13th July 2015
| Mallory Gray
Introduction
The Forty Club is a ‘wandering cricket club’ – meaning that it
does not have its own ground, - and with nearly 2500 members is reputed to be
the largest wandering Cricket Club in the world. The ‘mission statement’ of the
Club is to offer fixtures against Schools, both State and Public, and Youth XIs,
playing experienced cricketers who will encourage the young cricketers to play
the game to the highest standards of performance and behaviour, and in the best
spirit of the game. The Forty Club currently plays some 130 fixtures a season
against School and Youth sides throughout England Scotland and Wales. After the
start of the school holidays it plays almost 100 additional fixtures against
Clubs.
The Tournament
The Quadrangular Tournament is competed for
annually between “sister Forty Club teams” from Holland (SGS), Denmark (Dansk
XL), Spain (Cricket Espana) and the UK (The Forty Club). The tournament has been running since 1969,
and this is the first time that it has been held in Wales.
There are two competitions – one a 45 over
game, and the other a T/20 game. Last
year the tournament was played in Holland. This year the Forty Club is the
defending champion in the 45 over format, and SGS Holland in the shorter
format.
The 45 overs tournament is for players over
40 on 1st July, and the T/20 over tournament for players over 35 on
1st July.
Players this year will have travelled from Australia as
well as Europe!
In all there will be a party of about 100
players and their partners assembling at Newport CC.
The Programme
The tournament will be held at Newport
Cricket Club between Monday 20th and Friday 24th July
2015, with a couple of warm-up matches also being held on Sunday 19th
July.
The 45 over matches are being played on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: the T/20
matches are being played on Tuesday and Thursday.
There are numbers of social events planned
for the week, beginning with the Opening Ceremony on Sunday 19th
July; a Curry Night on Monday 20th July, a trip for partners to the
National Museum, St Fagans and Cardiff Bay on Tuesday 21st July; and
the Tournament Dinner on Thursday 23rd July.