Lindfield's cricketing All Stars

By Julie Morgan, Lindfield Cricket Club

If you come down to Lindfield Common on a Friday evening in early May until the end of June, be prepared for a big surprise! In a world consumed by solitary behaviours, with children stuck indoors on phones and tablets, there is still an oasis of joy and activity to be found on your doorstep. Boys and Girls aged four to eight are outside in the fresh air, having a fantastic time learning how to play cricket!

In the early summer months, Lindfield Cricket Club hosts up to150 children. It is a much sought after ticket every year to get into our young cricketers Programme and we are always oversubscribed. Parents can sign up via the English Cricket Board’s initiative to encourage more children to get involved in sport and cricket in particular. It is called ‘All Stars’ and we at Lindfield Cricket Club have been running courses since its inception in 2017. We also have the largest number of children attending a programme in Sussex.

The Friday evening extravaganzas are run entirely by our wonderful volunteers from the club. Many of the volunteers’ train as Activators by attending a short course to facilitate the teaching of the drills and games. No cricket experience – or knowledge - is necessary but a love of sport and imparting a love of sport to children definitely is!

We encourage our younger Academy membership to get involved with volunteering as well. So, we have children from the ages of 11 to 14 from our junior age groups coming along, some possibly unwillingly at first, because its Friday evening and they want to be elsewhere. They help set up the drills, coach and demonstrate the different techniques and all, without exception, say how much they enjoy helping the younger children. We are very proud of these young volunteers and know this experience will help them by giving them confidence and a community spirit.

We love the fact that parents stay on the common as well. Many follow their children around, helping them enjoy this new experience. Many help out by keeping wicket or retrieving balls. Others have picnics and meet up with friends and make new friends. It is a very social and enjoyable atmosphere. It is making use of the Common when otherwise it would be empty on a Friday evening and Lindfield Cricket Club is delighted to facilitate this for the village.

At the end of each eight-week programme our hope is that firstly, the children have enjoyed themselves. Secondly, that they have enjoyed the freedom to run around the Common with some of the independence that used to be commonplace but is now not so available to young people. Lastly, that some of them might have discovered new skills and an enjoyment of sport and / or cricket. It is the reason we do it – to give the generation coming through a love of exercise and the characterbuilding ups and downs you can get from sporting endeavours. Seeing the smile on a child’s face when they take a catch or bowl the ball straight or hit the ball far into the distance for the first time, is what it’s all about.

Well done all our Lindfield All Stars 2025, you’ve been amazing!

Lindfield Cricket Club Trumpeters raise funds for Kangaroos charity

Members of Lindfield cricket team The Trumpeters swapped the pitch for the golf course to raise £360 for charity. The players used their annual pre-season meeting and golf event to support local charity Kangaroos. Player Andy Cannon explained: “The Trumpeters is a cricket team that represents Lindfield Cricket Club in the midweek ‘Sussex Slam’ competition and each year, before the season starts, players go away to discuss strategy and match tactics, usually followed by a game of golf. “This year, however, the teams’ two social secretaries, Robb Sayers and Tony Ridd decided that the golf element should be an opportunity to raise some funds for a local charity.” Andy added that club has connections with Kangaroos, a Haywards Heath based charity that provides year-round clubs and trips for people with learning disabilities and additional needs, and this was a perfect opportunity to raise some cash for them. “The golf was the normal high-quality affair and played in the Ryder Cup type format with the Reds and Blues fighting it out for the Crystal Shoe trophy,” said Andy. “This year’s tight affair was eventually won by the Blues and the trophy was collected by their delighted captain Paul Stockwell.”

An awards ceremony was held later at Tamasha restaurant and awards were given for nearest the pin, individual golfer, longest drive and the much vaunted ‘stick to cricket’ award. “Special thanks go to Murat at Lindfield Golf Club for hosting the day and being kind enough to allow some rotten golf being played on their fine course,” added Andy.

