Burgess
Hill Street 20 Cricket
17th June 2010
By Peter Chapman
Exciting times in
Burgess Hill. There's a new sporting concept
called 'Street 20' available to play for FREE
at Cyprus Road Car Park every Wednesday evening
until the 18th of August.
This community sports project is a partnership
between St Andrews Cricket Club, The Sussex
Cricket Board and Burgess Hill Town Council.
There must also have been a printing mistake
on the information leaflet as the Mid Sussex
District Council logo is included. MSDC don't
do FREE events.
Having only discovered about the event by chance
via the Burgess Hill Town Council website, I
decided to pop along to Cyprus Road Car Park
to find out some more information from those
running the show.
What is it?
Street 20 is an extremely short version of Cricket.
Each team consists of between 6-8 players. Teams
have one innings each consisting of just 20
balls. The team with the highest score wins.
The matches last for approximately 20 minutes.
Participation
Members of the public are welcome to form teams
of between 6-8 players and will be matched against
similar opposition. You can form teams consisting
soley of either children, teenagers or adults.
Mixed generation teams are also embraced. Get
your grandparents involved!
If you are unable to put together a team, but
you'd like to play, the Street 20 organisers
will happily team you up with other players
on the night. There really is no excuse not
to take part.
The Ground and Equipment
Street 20 cricket takes place at the top
end of Cyprus Road car park.
It's a tarmaced area of approximately 40 square
metres. There are barriers and fencing marking
out the boundary.
The ball used is of the tennis variety, the
bats are made of plastic. This means that players
do not require any costly pads or guards. All
you really need is a pair of trainers.
Refreshments
St Andrews Cricket Club sell drinks and
snacks at the location.
Business Participation
From chatting to the organisers, I learnt
that the 4:00pm - 5:30pm timeslot had been set
aside for local Businesses to compete against
each other. Unfortunately, as of yet, none have
stepped forward. This is disappointing as there
could be some interesting battles.
Tesco vs Waitrose, McDonalds vs KFC, they could
turn out in their staff uniform with some sort
of stipulation for each match to make things
more exciting.
Exhibitors Welcome
Currently the only point of interest on
the boundary is the refreshment stall.
The organisers informed me that anyone is welcome
to come along and exhibit for free.
If you are a local community group looking to
raise your profile, this may be an opportunity
for you. Personally, I'd set up a podium with
pretty ladies like they have at the County Ground
in Hove. Each time a boundary is scored, they
can do a little dance.
BHU's Experience
When I arrived at the car park at around 6pm,
a match was currently in progress between some
Oakmeeds pupils and a team of much younger boys.
The lads from Oakmeeds sent the ball flying
over the boundary on a regular occurance and
scored around 60 runs from their twenty balls.
In reply the youngsters only scraped together
about 20 runs and were aided greatly by the
bent umpire! A slightly different rule was adopted
during the games where if the batsman cleared
the boundary, you had to 'retire', essentially
you were punished for being good!
There were a good number of people watching
on, and those numbers were amazingly swelled
further when bizarrely a coach carrying 40 French
school children turned up to watch the action.
Further matches that took place included the
Oakmeeds pupils vs St Andrews players, a mixed
generations game, and Burgess Hill Town Council
vs a team of random men. David Carden, the Town
Clerk was a member of the town council team,
what a prized scalp he will prove to be!
Team Burgess Hill Uncovered?
Having seen the game for myself, and with the
carrot dangled of the town council having a
team along with whispers of Mid Sussex District
Council set to send along a team soon, it would
be rude for Burgess Hill Uncovered not to enter
the Street 20 arena. Defeating MSDC would be
a very pleasurable experience.
I shall put in a call to Gordon
the Gorilla to see if he fancies it.
Further
Information
For further information on the rules, match
times and to download the team registration
form, visit the St
Andrews Cricket Club Website
Note: It's currently not essential for casual
teams/players to fill out a registration form,
just turn up on a Wednesday evening.
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