Your backyard

[Johnson#26]

What was (or is) your backyard cricket pitch like as a young bloke?

One of the great things about it is how everyone has a unique set up, and it's sometimes a real challenge to work out your opponent's conditions (a slope, a rough patch or grass or crack in the concrete, areas that are no-go zones (prickle bushes), etc, etc).

Ours usually takes place in the garage. We've got a solid-sized driveway, just long enough for a decent run up, but the pitch is only a bit over the normal size, so it does give the bowlers plenty to work with. Particularly the left-armers due to the tree on the right-arm over side of the wicket (hence it's honed by right-arm around).

The pitch itself is of good backyard quality. Concrete, one or two cracks that can cause a bit of trouble (my brother got one to cut right back into the right hander off it yesterday, but it's a little bit short for a decent delivery).

Occasionally a bit of oil or water from the car can make the ball skid a tad, but it's nothing too serious.

The tennis-ball bounce has one problem (and it'd be the case on any concrete wicket) - an attempted fast, short ball can sit up and cause the batsman to play a rash stroke (and occasionally smash a top-edge into his own face ).

Over the gutter on the other side of the road is four, and into or over the neighbour's fence is six.

One of the best features of it is the backwall (acting as the keeper). Any ball with a bit of water or oil, or dirt on it that hits the backwall leaves its mark, giving us our own version of Hawkeye - so we can analyse balls from as far back as the summer of 03/04. It's also a bit of an embarassment for a beamer that went way too far overhead and down legside.

 

[Kim Hagdorn]

As a kid we had a carpet pitch with a makeshift net made of chicken wire lol, worked pretty well. Used to get some decent spin going with an indoor ball.

 

[rickyp]

We had a big backyard and I'd mow it short. Huge bush on the leg side was a no go so you really needed to know how to play down the ground or square on the off side, if you could pick the gap between garage and house you were in for runs. Definitely a bowlers wicket, while you were limited for a run up (to make way for an official length pitch) you had some serious bumps as well as a downhill slope to make use of.

Currently we play on the decking, use the gaps in the planks to great use for spin and seam. Even still, to call it a batsmans pitch would be underselling how easy it is to bat on.

 

[Noobz0r]

We grew up with a long, thin strip of lawn between out raised back verandah and pool fence (probably 4-5 metres wide). The fence and brick wall worked really well in making sure the ball didnt go too far, and we also used a golfing net as a keeper behind the stumps. Our lawn was always patchy and uneven, made it a bowlers paradise. There was a particularly rough spot on the perfect length outside the off stump, made bowling off spin and off cutters rather easy and effective.

We also tended to water down the pitch before play, making it even more conducive to turn, and tended to stop the tennis bowl bounce.

My favourite part was the test matches we played... each with 10 wickets taking turns batting. Unfortunately we both always wanted to play as the aussies!

 

[Thommo 42]

I never had a legside game in under-age or senior cricket, purely because my mums gardens etc were on the legside. I used to stand back and thrash them through cover.

By the time I was 15 I was pathetic, and while bowling on the pads to a good batsmen was death for bowlers, against me it was a guaranteed maiden. I had no pull shot, no flick through midwicket and barely managed a leg glance.

Luckily I usually batted #11 anyway, but it was frustrating because I was quite a good bat until I reached U/15's!

 

[Johnson#26]

Some good points about where the runs could be found and the style of game you played.

Being a garage, it's really developed our ability to play lofted ondrives, particularly to spin, as that's the only way you're going to hit a six. Was the only shot in my manual for a long time. But it meant you played straight, hitting fours down the ground and all that.

One awesome shot (still don't know how it happened; it's almost impossible to do) came in the summer of 00/01 during an ODI in the Carlton Series vs the Windies (might have been Zimbabwe). I cracked a scuffed up tennis ball into a tiny corner on the left of the roof. Don't know how it got in there, but it stayed there for a good six or so years. In the same summer, the old light globe got smashed by a huge hit off Dad's spin in the dark during another ODI vs the Windies.

My neighbour and I used to write out our own scorecards and everything like that, and we'd select which bowler took each wicket. It was the coolest. Andy Bichel once took 8fa for me (including a shot caught flush on the groin - the fact it was out dulled all the pain). Before we rennovated the house, the back of the garage was built with planks of wood. After a few years some of those planks became very wobbly and a few balls were lost.

