Club Cricket from the inside.

  The Great Pyramids of the West Midlands  Many people year after year fly to Egypt to see the great pyramids of Giza, a man made wonder attracting people from around the world they mesmerized explorers promoting a boom in Egyptology in academia and Victoria high society. But another great pyramid exists out there in the cricketing world and this one is a little bit more modern. Formed over years during the late 90’s early 00’s the Birmingham League Pyramid has grown to become one of the top competitions in amateur cricket in the country. Before I get into the stats about this subject I thought I would explain what prompted me to write it. Moving around the country and therefore, playing cricket in various leagues I had always assumed (incorrectly) that counties have “the” league. My experience of cricket in the West Midlands and then moving down to Kent was that of giant all encompassing county leagues, but then I moved to Yorkshire which has a confusing array of overlapp...

  Spring is now in full swing; I am sure many others feel the same but the light early morning and the night-time not starting until around 9pm always seem to creep up quickly. It was only a few weeks ago I had to get a train in the dead of night one morning to got to a work meeting in Leeds. Now I am sure the more avid readers like me are building up to the season starting, something to be taken very seriously indeed. This began with the warmer weather in March getting by spikes changed on my boots, taking them to get a few repairs and patches replaced on them then cleaning and applying dubbin to keep he leather supple for the 2026 season. Most of you won’t have Ian Mason specials like I do (see previous articles about this) but this act is certainly something that marks the begging’s of the season. I remember as a kid a couple of other activities that have gone with time. These are getting the linseed oil on bats, getting the equipment out and my dad making sure he had properly...

  While we all wallow at home listening to statistics about how the start of 2026 has had the most rainfall, least sunlight and suffered from a stuck weather pattern it is hard to believe the cricket season of 2026 will ever come. But like every year summer does come at some point, weather it will get into full swing in early March likes in 2026 is a very different story. This month I wanted to look at a number of topics regarding kit; there have been two points of interest and another subject I have been wanting to write about for a while.   Cricket Boots There has always been the historic rivalry between batters and bowlers in cricket right back to the idea of gentlemen batters and “professional” bowlers. There is one part of cricket kit where this divide is still as evident as it ever was and, in my opinion, even more so. Custom cricket boots are just no longer available in the UK, there are 100’s of custom bat makers up and down the country offering all sorts of ...

  With the dark nights still very much here winter nets start to emerge out of the foggy January gloom of the winter days. After an amazing trip to the Arctic Circle I have had time to reflect on a new subject to talk about this month. My attention quickly turned to umpires and how they are recruited following several posts on my social media accounts by clubs (who have been made to do so by league rules) posting about finding umpires for the 2026 season. A lot has been written about the decline in umpires and various things league to make sure there are officials in league matches at the highest level (I’ll get onto lower levels in a bit) but I always feel there is no grasp of the social and economic things impacting the whole adult population of the UK and how these things outside of the ECB’s or any county board’s control need to be considered in the future when recruiting not just umpires but scorers, club and league administrators. OK Boomer The phrase above is a much de...

  Just like Marmite (Vegemite to those antipodeans) Indoor Cricket never seems to have any in between there are people who would rather have some time off and maybe net when it comes to January or there are those (myself included) who absolutely love it. I have tried to seek out indoor cricket wherever I have lived in the country, gracing sports halls of Tipton, Hastings, Beckenham, Redhill and Sheffield. There is also the bitter debate about what the format should be, in England we play a 6 a side version which is designed for a traditional sports hall, but when you say indoor cricket to cricketers front the Southern Hemisphere they think of a pairs game played with a softer yellow ball in a modified “court”. In my view both are good games, nether replicate actual outdoor cricket completely but it’s a much better way to keep skills over winter than nets, the slight competitive element and being able to practice fielding helps as an addition to nets. The big difference is your ...

    I am not football follower but each year I can’t escape transfer deadline day coming around, to follow the sports I’m interested in I follow many sports channels all of which are posting about such things in January or February of each year. In these headlines we read, contract singed, contract extended, new deal agreed or left by mutual consent. Recently in the cycling off season my feed is full of such terms. But in the last few years another feed of mine if full of these terms, a place you necessarily would not associate with such language if you were outside this very niche circle of people. These are the social media posts of cricket clubs and even newly created transfer rumours anonymous account posting about the movement of players. I appreciate people are putting a social media spin on things and helping to gain traction, but is this language necessary or even helpful to the wider club cricket environment? There are plenty of other examples of this throug...