Norwood Exiles Cricket Club

Following the positive news from the UK Government confirming England has progressed to Step 3 on the 17th  May, the club is tremendously excited to announce the return of the annual NECC Club Match! This year, at The Lakes ground, we will be hosting two open-invitation matches on Sunday 6th June:  12:30pm to 1pm - Player registration 1pm - Colts and parents/guardians fixed-over match 3pm - NECC vs NECC where h ard ball colts, current & former players and anyone else connected to the club and want to play can take part in a fun, inter-club T20 Thanks to the easing of restrictions, spectators are now very welcome as long as individual groups number no more than 30 people, and we will be providing outdoor hospitality in the form of a BBQ with  non-vegetarian and vegetarian options . Match fees, payable on the day, are: Under-18s £4 / Over-18s £6 and include one burger from the BBQ. Non-players are welcome to purchase food from the BBQ but please note this will be cash-o...

Under thankfully rainless skies, the third Colts session of the year took place last night with 27 of our young cricketers taking part. It was really wonderful to see everyone bringing energy and fun to the ground and our two coaches were making sure that it was all put to good use! Our lead-coach, Matt's, tremendous cricket-adapted hand-hockey was a great success and brought out some intense competitiveness while in Iain's group, with names befitting this year's debut of The Hundred, the The Volcanoes triumphed over The Craters 2 rounds to 1. Batting-specific practice games followed along with bowling challenges and a very fast and furious session of hot-potato which, thanks to the Colts' suggestions, developed some increasingly creative additions to the rules!  It turns out that our Colts are much better than our coaches at turning around 360º after throwing a ball up in the air and still catching it... The session ended with two games which, for the older age-group...

Brixton Barbarians were hosting us at their new home, Alleyn CC's Edward Alleyn Ground, which was a lovely setting for our first ever away encounter with the Baa-Baas.  With May dressing up a February, we were at risk of missing a second game in a row following last week's abandoned match against the Pirates and during a week when not even the weathermen believed in their forecasts, the Barbarians put their faith in the predictions of late afternoon showers and brought the start of the game forward by 90 minutes.  Laurence Pinn, captain of the Barbarians, wanted to bowl first and we were happy to bat first hoping to use the cloudy, windy weather expect later in the afternoon and so we did away with the toss.   Opening the Exiles batting alongside Sam was the dashing figure of club stalwart, Paul, returning for his first game of the season and they  started steadily under conditions ideal for bowling but both fell inside the first 10 overs; a wicket a piece to ea...

On Wednesday evening our first Colts session since 2019 was a great success with 29 Colts participating ranging from 6 to 13. A big thank you to all the young players, their parents and guardians, the club members and the coaches who made the evening so enjoyable for all concerned! Our fabulous session lead-coach, Devon all-rounder Matt Golding got everyone moving right from the start with a fun warmup which got everyone practicing their running between the wickets. There was some great bat-sliding technique on show and after three close rounds, the victors were the 'Reds' whose speed put them just ahead of the other teams. The players were then split in to two age-based groups and they each took turns to practice their bowling and batting. While some ferocious shots were being played and some excellent over-arm deliveries were being made the coaches were always on the move, observing and stepping in with helpful advice and guidance.  The players clearly took this on board as t...

First home game of the season at last and we faced Fazal CC on the most pleasant day of the year yet with a little cloud and a strong breeze. The ground was looking beautiful, the square having been cut and rolled thanks to the generosity of our Lifetime President and it was a stunning setting, ideal for cricket, with ducks quacking on the lake and the Crystal Palace tower watching over us. The rain over the previous two days had made the pitch quite sticky and having won the toss, we decided to field first to make the most of the early cloud cover. We started steadily with the ball to keep the visitors to under five runs per over on a lightening-quick outfield that gave a high return on shots, but a few dropped catches limited the wickets to just one at the halfway mark. Aside from a few loose deliveries, the bowling and fielding was much improved over last week's performance at Woodmansterne. FCC then opened up their attack and their batsmen capitalised on their measured opening ...

Playing Woodmansterne away for a Sunday friendly, it didn't start well for us as we were welcomed by inauspicious weather (wind, rain, clouds, cold temperatures) and a lost toss. Nevertheless, there was some excitement in the air as this was the first match that we were scoring on the Play-Cricket app. Naturally, we were asked to bat first and soon discovered that the pitch was spicier than the vindaloo from the Yak and Yeti. Worse than the seam movement was the unpredictable bounce from a good length. Think Sabina Park 1998 . These difficulties meant nothing to our Sunday team's openers for the day, Jez and Sam, as they put on a solid opening stand lasting 14 overs. This is significant for many reasons not least of which was that they saw off the new ball under very testing conditions and laid a platform for the rest of the innings which is something that we have been missing off late. Patterson removed both of them on the way to his 5-wicket haul. Jack, batting at 3, had his ...