User:DazWor58/sandbox

Bamville Cricket Club's pitch is sited on common land where Harpenden Racecourse used to be. Nearest postcode is AL5 1AW: the ground lies a few hundred yards to the west of this location. Bamville has over 50 playing members who come from the general catchment area of Hatfield, Harpenden and St Albans. The club prides itself on being a family club which does not need to enter a league to get enough fixtures. All Bamville's games are friendlies, continuing to fully embrace the Spirit of Cricket as well as its Laws. The club celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2007. Bamville is the only cricket club to play on a golf course and the outfield includes both a tree and a defunct grass bunker! We are indebted to Rothmans for including Bamville in their excellent book, "The Rothmans Book of Village Cricket", which profiles some of the most interesting village cricket clubs in England: "Many golfers love their cricket and vice versa, but nowhere are the passions more closely aligned than on Harpenden Common in Hertfordshire. Every Sunday after two o'clock in summer the members of Harpenden Common Golf Club have to yield to Bamville Cricket Club. By then, golfers must be through the fairway of the third so that cricket can be played.  It's a par five hole, around five hundred yards, but peaceful co-existence ensures there is never a problem: Bamville always play away on Saturdays.  They only pay for the use of their pavilion - to St Albans Council, not the golf club - which gives them their own version of  'the nineteenth hole' for those summer Sundays.

Harpenden Common Golf Club was a racecourse at the start of the twentieth century, then came golf and, in 1932, the cricket club. The cricket team's first President, Jim Joel, was a famous racehorse owner and many workers from his nearby estate played for the club in its formative years. The square is small - what do you expect on a fairway? - but they work hard on it. It is acknowledged to be a good wicket and respected as 'ground under repair' by golfers when cricket is not being played.

The lure of cricket on a golf course seems attractive enough and the understanding between the two codes of sport ranks as a compromise in the best traditions of English summer sport. There are no reports of any Bamville cricketer ever being disturbed by a cry of 'fore!'....."