build a cricket team
BUILD A My Club Matters ET K C I R C TEAMTCHH ATC RA CR SC MS OM F RO FR
Build it and they will come, Kevin Costner once said, when he still had a career to speak of. No great fans of Costner’s early work, the boys at Kent Ramblas CC (est. 2009) went ahead and did it anyway. Founder member Michael Cooper on a story to warm the heart of any cricket fan
T
he idea to form our own cricket team came up in Barcelona, via a combination of alcohol and sunstroke. It was the summer of 2009 and England were in the process of reclaiming the Ashes. We had grown weary of the cold mornings of Sunday League football and yearned for something with a more gentlemanly pace. The fact that none of us had ever played cricket before wasn’t about to deter us. Once the hangovers subsided, it was time to get to work. We knew enough people to get a side out, so that was the first box ticked. The four of us responsible for our Catalonian epiphany elected ourselves as members of the board. I had the honour of being named vice-captain as well as the dubious pleasure of becoming club treasurer. My first task was to set up a club bank account as I didn’t want a Father Ted situation of the money resting in my account. A meeting with a business account manager at the local Barclays (other multinationals are available) helped get the ball rolling. Seemingly minutes later, I was asking people to dig deep for the initial signing-on fee. The next task was to sort out fixtures. Amongst the cricketing fraternity we were a bunch of unknowns. Armed with a list of clubs to help us get started, we went cap in hand to a lot of accomplished league sides to convince them to put out a team against our misfits. It wasn’t easy, but without the likes of Hayes, Chislehurst and Bickley CC taking a chance on us, we wouldn’t be here today.
A tale of two scoreboards: the Ramblas’ first game, and a solid 167-run defeat; and the sweet taste of a firstever victory
Somehow we managed to arrange 10 fixtures. We had a team to field and teams to play. It was then a matter of practice, ‘fine-tuning’ a ragtag group of former footballers into a lean, mean cricketing machine. The first few sessions, it’s fair to say, weren’t our finest work, but after an intensive winter training programme, we were ready for action. On Sunday April 25, 2010, the Kent Ramblas made their debut against Wickham Park in the leafy suburb of West Wickham, Kent. Despite a spirited effort that saw us restrict our opponents to 218-7, we were skittled out for 49, losing by a mere 169 runs. “That first game was a hammering,” recalls Chris ‘Thommo’ Thomas (nicknames aren’t our strong suit), “but all it did was whet our appetites for more.” The remaining nine games of the season followed the same script but amongst the defeats were some highlights. The first half-century in Ramblas history was scored, the first maximum struck and a few bowlers even managed to keep their economy rates below six an over. Progress. We were improving on the field and growing off it. We managed to secure a home ground as well as sponsorship so that we’d at least resemble a proper cricket outfit. The acquisition of a home ground was somewhat bittersweet as we were only able to do so due to another club folding. Bromley Pirates had been one of our opponents in our first season but
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pulled out when they couldn’t get a side out, and now they told us they were pulling out for good. We saw an opportunity. We rented our pitch from Ex Blues CC in West Wickham, and it’s been our home ever since. Our first sponsor was the company I worked for, who were happy to support a local club trying to find their feet. And our most recent is my local pub, the Baring Hall Hotel, which has been rewarded with several lucrative awards nights. By the midway point in our third season, however, our record read: 29 games played, 29 games lost.
