The President's Match, Matching Green Cricket Club, 2016

In response to public suggestions that we should record a local cricket match, I took a leisurely drive out to the west of the county to a place that looked lovely on the Internet. It was a hot day and plenty of summery rural smells, and insects, filled the car as I wound down the country lanes with the windows open. I make a point of not using a sat nav or mobile phone when driving about, and after a quick look of an online map before I left, and faith in actual road signs, I found myself in the lovely village of Matching Green, which more than did justice to the compressed jpgs I’d seen earlier.

The green itself is huge and plenty big enough for two ponds, lots of dog walking land, and a cricket pitch with a pavilion. Martin Figg, Hon. Secretary of MGCC, made me very welcome, and I spent a few hours enjoying the match, before enjoying some of the provided luncheon.

The first recording I made from in front of the pavilion, so you can hear plenty of associated activities such as preparation of lunch, banter between the audience and players, and general conversation sounds. In the second recording I positioned myself on a bench on the opposite site of the pitch, where you can hear the players’ voices, distant audience and crucially, the quintessential sound of ‘bat on ball’ which was the reason for attending in the first place.