Road cricket

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Road Cricket is a variant form of the English game of Cricket and is often initiated by the phrase "a bit of road?". The term Road Cricket is believed to have been coined by Max Kirkby in the year 2001 and its popularity has since flourished.

Location

The location is the stretch of road just outside 39 Bramley Road, Diss, Norfolk, although various spin-offs of the game have since been created such as Park Cricket, Drive Cricket and Garden Cricket.

Format + Rules

The game takes most aspects of the traditional format of Cricket, however no scorers or umpires are required, with the batsman being required to "keep their own scores". In addition, the game is easy to set up; only two bats, a tennis ball and two sets of Kwik Cricket stumps are needed.

The game can take many forms, including Test Match, "two on two" and "4/4".

Each game is started by a coin toss on the middle of the pitch involving the two captains. Having won or lost the toss, each captain is then free to decide the batting and bowling order for his team. The toss is often followed by a "pitch report" filmed by a mobile phone.

A tennis ball is to be used at all times.

The boundaries during the game are indicated by "Tezza's fence" behind where the wicket-keeper would stand and the end of the black patch further up the road.

Each batsman can be out in a number of conventional ways such as LBW or run out. However, when there is genuine disagreement regarding a decision, a "free bowl" is called for to determine the fate of the batsman. In this scenario, the bowler gets 1 free shot at the stumps' if the stumps are hit, the batsman is given out, if the stumps are not hit, the batsman is not out. On previous occasions, the bowler has had more than one "free bowl" on suspicions of cheating. An alternative method used to decide contentious decisions is when a nominated player hides an object in one of his hands and asks the opponent to guess which hand the object is in. If the opposing player is correct, the decision goes in their favour, and vice-versa.

Due to its proximity to local houses, there is the threat of the batsman "hitting the ball over" or hitting the ball into someone else's garden. In the first case, the batsman in question has to "call for the ball" and as a punishment, is given out. In the second case, a nominated player has to politely ask for the ball to be returned to the field of play.

Complaints

Various complaints have been filed by angry neighbours as a result of the ball being hit into their garden, most notably the ball hitting "Tezza's fence" on a regular basis. However this has not dented the popularity of the game and plans have been drawn up to turn Road Cricket into an Olympic sport ready for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Players + Records

A range of young cricketers have taken to the game since its outset, ranging from the more notable such as Jody Sparrow and Mark Williamson to the less notable such as Jamie Allen.

Williamson currently holds the record for the highest individual batting score. The record stands at 409.

Despite many terrific bowling performances, the current record is not known.