Lindfield Cricket Club set up womens' cricket team the Lindfield Pens

By Jill Sayers

With womens’ and girls’ cricket beginning to thrive across the country, it is now becoming one of the fastest growing sports in the UK. This means more opportunities than ever to get involved. Lindfield Cricket Club has recently set up their own womens’ softball cricket team, named the LINDFIELD PENS (a female swan - if that baffles you!) and despite a Covid-interrupted season it has been a welcome break for us all to be playing sport outside and meeting new people. This leads me smoothly on to the social side… we are a friendly bunch of smiley faces, keen to try a new sport and as equally eager to have a glass of bubbles afterwards, making it hard not to enjoy the relaxed format of training (with a few sneaky competitive swings here and there!). But what really makes it so enjoyable for me is it’s the first sport I’ve ever done where I’ve not felt intimidated. There’s no pressure and when you mess up you want to try it again, making it a far cry from school days where it often felt like there was nothing worse than being the last person to be picked for a team in a PE lesson. Hail the women’s new cricket revolution!

This coming season we will be entering the Women’s Softball League. I’m slightly nervous as it makes it sound like they’re upping the ante… but then I know the whole team won’t judge, they will cheer if I fluke something, and laugh with me when I miss a ball, so really, I can’t wait! Matches are local, short, relaxed and best of all the rules are straightforward. With no sign of an afternoon tea (which I have issues with, so it’s to the bar for me afterwards!) it’s not hours of time taken up, and even if you’ve never played before, women’s softball cricket is the perfect antidote to the stress and restrictions the last two years of Covid have brought. If you fancy this refreshing change, meeting new faces, learning a new sport, or - quite frankly - just having a breather from the kids, then please do get in touch as this could well be the most energising thing you’ve done since Covid shook the status quo. You can find us on Instagram @lindfield_pens_cc or email: Bobvivienne.hopkins@btopenworld.com.

Lindfield Cricket Club's 275th anniversary - summer 2022

By Malcolm Page

This summer Lindfield Cricket Club will be celebrating its 275th anniversary. The club will be holding events throughout the season to mark the occasion, including its annual cricket week at the beginning of August when matches will be played against Acton, Kenya Kongonis as well as the inaugural Slam Trophy 20/20 match with the Lindfield Swans versus the Lindfield Trumpeters on 5th August.

In addition, Lindfield members are delighted to have been awarded a prestige match against the Sydney Australia Classics over 50s/60s on Sunday 21st August. This will bring back many happy memories from Lindfield’s Australia tour in 1997 when the club celebrated its 250th anniversary. With the season fast approaching, preparations are full steam ahead on the ground and in the pavilion to ensure a warm welcome to players and spectators. The pavilion lounge is undergoing improvements with new bench seating, tables and chairs as well as complementary signage throughout the pavilion thanks to an English Cricket Board grant. The club will again be running four Saturday sides, a Sunday XI and Midweek XIs as well as the ladies Lindfield ‘Pens’ playing their first softball season in the league.

Together with the Lindfield Academy participating in leagues from under 9-16 and the under 8s All Stars event on Friday evenings from 6th May, it’s going to be a busy season! As we celebrate 275 years of cricket at Lindfield, the club’s historians have started reviewing the archives and are discovering previously unseen information that had been found by Lindfield’s legendary scorer John Pollard. With such a long and illustrious history of cricket in Lindfield, there is inevitably still much more for us to discover about the club’s past, and we are now embarking on the long road of writing a book about the history of Lindfield Cricket.

We would love to hear from any residents of the village who might have any interesting stories that would bring to life the history of our club. Perhaps members of your family once played for Lindfield many years ago, or you have old documents that may be relevant to learning how the club was run in past times? If you have any information, photographs etc about the club or would like to join Lindfield as a player, help with the running of the club or become a non-playing member, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please email: LindfieldCChistory@gmail.com or Bobvivienne.hopkins@btopenworld.com.