Sefton Park CC plans dawn start to Solstice Cup match

On 21 June 2010, Sefton Park Cricket Club is attempting that rarest of cricketing beasts – a 4.43AM start to a game of cricket in the inaugural Solstice Cup.

Scheduled for the longest day of the summer, the game will start at the crack of dawn and consist of a Twenty20 game that should be over in time for every to turn, bleary-eyed, into work at 9AM.

The game will celebrate Sefton Park Cricket Club's 150th anniversary, and is one of a series of events designed to promote the south Liverpool oasis, which is situated within Sefton Park.

Anyone interested in attending or wanting more information should contact robinbrown78@yahoo.co.uk.

Full press release follows.

Liverpool cricketers set alarm clocks for dawn start

Cricketers at Sefton Park Cricket Club are preparing to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary, and the Summer Solstice in style - with a 20/20 cricket match played at the crack of dawn.

The two teams, made up of cricketers from the club, will set their alarm clocks in time for a scheduled 4.43am start and will be donning gloves and pads in time for sunrise.

The match is scheduled to last for four hours, and Sefton - known locally as The Shack - expects a small, but hardy, group of supporters to be in attendance for the solstice game.

Solstice matches are not unheard, but Sefton Park CC believes this is the first example played in Liverpool, and a fitting celebration for the club's anniversary year.

“I’ve often been told I miss out on the best part of the day,” declared Robin Surtees who came up with the scheme.

“Well, what better way to test this theory than by using every shred of light on the solstice whilst playing cricket! The only downside is I have to go to work afterwards!”

The match dovetails with Sefton's efforts to promote the club as a place to play cricket and relax amid picturesque surroundings.

"What we're hoping to do with the Solstice Cup, and a raft of other events staged at Sefton this Summer, is to raise awareness of this great ground and its facilities," said Third Team Captain, Robin Brown.

"Playing cricket is certainly about playing to the best of our abilities, but above all it's about having fun, and public events like the Solstice Cup are certainly what cricket is all about for the club."

Cricket Chairman Stuart Lomas added “Sefton Park CC is now in its 150th year and has played on this ground since 1876 yet this game will be completed earlier in the day than any other played in its history will have started. 

"In spite of the unorthodox time we hope members of the club and the community will come down to Sefton to enjoy this curious match; one of the quirks which help to make cricket the great game it is.”

The Solstice Cup promises to be a unique event in Liverpool and is intended to be one of the highlights of Sefton's 150th anniversary celebrations.

Contact:

Stuart Lomas - Club Cricket Chairman: stueylum@yahoo.co.uk

Robin Brown - Third Team Captain: robinbrown78@yahoo.co.uk

Jamie Bowman - Fifth Team Captain: bowmanjam@hotmail.com

About the Solstice Cup

Sefton Park Cricket Club intends the 2010 Solstice Cup to the first of an annual event at the South Liverpool cricket club.

The game is scheduled to commence at 4.43am and will continue until around 8am. Refreshments will be provided to any brave spectators and media.

About Sefton Park Cricket Club

Founded in 1860, Sefton Park Cricket Club is one of South Liverpool's oldest and most historic clubs and a founder member of the Liverpool and District Competition.
Situated within Sefton Park, the club boasts two pitches, two pavilions and two bars - and is a popular destination for social events.

The club currently fields six teams every week, boasts a thriving junior section and is host to a number of teams without their own playing facilities.

Lancashire Cricket Club's Paul Horton is a Sefton member and the former club captain can still be seen playing the occasional game for Sefton's first team.

Other events planned in the club's 150th anniversary year include Summer Ball on 25 June, club barbecue on 9 July, a visit by the touring MCC side on 15 August and an end-of-season dinner with Derek Underwood on 24 September.

Address:  Croxteth Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool L17 1AP
Tel: 0151 733 5678
Website: www.seftonparkcc.co.uk
Directions - Click here for a link to MultiMap: http://www.multimap.com/s/1U0i3Y0D

ENDS

Images of Sefton Park Cricket Club

I took some images of The Shack, as it's known locally, in its 150th anniversary year.

