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| Welcome to Montbard Cricket Club's website
MCC play cricket in France and would like to welcome new players, opponents and spectators.
Located in Burgundy, in the heart of France, between Paris and Dijon, Montbard Cricket Club enjoys the social side of the game. With our own superb ground, an expanding fixture list and the famous "Tournoi". We welcome you to some serious French Cricket.
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It all started so promisingly and then, as usual, things went downhill until, once again as usual, it ended on a goodly high. So much so that there is again a certain amount of optimism for next season.
It started off with us trying to create a cooperative alliance with the ABC (Akademie Bourgogne de Cricket made up mostly by Sri Lankans based in Paris for those who still don’t know). We had a joint practice which although starting late, went very well and we agreed to let them use our ground for their fixtures which would be mostly part of a sub-section of a league of the French Cricket Association. Somewhat vague, I know, but this seems to be the story with these guys at all times.
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This is being written on an unseasonably hot afternoon, very unlike the conditions in which our first match of the year was played. The Thursday of the game was one of storms, showers and heavy grey clouds; so much so that there was every chance that the match would be called off. Luckily, when Lyon’s Martin called before they set off, there was a spell of brighter weather and there was to be no turning back.
...click on "Read More" to read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> |
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Saturday May 9 Akadamie Cricket de Bourgogne (Home)
Sunday May 10 Sens vs. Dijon
Thursday May 21 Rhone CC - Home 13.00
Saturday June 6 Strasbourg Strollers - (Home)
Sunday June 7 Sens V Lyon
Saturday June 13 Rhone CC (Lyon) - (Away) 13.00
Sunday 21 June Dijon vs. Lyon
Saturday/ Sunday June 27/28 Six-a-side Tournament - (Home)
Saturday July 18 The Exiles - UK (Home)
Saturday Sept. 12 Lille CC- (Home)
Saturday Sept. 19 Bacchus Club - UK (Home) |
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Beautiful sunshine, elongated shadows protecting the previous night’s frost cover, the table set – complete with meeting agendas, everything was set for a productive and enjoyable session of business, banter, news and anticipation for the coming summer’s festive event.
Spence had prepared the venue with care and the MCC members gradually homed in on the sweet smells of the roast potatoes and chicken that were wafting out over the valley. With the arrival of Richard and George, fresh from nets in Dijon, the party of eight - Spence, Francois, Tony, Andy, Leigh, Krishna, Richard and George – was finally made up and the meeting commenced.
In true form, despite the Agenda, the Red Herring count started to mount up with questions as to the relative efficacy of Sarko’s proposals to divert the major effects of the global downturn compared to those being applied in the Old Country …….. ( all to no avail as we are all a lot worse off, some more than others due to the pound /euro debacle – if only we’d ….).
Much bottle rapping gave the floor and the table to Francois and business and progress was made with
Item 1: Number of teams.
a) The following have expressed an intent/the possibility to arrive: Les Ormes, Rhone CC, Adastrians, ABC plus two MCC sides.
b) Caveats were entered on behalf of Adastrians who are to decide at their meeting this month, Cavaliers who needed to ensure that enough players were available and willing to drink Montbard dry and Marseilles who were said, by George, to be a ‘good side’.
c) Our own contribution was discussed vis a vis two sides or one? A and B or two equal ‘ability’ sides? It was hoped to field two sides with an A and a B team, the players of which would not be interchangeable.
Much discussion resulted in the decision to have an A and a B team, each with a reserve. The members of these to be decided by the Club Captain from a list of available players (real power eh?).
Extended discussion of the likely costs began and resurfaced several times throughout the meeting but in general it was decided that:
Entry fees per team, payable in advance would be 15 euros per player (reserve too?).
Extended members, i.e. supporters, wives and camp followers, bat polishers, would also pay 15 euros each for their meal tickets which would be exchanged at appropriate times to avoid the ‘passing on’ of tickets to those who hadn’t paid.
