It’s looking good up at The Langley. Let’s hope it stays dry. Here’s today’s fixtures: The 1st team are away at North Runcton, the 2nds are at home to Bircham, the thirds are up the road at Great Ellingham and the 4th team are at home on the new pitch against Swanton Morley. Good luck to all! We have a home friendly tomorrow (Sunday 21 May) against Marlingford and on Thursday (25 May) the over 40s travel to Topcroft. Next week’s youth games feature the U9s away to Tas Valley tomorrow, the U13s away at Bradenham on Tuesday (23 May), the u11s away at Rocklands on Wednesday (24 May) and the U15s away at Great Melton on Wednesday as well.

Photo: First team scorer Dawn Briggs tots up the figures after the 1sts emphatic win against Brooke CC Garboldisham 1st XI were at home to Brooke CC who won the toss, and with dampness on the pitch, put Garby in to bat. Tom Davey was out lbw first ball to one that kept low and then Henry Phoenix was unfortunate to be run out at the non-strikers end when the bowler managed to get a finger on to a straight drive from Aussie, Dan Constable. Dan went on to make 31 runs before edging one to the keeper. Solid middle order runs from Alex Hogg (42), Matt Allin (32) Kieran Pask (37) and Danny Cash (15) pushed the Garby score along nicely, and with the wagging tail of James Shepherd (24*) and Rob Fuller (15), Garboldisham finished on a meaty 233-9 off 50 overs. Visitors Brooke struggled right from the start of their innings and their wickets fell at regular intervals under the sustained attack from the Garby bowlers and fielders, and they were all out for just …

It’s turned into a lovely Friday evening here in Garboldisham – the rain has moved on and hopefully we’re set fair for tomorrow’s matches. The Firsts are at home and face Brooke and they’ll be hoping to bounce back from their close run defeat last week against Sprowston. The second team are travelling to West Norfolk to face Stow. The Thirds are at home to our neighbours East Harling and the Fourths are just down the road at Old Buckenham. Good luck to all! Yesterday, Garboldisham Over 40s oiled their rusty joints and played their first match of the season with a good win at Rocklands – with runs galore from Mark Snowling and wickets from Dean Smith. Evidently Garby only had ten and a half men – not sure who the half man was…? If you want to catch the Over 40s in action, they have another game on Thursday 18th May next week at home against Tivetshall. And we have three youth matches coming up next week: on Monday the 15th the U11s are …

GCC 1st XI were away to Sprowston 1sts. Sprowston batted first and were bowled out in their final over for 173 with two wickets each for Kieran Pask, Alex Hogg, Dan Constable and Rob Fuller, and a wicket for Gavin Barnes, with Mat Allin picking up a run-out. It wasn’t the easiest of wickets to bat on and at the first drink’s break, Garboldisham were 4 wickets down with 103 on the board – but still in with a good chance of chasing down the home side’s total. However a middle order batting collapse saw Garby reeling on 125-9, but a tense last wicket stand of 43 between Rob Fuller and Shep dragged Garboldisham close to the line but unfortunately Sprowston snatched the final wicket to leave Garby just 6 runs short on 168 all out… Thanks to Rob Fuller for posting updates of this match on twitter. Back at The Langley, the 2nds were up against Hardingham 1sts. Batting first, Garby scored a tasty 250-8 with captain James Worby (pictured above) finishing just a handful of …

Philip Carr (pictured above) took 3 wickets and went for only 5 runs from his 9 overs in GCC 3rd XI’s win against Beetley CC last Saturday. Phil was also 44 not out. Eastern Daily Press journalist Ian Clarke played for Beetley CC against Garboldisham on Saturday April 29 April and he mentioned GCC in a short article that he wrote in his sports column in the paper on Wednesday 4 May. Here’s Ian’s article reproduced in full: Cricket club a great example “While City were storming into a three-goal lead and then being pegged back at Leeds, I dusted off my whites for the start of the Norfolk League cricket season with a very enjoyable game at Garboldisham. It was some years since I had played at the South Norfolk ground and they have gone from strength to strength since I was last there. The club has four Saturday teams and I was told they have 70 youngsters at junior training on Friday evenings. That is some achievement. There was a great feeling about …

Subs are now due! It’s £35 for the season but we are discounting it to £25 for those who pay by the end of May!  Please pay to Deb Raven or team captains. Children pay £10 – see link. Sponsorship: The club is still very keen to seek further interest from anyone, or any business interested in sponsoring the club. We are offering two packages: 1 year at £300 or 2 years at £450. For that, the sponsor would gain a sign-board mounted on the perimeter fence of the 1st team pitch, and they would be added to the club website and mentioned in club tweets on Twitter. This is simple and effective way for us to bring essential funding into the club and so we encourage all club members to do what they can to seek support – possibly from their employer. Contact club Chairman Paul Feavearyear on 07795 271033 or 01603 715756 for further details. The season starts this Saturday! The 1s and 3s are at home, and 2s and 4s are away. For full fixture details click on the Fixtures tab at the top of the …

The busy work continues up at The Langley in preparation for the new season. Electric cabling has been run from the pavilion to the nets, for easy set-up of the bowling machine, and from the pavilion across the outfield of the main pitch to the electronic scoreboard which has been installed on a bespoke heavy-duty wooden stand. This will make it easier for scorers and spectators, as well as players, to easily check the score of a match. The scoreboard has been installed on the far side of the main pitch Robert Leach ‘drills’ a channel for the electric cabling Club president Trevor Lambert tests the new showers The first match of the season is a friendly at home against our old friends and rivals, Diss next Saturday 15 April and then we have a friendly the following Saturday 22 April at home to Thetford and then Mellis at home on Sunday 23 April. The season kicks off properly with all league fixtures on Saturday 29 April. You can check all the fixtures by going on to our …

Big thank you to everyone who turned up at the weekend to help get the ground, pitches and clubhouse ready for the new season. Covers are all on, nets are up, pitches are all mown and looking fantastic, pavilion looks a treat, new showers and plumbing is installed – we’re all ready to go and the sun is shining! New (hot!) showers in the pavilion The first match of the season is a friendly at home against our old friends and rivals, Diss on Saturday 15 April and then we have a friendly the following Saturday 22 April at home to Thetford and then Mellis at home on Sunday 23 April. The season kicks off properly with all league fixtures on Saturday 29 April. You can check all the fixtures by going on to our page on the ECB play-cricket.com site (http://garboldisham.play-cricket.com) or this link here will take you straight to the fixtures page. Alternatively, click on the fixtures tab in the menu bar at the top of this page (laptop/desktop) or under the three horizontal lines icon top …

The sportsman’s dinner is approaching fast – next Friday 24 March. It will include an auction of items and ‘promises’ at the dinner including this fantastic oil painting by Fred Ingrams of the Fens. If any other GCC members have any nice things that they are able to put into the auction to raise money for the club then do let us know. We are hoping to put a new drive up to the ground, an electronic scoreboard across the other side of the main pitch and run power to the nets. Running electric cable for this will be very expensive so if you are able to help with an item or a ‘promise’ it would help immensely. Please contact Peter Barnes on 07825351062. And if you want to make a bid for Fred’s painting but you’re not going to the dinner just email Fred via his website or contact Barnesy. Don’t forget about the GCC quiz on Saturday 1 April. Let Peter or Robbie in the village shop have your team details as soon as possible so that we can work …