Bamville Cricket Club – Home Season Opener

Sunday turned out to be moderately warm in the sun, and I certainly favoured sunshine for a Cricket Match, as the players always look good in their white trousers and sweaters when in sunshine, whereas under cloud they look somewhat drab.The Cricket Match I was due to cover was a team local to Harpenden, Bamville, which is a somewhat smaller club, with a small, but interesting ground, since it's pitch shares the space with part of the local Golf Course, which limits play to Sundays. All very English.

I arrived early to capture some of the setting up preparations, which included the Scorer for the day opening up the scoreboard to oust the resident spider, and using the manual for the new Coffee machine to learn about its as yet unfamiliar operation. After adding this talent to his vast experience as a top Product Designer and Cricket and Snooker Guru, he went on to fill the far less sophisticated Water Boiler — is there no end to this man’s talents? On a more serious note, Peter is one of a number of dedicated volunteers who help this friendly Club to run and provide enjoyment for those who play Cricket and socialise.

The visiting Team on this occasion was The Players and Jesters from Nearby St. Albans, and the opening batsmen were the Home team. I will let the pictures tell the story of the match as I am unfamiliar with the personnel, what I will say is the final result was close. I was disappointed that I missed at least two instances of the bails taking to the air, but I did manage to capture three others, as these are the moments that make a difference for a photographer.

I had arrived in just a shirt and welcomed the opportunity to slip into a pullover after the first innings, but even with this on, by the end I was starting to wish that the Home team put more bails into the air as the wind was by now on the back of my neck and had risen in strength and fallen in temperature!

I had managed to take several sequences that illustrated the shapes bowlers created and batsmen the contortions had gone through to find the ball and project it to the boundary. An afternoon spent in good company and providing me with the exercise of carrying a heavy tripod and camera, keeping my eye in, outside in the fresh air.