Item2: Competition format.
The exact format would be decided when the number of Teams was known for certain. However it was envisaged that:
a) Games would consist of 5 overs of eight balls (plus the usual extras) with the wicket keeper NOT bowling and each team to have a wicket keeper in situ;
b) Matches to start at 11-00am and going on until 7/8pm, each match lasting around 45 mins. or so.
It was felt that it would be unlikely to fit all games in on the one day but, once again, team numbers would dictate the final format.
Item3: Catering.
There was much discussion over this matter with the pro’s and con’s of having a professional caterer vs. some form of self provision. In the end it was decided that we would:
a) Use our usual form of members making contributions to a tea table which would serve those interested in the wears on offer throughout the afternoon. Payment for this would be by voluntary contributions. In respect to this Krishna offered to provide six quiche and others muttered about the possibility of making a contribution. These would have to be collated before the day to assess the extent of provision and whether or not we would have to ‘buy in’ additional items.
b) The bar would have to be staffed and kept separate from the rest of the catering provision. Each drink would have to be paid for at the time of purchase: no-one being allowed to work on the ‘I’ll settle up at the end of the day’ principle.
c) As stated above meal tickets would be available at a cost of 15 euros in respect to two lunches and the BBQ.
d) Leigh is to contact John B to see if he would be interested in being i/c of the BBQ.
Item4: Preparations.
Tents: Chris Northway was to be contacted to see if the village marquee is available for our use.
Francois was to check on the possibility of purchasing some more ‘tonnels’ so that each team would have somewhere to keep its gear.
Richard is to meet with the Mayor of Montbard to ascertain if the town is in possession of suitable tents, chairs, tables, benches, and toilets that we would be able to use.
Item 5: Accommodation.
Francois is to liaise with each visiting team over the type of accommodation available with the municipal campsite coming high on the list of possibilities.
Item 6: The Bar.
Spence is to look into the provision of a pumped beer delivery system that cools the beer before it hits the ‘glass’. Payment for drinks as above.
Item 7: Raffle.
It was agreed that Krishna would take responsibility for buying in a series of Champagne bottles: magnum, bottle, half bottle, with other prizes being provided by club members on a voluntary basis, i.e. raid the cave for anything that our visitors might consider worth shelling out a sous or two.
In the context of this item it was also decided that Krishna would extend the purchase of the fizz to provide one bottle per team, to be awarded for some spurious act of excellence during the competition, with a magnum being awarded to winning side.
AOB.
Dave Austin and Leigh were to investigate the availability/hire of a vibro-roller.
Krishna suggested that when meeting the Mayor of Montbard Richard should invite him to be ‘Honorary President’ – this being on the grounds that he would be more likely to come up with the goods if he felt involved. If he were to accept then he would also be invited to open the event.
At this meeting the question of the height of the cut-grass should be discussed to avoid the necessity of relying on Leigh’s mammoth task of attacking the area with his sit-on-lawn mower
Krishna proposed a ‘fund raiser’ of Heads’n’Tails to give a competitive edge to getting people to shell out more of their rapidly diminishing fund of cash.
Sadness was expressed at the untimely death of Bill Frindal and the meeting held a minutes silence in honour of one of the best known members of the TMS Team whose statistical prowess was a legend throughout the world of cricket.
Date of next Meeting:
To be confirmed, along with venue, but likely to be either Sat 28th March or April 4th. Venue, alas, not decided. Any takers?
Another important day to be entered into diaries is that of the 28th July when Spence makes his family a legal entity: further details to be given along with info on the lad’s Stag do which is to take place in Southend, Angleterre – something to do with the League 1 current leaders, Leicester, playing the Shrimpers.
The meeting gave a unanimous vote of thanks to Spence for his amazing hospitality which had set a standard which few would be able to match.
