St Blazey v Luckett

Bank Holiday Monday 29th May 2023

Cornwall Cricket League Division 2 East

Luckett 98 All Out (Batted First) 21.3 Overs

St Blazey 99-2 off 14.2 Overs

Start Time: 1pm

This was a re-scheduled fixture, the original date for the game was a wash out during that extremely wet April we suffered. St Blazey have had an impressive start to the season which is reflected in the League Table. Their recent win on Saturday was complimented by a knock of 125 by big hitting Matt Bennetts. Needless to say, this was going to be a testing afternoon for the visitors.  Unfortunately Luckett have found the month of May a little more difficult and arrived at the Phillip Varcoe Sports Ground still looking for that first victory. They were further hindered for this encounter by only having 9 men. Two games in 3 days for a rural village side unsurprisingly hits player availability, especially if some of the squad have farming commitments this time of the year.

Weather: Warm and sunny, that nagging cool breeze had finally started to fade.

Attendance: Around 30, more were arriving after 3pm just as the game ended. At least the bar was open. We only totalled 36 overs for the whole game.

Match Rating: 5/10

Not exactly a cut and thrust classic. With Luckett only having the nine players against such an in-form impressive St Blazey side the away-win odds on Paddy Power would have likely been considerable (no disrespect intended). 

On a day when calm, careful batting could have been expected, Luckett seemed intent on following a totally different strategy. Unfortunately some valuable wickets fell rather cheaply and 98 hardly appeared enough of a total to rattle the league leaders.

Blazey set about the response with vigour, Mr Bennetts very much centre stage. Boundaries accumulated, including one ozone layer six which landed smack on a car bonnet adjacent to the Pavilion (ouch). It took little more than 14 overs for the stumps to be pulled, game over.

Provisions: Sadly I copped for more sandwiches put together from the Corned Beef Mountain we must have back home. I don't mind them now and again but I'd already been given a butty box of them for my trip to Hayle CC last Saturday. Maybe I should be inducted into how to make my own? (Hope she doesn't read this). 

Bring Your Own Chair Necessity? Don't think you'd actually need one at St Blazey. They have rather a nice selection of benches and picnic tables dotted around. Impressive.

General Facilities and Viewing: The ground is just off the 'Cornwall Speed Camera Centre of Excellence Stretch' on the road linking St Blazey with St Austell and what the Tourism Publicists call Kernows Biggest Market, lets leave that bold claim for others to debate shall we.

Lovely brilliant white Pavilion here, it houses a small bar area, toilets and team changing rooms. The scorers looked comfortable under its shaded porch with their lap top stuff for the digital scoreboard across the pitch.

The wicket was on the edge of the square nearest the road for this game, this offered a short boundary which neither team took full advantage of. The pitch hugs the low perimeter wall really tightly on this side (*not the photo above) so there's minimal space for a chair, however you do get a good view of the action if you choose to stand for a while. 

The opposite side of the field offers a considerably large parking area with bench seating on a shallow bank. There is plenty of grass for a picnic or spreading out chairs & accessories. Great on a nice sunny day like I was lucky enough to get. There is a good spread of quality benches between the aforementioned parking area and the Pavilion.

Generally I found that this tidy well kept ground offered more than I was expecting at this level.