Norwood Exiles Cricket Club

Sunday 22nd August saw us back at South Norwood Lakes for another afternoon of cricket for a match with ACME CC. A brief but heavy shower threatened the game, but the sky cleared up in time for the match to start. The outfield was heavy, and the pitch was dry with some grass on it. Another occasion of not having enough players meant that our XI included George, a ‘colts' leg spinner, and, making his second appearance of the season on the team sheet, El Presidente, Mark Arthur. ACME won the toss and elected to field in bowling friendly conditions.  Kathes and Vathsan shared the new ball as Kalp and Shah opened the batting for NECC. Both the opening bowlers showed good control and used the seam movement on offer to great effect. Vathsan challenged both edges of the bat and soon skittled the captain, Kalp, for three in his second over as the batter tried an injudicious on-drive. Sam joined Shah and they steadied the ship. Shah was keen to put the bad balls away and took two fours an...

Trinity Oxley hosted us for the return fixture on a rare hot and sunny Sunday at their beautiful ground at The Change Foundation Cricket Centre. When we met them at the Lakes in June, they had a thumping win by 137 runs as we were bowled out for 87 chasing 225. We were fortunate this time to get an XI without having to borrow some of the names from Trinity Oxley like we did last week.  Having lost the toss, we were asked to field on the brownest of all the pitches on the square. A long 'Whatsapp' conversation on the Friday night between the captain and vice-captain resulted in a slightly left-field bowling strategy for this game. Charlie, who has kept wickets with some regularity this season, was to take the new ball with Kalp taking over the gloves. We decided to have spin from one end and seam from the other. An astute observation from ECB Level 2 coach, Iain, helped us bowl spin from the end which carried the longer boundary on the leg side. Don't you just love it wh...

Another week arrived with a game this time at our home ground. This week was the turn of SW United to come down to the lakes to experience the unique cricket ground we have to offer. As the morning of the game arrived there were big concerns about whether we would get a game due to the downpours from Thursday to Saturday night. Thankfully Chief Exile Groundsman, Mark Arthur, performed a pitch inspection and confirmed that the ground was good to play on. That was one issue sorted! The remaining challenge was the fact that due to illness we had 2 players pull out on the morning of the game leaving us in a bit of bother. Thankfully, once again Mark came through and after texting everyone and their dog, we managed to get 2 players from our friendly (mostly) rivals Trinity Oxley CC meaning that we at least had a team. Now to the game, it was agreed that it would be 35 overs each and SW United won the Toss and chose to field first, putting the Exiles into Bat. Luke and Jack went out to the m...

A few weeks of wet weather and unavailable players meant that this was our first game in almost a month. In fact, we almost had to cancel this one due to four players having to pull out 24 hours before the match. Fortunately, the Paddington Rabbits were able to kindly loan some players to make up the numbers.  Notable mentions in the team this week included a very welcome Exiles debut for Ed and a rare and beautiful appearance by our Chairman. This was the first time in recent memory (or ever?) that the Norwood Exiles have travelled North of the river and we were excited to play at this Westminster ground. On arrival, we were immediately made to feel at home as the mud, puddles and long grass were absolutely on a par with The Lakes.  The match started without a toss as the hosts mysteriously expressed a wish to bowl first. On a concrete wicket.  Aidan joined skipper, Kalp, to open the batting and they got off to a steady start. Kalp was fortunate to be dropped on the...