Grantchester Cricket Club

Hello and welcome to the first (if Cap’n Wilson allows them) of the GCC Wags Blogs. Forget googlies and yorkers and boring things like runs and overs, the real action is all about what happens off the pitch. Although you do all look rather sweet in your white trousers, so do carry on, boys. This …

Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to present the second Secretary’s Report of the reformed Grantchester Cricket Club. This has probably been the busiest and most exciting year the club will ever see. This time last year our square had been laid only 2 months previously; now we have completed our first season …

The hottest day of the year, finally the forecast is set fair for a cricket game, and, as I’m pulling off the A14, it starts to rain….. What a summer! Fortunately it is only a brief, if heavy, shower and by the time I get to Conington Hall the shower is history. The ground is …

“Country house cricket” featured in numerous novels and plays of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: “England their England” is perhaps the best known followed closely by Hugh de Selincourt’s “The Cricket Match” and various of E.W. Hornung’s short stories featuring “Raffles: the Amateur Cracksman”. One of the best known patrons of this arcadian …

Wel­come to the web­site for Grantchester Cricket Club, formerly the Blue Ball Cricket Club and based in the inspirationally picturesque village of Grantchester, near Cambridge, England. Here you can hopefully learn some more about the history of the club, the current and former players, our fixtures, results and match reports. We’re a social cricket club, …

In the first part of this occasional series we looked at Grantchester Cricket in the 1840′s and saw an established club playing regular fixtures against nearby villages and town sides. In addition the newspaper reports of the time tell of abandoned matches, “an excellent dinner of which 51 partook” and a suggestion that the Grantchester players may have …

Here at GCC we’re kicking off our fund raising events for the 2013, and the first one is sure to be an absolute cracker. You are cordially invited to enter a team in our Annual Quiz on Friday 22nd February at 7.30 which this year will be held in The Village Hall at Grantchester. Please …

It’s been quite a year here at Grantchester Cricket Club. Who’d have thought, at the beginning of 2011, we’d be well on our way to having our own ground, kit and roller. And yet here we are, thanks in no small part to some extremely generous benefactors and enthusiastic fund raisers. To all these we …

And so to the final game of the 2011 season and under grey skies “The Grantchester” headed East to Dullingham.  Twenty years ago (November 1991 to be exact) the village of Dullingham was struck by a freak tornado which caused substantial damage.  Would history repeat itself? The prospect of rain made this an important toss …

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Following last week’s game when G.C.C. beat G.C.C. (so at least the club’s initials have continued their unbeaten run), it was back to a more normal routine as we returned to Spring Lane under leaden skies and the obligatory drops of rain. The Radegund were our vaunted opponents and after a series of delays, first …

The first definite record of cricket in Grantchester comes from 1843 when the Cambridge Independent Press (and when did we last have one of those?) reported that, ”On Thursday 3rd August, Grantchester played Sawston” and, “stumps being pitched at 11.00 the game commenced”.  This is the earliest existing record but I think it’s reasonable to assume that if …

We’re all smiles at Grantchester Cricket Club today after we learned that our application for a grant from the local Council’s Community Chest has been successful. We have been awarded the dosh to purchase 2 sightscreens that can be erected for matches and dismantled afterwards. We will also be buying a large length of hosepipe and …

We’re getting into the Flamenco style here in Grantchester as this glorious summer reaches its zenith, and to celebrate we have news of another fantastic event to share with you. An afternoon of Sangria, Paella and Spanish music will be held on the 28th July from 2.00 pm onwards at the Blue Ball Inn, Grantchester. …

When describing events of such magnitude, historical context is all. In the last three meetings, the Radegund have dominated the Blue Ball team and yet today as the grey clouds gathered in the morning one felt that it wasn’t just the weather that could turn. A long winter of nets and careful preparation was over …

GCC v Liverpool Medics. GCC won by 146 runs. Grantchester lost the toss and were put into bat on a bright and breezy afternoon at Spring Lane. Both openers Jamie Innes (75*) and Rob Douaston (47*) were assured in the early stages of their innings and the Liverpool Medics attack was made to toil in …

Registration for the Grantchester Fun Run 2013 is now open. The 2013 Grantchester 10k & 3k Fun Runs will take place on the 6th October. The 10k route will be the same acclaimed circular cross- country route as last year except that it will start from Spring Lane cricket field next to the Orchard Tea …

Grantchester Cricket Club is holding a President’s Barbecue on Sunday 1st May from 3pm onwards at the Blue Ball PH in Grantchester. The Barbecue is kindly being donated by Flair Catering. All proceeds will go towards club funds. Tickets are priced at a very reasonable £10 (students and under 21s – £5) and are available …

Where are battles won? Apart from the valour shown in the white heat of combat there are the all too often unrecognised hours of training and preparation that go on before the battle even begins. The Friday evening basked in the slowly setting sun and a perfect evening of cricket was to unfold. The Hemmingford …