T
***
he biggest challenge of the early years was motivation. As much as we were having fun learning our craft, keeping everyone’s spirits up during heavy defeats was tough. Securing the home pitch was a key moment, as it allowed us to host teams that were nearer our skill level. We were involved in more even contests, even if they still resulted in defeats. And the culture at the club played its part too. “As much as I enjoy playing cricket for the good weather and the competitive sport, it’s really about having fun every Sunday with your mates,” says Steven Fitch, a Ramblas original who is one of only five players to take 50+ wickets for the club. Our excellent teas were also pivotal to keeping the players happy. In keeping with the family feel to the club, almost everyone has chipped in. We’ve had mums, sisters, girlfriends
help out on a Sunday. In fact our tea ladies were the first winners of our Clubman of the Year award because they almost singlehandedly kept morale up and visiting teams excited about coming back the following season. The breakthrough came on Sunday July 1, 2012, when we beat Kidbrooke CC by 104 runs to record our first-ever victory. The sense of relief was immense. Here was proof that the last few years were all worth it. It would take us 364 days to win our second game, but sandwiched between these wins was an epic last-ball draw that let us know that we could provide entertainment and drama as well as victories. More victories would follow as the belief in our own abilities grew, just as many Ramblas records would tumble. “Possibly my favourite moment in a Ramblas shirt,” says Ian, the first of the Ramblas new wave and a proud wielder of the Mongoose, “was managing to be the first Rambla to take a five-fer. Admittedly
‘WHEN WE STARTED THIS JOURNEY EIGHT YEARS AGO A LOT OF PEOPLE THOUGHT WE WERE MAD. NONE OF US HAD EVER EVEN PICKED UP A BAT BEFORE! BUT WE LEARNT THE GAME AS A TEAM, AND TO SEE HOW FAR WE’VE COME IS EXTREMELY REWARDING’ the record only stood for a week before being demolished by a six-wicket haul that included a hat-trick. But I was still the first!” Along with hat-tricks and five-wicket hauls, we’ve seen Geoff Parrett, a man with a batting stance that makes Steve Smith look like Rahul Dravid, hit a 45-ball century, and we’ve also seen him fall flat on his face after bowling his first delivery of a new season. We’ve seen Pete Ford, a builder Monday to Friday, but come Sunday, he’s our specialist ground fielder whose cries of “DECENT” during a game never fails to lift spirits. Another key challenge has been maintaining a squad of players to ensure that we can fulfil our fixture list, which isn’t to say that we haven’t taken the field with less than the required number of players. We even managed to win a game last season with eight players. Thankfully those moments are rare, and for every player we lose to the joys of parenting or trips around the world, we have managed to entice another to the Ramblas cause. The fact that a lot of our new signings are actual cricketers is very much a bonus rather than a prerequisite. After winning only one of our first 46 games, we have now won 26 of our last 60. Johnny Stocks, club chairman and skipper for the first seven seasons, sums it up: “When we started this journey eight years ago a lot of people thought we were mad. None of us had ever even picked up a bat before! However, we learnt the game as a team, and to look at how far we’ve come is an extremely rewarding feeling.” So where next for the Ramblas? There’s been talk of joining a league to help create a more competitive element to our Sundays. But with that, comes the fear of losing the essence of what makes the Ramblas work. In the short term, all eyes are on reaching our 10th season, the target we set ourselves when we started our journey. And the long term? The dream is to have the next generation of Ramblas come through the ranks and join the old guard, creaking of joints and grey of temple, out in the middle. Who knows, we might even have a Rambla play for England…
If you need any advice or a fixture then the Ramblas will be happy to help. You can find them on Twitter @kent_ramblas_cc or follow their matches at www.kentramblas.wordpress.com www.alloutcricket.com | AOC | 85
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Build it and they will come, Kevin Costner once said, when he still had a career to speak of. No great fans of Costner’s early work, the boys at Kent Ramblas CC (est. 2009) went ahead and did it anyway. Founder member Michael Cooper on a story to warm the heart of any cricket fan
T
he idea to form our own cricket team came up in Barcelona, via a combination of alcohol and sunstroke. It was the summer of 2009 and England were in the process of reclaiming the Ashes. We had grown weary of the cold mornings of Sunday League football and yearned for something with a more gentlemanly pace. The fact that none of us had ever played cricket before wasn’t about to deter us. Once the hangovers subsided, it was time to get to work. We knew enough people to get a side out, so that was the first box ticked. The four of us responsible for our Catalonian epiphany elected ourselves as members of the board. I had the honour of being named vice-captain as well as the dubious pleasure of becoming club treasurer. My first task was to set up a club bank account as I didn’t want a Father Ted situation of the money resting in my account. A meeting with a business account manager at the local Barclays (other multinationals are available) helped get the ball rolling. Seemingly minutes later, I was asking people to dig deep for the initial signing-on fee. The next task was to sort out fixtures. Amongst the cricketing fraternity we were a bunch of unknowns. Armed with a list of clubs to help us get started, we went cap in hand to a lot of accomplished league sides to convince them to put out a team against our misfits. It wasn’t easy, but without the likes of Hayes, Chislehurst and Bickley CC taking a chance on us, we wouldn’t be here today.
