Paul Johnstone Archive | Barford Cricket Club

Author Archive

Mailing List

Rather than have the endless joy of sending/replying emails to an ever increasing number of email addresses (mostly of people that you have never heard of!), we’ve made things a bit easier this year by creating a mailing list for the club: barfordcc@barfordcc.org.uk. So all you have to do now to email the entire club is to use that address rather than any/all of the motch-potch of addresses that are currently cluttering up your address book.

Further information (including how to subscribe or unsubscribe) is available here

If you have been subscribed to the mailing list you will have received details by email already – happy emailing!

UPDATE
A number of you have reported issues with receiving emails from the list and it seems to be related to the ISP or mail provider that you are using. Anyone on hotmail or yahoo seems to be at an increased risk their mailing list messages being treated as spam and ending up in their junk folder. Please check your junk folder regularly in case emails are being incorrectly processed. There is very little that can be done at our end to fix this but you can try a couple of things depending on the ISP and email client that you are using:

set up barfordcc@barfordcc.org.uk (the originating email address) as a contact

set up an email rule that specifies that anything from barfordcc.org.uk is not spam and should not be routed into your junk folder

Please let me know of any problems that you might be having as I can’t do anything to help if I don’t know about them!

Yorkshire’s finest puts on a half-century

Rumour has it (and the Tourmeiester knows everything) that Barford’s greatest living Yorkshireman finally has a 50 to his name – and I’m not talking about either his bowling average (which is reassuringly shy of 40!) or accumulated number of innings (which could get there, but he might have to start playing more than once on tour!).

Steve Herring, or ~~Herdsy~~ ‘Erdsy as he is known to every Barford tourist (and if you want to know why just stand him a pint and pin your ears back for a bit!), is not one of the regular players your match secretaries like to call upon when the inevitable late withdrawals scupper their best laid plans (although memorably TJ did call him once in desperation).

However he can lay a claim to be Barford’s greatest tourist (I think jointly with ~~Tiger Timms~~ Sandy, but am happy to be put right), having started touring back when ale was thruppence a pint, the (original) Slazenger scoop was all the rage and Sandy Peirson was running around in short trousers (although to be fair he still does that on occasion!). Despite having moved to God’s own country / the arse end of the earth (delete as appropriate) he can always be relied as one of the first paid-up tourists and is usually the last out of the bar at night.

Steve Herring: reight Bobby Dazzler

Fortunately he does’t live up to the Yorkshire motto of:

See all, ‘ear all say nowt,
Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.

or at least not all of it(!)

Many congratulations on finally raising a half-century in Barford’s colours and we will look forward to seeing you in Rutland this year (which should at least cut down your commute a little :-))

2015 Tour Deposits

From the Tourmeister (seen here in classic tour pose):

Once again I’m adding to the misery of post-Christmas credit card bills by asking for tour deposits.

This year we’re off to Rutland (which interests Simon D.) on Friday 3rd, Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of July with matches against Uppingham, Empingham and Wakerley & Barrowden. We will be staying in Oakham at The Old Wisteria (so you can check Tripadvisor and complain before actually seeing it) and the price will be £45 pp per night.

If you would like to come along I will need a deposit of £10 for each night you want to stay (i.e. if you want to stay Friday and Saturday then I need £20) by Sunday 1st of February – not long to go now (ed).

Please send cheques, payable to Barford Cricket Club, to the usual address. Or if you make a payment directly to the club will you please also email myself and Phil Morris confirming that you have done this. Alternatively I’m planning to be at the Sunday net practices if you want to pay cash or cheque directly to me.

Indoor Nets

Nets supremo Richard Jones has confirmed the first session will take place as scheduled this coming Sunday 18th January at Warwick School from 11am, so it’s definitely time to come out of hibernation and put last years kit through the wash (as the new one won’t be available for a couple of months), although a quick squirt of febreze is normally sufficient for me. After the undoubted excesses of the festive period it’s probably also worth doing a few stretches to make sure you don’t pull anything!

For those of you who want to break yourself back in gently and chew the fat with your team-mates, I can also recommend the following erudite publication to get you back into the swing…

Please let Richard know if you are able to make it, as it helps to plan the session. For the non-cricketers (and let’s face it, that’s most of us), I think you can safely assume the usual debriefing will take place afterwards in one of the local hostelries…

2014 AGM Report

Following the recent email to-ing and fro-ing over the details, esteemed Club Secretary and next seasons “go-to” bowler, Simon Hawkins, has kindly finally provided the web-friendly version of the minutes of the recent Annual General Meeting here. As usual it’s a crackerjack of a read, capturing the heady atmosphere of several old farts talking beer-lubricated rubbish until the sandwiches and chips arrived.

