Dear Blog Readers, all 3 of you, I wanted to give you an update for the planning for the 2025 season for the Jags.
This time of year it is dreary and dull, and thoughts turn towards having something to look forward to. Most of us start planning holidays, thinking of career moves, debate changing partners for an upgrade, or go to this mythical place I have heard of called a "gym".
Personally, for as long as I can remember, in order to get through the quiet winter months I start planning and thinking of the cricket season to come. Thoughts turn towards players new and returning, the venerable old grounds we get to play at, the Red Bull pizza menu, and as the light begins to return to our evenings, I am heartened at the thought of the fun to come.
We've been part of the Cambridge Business House League for a few seasons, last year we tried our hand at Division 1 with, it must be said, limited success, and a thoroughly deserved relegation. We're looking forward to returning to the more comforting environment of Division 2 this season. The season kick off meeting is normally a slightly unusual affair at the Dobblers pub, with scraps of paper and numbers exchanged in a very old fashioned sort of manner.
I've got 3 friendlies in the offing already, two against the Sharks and one against the Leys School before the season kick off meeting has begun. We're also looking at Queens this year as our mostly home ground and hope to play there as often as physically possible, lovely as it is. I'd love to have a death bench with my name on placed there at some point, saying something like, "Mark Edward Fardell 1982-2100 - He sat here a lot watching other people on his team bat".
We're once more signed up to the Cambridgeshire Cricket Association, and the Cambridgeshire Cricket Board and Fraser Daws are helping us be insured for general trips and slips and life changing injuries caused by Tyler's bowling.
I also have a "pending" criminal records bureau background check to come (fingers crossed they don't search the police records overseas - I had rather too much fun in Estonia once). I will shortly be doing my third "Safe Hands" course, which is a bit like a speed awareness course, but less fun and a bit simpler (Q: Should You? A - be a bad man or B be a good man). Last year I understand one person failed it in the County, which I think should disqualify him from being allowed to ever leave his house again.
On the subject of failing tests - a small personal confession. I failed my driving theory test once, 29/35, which I think is pretty common. I also failed my driving practical test twice before passing third time. On my second test, I failed to stop at a zebra crossing where a group of school children and a teacher were waiting to cross quite patiently. The instructor made me turn the next corner, pull in and park, turn the car off and hand him the keys and told me he was, "terminating this test in the interests of public safety". I then had to get out of the car and swap seats with the instructor and he drove me back to the test centre past some of my then schoolfriends; the ultimate teenage humiliation. Despite this, my Mum saw the car come into the test centre and when I got out, she asked if it had gone well...
So, if anyone needs a lift this year, just bear that little paragraph in mind before you ask me.
As ever, I plan to write more as well, or at least use my best endeavours. More content is better than small amounts of curated content I feel.
The times are a bit weird in the world right now, but cricket will always have it's earthy place to ground us. In a strange way cricket is a quite absurd, but enjoyable as a pastime, so perhaps it is a microcosm of the madness around us right now, a mirror to nature if you will.
Let the games begin.
