Wansteadium

Our man with Wisden under his bed reports the very jolly news that Anjali Bamrah, who was captain of the Wanstead women’s team until last year and is the club physio, has been appointed to tend to the touring Pakistan women’s team later in the summer. Congratulations to her.

Meanwhile, he writes:

The performance of the week came from the 3rd XI at Chelmsford, in particular Mehad Khan, who overcame the weather and dilatory opposition tactics to score the winning runs in double (nearly) quick time.

At home against that club, Wanstead’s 4th team forced victory in a low scoring game.

Youngsters Finlay Chesney-Brown and Naail Dar, with ball and bat respectively, put in winning performances for the 5s against Pegasus, but the 6s drew at Shenfield because their bowling was not as strong as their batting, Victor Mestre continuing his run of form.

Shenfield drew their game against the Herons’ 2nd XI but must have given them quite a fright by nearly winning despite good batting by the cousins Velani.

Joe Ellis-Grewal’s fine bowling was nowhere near enough to prevent the 1st XI receiving a thumping from Shenfield on Saturday. The team can barely have licked those wounds before receiving further injury when being knocked out of the National Cup by Waltham CC.

Please use this page – comments below – for discussion of Fringe planning.

Who knows what reason there is for the Evergreen Field to be blacked out with head-height black plastic sheeting?

Before the installation of the sheets on Friday, the last developments on the field had been apparently put up for sale by its current owners. This followed the approval by Redbridge Council for the Wanstead Society’s plan for the site to be dedicated to community usage (and not flats).

In February of this year the current owner, Dalbir Singh Sanger, told the Wanstead Guardian that he did not approve of the land being called Evergreen Field. “There is no benefit to anyone by calling it Evergreen Field. It is just an empty field,” he said. “It’s like someone coming round to your house and renaming it. We don’t want it called Evergreen Field, because it’s not even green.”

A house which was knocked down on the land in the 1960s was called Evergreen Lodge, and the name became popular in the 1990s after the land was sold by the Metropolitan Police.

If you’re wondering if the screens are hiding something, a quick walk up into the park reveals that there’s nothing actually going on there. So all theories are welcome, either in the comments below or on WansteadTalk.com.

Wansteadium reader Matt Keen writes:

“On a run round the Ornamental waters [at the weekend] I rounded a corner to be confronted by this little fella. Actually I say little, but the terrapins I remember from being a kid weren’t this big! Not sure how common they are but I thought you might like a couple of pics for the site. PS. iPhone case was the only thing to hand to give it scale.

 

Our man with a long wave radio and earpiece writes that it was a squelchy weekend for Wanstead cricket, but adds:

Wanstead’s player of the weekend was Mohammed Shehriyar, who starred in the 3rd XI win over Ilford on Saturday and followed this up with even more runs and wickets as the Under 16 boys won their Matchplay game against Basildon. Buckhurst Hill humbled the Herons’ 4th XI. The 1st, 2nd and 6th XI league fixtures simply succumbed to the rain. Sunday also saw a fine performance by Wanstead Under 13s against spirited opposition Newham.”

(PS. Thank you Robespierre on Wanstead Talk for your thoughts about how interesting cricket is.)