![English Village Cricket](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/English_Village_Cricket.jpg)
Village cricket is a term, sometimes pejorative, given to the playing of
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
in rural
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
s in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. Many villages have their own teams that play at varying levels in local or regional
club cricket
Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...
leagues.
When organised cricket first began
in the 17th century, matches were played between rival
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
es or villages and this form of competition endured. In representative cricket a team includes players from more than one parish (e.g., a team that represents a county or a country).
Village cricket teams are often made up of local residents only, although some teams'
first XI
The First XI (or, less commonly, First 11) are the eleven primary players in an organisation's leading team, particularly a football or cricket team. A player who is considered a core part of the starting line-up in a First XI team is often the ...
can include players with connections to
minor counties
The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...
cricket clubs and members of the academies of the
county cricket
Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
club of the county in which the team lies.
Cricket in this form is often played on a
village green
A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
or other public space instead of a dedicated ground, and the public may spectate.
In many non-professional cricket leagues, the adjective "village" is a descriptor used humorously, self-deprecatingly, or, sometimes, pejoratively to convey a sense of amateurishness of some aspect of the team's (or an individual's) preparation, dress, conduct or play.
Village Cup
The annual National Village Cup competition began in 1972
[''Wisden'' 148 (2012) p 714] and each year's competition is covered in detail (particularly the final) in the following ''
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
''. ''
The Cricketer
''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket.
The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...
'' magazine is responsible for organising the competition.
It is open to qualifying teams (ie those from villages (not towns) up to a set maximum population - originally 2,500 but has risen
to 10,000
- and surrounded by open countryside) from across England, Wales and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The final is played at
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
in London. The competition's headline sponsor has changed often in recent years; the 2017 competition was chiefly sponsored by British milk producers, Watsons.
In popular media
* The ''
Midsomer Murders
''Midsomer Murders'' is a British crime drama television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the '' Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series (created by Caroline Graham), and broadcast on two channels of I ...
'' episode "Dead Man's Eleven" has a sub-plot about two village teams playing against each other.
* ''
Outside Edge
''Outside Edge'' is a play written by Richard Harris about a village cricket team trying to win a game of cricket whilst sorting out their various marital problems.
Plot
Roger is having trouble getting a team together for the afternoons fixtu ...
'', a 1979 play by
Richard Harris
Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in ''This Sporting ...
about a village cricket team; two TV adaptations were made.
* "
When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" is a track on the Roy Harper album '' HQ'', a prominent example of cricket poetry. Released as a single twice, in 1975 and 1978, it is possibly Harper's best-known song. The song captures the atmosphere o ...
" is a 1975 song by
Roy Harper that captures the atmosphere of a village cricket match.
See also
*
List of English and Welsh cricket league clubs
This is a list of English and Welsh cricket leagues recognised and supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board as ECB Premier Leagues, and beneath the League titles are the cricket clubs that are in their top divisions in the 2018 English cr ...
*
Cricket in England
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in England, and has been played since the 16th century. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's, developed the modern rules of play and conduct. The sport is administered by the England and Wales Crick ...
*
Cricket in Wales
Cricket is a popular sport in Wales; it started in the late 18th century, and has been played in Wales ever since. All cricket within Wales is regulated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), making it effectively part of the English cri ...
*
Twicket
Twicket (a portmanteau of Twitter and Cricket) was a village cricket match, streamed world-wide on the Internet on Easter Monday, 25 April 2011, with the intention of highlighting the need for high-capacity upstream broadband to enable community ...
References
External links
National Village Cup Home
Cricket terminology
Club cricket
Forms of cricket
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