VIDEO: New chapter for village cricket club as EDP XI come to town

I was delighted to captain an EDP select XI against Boughton Cricket Club yesterday to help start a new chapter in the club's history.

The club, near Downham Market, was a force to be reckoned with on the local scene in the 1950s as it knocked teams for six and won trophies. But as the village team got older and people moved away, the club gradually died out in the 1960s.

The club rose from the ashes four years ago but had to borrow pitches from neighbouring villages for occasional friendly matches until the club was offered land to create a new pitch in the village.

But the gentle sound of leather on willow echoed round the West Norfolk village yesterday for the first time in decades as the club played its first competitive home match on its new pitch – a Twenty20 clash against an Eastern Daily Press XI. Despite my side's best efforts, we fell woefully short of Boughton's knock of 88.

I was going to give a detailed account of the clash but as I was playing, I didn't have time to make many notes (!) so I'll leave that up to Boughton's Mark Pogmore:

Boughton Cricket Club welcomed an Eastern Daily Press Eleven for our first full match on our home ground, on Sunday 26th August, in glorious sunshine.

Boughton were put into bat in this 20/20 contest, and started steadily with Hugh Jenkins and Elliott Koopowitz at the crease.  Both wickets were lost cheaply, leaving Philip Koopowitz to push the score along, and was joined by captain, Ben Wilkinson who was soon bowled, trying to score rapidly.
This left Koopwitz (snr) to carry the team forward with some big hits, before being caught for 48. 

The next four wickets fell quickly.  Steve Kornmuller had to retire injured after taking a quick single, leaving Boughton with only one wicket standing, this falling quickly after.  Sportingly, the EDP team allowed young Theo Brown to take up Kornmuller’s innings, and along with Mark Pogmore, they managed to squeeze a few more runs onto the score before running out of overs, leaving Boughton with a score of 88.

The EDP started their innings  strongly with big hitting boundaries, but their early promise was ended with Ben Wilkinson bowling both openers, Brassett and Blackmore. This slowed the EDP team, as the Boughton  bowling and fielding tightened their grip on the game, with Hugh Jenkins and  Alex Reardon taking a wicket each. 

Only Setchell was able to keep pushing the score up, but his innings was ended by Elliott Koopowitz taking another two wickets in his first over, tipping the balance firmly in Boughton’s favour.  Elliott took two further wickets finishing with an excellent 5 wickets for just 7 runs.  The EDP team had no answer to this with only a few more runs being added. The final wicket fell to Alfie Bowles in the 18th over, leaving the EDP with a total of 51 all out.

 A good first effort for the Boughton team on their new pitch.  In the excitement of the win on their home ground, nobody was awarded the man of the match, so I think I will slip in here and give a family award to Elliot and Philip Koopowitz for their excellent bowling and batting.

Many thanks to everyone at Boughton Cricket Club who have cut and prepared the field, served tea and cakes and generally made things happen.  Without you, none of this would have taken place.
After tea, the Kwik Cricket kit appeared, with many of the youngsters enjoying a fast and noisy hour or so of fun, led by Philip, Elliott and Hugh.   It was fortunate that the equipment was bright orange as the sun was setting when they finally finished.

All in all, an excellent day at Boughton, with a tremendous turn out from spectators and supporters with the “grandstand” full.

A-Level results day: My memories!

Thousands of students picked up their A-level results yesterday and I was out visiting schools in King's Lynn to talk to a few students about their results and what they were going to do at university.

Here is a short video by Daniel Vipond who was shadowing me yesterday:

When I got back to the office and started writing up my stories for the next day's paper, the conversation between reporters soon turned to our memories of opening our envelopes. Here is mine:
“I can remember the walk into school to pick up my results like it was yesterday. I wasn’t particularly nervous - just excited about getting my results and starting a new chapter in my life. I also wasn’t worrying about grades or UCAS points, because there was nothing I could do about them and I wasn’t going to university, so I was more relaxed than everyone else.
“It was more a case of me wanting to get my envelope, rip it open, read my results, say goodbye to my school friends and get back to work. However,  when I opened my results and saw how well I had done, I completely changed. I was hugging friends, fellow students and teachers and didn’t want to leave. I was ringing any member of my family who would pick up the phone to me to tell them the good news. Looking back, people must’ve thought I had gone crazy.
“My advice for students opening their results today is to try and stay as calm as possible. There isn’t anything you can do about the results today - you’ve already put in countless hours of hard work and dedication to your chosen subjects.
“If you’ve not done as well as you’d hoped, take a deep breath, and think about your next steps. Try talking to one of your teachers and get their advice. If, however, you’ve done really well, I can recommend doing what I did and go to McDonalds with a few friends to enjoy a celebratory McFlurry!”