Playing cricket
Cricket is the king of sports because it is a very technical sport where one can excel as an individual but one can never win without a well cooperating team. It is also a very tactical game. If you give the other team no chance to win it is often also difficult to win.
Cricket is in some sense like baseball with two teams which sequentially try to score points by hitting the ball into the field, called “batting”. Throwing the ball to the batsman is called “bowling”. Millions of people play this game, especially in the old colonies of Great Britain including India, Pakistan, Australia and The West Indies. For foreigners the game is explained in such a funny way that only people who are very familiar with the sport will understand it (see aside). For a more understandable short explanation click here.
Cricket is in some sense like baseball with two teams which sequentially try to score points by hitting the ball into the field, called “batting”. Throwing the ball to the batsman is called “bowling”. Millions of people play this game, especially in the old colonies of Great Britain including India, Pakistan, Australia and The West Indies. For foreigners the game is explained in such a funny way that only people who are very familiar with the sport will understand it (see aside). For a more understandable short explanation click here.
How I got involved in this British sport
I got involved in the king of sports when my older brother, Frans, went to a training, organized by the school he went at that time. I accompanied him although I was still in primary school, being 11 years old. I liked the training and decided to continue with this sport. My brother stopped. Soon I started to play matches for juniors. The club called CRIC (Cricket Ignatius College) was not very good. Because it is a very technical sport, training is essential to get results. At the training hours were only very few people but I was always there. As a consequence I was already regularly playing for the first team when I was 16 years old. I continued to play for this club till I went to study in Utrecht, Then I decided to join another, better club.
I got involved in the king of sports when my older brother, Frans, went to a training, organized by the school he went at that time. I accompanied him although I was still in primary school, being 11 years old. I liked the training and decided to continue with this sport. My brother stopped. Soon I started to play matches for juniors. The club called CRIC (Cricket Ignatius College) was not very good. Because it is a very technical sport, training is essential to get results. At the training hours were only very few people but I was always there. As a consequence I was already regularly playing for the first team when I was 16 years old. I continued to play for this club till I went to study in Utrecht, Then I decided to join another, better club.
One of my most “important” decisions
I became member of the most known cricket club in Utrecht, Kampong. There I played for two years. Because I was one of the few people who trained regularly the results were not very good and in the second year we degraded to a lower league. When that happened the leaders of the club blamed me for the failure , because I was one of the leading players. These remarks annoyed me and I told them that they were themselves to blame because they were not training enough. At that moment I decided to cancel my membership and to join the club that played on the field next to Kampong.
Hercules was the name of the club and this club was very different. The first team consisted mostly of players younger than me. It was clear that they wanted to make promotion. They had organized a British trainer, Brian Ambler, to prepare us for the next season. He was always in the field and showed us how to bat. The first match with Hercules I will never forget. Willem Smit and I both scored more than 100 runs. The rumor of this monster score (261 for 1) even reached the public at Kampong next door and several came to look what happened. This revenge on that club was one of the best experiences I had during my student period. Although I never made a similar result again I enjoyed very much to play in this Hercules cricket team.
Our team was different
The next years the players of our team, who had the opportunity, were very frequently on the field and trained guided by Ray Ambler. He had come to substitute his brother as our trainer. While Brian was a batsman, Ray was a bowler of the London school team. He was 16 years old when he came but was already able to bowl any kind of ball we wanted to have and he was willing to do so for hours. We spent a lot of time in this way together on the cricket field and enjoyed it a lot.
Our team was different from the cricket teams we played against. As a team we were very aggressive in the field. The bowlers put pressure on the batsmen with fast or moving balls. Some team members were standing close to the batsmen, not without risk, but any little mistake of them was sufficient to get them out (see below).
I became member of the most known cricket club in Utrecht, Kampong. There I played for two years. Because I was one of the few people who trained regularly the results were not very good and in the second year we degraded to a lower league. When that happened the leaders of the club blamed me for the failure , because I was one of the leading players. These remarks annoyed me and I told them that they were themselves to blame because they were not training enough. At that moment I decided to cancel my membership and to join the club that played on the field next to Kampong.
Hercules was the name of the club and this club was very different. The first team consisted mostly of players younger than me. It was clear that they wanted to make promotion. They had organized a British trainer, Brian Ambler, to prepare us for the next season. He was always in the field and showed us how to bat. The first match with Hercules I will never forget. Willem Smit and I both scored more than 100 runs. The rumor of this monster score (261 for 1) even reached the public at Kampong next door and several came to look what happened. This revenge on that club was one of the best experiences I had during my student period. Although I never made a similar result again I enjoyed very much to play in this Hercules cricket team.