Countless other irrelevancies passed through the subject matter of the meeting though the naked hikers, skiers or cricketers failed to feature in any adopted motions. Nor was the Wii type cricket game thought to hold out much in the way of transferability of skills since no-one could really work out how not to bowl no-balls or avoid being run out. Roll on warm, sunny weather. |
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Minutes of the AGM of the MCC held at the ODB* November 22, 2008
(*ODB = Oree du Bois in Châteauneuf)
Present are Tony B, Andy W, Leigh W, Francois E, Richard P, Dave A, Spencer H and Graham S.
Excuses (?) received from Wellsy, Steve B, David D, Martin E, Andrew S.
This was obviously the most awaited event of our season as all were present for kick-off (Richard being early). Drinks were demolished downstairs and when we got to our allotted spot – same as last year – folk were already a-buzzing. Leigh promptly had it noted that we were actually meeting to eat! And Richard followed this up by soliciting for votes to be re-elected as President. Duly done – unanimously.
After much hodging and podging (thank God there was no menu to be discussed) we finally got an agenda together:
1. Insurance
2. State of the ground
3. Carpet – which actually never got discussed!
4. Match Schedule for next year
5. Subscriptions
6. Election of Officers – please note that Richard had jumped the gun
7. Six-a-Side Tournament
8. Match day preparations
CLICK ON THE "READ MORE" LINK TO THE RIGHT FOR THE FULL REPORT AND PRESIDENT'S SUMMARY! |
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Somehow it got arranged – a last match of a very short season. Eight were planned but this would only be the fourth that actually happened. Even though it was arranged at the last minute and even though it took place so late in the year, the Gods were with us and the day dawned bright and sunny. And stayed that way.
Our opponents were a newly formed outfit calling themselves the Akademie Bourgogne Cricket (ABC) even though they all are Sri Lankans living in Paris. A long story which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say that they were all young, fit, had previously played under a different name in the French First Division (apparently winning it in 2005) and had more then a little ability. Only eight of them did turn up but it was enough.
Because, at the start, we too were severely under strength it was decided to let the ABC bat first – they lent us two fielders to help out until our late-comers arrived. Spencer (good to see you, Spence) and Nitin (yes, Nitin joined us for the day and very welcome he was too) opened the bowling and did so well in their first 6 overs that they restricted our opponents to just 21 for one. Things were looking good! David D also bowled beautifully giving very little away in his first spell but unfortunately for him and the following bowlers a number of catches were put down and this allowed the ABC to pile on the runs. Giving away 24 wides didn’t help either but it must be said some of these were very harshly adjudged. As said, these guys were fairly handy and some horribly good straight hitting saw us retrieving many a ball at both ends but, with one exception, none of them scored more then 24. Our catching had improved. All told, four good ones were held with the best of these being the veritable skier taken by David D on the long off boundary. At the ‘death’, Nitin and Spencer bowled as well as they had started so that even though opener Sankar was still there with a 100 against his name, the last four overs yielded 3 maidens and just 2 runs. The ABC accumulated 200 for 5 in their 30 overs – a big total but, if all went well, not insurmountable some thought.
It was not to be. As expected, openers Martin (good to see you too, Martin) and Francois didn’t last long against some very hostile new ball bowling and when Nitin edged one through to the slips after only a single, leaving us on 8 for 2, the writing was very much on the wall. However, Krishna and David D put up an exceptional rear-guard action and averted a collapse, something we’re rather good at! Collapsing, I mean. David was finally bowled but Krishna carried his bat through to the end improving his season’s statistics enormously with his 23 not out. He was helped by Richard P who struck a few lusty blows on his way to a season high of 18 and Spencer, who was just getting going when he played at one across the line and was comprehensively bowled. We totalled 86 for 6 in our 30 overs but, I think, the important thing was that we managed to hang on in there and not be skittled over. As Krishna said, it was great to be able to bat against some good, steady bowling for a change. The defeat can definitely be called ‘honourable’.