However, for those of you who don’t want to brave the details, or see yet another picture of the Treasurer feasting at the trough, a pithy summary is as follows:

Another good year on the field

What would we do without Ben?

Still solvent

Need more players

Back at Snitterfield next year

Politburo re-elected en bloc

Er, that’s it…

DIY SOS

Current chairman and all-round good egg Sandy Peirson was recently in action demonstrating his peerless skills in replacing the rotten door at the Snitterfield club-house. Fortunately, Mushie Jones was on hand as both jobbing labourer and papparazo to capture the action here.

It’s a joy to watch the master craftsman in action, but hopefully he’ll be going back in the near future to paint a big blue hare on it…

2015 Nets

The Brian Clough and Peter Taylor of Barford Cricket Club coaching (aka Richard Jones and Simon Hawkins) have been arranging things with their usual efficiency and have already confirmed dates for nets and coaching as follows:

Nets at Warwick School – 11.00-12.00

Sunday 18th Jan 2015
Sunday 25th Jan 2015
Sunday 1st Feb 2015
Sunday 8th Feb 2015
Sunday 15th Feb 2015
Sunday 22nd Feb 2015

Coaching at Wardens 20:00 – 21:30

Monday Feb 23rd
Monday March 2nd
Monday March 9th
Monday March 16th
Monday March 23rd
Monday March 30th

So pace yourselves over the festive season(!)

2014 Annual Dinner Report

Once again the annual dinner at Merchants in Warwick drew a good crowd of players, WAGs and associated hangers-on to celebrate another successful season. After sitting down to an excellent dinner, the real business of the evening got underway with the usual smorgasbord of speeches and performances (in the loosest sense of the word). Unfortunately the Skype link that the technical team had rigged to the Barford outpost of St Helena was down so the Lambinator was sadly missed.

Nevertheless the Skipper’s speech managed to introduce a couple of new twists with the production of the Barford Calendar which was presented to Shaun as he moves to Bristol to conquer the world of retail (NSFW high resolution photos here) :

2014 Barford Calendar

In addition, the crowd were introduced to the “Barford Hairs” the next boy band off the block, fortunately too late for this year’s X-Factor (photos here):

The Barford Hairs

Reviewing one of our most successful seasons, the skipper modestly neglected to mention the main reason for our success – namely his imperious form with both bat and ball which ensured to topped the averages by some margin. And all this despite, or perhaps because of, the birth of a baby daughter! The runner’s up prizes were distributed as follows:

Batting: Paul Johnstone (Simon D’s go-to batsman)
Bowling: Simon Hawkins (Simon D’s go-to bowler)
Fielding: Will Perry (Simon D’s go-to fielder)
Clubman: Simon Drage (top cheerleading)
Champagne Moment: Simon Morgan and Will Perry’s club record 6th wicket partnership against Snitterfield
Catch of the Season: Shaun Harrison (a bit like this, only better, apparently)
Most ducks: Simon Hawkins (in the absence of John Lambdon who absconded to St Helens to avoid receiving it for two years on the bounce)

Following the prizes, the chairman took the floor with an updated version of Bobby Shafto followed by the Treasurer who’d been sharpening his rapier wit… In recognition of his exceptional achievements on the field, the Social Secretary presented the Skipper was presented with a suitably ginormous trophy!

Further pictures of the evening’s entertainment from the paparazzi are available here…

Thanks to Simon International and Ben for organising and hosting the evening’s extravangaza and roll on the rest of the off-season…

2014 Annual General Meeting

Our esteemed Secretary writes:

Chaps,

The club’s AGM will take place on Wednesday 29th October at the Joseph Arch pub in Barford.

All members are welcome to attend – it’s your chance to give your views and raise any issues relating to the club and there will be sandwiches and chips. If you can’t make it but would still like to make a point, please let me know by email before hand and I will read it out in the offensive accent of your choosing.

The present committee have all agreed to stand in the same positions next year. In the vanishingly small unlikelihood that you wish to stand for election for one of the positions yourself, please email me and I will forget to send you the nomination form in time.

More realistically if you have a bit of time to help the club by acting as match secretary for a month, it would be greatly appreciated. It’s not too much work and it’s always good to share these things around if possible. Please let me know i you are able to help.

We are also keen to recruit a few new players over the winter, so if you know anyone who might be interested in playing, please start working on them now.

Hope to see you on 30th.

Simon

Barford Cricket Club