Over the Fence is Out!

Page 3; and we sketch out the general rules of cricket and some of the ways in which it is adapted for the backyard and beach.

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Cricket The professional or "real" game: As seen on television, but best seen from the boundary of a hometown oval where one knows at least half the players, and the sipping of cold drinks 'neath shady trees as one sits amongst ones neighbours is as much a part of the game as that being played out on the oval in front, and even better, being a player.     Somewhere around the centre (center) of the oval is a hard-rolled strip called the pitch. It is 22 yards long, and about a yard and a half wide. It usually begins the season as grass, but often ends the season as a barish strip of hard-packed clay.     At either end of the pitch three stumps (dowels) are driven into the ground, and two short section of dowel are balanced from outer stump to inner (the bails). If these bails are displaced by a bowled ball striking the stumps, then the batter is out.     When a fielder throws a retrieved ball in while a batter is running, displacing the bails before the batter (or at least the tip of the bat on the ground) is safe behind the crease is also out.     On the inner side of each set of stumps a mark (the crease) is drawn; a kind of "safe" zone for the batter.     There is a batter at each end of the pitch.     A bowler bowls from one end only for six or eight balls (an over), then another bowler takes over from the other end.     The batter's intention is to hit the ball as far as possible, and then run to the other end of the pitch and safety behind the crease. The batter from the other end has to run the other way. On a good hit they can do this two or three times, each time being scored as a run. Either of them can be put out by getting the ball back to the stumps and knocking off a bail or bails before the batter is safely on the stumps' side of the crease.     A big hit that does not touch the ground before it is over the boundary line is worth six runs. One that hits the ground and then goes over the boundary is worth four runs. (The batters do not have to "run" in these cases. The score is automatic.)     If you are going to take up the whole game as a sport, you will need to know more than that. But the foregoing is sufficient knowledge for you as background to the game we are concerned with. In the backyard... ...the rules are dictated by the length of yard available, and the value of items within reach of the ball; such as picture windows...     One immutable rule is never use a genuine cricket ball or other hard ball (this cannot be justified in any way); and always use a ball no harder than a tennis ball when playing with the young (yours or anybody elses').     A tennis ball is about standard; and it matters not a jingle if all the fuzz has been worn off long ago...     Another rule should be that bowling is always underarm to the very young and to those past their prime (which is about 103 in Australia; I don't know about other countries).     The length available will also dictate whether or not you have more than one set of stumps. In most games of backyard cricket the ball is always bowled from the same end, and so usually only a single stump...simply to mark the length of the pitch...is used. This stump can be an upended bucket, a (non-precious) flower pot, or anything else handy.     If the space is very confined and there are less than three players, or two players and a good dog; then "runs" can be discarded, and the batter is only out if the stumps are hit, or they are caught on the full, and therefor there is no points winner. Which is fine for a pleasant pastime.     In a professional game there is a player (the wicket keeper) behind the batter's stumps. In backyard cricket it is unusual to be able to afford this luxury and an "automatic wicket keeper" is declared. In this case any ball the batter misses or hits in a direction behind the wicket stops play until the ball is retrieved.     The ideal in backyard cricket is to have the wall of a shed directly behind the stumps; or to rig up a net of anything handy (shadecloth, wire netting, hessian et al).     Where there are more than two players (excluding the good dog), runs as point scorers do add to the interest, and a special rule is frequently invoked to both add excitement and to prevent the stolid "blocker" from hogging the bat forever.     This rule is that if the ball strikes the bat--or the bat the ball--then the batter must run. "Tippity run" is the termnology. You tip the ball, then you run, and if you don't make it past the crease before a fielder hits that stump (bucket, flowerpot, whatever...) then you are out.     A side note on this. As in "real" cricket, the ball must hit the stump towards which the batter is running (and the batter cannot change their mind and retreat to the home stumps as they can in the "real" game).     Just be certain to discuss the "house rules" before you play with strangers. Nothing is more conducive to aggravation and argument than to find half the players are using one set of rules, and half another. (It is not so bad if only one player is using a different set of rules. The New York fender rule can be applied then: the bigger is by default the one(s) in the right.) On the beach... ...the most wonderfully free game of all, particularly on a day when the weather is mild and wide ebb sands on an ocean beach give you an oval and a half in width and ten in length and you are only wearing swimming gear--and because it is an ocean beach and you have no fear of needles or any of the other detris of inner beaches--you don't even need to wear thongs...or am I just dreaming of being a kid again back in the late 1940s and 50s on the Fairhaven beach fronting Bass Strait?     No! those perfect conditions remain in isolated places; and even the inner city beaches of our cities are great places for a game; with the teams tending to expand as onlookers field a couple of long balls and then are suddenly a part of the play.     Most of the rules of backyard cricket apply to beach cricket; and few of the constraints. No windows to break! No gardens to (accidentally) trample. No fences to limit the big hit.     If it is a full family affair, the tucker bag (aka picnic basket) and Esky can be set up under a carnival-like beach umbrella with folding chairs for older family members who no longer fold themselves, a rug for rolling enfants, and beach towels for everyone else, right by the game (into the lunchbox is out), and the game and the meal can proceed together. A very versatile game, backyard and beach cricket.

Go to page: 1   2   3  or Tim Wilkinson's page of "Backyard" rules.