I'm obviously biased, but for me it's one of the most beautiful cricket ground I've ever played at, with only a couple of tower blocks looming above the trees to remind you you're not in the countryside.

Sure it's a bit battered around the edges, but some of the views are spectacular, with the hazy sun filtering through the row of trees that seaparates the two grounds at dusk something rather special.

I didn't capture it at its best on this occasion as there was a junior game on the bottom pitch, and bearded men with cameras are rarely welcome at cricket clubs.

ALso included in the set is some of the 3rd, 4th and 5th teams enjoying a net. If you look closely, you can see Paul Eastham having his off stump knocked back. Tsk

Nick Knight's shame

Sefton Super League calls in The Power

There's no small level or irony in the fact that, of all Sefton Super League darters, it should James 'Two Darts' Pearce - so called because he only ever got two darts in the board out of every three - who is the League's most famous member.

Stuart 'Killer Ken' Lomas, the club's own answer to Taylor, is a star within the four walls of the Shack, but has never been thrown darts in front of many more than eight people, never mind 8,000.

Not content with throwing a few arrows on the sacred Liverpool Echo Arena oche last year, accompanied to the stage by a young lovely who insisted on holding his hand all the way, James Pearce is now getting darts lessons from Phil 'The Power' Taylor - undoubtedly the most dominant force in darts of his generation.

Jim quickly benefited from The Power's tutelage, casually nailing together three-dart aggregates as high as 36, but – despite his darter's physique - was advised to stick to his once-a-year public humiliation.

Sefton Super Leaguers, and those at Sefton responsible for the upkeep of carpets and wallpaper, may be breathing a sigh of relief.

Is it summer?!

Yes, there are a couple of buds on the most ambitious of trees – it must be cricket season. As has been repeatedly reported for the last week, the counties kick off the championship today earlier in the year than ever before basically at the behest of the Board of Cricket Control for India so they can play some more pointless Twenty20 in September. Of course it feels like 99% of the populace have no idea what the County Championship is.

Unfortunately the ECB’s meek climb-down to cricket’s global powerhouse hasn’t been greeted with the covering of snow it deserved (which much of the country had a week ago) but what is looking like it will be a very pleasant weekend to bowl seam-up on a greentop. You never know, there might even be some positive results if the rain stays off for a couple of days. Despite rising crowds in the four day game, this year half this season’s championship games will be played by the end of May, or the start of summer as it’s commonly known, to accommodate yet more Twenty20, which suffered from lower crowds last year, some of which will include additional overseas prima donnas to stretch county budgets further. Can we not leave the complete over-the-top grandstanding of the most one-dimensional form of the game to the IPL? The original T20 Cup worked well because it was new, cheap (£6 at Old Trafford in the first year, £18 at Liverpool last), brief and exciting; however, there were also only 3 or 4 home games for each county

A hidden product of this early start was the shift in date for the Cricketforce weekend, dubbed the biggest volunteer event in the country by the ECB, into March which, at Sefton at least – admittedly never the greatest club so far as volunteering goes – led to fairly scant attendances for both the preseason players meeting, season launch fundraising event and Saturday’s work for bringing the grounds and facilities up to scratch for the forthcoming season. The reason given that Cricketforce couldn’t be this weekend, immediately prior to our season, was that the occasional county pro wouldn’t be able to give a sightscreen a lick of paint to promote the whole shebang – something that a handful of clubs nationally benefit from. To many cricketers and club members, the thought of going to a cricket club before April is apparently completely alien so it’s hardly any wonder we were left with an unfulfilling race night.

I wonder if Lalit Modi would consider sharing any of his or the BCCI’s millions to refund the difference?

Sefton Super League Darts: Fun, funds, friendship and filth

It's pretty tough to get people to do things nowadays, with so many distractions and mobile communication devices meaning everyone's bored of everything.

It's hard enough convincing people to go down the pub, or even leave the house at all. So it's pretty bloody impossible to get them to do anything involving cricket club administration.