A tale of two scoreboards: the Ramblas’ first game, and a solid 167-run defeat; and the sweet taste of a firstever victory
Somehow we managed to arrange 10 fixtures. We had a team to field and teams to play. It was then a matter of practice, ‘fine-tuning’ a ragtag group of former footballers into a lean, mean cricketing machine. The first few sessions, it’s fair to say, weren’t our finest work, but after an intensive winter training programme, we were ready for action. On Sunday April 25, 2010, the Kent Ramblas made their debut against Wickham Park in the leafy suburb of West Wickham, Kent. Despite a spirited effort that saw us restrict our opponents to 218-7, we were skittled out for 49, losing by a mere 169 runs. “That first game was a hammering,” recalls Chris ‘Thommo’ Thomas (nicknames aren’t our strong suit), “but all it did was whet our appetites for more.” The remaining nine games of the season followed the same script but amongst the defeats were some highlights. The first half-century in Ramblas history was scored, the first maximum struck and a few bowlers even managed to keep their economy rates below six an over. Progress. We were improving on the field and growing off it. We managed to secure a home ground as well as sponsorship so that we’d at least resemble a proper cricket outfit. The acquisition of a home ground was somewhat bittersweet as we were only able to do so due to another club folding. Bromley Pirates had been one of our opponents in our first season but
84 | AOC | MARCH 2017
p80-98_TheBackflap_AOC149.indd 84
25/01/2017 15:08
pulled out when they couldn’t get a side out, and now they told us they were pulling out for good. We saw an opportunity. We rented our pitch from Ex Blues CC in West Wickham, and it’s been our home ever since. Our first sponsor was the company I worked for, who were happy to support a local club trying to find their feet. And our most recent is my local pub, the Baring Hall Hotel, which has been rewarded with several lucrative awards nights. By the midway point in our third season, however, our record read: 29 games played, 29 games lost.
T
***
he biggest challenge of the early years was motivation. As much as we were having fun learning our craft, keeping everyone’s spirits up during heavy defeats was tough. Securing the home pitch was a key moment, as it allowed us to host teams that were nearer our skill level. We were involved in more even contests, even if they still resulted in defeats. And the culture at the club played its part too. “As much as I enjoy playing cricket for the good weather and the competitive sport, it’s really about having fun every Sunday with your mates,” says Steven Fitch, a Ramblas original who is one of only five players to take 50+ wickets for the club. Our excellent teas were also pivotal to keeping the players happy. In keeping with the family feel to the club, almost everyone has chipped in. We’ve had mums, sisters, girlfriends
help out on a Sunday. In fact our tea ladies were the first winners of our Clubman of the Year award because they almost singlehandedly kept morale up and visiting teams excited about coming back the following season. The breakthrough came on Sunday July 1, 2012, when we beat Kidbrooke CC by 104 runs to record our first-ever victory. The sense of relief was immense. Here was proof that the last few years were all worth it. It would take us 364 days to win our second game, but sandwiched between these wins was an epic last-ball draw that let us know that we could provide entertainment and drama as well as victories. More victories would follow as the belief in our own abilities grew, just as many Ramblas records would tumble. “Possibly my favourite moment in a Ramblas shirt,” says Ian, the first of the Ramblas new wave and a proud wielder of the Mongoose, “was managing to be the first Rambla to take a five-fer. Admittedly
‘WHEN WE STARTED THIS JOURNEY EIGHT YEARS AGO A LOT OF PEOPLE THOUGHT WE WERE MAD. NONE OF US HAD EVER EVEN PICKED UP A BAT BEFORE! BUT WE LEARNT THE GAME AS A TEAM, AND TO SEE HOW FAR WE’VE COME IS EXTREMELY REWARDING’ the record only stood for a week before being demolished by a six-wicket haul that included a hat-trick. But I was still the first!” Along with hat-tricks and five-wicket hauls, we’ve seen Geoff Parrett, a man with a batting stance that makes Steve Smith look like Rahul Dravid, hit a 45-ball century, and we’ve also seen him fall flat on his face after bowling his first delivery of a new season. We’ve seen Pete Ford, a builder Monday to Friday, but come Sunday, he’s our specialist ground fielder whose cries of “DECENT” during a game never fails to lift spirits. Another key challenge has been maintaining a squad of players to ensure that we can fulfil our fixture list, which isn’t to say that we haven’t taken the field with less than the required number of players. We even managed to win a game last season with eight players. Thankfully those moments are rare, and for every player we lose to the joys of parenting or trips around the world, we have managed to entice another to the Ramblas cause. The fact that a lot of our new signings are actual cricketers is very much a bonus rather than a prerequisite. After winning only one of our first 46 games, we have now won 26 of our last 60. Johnny Stocks, club chairman and skipper for the first seven seasons, sums it up: “When we started this journey eight years ago a lot of people thought we were mad. None of us had ever even picked up a bat before! However, we learnt the game as a team, and to look at how far we’ve come is an extremely rewarding feeling.” So where next for the Ramblas? There’s been talk of joining a league to help create a more competitive element to our Sundays. But with that, comes the fear of losing the essence of what makes the Ramblas work. In the short term, all eyes are on reaching our 10th season, the target we set ourselves when we started our journey. And the long term? The dream is to have the next generation of Ramblas come through the ranks and join the old guard, creaking of joints and grey of temple, out in the middle. Who knows, we might even have a Rambla play for England…
If you need any advice or a fixture then the Ramblas will be happy to help. You can find them on Twitter @kent_ramblas_cc or follow their matches at www.kentramblas.wordpress.com www.alloutcricket.com | AOC | 85
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