As usual, thanks are due to all who made the effort to turn up, to those who made an extra effort and helped with setting up and putting away and to those who provided such a spread at mid-innings tea. It was a more then pleasant end to the season and we hope to have more matches, maybe even a season-starting (training) week-end next year, against this really nice bunch of “Bourguignons”.
Next rendezvous for the MCC – our AGM. Watch this space.
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August 1 and England are battling to post some kind of decent total to make a game of the third test whilst we here at the MCC rue the fact that the end of the first part of our season is upon us. “What first part of the season?”, I hear you ask, “We haven’t had one.” True. What with cancellations by (normally) esteemed opponents and, once, the weather we have managed only three games thus far this summer. And to think that despite this paucity of matches, not once have we managed to field a full team!!!
The visit of an English touring side, the TMSB Exiles, an internet team who have come together to play for charity (www.tmsbexiles.org), didn’t change the pattern. It was only thanks to second-time player Sean, newly-found Nick from one of the barges and, especially, Martin Matthews from Lyon that we managed to scramble together 10 men in white and thereby avoid total embarrassment and shame. This kind of situation really needs to be addressed and, I hope, the year’s end AGM will take it on board.
Back to the match played on our home ground of “Le Prairie” on July 19.
Once again acting captain (by default) Francois (also by default, your reporter) lost the toss and, once again, we fielded first. It being 2 weeks since the match and my memory being as it is, I struggle to remember if our bowling was that good or if our opponents were still suffering from their night out among the heady delights of Montbard. Whichever it was, we very ably managed to restrict the Exiles to just 107 all out scored in 28.4 overs. Opener David scored 16 but the majority of these came from Jay (37), Ned (22) and old stalwart Extras (19). As for our bowlers, particularly impressive were Tony (two wickets for just 7 runs in 5 overs), Nick (3 wickets for 19) and Richard P (one wicket, the dangerous Jay, for 12 in 5 overs). Four catches were held too. Impressive.
As a big thank you for driving such a long way, Martin was asked to open our reply and he responded by easing his way to 46 not out. Guess he enjoyed his visit! He was supported for a while by Francois (12) but mostly by Nick who chipped in with 28 off only 26 balls. We cruised to a total of 108 in just 20 of the allotted 30 overs. A first victory of the season !!!!
Once again we managed to provide a tea worthy of the name and thanks are hereby extended to all who pulled their fingers out to provide it. Thanks also to all who turned up for the post-match dinner at l’Ecu thereby assuring our visitors that (ex-pat) Burgundy hospitality is alive and kicking. Since returning home the Exiles have sent us several notes thanking us for our reception and expressing wishes to return within the foreseeable future. The big question is if we’ll still have a club to receive them.
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Match Report. MCC vs. Strasbourg Strollers – June 14, 2008-06-16
Sometime last winter I contacted Nemo, fixtures guru of the Strasbourg Strollers, about arranging a match between our two clubs. He thought the possibility would very small as they (the Strollers) were battling to find enough players to keep the team going. I commiserated, maybe a bit smugly as our own pool of players seemed to be growing. But come the Saturday of our match Strasbourg stroll in with a full team whilst we only have nine! Sportingly, they lent us one of their players (Thanks Nick B) and a ten-a-side thirty over match kicked off more or less on time.
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Well, a first match of the season finally got played. That said, only seven of the eleven players appearing under the colours of the MCC were actually from this region but Sepp Blatter would have been pleased !!!
Thanks to Leigh and his minibus, we (Leigh W, Paul C, Andy W, Richard P, George P, Tony B and your correspondent) all travelled together and duly found the ground on time. Best thing we did all day although our repas later that evening at the Courte Paille in Pouilly was pretty jovial too. Biggish steaks were on promo plus Leigh was in cracking form !!!
