Great Tew Cricket Club
A summer weekend cricket ground on Ledwell Road, ringed by honey-coloured stone and open country.
A summer weekend cricket ground on Ledwell Road, ringed by honey-coloured stone and open country.
Some of our favourite afternoons here don't involve much of anything at all. The ground that Great & Little Tew share sits on Ledwell Road, on a low ridge with long views in every direction, barely a mile from the cottage. When there's a match on, we'll pack a flask or a couple of cold cans, stroll over, and find a spot on the grass by the boundary. Nobody checks a ticket, nobody minds where you sit, and for a few hours the only thing that matters is the soft crack of bat on ball carrying across the outfield.
It is, we think, about as English as an afternoon gets: honey-coloured stone in the distance, the click of the scoreboard, a scatter of deckchairs and dogs, and the sort of unhurried applause that only village cricket produces. The club has been playing here for more than a century and fields several sides, from the first team down through the juniors, so on a good summer weekend the ground is rarely empty. You don't need to know a thing about the game to enjoy it. We usually don't. We just sit, watch the light stretch across the field, listen to the polite ripple of clapping when a wicket falls, and let the whole slow afternoon wash over us.
Village cricket is a seasonal pleasure, so a little timing helps. The season runs roughly from the back end of spring through to September, and the men's sides play their league fixtures on Saturdays, with midweek and junior matches dotted through the week too. Weekends are your best bet for finding play under way, and a warm, dry afternoon is worth waiting for. Because dates and start times shift week to week, we'd always glance at the club's fixtures before setting off rather than trust to luck. It's free to watch either way, so there's no harm in wandering over on the off-chance and seeing what's happening on the square.
Part of the charm is how little you need to bring. A blanket or a couple of folding chairs, something to drink, and a book for the quiet passages is about the whole kit. Here's roughly how we play it:
It pairs neatly with the rest of the village, too. You could walk the estate parkland first, browse the shops around The Great Tew Estate, then settle on the boundary for the afternoon. For more ideas on filling a slow day close to home, our guide to things to do in the area gathers the walks, villages and days out we send guests to most, and Soho Farmhouse is less than a mile away for a very different kind of afternoon.
“Honestly, I can't think of a more English afternoon. Wander to Great Tew, sit on the boundary with a cold drink, then finish up with a pint at the Falkland Arms.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.