheless, Adam was on good form throughout the morning, batting off Nicky Bird’s frequent barbs with some panache. In life as in cricket, Adam hides […]
17th May 2025
The extraordinary thing about the V&A’s match on Saturday 17 May was that the team were obviously thought to be so talented that they took on not one but two teams, a combined Penn Street and The Hermits (in fact, as neither could quite raise an eleven). But the story then became even more complicated as they came with twelve so to give everyone a game one of theirs also fielded for the V&A, meaning that to avoid too many on the pitch at one time, one of the V&A had to drop out every five overs and merely admire their comrades from the pavilion. And if you are still with me so far (which I very much doubt) hang on until it gets even more complicated as one PSH (as I shall call the combined opposition) strained a muscle when batting, thus needing a runner who of course largely stood at […]
10th May 2025
On a perfect early May morning Stonor valley is truly poetic. John Clare’s unabashed joy of rural splendour is captured in “The Shepherd’s Calendar. In “May” we find twittering swallows, hedgerow crickets, swarthy bees, flowers in bloom and the deepening sky. That said, Clare’s account of May-time sporting activities refers to “ …children, wild for sport [ who] , alternate catch the bounding ball” – nothing at all to do with the V&A team taking the field on this beautiful morning. After a stressful week trying to drum up a full XI, V&A fielded 9 players in a 10 a side game. The team was not young – at best, autumnal. Christiaan Jonkers was comfortably the youngest player at 50 years old. Nicky Bird suggested that I check the players’ ages and record the average age of the team. The questions I would have had to ask seemed impertinent. For […]
3rd May 2025
The Howitzers hail from Conington in Cambridgeshire, not to be confused with a village of the same name a few miles downstream. It’s an easy mistake to make as the V&A know to their cost when we arrived to the wrong Conington a few years ago only to find no cricket pitch and the locals unwilling to raise a team. To have two identically named villages located so close together seems unwise to me, but perhaps they had tasked an intern writing the Cambridgeshire section of the Domesday Book that day. The Howitzers style themselves as “friendly, sociable and inclusive” and they are as good as their word, playing in good spirit and even laughing at Nicky Bird’s jokes. Nicky likes to describe the V&A as inclusive. When asked by some funding body to demonstrate the club’s inclusivity he replied, without hesitation, “well, we have players from minor public schools as well”. Both sides […]
26th April 2025
Venue: Stonor Format: Timed Match Result: Match drawn Score Summary: Top Knockers: 154/9 V&A CC (A): 92/6 Result: Match drawn Ah, cricket in the spring. The sun was out, the pitch was dry, and the players were up for it. Vanda CC (A) took one look at the luscious strip and — full of premature confidence — decided to have a bowl after winning the toss. What followed was a performance so tight it would’ve impressed even the most experienced professionals. The opening pair of Sean Gleason and Chris MT were absolutely relentless. Like a couple of lovers with a point to prove, they hit their lengths repeatedly — and not infrequently found that elusive G spot, much to the frustration of the Top Knockers’ top order. The early breakthroughs came quickly, and Vanda were on top in every sense. The pitch was a bit on the slow side (we’ve all been there), and the outfield didn’t help — it was as […]
14th September 2024
Refreshers 152-6. Pitlarge 2-27, Jacot 2-15, Hayley 1-21 V&A 136 all out. Arnold 59, Bird 47. Richard Jory 5-23 On Saturday the 14th a hand-picked and carefully selected band of brothers (enhanced at the last moment by most of captain Bird’s extended family) took on The Refreshers, apparently a bunch of lawyers who clearly knew a thing or two about the rules (or should one say ‘laws’) of cricket, comprising 7 men and 4 women – who proved to be their secret weapon if not with the bat, then certainly with the ball taking two if not three of the first few wickets when it came to their turn to show how things should be done. One of the Birds seemed to win the toss and so the mighty V&A took to the field with as they say the sun shining brightly over the Stonor valley and the deer wandering […]
25th August 2024
Tom Bird said arrive to start play at 1pm sharp, which was either a mistake or a lie to get Jonkers to turn up on time. Embarrassing ourselves with poor timekeeping against our Stonor CC hosts was the least of our worries, though. A ramshackle X1 at the best of times, our bank holiday Sunday outfit was a mixture of those who had never played cricket together and those who looked like they had never played cricket. That said, we started well, with Jasper sporting a large brown Surrey hat, leaning his full weight into the new ball and walking ferociously between the wickets as the ball continuously threatened the moist boundary. His partner, Rory, took kindly to some early (or late) buffet, making up for the lack of customery Saturday lunch, plonking the ball into the parked cars. He was out going for one too many, bringing Ed Shepherdson […]
17th August 2024
SIMON BARNES, late of The Times and doyen of sports writers, used to play for the V&A and was a good hater. His heroes were Homer Simpson (‘I don’t know much about art but I know what I hate’) and W.C. Fields (‘I like children – fried’). Apart from split infinitives he also hated the languid school of cricketer, the Plum Warners and Douglas Jardines(‘MCC at its worst’), the sort who loaf in cravats and wear a striped tie as a belt. I once accused Simon of being a bit chippy. ‘Jesus was a chippy,’ he replied which I thought a non-sequitur. Christiaan Jonkers, who I revere, is the Plum Warner de nos jours and commanded our team in mufti, deigning to change into trad whites only when taking the field. Apparently, he wears a tie as a belt to keep his trousers up. Good reason. But he lacks a cravat, […]