Our team was different
The next years the players of our team, who had the opportunity, were very frequently on the field and trained guided by Ray Ambler. He had come to substitute his brother as our trainer. While Brian was a batsman, Ray was a bowler of the London school team. He was 16 years old when he came but was already able to bowl any kind of ball we wanted to have and he was willing to do so for hours. We spent a lot of time in this way together on the cricket field and enjoyed it a lot.
Our team was different from the cricket teams we played against. As a team we were very aggressive in the field. The bowlers put pressure on the batsmen with fast or moving balls. Some team members were standing close to the batsmen, not without risk, but any little mistake of them was sufficient to get them out (see below).
These hours in field were hardly ever boring. If we could not get a batsman out, we invented unusual tricks to realize that. Let me mention an example. The bowler has to bowl from a certain distance indicated by a line. If the bowler bowls after he passed this line this will be called a "no ball" and a point will be given to the other team. To bowl the ball before one reaches the line is not forbidden but nobody does that. Jan van de Leur introduced a two step procedure to get rid of a very strong batsman.
Step 1 The bowler (Jan van de Leur) passed the line and bowled the ball from a smaller distance than normal to the batsman. The batsman got a point because it was a "no ball" but normally he would have lost a bit of his concentration.
Step 2 The next ball was bowled not as normal but a step or two steps before the bowler reached the line. This ball was also so different from normal that the batsman was making a mistake and got bowled or cought. In this way, occasionally, a batsman was beaten by an unorthodox action at the cost of just one point.
Step 1 The bowler (Jan van de Leur) passed the line and bowled the ball from a smaller distance than normal to the batsman. The batsman got a point because it was a "no ball" but normally he would have lost a bit of his concentration.
Step 2 The next ball was bowled not as normal but a step or two steps before the bowler reached the line. This ball was also so different from normal that the batsman was making a mistake and got bowled or cought. In this way, occasionally, a batsman was beaten by an unorthodox action at the cost of just one point.
There were also other differences
The players who did not work or go to school were nearly daily on the cricket field. These players also went occasionally to the room of one of us for a drink, some music and at some point in time also to smoke some marijuana. This was not so strange in the time of provos and later the hippies. This also meant that the hairs became longer and our clothes different. In that sense we also became different from the players of other clubs. However I have not seen that this had a bad effect on our play, neither that one of us got addicted. In fact in the same period we made promotion 6 times in 8 years till we reached the top of Dutch cricket.
We also made trips to England to play matches. Often we played against teams of Banks such as the Bank of England and the Lloyds Bank. In the Netherlands we were already a rather unconventional team but in England we were even more deviant. During the matches it was not so clear but after the matches in "normal clothes" we looked quite different than the gentlemen we played against.
I have to admit that one time it really went out of hand. Between the matches in England we slept in the houses of acquaintances of some of us. One day we went to the house of a couple with a child. The agreement was that we could sleep there so that the parents had a possibility to go out but we had to take care of their 2 years old child that night. We stayed there with the group that ocaasionally smoked marijuana. That evening we smoked so much (Temple shit) that we were so stoned that we did not know how to take care of the child. Irmtraud, who went with us, and I decided to put the child between us in the bed and went to sleep. Fortunately all went well and the next day we played again against another team of another bank. I don´t remember whether we won or not.
The team I played with
I don´t want to finish this story without paying credit to my cricket friends . Therefore I will mention them in the order they appear in the picture below starting with the second row from left to right.
The players who did not work or go to school were nearly daily on the cricket field. These players also went occasionally to the room of one of us for a drink, some music and at some point in time also to smoke some marijuana. This was not so strange in the time of provos and later the hippies. This also meant that the hairs became longer and our clothes different. In that sense we also became different from the players of other clubs. However I have not seen that this had a bad effect on our play, neither that one of us got addicted. In fact in the same period we made promotion 6 times in 8 years till we reached the top of Dutch cricket.
We also made trips to England to play matches. Often we played against teams of Banks such as the Bank of England and the Lloyds Bank. In the Netherlands we were already a rather unconventional team but in England we were even more deviant. During the matches it was not so clear but after the matches in "normal clothes" we looked quite different than the gentlemen we played against.
I have to admit that one time it really went out of hand. Between the matches in England we slept in the houses of acquaintances of some of us. One day we went to the house of a couple with a child. The agreement was that we could sleep there so that the parents had a possibility to go out but we had to take care of their 2 years old child that night. We stayed there with the group that ocaasionally smoked marijuana. That evening we smoked so much (Temple shit) that we were so stoned that we did not know how to take care of the child. Irmtraud, who went with us, and I decided to put the child between us in the bed and went to sleep. Fortunately all went well and the next day we played again against another team of another bank. I don´t remember whether we won or not.