One of the best tennis balls we ever had, this absolute rock, smooth but heavy and still managing plenty of bounce, was fired into my mate as a bouncer after school in 2001. He fended it away (reminding me very much like Daniel Vettori at the time ), down a gap in the wall/floor, and out into the bushes, never to be seen again. Damn. It was a good tennis ball.

 

[StFly]

Our yard was rather minimal, and definitely out when we renovated as now there's no room whatsoever for a pitch of any sort, there were really only straight drives you could do either out of the gate (where you could run about 20 since we're on top of a slop so if theres enough power it ran all the way down no problems) or by rebounding off the fence towards the back of the house. We were, when we had enough people placing people behind the keeper for the lofted shot, unfortunastely they also had a dirty big fence in the way so if you were stuck there chances are you knew you were last picked and the restof us were trying to swing it on the road to make you run. Square of the wicket was right out since it either meant hitting a window or going over the house (we lost several balls in the gutters) or over the fence and possibly hitting a car so generally if you did that you were fetching and handing the bat over and praying that next doors dogs hadn't already devoured the ball if it bounced over the fence from the roof. 6 and out since we basically got tired of fetching things constantly.

Had no need for netting though, and if we had enough people we could have simply wandered down to the oval since it's a house and pine tree reserve away for a full size oval complete with cricket nets nearby, but we never ended up getting enough people to warrant it.

 

[Pumbi]

Our garden wasn't all that wide so there was only enough for a pitch and no fielders. You could forgive us for accepting defeat and succumbing to the fact that cricket was never going to be a pastime in our backyard.

Enter heroic father.

Increased the size of the garden so that it was approximately 5m wide, and he built with his bare hands, a cricket net. And not some shabby piece of handyman work. It could have passed for one that you see at parks and schools. I never properly thanked him for that. Now, as a 19 year old who has matured, I should probably buy him a belated carton to thank him for all the hours we wasted in the back garden as kids.

The pitch itself was a dusty deck of hard dirt, so it suited both fast bowlers (heaps of cracks) and spin.

 

[Caesar]

We had a huge front yard that was all lawn, so it was heaven for cricket as a kid. Dad even let us cut and roll an undersized pitch during summer.

We had a split street with a stormwater drain down the middle, and if you hit it in the drain it was six and out. As a consequence my square of the wicket shots were all along the ground (so they'd roll across the road and hit the kerb) - once I started playing cricket I could never pull or hook to save my life, and I never hit a six.

 

[Gee Dub]

My yard isn't quite big enough so cricket is almost always played in my mate's backyard. The pitch is a decent size but this leaves room for only a 5-6 step run up. The "boundary" is around 6-7m past the stumps at the non strikers end meaning many fours and sixes are scored down the ground. Offside play is difficult as the pitch is reasonably close to the offside fence and there are many "fielders" on the offside. There is a large area around mid wicket to score runs but a shed at square leg rules out pull shots. The pitch is difficult to play on when you first start but once you get set you become used to the balls bouncing at your neck after pitching on a good length. We play 10 wickets each per match and a score of around 150 is usually competitive.

 

[aneale]

I grew up in Whyalla through the early 70's, we had an old Queenslander inspired house surrounded by stone walls that ranged from about 4.5 ft high at the front of the property to 7ft at the back where the laneway was. Within, the stereotypical quarter acre block. The old man was a cricket nut, he grew up with and was good friends with Alan Shiell. Alan went on to play for SA but always said that money was the difference in him playing Shield cricket and my dad not, whom he considered to be a better player than him. Sheff hit a 200no against a touring English team @ the Adelaide Oval before giving the game away to be a cricket journo.

Our backyard was a manicured lawn with a slight rise from the house to the back wall. The stumps were about a 1.5m from the back wall, I had chalk outlined slip fielders and wickey. To the left of the batting position was a shed, to the right the wall shared with the neighbours.

The house and to be timed well to hit. the house was four or six on the full. Six was a loud 'thud' at best as it hit the asbestos sheeting and a loud 'thud' and subsequent crack at worst. Either resulted in getting yelled at. From about knee high down the house was rendered cement, so perfect - no noise and the ball would bounce back to the bowling position which gave me a good 18-20yard pitch depending on how much i scuffed up the crease and dad wanting the lawn to recover. The backyard allowed for at least a 15 step run up from the bowling position so the old man used to test me out a bit

Trees outlined the sides of the property, hit on the full meant the 'fielder' caught you out. Knocking fruit and or flowers off meant you threw them over the fence hid the bat and ball and hope dad din't notice. Backyard tests with 5-6 mates as real fielders wasn't uncommon. Over the fence was out, anything that went over the right hand neighbours fence the ball was lost for good as we wouldn't risk the crazy old blokes german shepherd. The dude used to give us a crow bar to 'defend' ourselves if we wanted our ball back.

