Blasts from the Past

Over the years the Jags have had a rotating cast of characters. In the years where it was a company team, we had to give some preference to staff, even those staff who had never played cricket and didn't know any of the rules. It also meant we had some incredibly diverse player types, with quirks and personality traits and just general hilarity that made it, actually in retrospect, quite fun to write about.

If Jeroen was an image

I have some longer prose written down on various of these personalities, but as an attempt to put some copy into writing ahead of the pending season, I thought I would share a few ditties here and there from the inner reaches of my brain, more as anecdotes than memoirs.

Arun Gowda always sneaks into my mind for some reason. He played a couple of seasons as a genuine Jagex employee (the literally disappeared into the ether), offspin like bowling and reasonably competent with the bat. The two things about him that always come to mind are his shouts of "CATCH IT!" every single time he bowled, for each and every ball he balled that collided with bat, pad, ground or anything else. Wherever a ball he bowled went, in the air, on the ground, through to the keeper, he had to say it - no matter what, desperate for the joy of a wicket. This was made even more hilarious by the fact he was, despite bowling/batting reasonably well, a useless fielder. He would just amble around the pitch into random positions nowhere near those he had been assigned, and goodness if the ball came towards him you knew there was zero chance of if being caught, stopped, slowed down or returned to the middle. He actually once turned a dot ball played into the infield near the covers into a 4, and in the 8/9 years since I saw it, I still have no idea how he did it. 

Jay Atkinson was a personal favourite - a strapping South African with decent banter, a devilish smiling demeanour, and a hearty laugh that belied his small frame. When he departed the team he went to live in rural France, which is something I share purely as it made me sad at the time, but I then also hoped he would take the world of French cricket by storm in some alternative universe. He bowled very fast for a short run up, but had a skill of bowling really rather well with a touch of swing and too much pace for this level, but at no point could he bowl it anywhere near the actual stumps - so often went wicketless but economic. He bowled almost 30 overs in one season, conceded fewer than 100 runs from these overs, but got no wickets. Now those are some figures. He also had a wonderful batting tendency, for the same entire season he got 3 different scores - 4, 8 or 12 off 1, 2 or 3 balls. All of his shots were pure as the driven snow, hit through the line straight over midwicket, making the sound a cricket ball colliding with a bat should always make. No defence, no ducks, every shot a "wow", but no big scores as every ball had to go in his mind...

Jeroen Van Daal was another of the South African contingent. He couldn't really bowl, and his fielding wasn't bad, although he couldn't throw it more than 2 yards from where he was standing, but his batting was lovely. Pure wristy hand eye coordination stuff and an air that he had more time than anyone else to pick his spot. He created one of my favourite moments on a field, when on 30 odd shall we say, a medium paced ball was bowled in his arc, and as-it-bounced he shouted, "YEAH!", and a full second later it soared for 6 over the deep square boundary. Magical moment it was, celebrating his shot before he'd even hit it.

A final little ditty, and this is not intended to be mean, but Dani Jeffries. He was a nice guy who really wanted to participate, but had never really played cricket and contributed not very much in terms of runs, wickets, catches or fielding. But he turned up, and gave us 11 players when it was hard to find 11 players, and for that I shall remain grateful as an organiser. In his last ever game for the Jags (and as far as I know, his last ever game of cricket) he dived to field one, stopped it, and then said in a quiet tone that he had hurt his finger. I was nearby and, let's just say his finger was no longer at a biologically appropriate angle for a human hand. No scream, no fuss, he just mid game, "Sorry Mark, I'm going to have to go" and ran off the pitch to his car, drove himself to hospital to secure medical attention, and it transpired he had broken his little finger (socket and all) and was strapped up for a month or so whilst it healed. He never played again.

A few more to follow as I get the time, but these stuck in my head, and I thought they were worth sharing as we look forward to the forthcoming season.

If you join our merry band, I may write about you - so be good or be funny. Preferably both.

Fixtures List 2026

 

