Avoncroft Cricket Club

Mixed weather & success at Avoncroft Cricket Club!

The 2021 cricket season has started with a bit of a splash at Avoncroft, with May’s wet weather leaving Croft’s players wistfully looking back at last year’s blazing hot May when cricket was suspended due to our first Covid lockdown.

In between the storms, there has been mixed success on the pitch. The 1st XI, who started playing in mid-April, looked very rusty in their first game, falling to a comfortable defeat. Since then, two improved performances that led to draws had Croft pointing in the right direction before May’s rain brought proceedings to a halt. The 2nd and 3rd XIs have only managed to play 1 game out of the first 3 due to the weather, but the 2nd XI game vs Harborne will last long in the memory. 85 from Jon Brunt was the key contribution for Avoncroft in their total of 273-8 but things were looking a bit nervy as Harborne closed in on their victory target before the intervention of Tom ‘Doc’ Holyoake, who finished the game in style by taking a hattrick to remove the last 3 batsmen and leave the visitors 35 runs short of their target.

The weather has been kinder to the club’s junior section, with Friday evenings staying mercifully dry. With the club’s All Stars cricket programme now underway, the sight of over 80 boys and girls aged between 5 and 9 years old, plus another 40-50 children in the older age groups, has been great to see as junior cricket in Bromsgrove goes from strength to strength. The excitement of Friday evening training has been matched in some of the early season junior matches, with the U11s taking to T20 cricket like a duck to water by scoring 140-0 in their first match of the season, and a couple of very tight finishes at U12 and U14 level; the U12s scrapping home by 4 runs in a very tight game against Alvechurch whilst the U14s were battling to a tied finish against Droitwich.

With many games needing to be rearranged after weather cancellations, there’s likely to be a lot of cricket going on at Croft’s Stoke Heath ground over the next couple of months. From 17th May, spectators are now allowed back at recreational sport so visitors are welcome to pop along and enjoy the village cricket atmosphere