Well, my backyard is actually about 3/4 of an acre. It's almost perfectly square, and we play smack-bang in the middle, but we play with the stumps near the back fence, so as to avoid us hitting shots too far behind the wicket cos it's exhausting enough playing one-on-one. That and we used to use the dilapidated barn (which has now fallen down) behind as a 3 slips AND 3 leg slips cordon. Great games have been had there. 1997 WC Semi Final. South Africa (My cousin John) v Australia (Me). South Africa need 18 off 9 balls. Richardson skies the ball, and as he's coming back for his second run, the ball drops onto the stumps at the striker's end and bowls him. "BOWLED! PLAYED ON!" I scream, and after much protest, I argue that it's just like edging it on and he agrees. I end up winning for about the fifth time ever in our 12 years of playing together. But then again, it's two games a year at the most. We don't see each other very often.
But, back to the description. There's a slight incline just before the bowler's end stumps, so the Ashes bowling lineups read: Warne, MacGill, McGrath, Symonds, Hauritz versus Gough, White, Giles, Croft, Batty. Now that we're both 18 (well come May), it's not unusual for an average of 24 runs to be scored an over. We used to play breaking the Catholic Church window next door was an automatic century and out (we had Catholic hatred bred into us by our pop...no offence), but then our mate bought the church cos nobody turned up to the church. Can you blame them for selling it? Five people at a service. There's only 60 people in the village! Haven't had many games lately, and the field doubles as a pitch 'n' putt course and free-kick practice area. Pitch is in bad condition, but once we get a pump for our bore, we can start watering the lawn again and I'll create a ripper of a pitch if anyone turns up for a game. Fortunately, we just got a new fence, so no balls through the fence anymore.
