15/11/09 The cricket captain of Britain, Uther Pensoupdragon, died, and as he apparently had no children, it was unsure who his successor should be. The cricketers consulted Merlin the magicial spin bowler, who told them that they should all go to Camulodunon and hold a contest; a willow bat had appeared stuck on a pub wall, and only the rightful captain could pull it off. This was done; every cricketer in Britain tried and failed to remove the bat. Finally a young colt, the adopted son of a rural cricketer called Ector, pulled it off easily. It turned out that this boy was Arthur, captain Uther's son by his tea lady Igraine. Uther could not acknowledge the boy because he had been conceived while Igraine was still married to her first husband – and thus officially was not Uther's. Merlin had taken the baby away to be brought up and taught in the nets and in the bar the true value of real ale... or so the legend goes.

22/2/09 More Pics from the day

12/12/08 Oddie's Pete Pearson has his 15 minutes of International infamy:
BBC Commentary from Chennai 1st Test India "0436 - England 241-6 Crowd update for you - a darn sight more Brits in the crowd today as far as I can tell, including what looks like Ryan Sidebottom's rather overweight twin. If you're over in Chennai and reading this, please get in touch!"

BBC Link

31/8/08 Dear Oddies:

We were lucky to have a partial family reunion in Tacoma, WA during the July 4th weekend. Here's a pic of five your U. S. Fan Club. You'll notice we're not drinking Lucozade, :-D

>From left: Tory, Me, Nicki, Mike (My youngest son, and Tory and Nicki's dad), and Jim (my eldest). Jim's sons, Scott and Andrew weren't able to come.
We had a great time that day at the Vintage Races at Pacific Raceway after watching the magnificent fireworks display over Puget sound the night before.

You might notice my t-shirt logo is slightly different than the others. After reminding the kids to be sure and bring their shirts, I forgot mine. I wasn't going to miss this chance to get this picture, so I bought a shirt, fabric paints, and brush at a local craft department, and painted my shirt. You might notice the round highlight on the ball is smaller. Hey, no big deal. I was a commercial artist for 34 years.

Hope the team's doing well this year..Lift one for us.

Jim Oddie

Unofficial Unauthorized President of the "Real Oddies" U. S. Fan Club

22/8/08 After waiting patiently three years, Tim on Thursday finally got his chance to play for Lashings at sunny Haverhill.

Playing with Lashings World XI , Tim got runs batting in partnership with Richie Richardson and a wicket! against Two-Counties division two side Haverhill.

What a star!

See the pictures here...

Scorecard

29/7/08 Spot the Oddies partying back to form!

Link to Gallery I

Gallery II

21/6/08 Our very own Scrawny Colt plays his colts cricket for Copdock. Check out their website:
www.copdockcc.hitssports.com and look under the heading "hat-trick hero". From one very proud Mum

"Hat-trick Hero Congratulations go to Stuart Ward who took a hatrick this evening for the Under 15 A team v Stowupland. Great work Stuart, well done...!!"

17/5/08 Following on from the yard short pitch for the Ardleigh evening game, two Oddies were standing at the pitch at Mile End, scratching their heads looking at the stumps. Elaine the tea lady walked by and asked them what they were doing. "We're supposed to measure the height of the stumps," said the first Oddie, "but we don't have a ruler." Elaine promptly plucked the stumps out the ground. The guys helped her lay down the stumps on the pitch. Elaine got a tape measure from her pocket, took a measurement and said, "twenty eight inches" and walked away. The second Oddie shook his head and laughed. "Isn't that just like a woman? We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"

28/4/08 A man is due in court today after a 12-hour stand-off on a pub roof.

The drama, during which firefighters had to hose down the person, unfolded at the Odd One Out home to the Real Oddies C.C. in Mersea Road, Colchester. read more...

1/5/07 The Real Oddies Fan Club has a new international member, seen in the photo (left). Our latest long-distance fan is the fittingly named Jim Oddie from Washington State, USA, who found the Oddies using google search terms "Odd Cricket Beer Deviant". Jim promptly ordered a 15th anniversary t-shirt via the website to proudly display his Oddieness to the max.

Jim wrote back a letter expressing his thanks plus he enclosed a reciprocal gift of a baseball in exchange for the cricket ball.

Read Jim's letter here.

22/6/07 West Bergholt 105 for 7 (George C 2-19, A Hitchen 3-21) bt Real Oddies 73 (George C 18) by 32 runs.

Amazingly the game went ahead as the rainy weather parted leaving the ground untouched. With no other cricket played over the weekend the Gazette splashed out and filled almost a whole page devoted to the 20/20 game with pictures of yours truly and Adam Crane steaming in. The media blitz before the Plate tie is certainly raising the profile of the Oddies in and around Colchester.

Click for larger picture.