Your Cricket Backyard Cricket

[Almost_Austwick]

If you only want netting to suffice for backyard cricket then anything should do.
You should even be able to pick up cricket netting for about £4 per meter. Actual cost will depend on the height but it's not that hard to find.

Going back and reading the rest of the thread, though proper cricket nets are good if you've got the space you can easily improvise. All you need is 4 to 6 sturdy poles (say 3-4m high) and the netting I've mentioned above. Matting is fairly cheap to get hold of and some places will sell 'second' quality stuff - you just have to ask what they have available.

In my younger days we used to play a couple of versions of backyard cricket. The first was using the long drive and windballs - more of a net then a game but there were a few scoring shots mostly 1 or 2 to the walls or lawn. Used to use the shed as a keeper until a quick beamer smashed a hole in it.

We'd also play a smaller version on the patio where you had to bowl spin by flicking your wrist to generate turn. It's amazing how much turn you can get using this method. Would alternate with a few faster deliveries as seen fit. Although the idea was to play with soft hands and defend, it was 1,2,3 depending on the which wall you hit, four onto the lawn and six and out if it went out of the garden. Was also useful for honing keeping reflexes whilst standing up.

Big scores were quite hard to come by but I think that a 160 plus was the highest.

 

[Skater]

played a textbook cover drive with a windball only for it to go under the fence and never see it again...



where do you get nets from?, i want one!, im prepared to pay up to 60 qiud or so....

They're about ?180 each.

 

[Animator!]

But of course you'd have to flatten a section of your garden out first, which would take time.

 

[Benauds appreci]

I am currently looking at and laughing at Backyard cricket videos on You Tube.

 

[Norbert]

eh, right now having to make due with a set of stumps and tennis equipment...getting a new bat soon...

 

[Mierosoft]

we played once in my small garden which has a greenhouse, quite dodgy.
We decided to use proper ball, proper bat and just play defensive shots, this was going well until my friend played a much faster ball and i got a horrible thick edge quite fast which went thro the (open)window of the greenhouse and plopped into a vat of soil, literally about 5cm from any of the glass pannels of the greenhouse.

Would never be able to do that again in a million years.
For obvious reasons, we don't play anymore.

 

[cric_craze]

read this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_cricket some of this is actually quite true and funny

 

[darthlewis1]

cool thread

 

[IanG]

I tried to introduce a rule that would allow you to score 6 runs without getting out based on Indoor Cricket where hitting the back net on the full was 6. If your shot hit the fence on the full it was a 6 if it hit the fence on the bounce it was the standard 4.

Still never knew what about the one that doesn't hit the fence on the full and still goes over. Anybody heard of a "4 and out"?

 

[drainpipe32]

For us any ball that gets lost is a wicket, boundary or not and any ball that doesn't isn't out, boundary or not. So I've probably got 30 tennis balls and 50 on various roofs, pools, trees, gutters, windows, etc.

 

[blake]

Used to play street cricket at my old house, but at this one I just have a bat in the nets. Dad usually bowls/gets the bowling machine because he's too lazy and judges the runs as for how good a shot it is, and what it would get ingame. E.g. flick off the pads might be 1..

 

[drainpipe32]

Yeah with my regular backyard cricket playing friend there's a wall really close to the leg side so we have to judge pulls, flicks, sweeps, etc, based on how well you hit it. And then we have some stupid rules like hit this grate is two, window one bounce is two, garden pot is one, back wall on the full is four, window on the full is out, road is four, etc.

 

[darthlewis1]

Yeah with my regular backyard cricket playing friend there's a wall really close to the leg side so we have to judge pulls, flicks, sweeps, etc, based on how well you hit it. And then we have some stupid rules like hit this grate is two, window one bounce is two, garden pot is one, back wall on the full is four, window on the full is out, road is four, etc.

I have to judge different runs unless the shot is straight down the ground because I have a path outside my house which is about 22 yards long and about a couple of metres wide with walls on either side so it's a perfect cricket pitch. And you said that you've lost lots of tennis balls near were you play, well my friend climbed over the fence were I hit loads of balls over and he found 23 tennis balls, tape balls and a few wind balls.

 

[Shaun Tait]

That wiki article made me laugh they will always bat first that is so true hahaha

 

[TumTum]

The only scoring place is straight down the ground. The batting area is enclosed with a wall in one side, a net in the other and a garage door at the back.

Rules:
- Only singles can be taken (no 2s or 3s) if the ball passes a line that is slightly closer than the bowlers end.
- If you hit the fence after bounce its 4.
- If you hit the fence on the full its 6.
- If you hit the ball into the neighbors yard it is still 6. Wait till they throw it back, otherwise buy more balls.
- 3 ways you can get out, ball hits stumps, bowler takes a catch or you get run out.

The bowler decides what ball he wants to use (taped tennis ball or plain tennis ball). Generally speaking the plain ball is easier to spin because it is lighter and can bounce higher if you get it spot on. The taped ball however is heavier and much faster of the pitch (ie play straight!).

The batsmen can come out of his crease as much and as far as he likes. The bowler however can also bowl beamers (ie if the batsmen is ridiculously close, bowler can bowl it above their head).