Burbage Cricket Club

Played in the sort of balmy, summer conditions more associated with the North Pole, Burbage gained valuable game time at Leicester Ivanhoe ahead of the start of the league campaign.

Burbage travel for what is bound to be a difficult tie at Leicester Caribbeans in the season-opening fixture on Saturday, April 28.
Ahead of this, the majority of the first team squad got a good run-out at Ivanhoe, despite the arctic weather conditions.

In what must have been a first for most of the players, play was halted for an over due to a hail storm but astonishingly this was the only break in play for the weather.

After winning the toss - and in the process equalling the number of tosses he won during the entire 2011 campaign - Burbage captain Tom Payne chose to bowl first.

Being the team player he is, Payne promptly took the new ball himself and after creaking in for his first over, he eventually warmed up and bowled a couple of decent little spells to finish with 1-17 from eight overs, having managed to ramp his speed up to slow-medium by the end of his spells.

Neil 'Chalksville' White shared the new ball and, despite being on the end of some ferocious blows by the Ivanhoe opener, will be happy to have got some overs under his belt before the first league game.

Owen Williams bowled a tremendous 11-over spell during which he claimed two wickets, including that of the Ivanhoe opening batsman who hit a rapid 97. Williams also claimed a run-out with a direct hit from mid-off and spent some valuable time in the middle with the bat.

Jim 'Poppo' Bostock showed why he is in contention to step up to the first team this year with an impressive display with both bat and ball. Given limited overs at the end, Poppo took two wickets and had an lbw shout turned down after deceiving the batsman with one of his infamous slower balls. In the Burbage innings, Bostock batted well and was arguably the pick of the batsmen. He also completed a half marathon in the field, with Payne regularly employing him boundary to boundary.


Lee Martin, although visibly seething at his treatment while bowling to the destructive Ivanhoe opener, put his woes with the ball behind him to once again be the lynchpin of the Burbage innings. Martin was fourth out for 35 and with the knock having improved his mood, team-mates took the opportunity to hang his pants out of the pavilion window to blow in the wind and rain as a sign of his return to form. He was suitably unimpressed.

Other encourgaing performances came from Craig Simpkin - no-balls aside - and Leigh Flannery with the ball, Joe Broadbent behind the stumps and Mark Harrison both with the bat and in the field. Sharp in the field, Arra also hit Burbage's only six of the innings as he deposited a full toss way over the square leg boundary during a solid innings.

Ivanhoe came away with the winning draw but more importantly for the visitors, their cobwebs were blown away by the baltic breeze and it is now all systems go for the start of the league season.