The team I played with
I don´t want to finish this story without paying credit to my cricket friends . Therefore I will mention them in the order they appear in the picture below starting with the second row from left to right.
Max Haagman went with us to every match to register the result of every ball bowled and also the points scored by whom. He was not playing cricket but he was always very helpful.
Egbert Lambert was of my age and studied law. He came from a very active cricket family. It was nice that he was playing with us for some time in the first team. Later I met him again on the ice in Amsterdam. He started late with skating but made quite a career. In the end he was the president of the board of the national organization of marathon skating. About his career I have written elsewhere.
Ray Ambler came as a 16 year old boy from England to train us in cricket as it was played in England. He was a talented bowler who was a member of the London school team. He enjoyed life in the Netherlands and stayed with us. He was the steadiest part in our attack. As far as we have learned to play cricket we thanked it to his unlimited effort to bowl during the trainings. After being promoted three times to a higher league, he gave his first speech in Dutch during the champion’s dinner. His speech was to the point but he spoke the language we spoke in the field, not particularly proper for an elegant dinner. We enjoyed it a lot.
Rob Schriek was a very good fielder. He has saved a lot of runs for our team. With his brother he was also very important for the cricket section of Hercules. A lot of results were realized thanks to the amount of time they spent on training of the young players of Hercules.
Gerben Stel was a nice companion who was the boss of a paint business. He was in a very different position than us and had less time for training, but he was a good all-round cricket player. Even without wind he could move the ball in the air so much that it was difficult to attack him.
Barend Stel was his younger brother who specialized in fast bowling and became very successful. When Hercules had reached the top of Dutch cricket, he was asked for the national team. Also on that level he performed well. Unfortunately he died recently much too early.
John Bolte was of my age, studied law. Later he became the captain of the team. He was a member of the Student Corps in Utrecht. I was a member of Veritas. These two organizations differed considerably from each other but we never had any problems. I admired him for his good fielding. In this way he contributed to the major strength of the team.
Willem Smit, my companion batsman in my fist match of Hercules, had the patience of a real cricket batman to wait for the bad balls to make his points. During my participation in Hercules he came only during the summers to the Netherlands to play cricket with us. The rest of the time he went through the world, working at different places starting in the South of Spain and after that also in South America, Africa, The Middle East till he ended up in a jail in Yemen. That made him a bit more careful. Later he worked for the Red Cross in different countries.
Hans Kosterman was in the beginning our captain. He was a very nice person and he was able to keep this group of diverse people together. He was trying to make a career as a musician, playing in a band as guitarist and singer. I have to admit that he introduced us to smoking marijuana during many pleasant hours together. Later he became a lawyer, especially for musicians. He died too early.
Willem Saris was the only player besides Ray Ambler who did not come from the youth of Hercules. He enjoyed the new club tremendously, contributed in the beginning to the success. With the progress in his scientific career he was not able to train and play as much as in the beginning. He felt fortunate to have participated in this team till the top, but when he was bowled in one of his first matches in the highest league on the first ball without having seen the ball, he decided that it was time to stop
Klaas Smit, was very different from his brother. He was 2 years younger, very timid when he was young. He liked his study in psychology especially when he started with experiments with rats. We have several times spoken about this together. He told me once that he could not kill the rats after the experiments as he was obliged. He preferred to let them free. He chose for this the cricket field of Kampong. I liked this decision a lot. At some point in time he complained about headache and isolated himself from us. It turned out that he had schizophrenia. This was a very sad development. He had due to this desease a difficult life and died recently.
Egbert Lambert was of my age and studied law. He came from a very active cricket family. It was nice that he was playing with us for some time in the first team. Later I met him again on the ice in Amsterdam. He started late with skating but made quite a career. In the end he was the president of the board of the national organization of marathon skating. About his career I have written elsewhere.
Ray Ambler came as a 16 year old boy from England to train us in cricket as it was played in England. He was a talented bowler who was a member of the London school team. He enjoyed life in the Netherlands and stayed with us. He was the steadiest part in our attack. As far as we have learned to play cricket we thanked it to his unlimited effort to bowl during the trainings. After being promoted three times to a higher league, he gave his first speech in Dutch during the champion’s dinner. His speech was to the point but he spoke the language we spoke in the field, not particularly proper for an elegant dinner. We enjoyed it a lot.
Rob Schriek was a very good fielder. He has saved a lot of runs for our team. With his brother he was also very important for the cricket section of Hercules. A lot of results were realized thanks to the amount of time they spent on training of the young players of Hercules.
Gerben Stel was a nice companion who was the boss of a paint business. He was in a very different position than us and had less time for training, but he was a good all-round cricket player. Even without wind he could move the ball in the air so much that it was difficult to attack him.