Sefton needs to generate cash more urgently over the winter than over the summer - as there's not a steady stream of thirsty and hungry cricketers turning up to part with their cash. Over the winter things can get lean, and Sefton Park CC is not especially well-placed geographically to attract passing customers being situated, as it is, in the middle of Sefton Park.

So, current Sefton Chairman and fourth/fifth team stalwart Stuart Lomas hit upon a killer wheeze that would combine his three greatest loves: cricket, darts and Excel spreadsheets. The Sefton Super League was born in 2008, and Sefton has never looked back. Lomas, a man best described as grumpy and officious, deserves significant credit.

The first year attracted 16 players, turning up over the long winter months to throw arrows and down Trad. By the time the final came around there were dozens of spectators pouring money into the tills and bitter down their necks to see two of the four finalists whitewashed.

It was a successful start, but there was more to come. the 2009-2010 season saw two separate divisions - the Sefton Super League and Sefton Plate - and a spin-off knock-out tournament. There were also forays beyond the realms of Sefton to other pubs to take on other teams, and the women who play darts at the club got a darts hiding they aren't likely to forget.

The darts nights will have sent thousands into the club's coffers, and many enjoyable nights are the result.

A weekly newsletter, The Arrow, goes out to subscribers, detailing many and varied amiable slurs against the character of Sefton members; another weekly pre-match report, Darts AM, goes out hosted by characters as diverse as Sir Roger Moore, Trevor Jesty and the Transporter bridge; a mainly-nonsensical betting ring has sprung up surrounding the leagues; photos go on Flickr and videos of entrance music and presentations go on Youtube; a hack from a national broadsheet writes up the final.

The culmination of this effort is the finals night, which saw not one but two specially-made videos: one a brilliantly-executed Rocky spoof, and the other a video version of Darts AM, with contributions from Roger Moore, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Brum and Kendo Nagasaki involving interviews, voiceovers, animation and audio and video editing. It's probably fairly baffling and unfunny if you're not in on the jokes, but to me it symbolises the effort that people are willing to put into something they care about.

The success of the darts night gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. It shows what you can with a bit of effort, a bit of help, and a bit of support. It's an enjoyable way of keeping the wolf from the door from the club's point of view, and it allows a lot of men brought together by a mutual love of cricket to express their fondness for each other in the only way they know: through competition; through forensic discussion of obscure sport and sportsmen; and through viciously defaming and ridiculing one another.

As the club moves towards its 150th anniversary, the darts nights have shown how it is possible to engage and mobilise a membership at a time when it's hard to convince someone to leave the sofa, nevertheless trudge through the mud and wind and rain to get beaten 3-0 by the club's reigning champ.

The video below may mean little to you if you don't come down to the club on a regular basis, but to me it's proof that people are willing to freely give of their time and money to make something they believe in work.

And it's not often you can say that about a video featuring Sir Roger Moore making knob gags.

Darts AM 2010




Peter Kelly's Rocky spoof

Sefton Super League video playlist

So, Michael, do you miss cricket?

Here's the best England Captain for a generation, Michael Vaughan, taking some time out of his busy schedule to paint a car using cricket and paint-covered cricket balls. He calls it 'artballing'.

While Alistair Cook was out in Bangladesh, boring the pants off everyone with his meat-and-two-veg skippering, Vaughan was busy indulging in a spot of art, no doubt followed by a Pimms then having sex with (edited by Quis Est Porcus libel lawyers).

Says Chevrolet:

Vaughan, 35, who led England to a historic Ashes victory in 2005, has been compared to artists Jackson Pollack and Damien Hirst due to the unique way he creates his art.  An original “artballing” painting can fetch as much as £20,000 at art auctions with celebrities including Lily Allen and Piers Morgan counting themselves as fans.

Says Vaughany:

“Creating art with cricket balls is completely different, modern and new.  It changes the rules of art because it’s instinctive and raw – covering a ball in paint and whacking or throwing it against canvas.  A few of the other players initially took the mickey, but they are now “artballing” fans – and have had a go themselves.” 

It took him eight hours, by which time Geoff Boycott would have racked up 47 runs.

• You can see a picture of Michael's artballing here