The club was founded by journalists on the London Evening News in 1976 and now visits some of the most pleasant club and village grounds in the Home Counties. There are tours every year - to the Cotswolds in June, rural Derbyshire in early September, the delights of south-west France at the beginning of October, and other occasional destinations. All cricketers are welcome - you don’t have to be a journalist to join. Come and take a look inside...

London Theatres

Sunday June 28 at Pinkneys Green

Strollers lost by six wickets

Strollers 104
(24 overs; Addis 34, Oliver 21, Pittams 18)
London Theatres 106-4
(18.2 overs; Salvesen 2-28, Addis 1-1, Oliver 1-16)

At the end of a week where an oppressive blanket of heat wrapped around London and sent the mercury climbing to record heights (causing the cancellation of the midweek Juggernaut, no less), a mercifully cooler and breezier scene awaited the Strollers at their adopted Pinkneys Green "home".  Simon Brodbeck had rustled up new opposition in the form of London Theatres, a team originating in the West End. A small number of the team still work across the theatre landscape, including Dean Chisnall - who currently plays The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera.

Match manager James Dela Rue appointed himself skipper and supreme overLord, no doubt feeling confident in his charges after two thumping victories in the Cotswolds the previous weekend. His scouting efforts even extended to securing an overseas player - none other than Jono Addis, whose previous exploits for the club include the only two 200+scores in the club's history - both on this ground. He was summarily deported / left for family reasons (choose your preferred story) after the 2021 season and has been turning out for the Exiles in New Zealand.

After surveying the unique dimensions of the ground (a pitch very near one side of the block, which meant a very long boundary one side and a very short boundary the other), Dela Rue won the toss - the first responsibility of any Strollers skipper. Having pondered his options, and with his team down to ten due to a late injury withdrawal, he elected to bat and asked Addis and recent Bazball convert Jake Helsby to open. 

Helsby thrashed the second ball of the match through his favoured point region, then hit the next one straight up trying to clear the midwicket fence. Bazball indeed. Kevin Patterson joined Addis at the crease and battled hard to see off the opening bowlers on a dry pitch where the ball spat regularly off a length. 

Addis, meanwhile, looked like he'd been playing regularly (rather than having come from the depths of a Kiwi winter), hitting a number of boundaries before being bamboozled on 34 by a ball that jumped appreciably during an attempted pull. Five minutes later, he still hadn't worked out which part of the bat had actually made contact with the ball.

Brad Trebilcock's rapidly improving 2026 form deserted him at an inopportune time, and he was smartly caught without troubling the scorers.  Patterson, who had successfully seen off the openers, was then undone by the very first ball from first change bowler Couzens.  

Glen Oliver, in at six, watchfully saw out the rest of the over before launching the first ball of the other first change bowler's spell over the road behind the ground.  Mike Pittams repeated the dose at the other end, and there was momentum. However, Oliver (having raced to 21) frustratingly got himself out yet again, which precipitated a good old fashioned Strollers collapse - the score going from 93-4 to 104 all out in just 24 overs. 

Most batters were quite blameless in the face of quality bowling and fielding and the tricky pitch (Chisnall proving as adept at first slip as he is with an audience as he snared two sharp catches). Captain Dela Rue stood tall at the end as the only unbeaten batter, with Couzens finishing with the exceptional figures of 5-17 off six overs.

Tea, provided courtesy of Simon, was taken while watching the Black Caps putting England to the sword. The highlight - apart from the egg sandwiches - was realising that James's captaincy had made so much of an impression that Jono was heard enquiring who the skipper actually was.

The London Theatres reply began at pace, with the openers deciding the best way to deal with the pitch was to swing hard at everything. The skipper copped some punishment in a short spell, but Tom Salvesen proved he's still a wily operator, with a number of changes of pace earning him two wickets.

Oliver, on at first change with a favourable wind, bowled Chisnall (rumours he would appear in a right-sided white half helmet sadly proving false). Unfortunately for Oliver, attempts to defend the modest total were somewhat hampered by many of his team appearing to have been watching too much of the World Cup football. Let's just say fielding with feet is not the Strollers' strong suit, and leave it at that.

Halfway through the innings, word filtered onto the pitch that the England & Wales Cricket Board had chosen mid-session mid-test to announce that Ben Stokes had decided to retire (followed next ball by Stokes taking a wicket). This piece of theatre, which would clearly befit our opponents, was not followed by any of the Strollers announcing their own retirements in the hope of also snaring a wicket, and the chances of a famous victory receded. 

With the scores tied and the Strollers needing a miracle, Dela Rue called on overseas pro Addis - who (rusty and with no warm-up whatsoever) bowled what was probably the best ball of his career, gently removing the off stump bail and causing wild scenes. Unfortunately, he couldn't follow it up with five more in the over (must try harder), and the Strollers finished well beaten by six wickets.

Having finished rather early, the Strollers shared drinks with the opposition in the evening sunshine and plotted a reverse at Peppard the following week.

Capt: James Dela Rue. Wkt: Jake Helsby.
Match fees: Alastair Macaulay. Match report: Glen Oliver.