Tennis balls were preferably new and when they went a little thin, the old man would tape one side for me to swing it. The family Basset hounds would also play fielders, or grumpy bastards who could get 4 of my tennis balls into their gobs and then shut their mouths. Annoying. And gross when we got them back.

 

[strauchanie59]

Used to play "Hallway Cricket" as we had a small backyard but it was really fun, narrow as and had to place the shots perfectly. Now have moved and live on 100 acres and have a massive field to play on.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

I can remember no less than six different cricket pitches in our backyard, depending on what sort of game you wanted or how many people were there. One of them could also be used in both directions. We also played down the side of the house - maybe two metre wide with the house on the off side and a two-storey-high wall to the neighbours on leg. Made for a very contained game without the hassle of losing the ball in our jungle of a garden like on the backyard pitches. We also played on the driveway, generally using a tennis racket for a bat in those games for high catches on the lawn of the house opposite. And it was only two houses down the street to the school oval for a bit more room.

Today my kids have a great backyard pitch where you can play shots anywhere from mid-off to square leg. Our front driveway will also be an awesome pitch one day - we're at the end of a cul-de-sac so a straight shot will go directly up the street, with a gentle slope to bring the ball back to you! At the moment though the kids are still in the young can-only-hit-across-the-line-to-square-leg stage. Once they learn to straight drive we'll be out the front.

 

[Ross Prunster]

About 16/17m of brick paving, the odd uneven brick to keep it interesting. Pitch was very WACA like. Caravan at the run up, so the ball was delivered from quite wide of the crease, ala Wayne Daniel. 6/7 step run up, or if really keen could do the big Merv Hughes angled run, and increase it out to about 13. Swimming pool 2 metres away, covering point to mid off'ish. On the full in the pool was out, but if you got it to skid out of there, no worries. Wet ball very handy for the bowler though, increased the pace by a fair margin. Shed behind the stumps, dog stationed at short leg. Plenty of runs through square leg to wide mid wicket. Obviously became a very leg side oriented batsmen, with the backswing coming from gully.

 

[stmookeyj]

They were many and varied.....

- My Grandmother's old house in Glenroy was a great little ground for it, heaps of room all around, so long as you didn't ruin the garden or step in the dog poo. Broadmeadows was an OK venue but used it more for footy than cricket.

- When I was 7, it was narrow and no grass, so defensive techiques and straight and offside play was the go.

- When I was 9-11 (about the time I played club), there were 4 different pitches. One was with an automatic wicky and slips (the downstairs wall of a 2 story place) but heaps of room either side of the wicket. But there was a big tree at silly mid off for the right hander which meant off drives needed to be wider (even though it did provide very good shade). 2 Other areas were narrower, but again needed straight hitting. The 4th was UNDER the house which was a bit of a task on bowling run-ups (and un-playable if the washing was under the house). One time I also caused a little problem with the hot water system trying to hit like Ian Healy!

- The next place (10/11 YO) had all kinds of space. Some gravel surface, which provided for creation of "rough" even though it wasn't used. Tramp at the time also provided good auto wicky option.

- Darwin had 2 places. One was like an outdoor/indoor net bowling into a car port, the other was a little narrow and was often unplayable with washing on the line. It didn't help that the sheila upstairs we thought to be a witch of some sort, she hated us playing on it. Big straight hits were problematic because they often went into a garden or over the fence into another set of units that didn't like us fetching the balls. Not such a problem hitting leg side despite the narrowness because it was a vacant lot with a banana tree!

- 14/15 YO was spent with 2 areas at home and a few in around the neighbourhood. Our pitch (running downhill, bats hitting uphill straight) was used until a plastic ball shattered the shed window, it was never fixed despite my shoddy repair job using super glue and bits of glass that may or may not have fit. The other area was behind the shed, virtual net again. That yard was a better footy ground, a pair of coconut palms almost perfect goal width.

Next door had 3 areas, behind their shed was OK but narrow off-side due to the road. The path leading up to their house was a virtual net, although balls often went into the shed. Alongside the house was also a no-go after a broken window, better used as a World Game (Soccer) venue. There was also a back paddock behind someone else's house and a decent sized yard with auto wicky wall (but awkward run up with sharp rise before delivery stride.


