Putting the friend in friendly cricket, by which I mean introducing a friend to play for your club, is fraught with difficulties. Some members of our club have brought to Middleton Stoney CC friend after friend, without their friends scoring runs, taking wickets or holding catches. Not that any of that matters to our club ethos if they take their turns at the barbecue, with tea, umpiring, scoring, and so on. It does seem to matter, however, to the person making the introduction.

In terms of captaincy lessons for wider life, this is akin to the dangers of encouraging a friend to apply for a job where you work. Of course, some communities, such as religious ones, actively seek members and introductions, while others are more or less closed to newcomers.

Our main sources of new members are our local vet, our website and our opponents. As people with dogs move into the area, they come to know Jason Williams, who has served as our Honorary Secretary and who will no doubt star in this Friday’s match, because he is Australian and we are playing an Australian touring side. In between times, he is our recruiting supremo, sizing up his clients (the people, not the dogs) for cricketing prowess or, more precisely, to determine whether they would enjoy a day at Edgbaston watching England lose an Ashes Test.

The website, master-minded by our Team Secretary, Mark Ford-Langstaff, has a contact button which is frequently used by complete strangers who have, amazingly, searched for ‘friendly cricket club in Oxfordshire’.

The first time I recall an opposition player joining us came when I happened to be captain for the day in that rarity for Middleton Stoney CC, an away match. It was only a few miles away, at Barton Abbey. They had two very good players, one of whom was already playing league cricket on Saturdays but was not too sure about the future of his Sunday team. When I took my turn umpiring at square leg, Jay Mumtaz manoeuvred his place in the field so as to have a chat and asked if he could join us, which he could and which he did. Some say he’s not half the player he used to be but that’s because he has achieved fame in weight loss circles. You have to scroll a long way down, past lost of recipes, before you get to Jay’s story in this article, in which he is referring to his Saturday league club:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-6621605/Lose-weight-live-2019-WW-plan.html

We welcome all-comers but the first friend I have introduced is Andrew Thomas, an accomplished cricketer returning from a serious injury which lost him a season and a half. In his first innings for us, he scored 30, then on Sunday he was our top scorer on 77. He might well have reached his century if I had not declared ten minutes before the scheduled time for tea

http://www.middletonstoneycc.co.uk/club-news/2019/mscc-vs-pow-xi-2019/

As Andrew has a surname, Thomas, which is also a first name (welcome to my world) and as his Saturday league club has the kind of shirts that England and Australia have taken to wearing, with numbers and surname on the back, it may be some time before everyone here gets his first name right, but they already know that he can play. What has shocked me is how many club members are amazed that I know anyone who is good at cricket in general and specifically at batting.