MW	WC	Date	Ground	Opposition	Notes	Result
1	11th May	Tuesday 12th May	CASS Centre	CUP	Friendly	Won
2	18th May	Tuesday 19th May	Latham Road	Leys School	Friendly	Cancelled
3	25th May	Tuesday 26th May	CASS Centre	Sharks	Friendly	Won
4	1st June	Tuesday 2nd June	Stapleford	Stapleford	League	Cancelled
5	8th June	Thursday 11th June	Queens	AVEVA	Friendly	Cancelled
6	15th June	Wednesday 17th June	Waterbeach	Waterbeach	League	Lost
7	22nd June	Wednesday 24th June	Queens	Telugu TAC	League	Won
8	29th June	Wednesday 1st July	Queens	IPH	Friendly	Lost
9	6th July	Wednesday 8th July	Queens	Dobblers	League	Won
10	13th July	Wednesday 15th July	Queens	Madingley Mulch	League	Cancelled
11	20th July	Tuesday 21st July	Queens	Fen Ditton	League	Won
12	27th July	Wednesday 29th July	Queens	Cambourne 2’s	League	Won
13	3rd August	Monday 3rd August	Queens	IPH	Friendly	Won
13	3rd August	Wednesday 5th August	Queens	Tamil Sangnam	League	Lost
14	10th August	Monday 10th August	Stapleford	Stapleford	League	Lost
14	10th August	Thursday 13th August	Histon	Histon	“Friendly”

2026 Season Planning Update

Hello Everyone who reads this (Hi, Mum!). I wanted to give a general update on planning for the 2026 Jags season.

Our logo says we were established in 2011, but the truth is we played our first ever game, a one off, in 2010. It was mid August, Paul Broadbridge opened the batting with Justin Edwards at Churchill in a game we lost against Mills and Reeve. Justin got 25*, I got an amazing golden duck and was proper immature and angry about it despite it being entirely my fault, and we went to the Punter afterwards for drinks. We've played every summer since, including the Covid impacted period, and also including when I went off on a little summer jaunt in 2016 to "find myself". I did indeed find myself, and discovered I am, as most of you know, a bit of a twit.

That makes this the coming season the 17th successive season of Jags cricket. Many, many names and times have come and gone in that period (I'll do a bit of a pre-season re-cap in the coming weeks, it's currently in draft form/a total mess of prose) and we've played league, friendly, one weekend fixture, had nights away (Nottingham, you gorgeous city you) and frequented most of the pubs and grounds in Cambridge (other than Jesus College, which is still on my to do list). In truth I continue organising as every year I ask if I should keep it going, and ever year people say yes, so it is what is is.

This year I won't make the league kick off meeting as I am skiing, so Captain Fantastic will be at the Dobblers passing paper around in my stead. I'm not sure skiing in my advancing years is the best idea, but I will do it nonetheless and see how it goes. It's cold, so I thought I'd do something that suits the cold.

How I imagine I look on the slopes.

The Cambridge Business House League currently has a revised format where we will be in Division 2 with 7 other teams, which allows us to pick up a few friendly games of our choice. I currently have 12 fixtures lined up, 5 league and 7 friendlies. 5 of our chums in the league division are good at communicating with other humans and 2 aren't, but hopefully we should get those 2 plus one more other fixture in to get us to around 15 or so for the season ahead. We should be at Queens for at least 9 fixtures, all being well, and will also play at the CASS Centre ("Grenade!"), Waterbeach ("Mind the manhole cover"), and Histon. But mostly the loving and tender environs of Queens.

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. I'm also signed up for criminal records checks, and safe hands courses and have updated our safeguarding police - TL:DR - "don't do bad stuff".

There is sadly, a lot of not so positive stuff in the world at the moment, but this is positive, so let's lean into the joys and not the miseries. 

May the drops be ever in your favour.

2025 Season Summary

15 Games Played

10 League - 7 Won, 3 Lost

5 Friendlies - 2 Won, 3 Lost

Friendly 1

Jags 93-8 (Meldal 35*, Mann 8, Hill 2-9) lost to Cambridge University Press 99-5 (Day 30*, Xavier 29*, Brett 1-25)

MOTM - Meldal

I wasn't at this one, but the chat told me Phillips bowled one of his famous beamers, the pitch was rubbish, Dan held a good catch and we had a debut from Strachan. CASS is the oddest combination of amazing pavilion and awful pitch, it's like the opposite of what you would generally expect. No one got a score other than Meldal, so easy man of the match.

Friendly 2

Jags 154-6 (Murray 46, Kavanagh 27, Meldal 27, Oliver 2-20) beat the Leys School 152-6 (Oliver 31, Shipp 29, Baines 2-17) by 4 wickets.

MOTM - Baines

This one is always fun and we had a debut from our ravaging Scot, Baines. I recall running myself out, Baines taking a ridiculous swan dive catch, Muzzah being generally too good for these type of things, and Kavanagh trying to damage the sightscreens with every shot. Also Oz scored for us and it was cold, so he wore one of those drug dealer type warm puffer jackets, which was hilarious. Tyler played for us and showed he had his anger issues under new management.