Ickleton visited Spring Lane on Sunday for a (I still can’t quite believe it) sunny, uninterrupted game of cricket. Unfortunately, GCC’s cricket did not quite live up to the meteorological conditions as you will read in the soon to appear match report. Here, I’d rather focus on another area of the game where I felt …

As we move into the new year, I think we all wish for a summer more fitting to those balmy days of youth and rather less like the one we’ve just experienced. Currently the ground is under water again, as you can see below. Rumours of a new years day cricket match have therefore proven …

20th May v Conington (home) Conington: 110 all out (H Fordham 64, T Kennedy 2-16, J Innes 2-12, S Ludford 2-0) Grantchester:  111-2 (J Innes 67no) Grantchester won by 8 wickets 16th June v Liverpool Medics (home) Grantchester:  207-5 (J Innes 75no, R Dovaston 47no) Liverpool Medics: 61 all out (T Kennedy 3-11, D Foster …

Our second official tour to North Norfolk saw a plucky Grantchester XI beaten by a determined Stiffkey.  Injuries and a brace of motorcycle breakdowns saw Grantchester robbed of both players and supporters and it was not until twenty minutes before 2 o’clock that the Grantchester team was confirmed. Winning the toss Stiffkey decided to bat …

Stiffkey may only be associated by most with its notorious Rector, Harold Davidson, who after being defrocked in 1932 on charges of immorality died in 1937 after being mauled by a lion in an amusement park in Skegness. But for the Grantchester, Stiffkey is the venue of our annual trip to North Norfolk to play …

In these the dog days of winter, where cold holds the earth in its tentacular grip and the sacrosant optimism of daffodils is perceived folly, it is hard to believe that in just a couple of months men and women up and down the land will be digging their whites out of the attic and …

In these days of spring time drought one conjures up the lines in T S Eliot’s The Wasteland: A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief ……I will show you fear in a handful of dust. On day when the pitch was unforgiving, …

They will come from far and wide, from Jerusalem itself will they travel… The inaugural Ringing the Bull World Championships will be held in the Blue Ball Inn, Grantchester on Sunday 15th April 2012, starting at 2.00 pm. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, supposedly invented by Ernst Hemmingway or Caribbean Pirates depending …

Genius is not only characterised by success but by strong levels of variation. The good achieve reliably but genius can so easily falter between brilliance and disaster. And so it was for the GCC team on this sun drenched Sunday. The bowling attack of GCC was ferocious, inspired and (mostly) accurate. Jake and Adam were …

Played 9.  Won 6.  Lost 3. It’s not often we are accused of playing too hard but we were this season! I won’t reveal which team made this scurrilous accusation but it does reflect our improved playing standards. Could it be the winter nets, improved fitness standards or our lovely scorers new found ability to …

Since the new wicket was prepared last Autumn we have seen prolonged drought, a cattle stampede, heavy snow, record low temperatures, drought, and yet more drought; and yet we seem to have the makings of a ground! After the initial re-seeding in mid-September several members and friends spent many of the following weekends and evenings moving a drip …

Blue Ball cricket in the early 1980′s was a pretty casual affair made up from an eclectic mix of individuals from Cambridge and surrounding villages. Pete Brauer was captain though we always called him Pete “Man” because when he first turned up to play when asked his name replied “Its Pete, man.” He skippered for quite some time …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a batsman must not lose his wicket in order to score. As the venerable Sir Geoffrey Boycott often reminds his listeners, “yer can’t make runs when yer back in t’hutch”. Your correspondent was minded of this maxim as Grantchester travelled to Thriplow (pronounced trip-low), a weather enforced last …

A depressing blanket of pendulous grey cloud hung over the Clare college cricket pitch as the teams prepared to do battle. The Philanderers batsmen stood at the crease for some ten minutes or so as chaos prevailed amongst the Blue Ballers as to whom was playing and also their whereabouts. In the end we took …

The sun shone in a brilliant blue sky as Grantchester took the field for the first match at Spring Lane. The tinkle of ice in the Pimms and the popping of champagne corks provided the soundtrack to this historic occasion…………………. well, that’s what the script said. In reality a bone-chilling North Easterly scoured across the …

In retrospect the signs were ominous. A seemingly strong team………..no last minute absences………..everyone had enough kit…………even fielding practice went well. Surely all was set for Grantchester to revenge last year’s heavy defeat. And yet? Ugly rumours were circulating. Had our keeper really been punting down the Cam dressed only in his boxers? Did one of …

We’re delighted to announce that registration for the Grantchester Fun Run 2012 is now open in preparation for the big day on Sunday 21st October at 10.30 am. Building on the tremendous success of last year, this time we’re offering a run over two distances to broaden the appeal and give as many as possible …