Official defends his club
Sir – In reply to Chris Cutforth s letter last week about the Letchworth versus Chesham game , I write as a senior official of Letchworth Cricket Club who has been a member of the club for 30 years. A lot of what Chris says is valid, but I would like to
Sir - In reply to Chris Cutforth's letter last week about the Letchworth versus Chesham 'game', I write as a senior official of Letchworth Cricket Club who has been a member of the club for 30 years.
A lot of what Chris says is valid, but I would like to answer his points one by one:
1 - Was this fair play? Perhaps not, but although there was a vast discrepancy in ability, the Letchworth side was also very young with an average age of 19.
2 - How did the Chesham players feel? I am sure they were dejected, but perhaps if the Chesham club knew they had such an inexperienced young side, they could have notified Letchworth in advance.
3 - Yes, a more experienced captain might have dealt with the situation differently.
Had it been me, I would have sent out a drink to the batsman when he reached 120 together with a message to get out, not only to spare Chesham but to give some other Letchworth players a game.
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However, the captain was only 19 and obviously lacked the necessary experience.
No, it was not a very satisfactory game of cricket, but at the end of the day Chesham's nine-man side scored 167, which means most of them had a decent bat.
As a club recognised as having one of the best colts set-ups in Hertfordshire, of course we regret the experience the Chesham youngsters had. But I really don't think they will lose their enthusiasm for the game.
Letchworth entered a very young fifth XI in the Herts League in 2005 which lost every game bar one, some of them very heavily, but they stuck together and this season, a year older, they won promotion.
In my experience of cricket over many years, I suspect that most of the Chesham team will, when they are old enough, enjoy recounting the story over the bar!
Mark Bianchi
HitchiN