Barend Stel was his younger brother who specialized in fast bowling and became very successful. When Hercules had reached the top of Dutch cricket, he was asked for the national team. Also on that level he performed well. Unfortunately he died recently much too early.
John Bolte was of my age, studied law. Later he became the captain of the team. He was a member of the Student Corps in Utrecht. I was a member of Veritas. These two organizations differed considerably from each other but we never had any problems. I admired him for his good fielding. In this way he contributed to the major strength of the team.
Willem Smit, my companion batsman in my fist match of Hercules, had the patience of a real cricket batman to wait for the bad balls to make his points. During my participation in Hercules he came only during the summers to the Netherlands to play cricket with us. The rest of the time he went through the world, working at different places starting in the South of Spain and after that also in South America, Africa, The Middle East till he ended up in a jail in Yemen. That made him a bit more careful. Later he worked for the Red Cross in different countries.
Hans Kosterman was in the beginning our captain. He was a very nice person and he was able to keep this group of diverse people together. He was trying to make a career as a musician, playing in a band as guitarist and singer. I have to admit that he introduced us to smoking marijuana during many pleasant hours together. Later he became a lawyer, especially for musicians. He died too early.
Willem Saris was the only player besides Ray Ambler who did not come from the youth of Hercules. He enjoyed the new club tremendously, contributed in the beginning to the success. With the progress in his scientific career he was not able to train and play as much as in the beginning. He felt fortunate to have participated in this team till the top, but when he was bowled in one of his first matches in the highest league on the first ball without having seen the ball, he decided that it was time to stop
Klaas Smit, was very different from his brother. He was 2 years younger, very timid when he was young. He liked his study in psychology especially when he started with experiments with rats. We have several times spoken about this together. He told me once that he could not kill the rats after the experiments as he was obliged. He preferred to let them free. He chose for this the cricket field of Kampong. I liked this decision a lot. At some point in time he complained about headache and isolated himself from us. It turned out that he had schizophrenia. This was a very sad development. He had due to this desease a difficult life and died recently.
Two more important players have to be mentioned
Two players who were not on the photo. Probably they joined our team a bit later. I have to mention them too, because they also played an important role in our success.
Jan van de Leur was certainly the most talented sportsman of us all. No one had such a feeling for ball games as him. As a bowler he could invent all kinds of tricks, like the one I mentioned above. He was also able to hit 6 balls in one over for 6. We have spoken a lot, especially on the long trips by car to the different cricket fields. It was a pleasure to have him around. That is also what turned out his later profession. He collected a lot of people around the bar where he worked.
Two players who were not on the photo. Probably they joined our team a bit later. I have to mention them too, because they also played an important role in our success.
Jan van de Leur was certainly the most talented sportsman of us all. No one had such a feeling for ball games as him. As a bowler he could invent all kinds of tricks, like the one I mentioned above. He was also able to hit 6 balls in one over for 6. We have spoken a lot, especially on the long trips by car to the different cricket fields. It was a pleasure to have him around. That is also what turned out his later profession. He collected a lot of people around the bar where he worked.
th
Hans Ceton was the best all-round sports man of the team. He played in the first football team of Hercules for many years and was an excellent wicket keeper who was ready to punish any error a batsman made. He was very important by all the catches he made behind the wicket. Occasionally, when it was necessary, he removed his leg guards to bowl on the last batsman of the other team if the bowlers could not get him out and a draw would be the result. This interruption and the madness of this action was sufficient to disturb the concentration of the last batsman and get him out. So he realized that we won the match.
A last word
I thank all the people mentioned here and the board of the cricket section of Hercules for the very pleasant time I have had for years in the club. Without this experience my cricket addiction would have led nowhere. Thanks to Hercules I have a very nice memory of my time at the cricket fields.
For the cricket competition now see:
https://www.kncb.nl/competities/2020/heren/overgangsklasse-b/
Hans Ceton was the best all-round sports man of the team. He played in the first football team of Hercules for many years and was an excellent wicket keeper who was ready to punish any error a batsman made. He was very important by all the catches he made behind the wicket. Occasionally, when it was necessary, he removed his leg guards to bowl on the last batsman of the other team if the bowlers could not get him out and a draw would be the result. This interruption and the madness of this action was sufficient to disturb the concentration of the last batsman and get him out. So he realized that we won the match.
A last word
I thank all the people mentioned here and the board of the cricket section of Hercules for the very pleasant time I have had for years in the club. Without this experience my cricket addiction would have led nowhere. Thanks to Hercules I have a very nice memory of my time at the cricket fields.
For the cricket competition now see:
https://www.kncb.nl/competities/2020/heren/overgangsklasse-b/
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