Week Five

I wanted to say quite a bit about what has happened off the pitch over the past seven days which has affected so many Cricket Clubs, like Over Stowey, but have decided to tone it down somewhat. So here is an edited version, a much edited version:

These are the thoughts of me and me alone, which do not represent the views of anyone else, any club or society – so there!

This last weekend Over Stowey CC should’ve been playing Bishops Hull CC, in a game of cricket, village cricket. Over Stowey forfeited the fixture.

Let me remind you about the laws of cricket, especially The Preamble – The Spirit of Cricket:

Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game.

Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains.

1. There are two Laws which place the responsibility for the team's conduct firmly on the captain.

Responsibility of captains:

The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the Spirit of the Game as well as within the Laws.

Player’s conduct

In the event of a player failing to comply with instructions by an umpire, or criticising by word or action the decisions of an umpire, or showing dissent, or generally behaving in a manner which might bring the game into disrepute, the umpire concerned shall in the first place report the matter to the other umpire and to the player's captain, and instruct the latter to take action.

Straight on to Preamble Point 6:

6. Violence
There is no place for any act of violence on the field of play.

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I am lead to believe this is also, quite rightly, that the zero tolerance about violence is in the WSCL Handbook. Thankfully other clubs, along with Over Stowey, have refused to play Bishops Hull.

Unfortunately I have become somewhat disillusioned about the West Somerset Cricket League, perhaps I need a holiday, but will continue my whole hearted support for Over Stowey.

Let’s just play Village Cricket, competitively but within the spirit.