"Friendly 3"

Jags 166-7 (Kav 52*, Meldal 26*, Mailies 17, Sahaai 4-18) beat Sharks 121-8 (Smith 26*, Sahai 16*, Holmes 3-7) by 25 runs

MOTM - Kavanagh

We've played the Sharks a lot over the years, this was one of the less good natured affairs for me. I think this was the Holmes debut and he bowled like a demon at the start uprooting the top order (he must have been a close second for man of the match). I was out to a golden duck and got an oddly aggressive send off. Kavanagh was in rumbunctious mood, smashing everything, everywhere. I bowled a funny over, as ever, my only of the season in fact! Sumit of the Sharks got some figures.

League 1

Jags 157-7 (Meldal 51, Sawyer 37, Fardell 18, Duffy 3-24 lost to Cambourne 160-6 (McCalister 56, White 25, Gogia 2-32, O Savage 2-31) by 4 wickets

MOTM - Gogia

This had a nice village setting, we got to play against Tyler again (the last time we saw him this year), Freddie batted well but fielded atrociously, we kept dropping their opener (mainly dropped by Freddie) and we drunk some locally brewed beer. They also had a slow bowler who was so slow he made me look like a medium pacer. We also welcomed back Sawyer and he did an absolute job at the end in the biffing stakes to get us a total which we failed to defend. This was my personal favourite game of the season, close and fun and well natured - could have gone either way.

League 2

Jags 118-8 (Meldal 30, Threadgold 22, Douglas 3-13) lost to Barrington 151-5, Batchelor 57, Douglas 34, Meldal 2-18) by 33 runs.

MOTM - Fraser Christie

This game saw Matt put his worst keeping display in I can recall, Fraser did some fielding and bowling stuff before heading off to France, Meldal got some wickets and runs, and it was one of those weird games that felt an inevitable defeat from long, long before it was an actual defeat. It was also supremely funny, and only really memorable, as Freddie unfurled his amazing chat to troll/gaslight Dan Threadgold.

League 3

Jags 175-7 (Sawyer 76*, Baines 53, Wade-Glehill 2-14) beat the Swaffhams 134-10 (Wilson 50*, Westbrook 18, Baines 4-19) by 41 runs

MOTM - Baines

This was an amazing setting, pub, benches, picnics, locals and a lovely hot evening. Sawyer didn't get MOTM purely as Baines was on one bowling and batting, he even hit a car on the full with a 6 just to make clear he was doing some damage this evening. I got to partner Sawyer for a bit, scoring 7 runs in our 50 run partnership... O Savage dropped one, and Baines was super happy with the wee man. Strachan made a great catch. The total we made was just too big for the opposition, but their number 10 batsman hit 50 in double quick time at the end, just for a laugh. He'd had a beer before going out to bat, maybe that's the secret?!

League 4

Jags 184-3 (Baines 82, Christie 40, Mailies 30*) beat Tamil Sangnam 110-8 (Nagadev 22, Chanrasekhar 20*, Barker 3-20, B Savage 2-25, Purton 2-23) by 74 runs

MOTM - Baines

Another high scoring wallop fest with runs and wickets shared all round. This game saw us bid farewell to Barker, departing for middle earth, and this was the week I managed to get Mr Naseri to join us hailing from the fair shores of Afghanistan. Baines batted in pornographic fashion at times, Mailes too, and then a general sharing of wicket taking duties all round. Barker dropped some sitters as well. Baines was shattered at the end and was within a whisker of the first Jags 100.

League 5

Jags 118-7 (Kavanagh 38, Threadgold 25, Panigrahi 4-26) lost to Waterbeach 138-8 (Kumar 49, Charlton 31, B Savage 3-30) by 20 runs.

MOTM - Kavanagh

Kavanagh hit some big runs, Threadgold too and B Savage did some good bowling. Kavanagh also wicket kept with Matt on his shoulder giving him tips. The opposition were very good at bowling, which made a modestly attainable total not at all attainable. This was the one game this year where I felt I probably hampered the team with my slow scoring, but it was a nice game and the opposition deserved this one really, as they did a lot of very good strategic game management, and excellent tactics.

League 6

Jags 127-5 (Sawyer 56, Baines 35, Fardell 14*, Achira 2-24) beat Madingley Mulch 126-10 (Soysa 28, Waduge 30, Naseri 15-2, Baines 20-2) by 5 wickets

MOTM - Baines and Sawyer

These are a nice group to play, league or friendly. Threadgold took skipper duty, we lost the toss and Naseri and Cabbage made scoring impossible for the opposition. Sawyer kept again, and as ever just looked like he loves absolutely everything that is happening at all times. Cabbage had the second most eventful over I can recall this season (his first over was absolutely tragic). I batted with a runner having tweaked my pride (cheers, Dan), and oddly scored quite well given I didn't have to worry about running around. Sawyer batted like a prince amongst men as is his wont.

