Where: Valencia
When: Thursday 8 – Monday 12th April
Cricket: 3 matches v Levante CC
Cost: £320 per player to include all cricket costs, airport transfer on team bus, 4 nts hotel B&B based on shared room, post-match party on Friday. (Single family room prices on request.) Ability to extend stay at club rate. Flights not included. *
A dozen players have expressed an interest in this tour so far. If you have not yet done so , please think about it.
Touring with the Cryptics – why you should consider it!
Surely, we will be able to able to Tour next April!
We have to hope and for that reason we are going full steam ahead with the planning – but will not be over committing the money until nearer the time. But, we do need to know we are viable and are not wasting the time of our new friends in Valencia who are sorting out the practicalities their end.
Why tour with the Cryptics?
Well, the Cryptics have a long and venerable history of touring Europe (and, of course, further afield). The Cryptics tour the way they play cricket: properly. The modern European tours (the Club went to the British Army of the Rhine in 1922!) started in 2002, to Alfas, Spain
My first European Tour was in 2006 since then, there have been nine tours. I actually played my first game for the Club on Tour and like others since was impressed with both the company and the cricket and just played some more. We went to Magaluf and played on a rolled sand pitch which has since become a supermarket carpark (shame). In the first game, I played with one of the best cricketers I have played with and on the first evening, I was introduced as a visiting professor of geography to a group of Belfast geography students with their lecturer by the grandson of one of the Founders (who later struggled to find his way to the hotel less than 100 metres away despite using a taxi!). Friends were made quickly, all centred round the main reason for us being together: cricket.
On that Tour there was one family, and a few older players, some at their prime and some younger players. I had toured with sports clubs before and the non-sport element was generally a one-size fits all affair. I was impressed that on all Cryptics tours there has been a strong sense of camaraderie, some important group occasions but no sense that you had to enjoy yourself in one way. I have been to Alfas four times but have never been to Benidorm – others have found the time: I have never been to bed before midnight but others have turned in well before. The mix of people we like to see on tour means there are plenty of ways to while away the hours before the next game, always in the company whose conversation will not be far away from the game last played.
Valencia
We have not toured here before so it will be new for all of us. The city has a cultural heart so should provide the variety of attractions we will need. Have you ever wanted to play cricket at Fenway Park? Well, this could be the nearest you get. Levante CC share their ground with the local baseball team (those of you have toured Corfu, as we have, may find this a better option than a car park!) which means the grass looks to be in good nick. We will have competitive games on three days, one will be a standard limited overs game and the other two will be a minimum of 20 overs a side (depending on when the baseball finishes!). We expect the club to put out competitive sides on all days (as Sporting Alfas do), but there is always the chance that one of the games may be against another touring side. You will doubtless enjoy the cricket.
Nick Hodgson
*The aim would be for most people to arrive at around the same time for ease of transfer. At the moment Easy Jet from Gatwick are indicating flights would be around £50 out and between £20 and £100 (depending on time of flight) returning.