Lyon started off well by winning the toss and electing to bat thereby consigning us to what we thought would be 30 overs of leather chasing. We did indeed chase a lot of leather but, pretty amazingly, we also managed to bowl out our opponents before the aforesaid 30 overs were over. In the 28 overs that they were at the crease Lyon still managed to accumulate the formidable total of 217 runs. Top-scorer was Martin with 52 no, but Geoff (33), John (30) and young Tom (28) all chipped in as well. We 'donated' them another 42 runs in extras. Ouch !!! We had to use three of our four loaned players from the large Lyon pool as bowlers, one of whom, Raju, collected 3 wickets. The rest were evenly spread around but bowl them out we did.
The break in innings saw Lyon doing their best to provide refreshments (it was hot - amazingly) and our thanks to them for this.
Our turn to bat was fairly predictable in its outcome. Our 'star' batting turn, Andy, fell to an unfortunate low-bouncing spitter and the rest of us followed him in fairly quick succession to the area marked off as pavilion. Top scorer for us was again 'Extras' showing amazing impartiality by chalking up 40 followed by Richard with 14 and François 11. Altogether we made 99 of the required 218 and batted - comme même !! - for 22 overs. Could have been a lot worse.
As you all know, Lyon's visit to us was cancelled due to inclement weather but I'd like to arrange another match against them in September. If some of our vedettes could be present we could give them a much closer and more enjoyable for all match. Thanks to those who did turn out and thanks too to Lyon for being good sportsmen.
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May 10 Practice Home
May 17 Lyon Home Start 13:00
May 31 Lyon Away
June 14 Strasbourg Home
June 28 Academie Bourgogne de Cricket Home
July 12 TMSB Exiles Home
July 19 British Embassy Home
Sept. 6 Open
Sept. 27 Lille CC Home
Oct. 4 CERN Away |
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Present were Richard P, Tony B, Andy W, Martin E, Leigh W, Francois E and a potential new player Dave Austin. By the end of the meeting he was looking so bemused that it’s not yet certain if he will indeed be joining us on the field next year.
Our usual chaotic meeting was held upstairs in L’Oree du Bois and what a good place it was too. Not only were we very private but the food was perfect. A big thanks to our hosts. Only (slight) blemish on proceedings was the lower then expected turn-out but then one can’t have everything. Some good folk did send apologies, others didn’t. All normal there then.
As had previously been intimated, one of our main topics was the state of our mat. Although it’s been chopped up several times by the pissed (???) municipal mower, there are apparently enough bits and pieces to mend it sufficiently for at least one more season. All nodded sagely at this and so it was decided. Interestingly, nobody put themselves forward to do the work nor did anybody even enquire as to how this would happen. We shall see.
Leigh did suggest - and all thought it a good idea - that we surround our pitch, and mat, with a series of stakes and a rope so that the mower will keep off in the future. Could work.
While on the subject of the mat, it was suggested that we enquire from the generous folk who loaned money for the original purchase to find out if they’d like to transform their loan into a donation. So, this then is the enquiry – is anyone prepared to do it? Please let me know one way or the other.
Another biggish discussion point concerned insurance for our players. It was reaffirmed that we had no wish to affiliate ourselves with France Cricket so that left us only the do-it-ourselves avenue. Tony, Richard and Dave would look into various options and Tony would become the new Insurance Czar. We’d be looking into an annual contribution of 10 euros from each and every player (even casuals). It was decided that this would be added to the annual subscription.
The annual subscription will be maintained at 25 euros each PLUS the aforementioned insurance making a round 35 euros if paid before the end of March. Anyone paying after this date will be charged 40 euros. Any non-members coming for the day only would be asked to pay in a match fee of 10 euros which would include insurance. Tony as Insurance Executive Officer will be present with the necessary insurance forms for these “bit” players. Andy has taken on to himself to fill another newly created post, that of Match Fee Czar. Means he will be doing the rounds each game collecting euros from all who have not contributed to the tea.
Concerning the frequency of matches next year, it was decided that we would aim for a match every 3 weeks or so. Seven or eight fixtures could be expected. An away match with Lyon seems a certainty and Martin will try get us an away fixture with CERN in Geneva at the end of next April. |
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