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FINDING
THE FORTY CLUB
Aden Biddle makes his Forty Club debut.
ome people say that sharing the odd secret now and again never did anyone any harm. In my debut season I feel grateful for the opportunity to play but also keen to make
sure that others like me, spend years playing cricket here there and everywhere in a bid to get as many games in as possible during those eeting summer months. Akin to many cricketers who play for the Forty Club I reiterate a phrase I hear plenty of times “I wish I had known about this years ago”.
My journey into the Forty Club is the traditional
one; a self-confessed cricket tragic who is always
on a desperate search for games to play throughout the summer I look to maximise any time I have to playing cricket, obstacles like distance or di ering standards do not deter me in the slightest. In 2020 all of a sudden people like me were hit with an even greater task. How on earth am I going to get enough cricket in if it doesn’t start until June? So, onto
the internet I go, promoting the very ideas I had written about a year earlier in Cricket Yorkshire https://cricketyorkshire.com/merging-clubs-2019/ soon I was caught up in a whirlwind of replies asking me to play in friendlies and on loan in di erent leagues.
One important contact came when speaking to Chris Stride of She eld University sta who I had played against regularly in my club league, and after some nets and a few messages suddenly I was on a WhatsApp group and I was away; my cricketing adventure begins.
My debut for the Forty Club was accompanied with the beautiful panoramic backdrop of Sewerby Cricket Club on the East coast. The opposition’s young side had some very exciting cricketers who bowled and batted admirably, the entire game although on paper a comprehensive win for the Forty Club, was an exemplary exhibition of how to play and more im- portantly contrive a Sunday friendly game of cricket.
I then went on to play against a strong Hudders eld New College side in a really tight game on a wet pitch. I was fascinated by the idea of a 6th form vocational college o ering such a cricket program for 16 and 17 year olds. I, as one of only 3 non private school boys in my county age group would have loved such an initiation.
My other appearances were against the North West Area and Notts Over 50’s were completely di erent to the young sides. It was great to play with and
S
Patrolling the Sewerby boundary
against “seasoned club pros” (hope I’ve said that politely). The grounds at Milnrow and Southwell were excellent and much better than anything I would expect in my Saturday leagues.
Unfortunately, the weather somewhat curtailed the season and a number of games in late September and October couldn’t take place, leaving me an entire weekend with my parents and nothing to occupy us. They had made their way up to see a game at Skipton.
I for one am hugely excited for the upcoming season, arranging my work pattern to make sure I can play Wednesday afternoon games and am looking to play as many Sunday games as much as possible. I also am making a change of Saturday clubs also which I hope I may use to attract more players.
More than anything I am looking forward to the cricketing adventure the Forty Club brings. I have lived and played cricket all around the UK so have contacts and memories abound.
On a personal note the opportunity to play on top club and school grounds where standards are out
of this world in comparison to anything a compre- hensive-school-educated lower leagues cricketer
like me could ever dream of, a way of spreading the game to Yorkshire and the North East’s diverse cricket community is so important to me. The 2021 xtures re ect this diversity in abundance.
“Please please!! tell your cricketing pals about the Forty Club, there is no such things as too many players because games are always being arranged. Maybe like me COVID has made you think about your work life balance, why do I never take all my leave? Why do I do so many extra hours? Many people have no choice, but I choose to do it, Forty Club Cricket is a what I have been looking for all these years. Now that I’ve found it help your pals to nd it, I’ll be telling mine. When they do I’m sure it will bring them the excitement I felt in my debut season.”
The Forty Club 2021 Yearbook
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John Heald Photography