Match report - Saturday 10 October 2009
We were curious to see cricket in action in the South of France so we drove some 30 kilometers from Cannes to the lively village of St-Vallier-de-Thiey where the Riviera Cricket Club has its matches. Indeed when we arrived there was much activity on the village green including firemen demonstrating their skills to an appreciative audience - but no cricket. After receiving detailed instructions from a local we headed out of town towards a rubbish dump. Fortunately before reaching this we saw, what could only have been an Englishman dressed in whites, taking a huge cricket bag out of his equally huge Range Rover. Making our way to a cricket ground - well, a field in the centre of which was a green mat and two sets of stumps - we found the rest of the ExPat team welcoming the opposition of the day, the Fleet Street Strollers.
The quality of cricket was high, certainly better than the normal village affair. Fielding was particularly sharp despite the occasional girth size limitating a fielder's speed. After the Riviera team was all out for 136, lunch was declared with bottles of beer and a token bottle of French rose wine acompanying acres of egg sandwiches. Ladies were taken away to water in the town while players made full use of more convenient hedges.
The Strollers strode out to bat and indeed to beat the home team with seven wickets in hand, largely due to the boundary breaching skills of Timperley J (captain) who scored 78 not out.
Splendid playing, enjoyable company - le cricket at its best.
Paul Leppard