League 7

Jags 154-7 (Baines 65, Sawyer 52, Parrish 10*, Keeble 2-15) beat Kingston Dons 113-8 (Humphrey 26, Sillis 20, Baines 2-7) by 41 runs

MOTM - Baines

We played Kingston Dons in this one, a new team of people we already know well. My favourite bits were the last minute organisation shenanigans, Sawyer loving batting against Ben Leach and laughing the entire time, Baines being a boss with bat and ball, us running out their handy opener with a rare bowler deflection hit by Mr Leach, and honestly the Sawyer and Baines partnership was amazeballs. They both were brutal and looked like they were just having too much fun. Too many runs for this pitch to be chased down was how we won this one.

League 8

Jags 155-3 (Parrish 86*, Baines 40, Hamid 2-27) beat Stapleford Phoenix 117-8 (Everson 33, Wadekar 21, Baker 32-3, Savage 19-2) by 38 runs

MOTM - Parrish

This game saw an absolutely joyously welcome return to form for Mr Parrish with the bat, he tired himself out so much he had to have a little lay down when we were fielding. Baines got out by falling over, Baker bowled like the ghost of Jimmy Anderson, the opposition are very nice chaps and as we watched Matt bat we all just projected good vibes in his general direction. Strachan took wicket keeping duties and was absolutely ace, we've literally got a team full of competent wicket keepers, it's bizarro. Amardin gave some good chat about being a better bowler than Freddie.

League 9

Jags 96-3 (Meldal 43*, Christie 13, Keating 1-11) beat TTP 93-7 (Gregson 15, Penson 15, Naseri 2-12) by 7 wickets

MOTM - Naseri

This was another game where people came to watch. A slightly one side affair as we bowled and fielded really well, no one more so than Naseri. B Savage famously didn't bother to take an easy catch and then made more effort when he was bowling himself. I got to open the batting with Threadgold which was rather good fun. Muzzah got an unlucky run out, they were nice fellas and the pub was well attended. Bit of a non event in some cricketing ways, but still fun.

League 10 

Jags 167-5 (Parrish, 65, Meldal 44, Mailes 32, Keshwala 2-35) beat Milton 115-5 (Jones 42, Salgaonkar 32, Naseri 2-11) by 52 runs

MOTM - Parrish

Parrish hit some runs, Naseri did some bowling and we put on yet another big total. Meldal and Parrish opened in great fashion, but did not get the crowd encouragement their batting deserved. However, this game will forever be know for the family affair of Nate/Alex/Paul combining to get Alex a senior wicket, ably assisted by Mr Strachan behind the stumps again. It had all the feels.

Friendly 4

Jags 108-10 (Mailes 28*, Purton 25*, Cooper 20) lost to IPH 124-10 (Baker 3-15, Holmes 2-14) by 16 runs.

MOTM - Purton

I was away, Purton kept, captained, organised and scored runs - so he gets a winning thumbs up from me here. Baker bowled, again, like the ghost of Jimmy Anderson, Mailes hit some runs, and we unexpectedly faced a lot of old monks players in a "friendly".

Friendly 5

Jags 161-3 (Baines 66*, Parrish 34, Threadgold 27*, Chauhan 1-10) lost to Histon 163-4 (O'Sullivan 101*, Leach 18*, Naseri 3-21) by 6 wickets

MOTM - Naseri/Baines

A fitting season ender, playing against some old friends. Baines signed off in style with a bit of a madness with the bat, hitting his, and the last Jags shot of the season for 6. Matt almost walked for an LBW it was so plumb. Naseri almost got a hat trick. We fielded like a bunch of idiots and Sabin bowled the most interesting over of the season by some margin. We dropped the overseas opener twice to let him get a hundred - so it was either him or us we can blame for a one-sided chase. Red Lion attendance was excellent and we reminisced on many joyous things of the season just gone. And we also told an Aussie that Ham Egg and Chips is grown up Human Food.

Man of the Match

Baines - 6

Parrish - 2

Kavanagh - 2

Naseri - 2

Meldal - 1

Purton - 1

Fraser Christie - 1

Sawyer - 1

Gogia - 1

When I did the count back, I felt like both Sawyer and Meldal had more MOTM's, but they didn't. Mostly, as I read the reports back, because Baines took exception to someone else muscling in mid innings, and decided to up his game each time!

New Players for 2025

Matthew Baines

Nate Clark

Alex Cooper

Andy Strachan

Armaan Gogia

Amardin Naseri

Mohammed (Naseri's mate)

Jake Holmes

Ollie Savage