Today, we went to Verulam park to play French Cricket. It’s a really fun game here’s how to play.
How to play:
What you need:
- A cricket bat
- At least 3 players
- A tennis ball (or any soft ball is fine)
Rules:
- The aim of the game is hit someone’s legs with the ball successfully (their legs are the wickets), to take over on the bat.
- To start off one player is selected as the first batsman and they go in the middle of all the players, each player at least 2 metres away from them.
- Another one of the players then has to take the ball and aim to bowl it at the batman’s legs, below their knees.
- If the ball goes past the batsman without hitting their knees, and they don’t hit the ball, the person nearest the ball collects it and becomes the next bowler from that position. The batsman has to keep his legs in the same position bend their body to try and protect their legs from the new bowler. This can mean trying to hit a ball coming from behind you. If the batsman does hit the ball the batsman is allowed to turn to face the new bowler.
- There’s two ways the batman can be out. First, if the bowler hit them on the legs below the knees. Or, second, if the ball is caught. You can catch with both hands before the ball bounces, or if the ball bounces once but you catch with just one hand. Either the bowler who hit the batsman’s legs, or the fielder who caught the ball, take over as batsman.
There’s lots of good things about French cricket: you don’t need much equipment to play; you only need a few players; and everyone gets involved, you don’t spend a lot of time just watching.
My mum took some good pictures and videos when we were playing-
Euan seemed to be a bit of a natural. Have a look at him connecting with the ball. He did really well but wasn’t perfect. My mum caught a video of him getting bowled out.