MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' cricket team winning streak in the heart of England

Outwood Cricket Club

To the innocent passer-by, the scene at Outwood Cricket Club last Thursday might have appeared to be a typical English cricket match, reports Berkshire.co.uk

In many respects, it had all the ingredients of a traditional village affair: near misses, dropped catches, big sixes, a fantastic spread of refreshments, plenty of humor and the lingering threat of rain throughout the afternoon. But this was no run-of-the-mill knockabout in the Surrey countryside. It was in fact an historic occasion. The match was the third of the Falkland Islands Cricket Association tour of England to mark 25 years since the end of the conflict that gripped the archipelago in the 1980s. And of all teams to play, it seemed somehow apt that they chose Outwood, who play in a village which epitomizes the entire rare qualities exclusive to our country and must have felt like a home from home for many of the tourists. The setting was certainly straight out of the picture postcard drawer: an emerald green pitch in woodland clearing with an attractive, understated wooden clubhouse on the far side. The only downside was the lingering layer of dark grey cloud that brought a gloom to the afternoon. It is a haven of tranquility - quite why anyone would want to play cricket anywhere else is a mystery - but last Thursday it took on a surreal atmosphere. That bizarre feeling was summed up perfectly before kick-off as the Falkland Islands team posed for a photo. Here, in the heart of Surrey, was a squad of 13 men who had traveled thousands of miles from a group of small islands in the South Atlantic, proudly waving their flag and standing behind their mascot, a five-foot high inflatable penguin. Before this match, the Falklanders had played the Foreign Office and a team of Norton Rose lawyers before taking on Gloucestershire Gipsies XI on Saturday and then Falkland CC in Newbury, Berkshire. The reason for playing the latter would seem obvious, but how did they end up in Outwood? The answer came from the Surrey club's fixtures secretary, Keith Barham. "I subscribe to the Penguin News because I have some investments in the Falklands Islands, and it's because of that that I knew they were touring," he said. "There was a phone number for the club so I picked the phone up, spoke to them and talked about a date, and two days later it was fixed. "It's quite a feather in the club's cap to get a fixture like this and I know that our league, the Kent County League, is aware of that." As the tourists blew out the cobwebs by warming up on the pitch before the start, chairman of the FICA Roger Diggle - also the islands' chief medical officer - explained that the association, which has 65 registered players, has "10 to 12" fixtures a year, including games against military frigates, the British Antarctic Survey and other visiting ships. But, surveying the pitch, he conceded that the apparently ideal playing conditions in Outwood might pose a few problems to his team-mates. "Tuesday's game was the first time we've played outdoors since March so to come straight off the plane and start playing on grass wickets is quite a challenge," said Diggle, who has lived in the Falklands for 16 years. "If it's windy (in the Falklands) our fast bowlers have to bowl with the wind and the spinners against it." But the Islanders are not the first "overseas" team to have graced the Outwood turf - in 1979, the Falklands' nemesis Argentina took on the village as a warm up for the world cup, and memories of the day remain vivid with a few of the Outwood players returning to watch the current crop in action. Sitting on the forecourt of the clubhouse sipping a glass of red wine was the home captain from that game 28 years ago, Roger Vicars, and alongside him former batsman Malcolm McLeod who still proudly remembers his milestone against the South Americans. "I'm still the only person at Outwood to score 50 against an international side," declared McLeod. "If anyone gets one today it doesn't count because the Falklands aren't a separate sovereign state. "The Argentinians didn't like it very much - I think that's what started the war!" Other spectators had more affiliation to the tourists than the hosts. Brian and Penny Hill, from Steyning in Sussex, lived in the Falklands for nine years returning to Britain in 2000. During their time on the Islands, they were next-door neighbours of Roger Diggle and decided to attend the Outwood fixture to meet up with some old friends. With so much to celebrate, it was hardly surprising that the handful of spectators were not wholly concerned with the score, instead following the vocal lead of the Outwood team in gently teasing captain David Baldry as he survived a succession of near misses in building up his score. In fact, most minds seemed to be focused on the spectacular spread of home-made sandwiches, cakes and savory snacks inside the clubhouse, with the centre piece being a much heralded "Wartime Pie" made by Ecco Prout from corned beef, onion and potato and based on her grandmother's old recipe. On a day of customs, such a grand tea fitted perfectly into the occasion, being a feature of the English cricket scene. But the day could not pass without the Falklanders imposing one final, painful tradition on the Outwood team - their Australian fast bowler Isaac Forster ended up bagging 124 not out. Typical.