If the flood EVER goes down then maybe we'll have the 5th annual Australia Day Cricket Bash in Depot Hill this year next to someone else's house, but we'll wait until the water leaves the area (in about 10-15 days time) to see what type of pitch we have. Hard surface but acres of room on the on side. Unfortunately many examples of bad keeping and long grass across the road behind the keeper (and in the vast outfield) sees plenty of lost balls.

 

[triplejdude]

Never had a big enough backyard and my front lawn was decent, but sloped so it made for awful run chases down the street.

Luckily, we lived in a cul-de-sac with a perfectly flat bit at the top of the street. Only problem was, the off side from about cover to third man was off limits, because hitting the ball there would make it roll all the way down the street. As a result, my leg side game became immense, where as I couldn't hit thrugh the off side to save my life.

We had a whole driveway as a run-up, and a wall behind the wickets that acted as a wicketkeeper. Because we only ever had 4 or 5 of us in the whole street, hitting onto any grass on the full was out. One hand, one bounce was used, and the 'bush rule' meant you could only run a single if the ball was lost in a bush. Letterboxes were worth 5 runs off the bounce and 7 on the full.

Hitting any garage or house on the full was a 6, off a bounce was 4. However, if you hit a window, or a car on the full, you were out. Likewise hitting the ball over the fence.

We had a flat road deck that was extremely easy to bat on, apart from the one good crack in the road about a metre away. If the bowler hit the crack, you'd have no chance. The batter faced west, so as soon as the sun began to set it made it crazy hard to play.

I miss playing there

 

[krusden]

ours was a patch of grass between the carport and a shed where the cars were backed up the drive way allowing for a long run up. which was all basically flat.

The shed functioned as wickets and slips allowing fields to be set wholly in front of the actual "wickets".

Handy also as bowling could be practiced up against the corrugated iron that made the shed if by yourself.

If there was anything more than 3-4 people playing another backyard shed functioned with a larger hitting area with a down sloping pitch but with plenty of hitting room.

The first pitch claimed many victims as the square leg on the on side was placed just behind or in front of a flat bricked path. The off side was essentially chopped off in regards of shots due to the fence proximity so most shots went to mid on/square leg. That path led to many bruises and was covered with blood, sweat and tears over summer.

 

[Bomber Bears]

At my old house where i grew up we had a massive backyard, although across a couple of levels. Had a decent sized pitched mowed out at a couple of levels below the rest of the lawn, and there was a massive bushy tree behind it as wicketkeeper, did pretty well. had two seconday pitches there, the concrete bit ofr some reason in the middle of our yard, and the pavers next to the house (never broke a window either).

Grandparents used to have an open block across the road from them which was great for cricket. Houses got built on it eventually

 

[Northhawker]

Great thread

am 17 now, but until I was 14 had part of an old orchard as a backyard, which sloped downhill from the house for about 25 metres, flattened out in the middle (the pitch) and then sloped downhill for another 20 metres. unbelievable backyard for cricket, and was very lucky to have it in a pretty suburban area. 6 and out everywhere except over the shed in front of the house which was in perfect pull shot range for the left hander. fence was the wicketkeeper, and conviently we had 4 tree stumps lined up next to it as slips. pitch took massive spin.
drove past the other day, place has about 4 units on it too many epic footy matches and cricket tests have been played there for that.

 

[Gus]

Good thread. I'm currently reading this book which documents the backyard cricket days of the greats and how it helped hone their skills.

My brother and I had a path from our clothesline to our back door which was about the same width as a cricket pitch. We'd bowl from the clothesline end to the back door end. We had a glass sliding door so anything we missed hit the door and got loud yells from the olds. That way we had to hit everything, which didn't help when I came to competitive cricket and had no idea about leaving the ball. The pitch was more or less up and down but had two "cracks" where the blocks of cement making up the path joined.

Now as a 20-21 year old uni student me and my housemate have a small backyard set up. We have about a 7 metre long verandah to play on. Our stumps are a wide bit of foam that our fridge was packaged with. It's about as wide as two sets so one has to again play at everything on a good length. Some wear and tear on the paving means there is a good rough area, just outside my leg stump, as a left handed batsman. Lucky for me being a right arm off spin bowler, it is right where I'd look to bowl ro my right handed housemate.

Would spend hours in the backyard, even at this age.