With the 2023 season coming to an end on a hot, sunny day last Sunday it's time to reflect on another successful season for the cricket section at Standard Athletic. The club has played in approximately 30 games of cricket this year, including two trips overseas. Back in February the team jetted off to Spain and hopped over the Channel to take on 3 teams for their annual trip to Kent. In addition to regular weekend games against teams from Ile de France, Kensington CC were welcomed to Meudon at the beginning of May and Valenciennes arrived from close to the Belgium border in September. With a 3-0 victory over Thoiry CC in the John Shield as well as a home-and-away triumphs against rivals Chantilly, there was even time to include a record-breaking attempt at fielding 11 players from each of the 12 ICC-full member nations, a photo of which is included in the main article of all four full final match reports. Special thanks must go out to members of the SACC committee - Rich Parkin, Andrew Jackson, Niseem Burkule, Andrew Macintyre, Chris Mccarthy, Henry Colburn and Shaunak Knot - whose hard work and dedication to the section have resulted in another successful cricketing season at Standard Athletic Club!!
An occasionally damp or very damp weekend at Belle Dune golf course (Baie de Somme) was much enjoyed by 21 golfers and some 7 non-golfers. The course proved very difficult, as some of us already knew, but some at least of the usual suspects came good on the day, as the results below show.
The Irish Trophy for the best Gross was won by John McCallum with 16 Stableford points and the Kiwi Cup for the best Net went to Ian Jones with 34 points.
The Men had 2 Series: the 2nd Series was led by Ian Jones (34) and David Colson (29) and the 3rd Series featured Claude Jacques and Jean-Charles Saden.
For the Ladies, Muriel Jones won with 33 points, followed by Monica Greenwood, Corine Balleyguier and Grainne Keating tied for 2nd place with 26.
On Saturday there was a 3-person Scramble won by Corine Balleyguier, F.Thiriet, J. McCallum with a gross 74 (45 stableford), closely followed by Pearse Keating, David Colson, J.Greenwood with 74 gross, and 43.
We regret to inform you that John RELLAND, a long-time club member, passed away last weekend aged 86.
We had the season's opening Individual Tournament on the afternoon of Tuesday 19 September.
2 players tied for 1st place in the overall ranking: Nicole Devaux and Raphael Guenoun; 3rd overall came Monica Greenwood. You will find all the results attached to the main article.
The Henri Natanson Cup, awarded for the best performance over the whole season, was won by Ghislaine Dubau.
The next tournaments will again be on Tuesdays - these are the provisional dates: 24 Oct, 14 Nov, 12 Dec.
Thanks also to Taha Habi and Isabelle Isabelle Szczepanski, now in charge of Bar & Restaurant who kindly came along to help with the cocktail in the absence of the staff.
On Saturday the SACC will be attempting a record of fielding one team made up of players from each of the 12 official Test match-playing nations - the Nationals Team.
On Sunday the match will be the third and final John Hardy Shield game against Thoiry. (Though the outcome will not change the fact that the SACC have already won their two games to take the Shield this year.)
Four official WhatsApp groups to join:
1) Absolute Beginner - Administrator: Georgina
2) Medium to Fun level - Any day of the week - Administrators: Georgina, Maxime
3) Good level - Play any day - Administrator: Maxime
4) Play now - Administrators: Georgina, Maxime
Join any of these groups by writing to
Simon Marrison and Jean Meillassoux are relaunching Team 2 Squash.
If you want to know more about this send Simon a message on .
Douglas died on Wednesday 2 August at La Chapelle-Montligeon (Orne) after a short illness and will be buried next Tuesday 8 August.
He was an active member of the Club in the 1970s, playing cricket and more importantly hockey.
Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Anne.
Format: 40 overs
Standard welcomed the Kerala Tuskers for their second game of the season. Kerala Tuskers won the toss and chose to bat first, with the top order playing fluently to reach 190 at the 25-over mark for the loss of four wickets. From here on in, SACC fluffed chances in the field with some careless catching and only had themselves to blame as the Tuskers ended proceedings on 333 for 6 wickets.
After the interval, the home team got off to the worst start possible, losing opener Dilip with just 11 runs on the board. With Jon Taylor arriving at the crease, he and Henry put on a partnership of 83 runs before the latter edged to fly-slip for 22. This brought Jack Hardy (son of John), to the crease but with Jon T returning to the pavilion soon after for 48, things were looking ominous. Thodi and Jack (bravely playing with a nasty dislocated shoulder) together put on a fantastic 128-run partnership to near the score. After Jack's departure for 47, Shivang joined Thodi in the middle before taking it to the opposition with some devastating boundary hitting. Unfortunately, despite some real fireworks at the end during which Thodi brought up his century, SACC would eventually fall frustratingly 10 runs short of victory.
The result – a 10-run victory for Kerala Tuskers CC
(Read on for more details...)
This Saturday there's the 3rd leg of the John Hardy Shield against Thoiry (which the SACC has already retained!)
Saturday, 8 July 2023, SACC vs. Chantilly (35 overs)
SACC was looking to repeat June's away win against them at home. Chantilly, having won the toss and electing to bat could only muster 103 runs off 22 overs. In reply, Standard eased home to victory with 7 overs to spare. The result – a 7-over victory for Standard Athletic CC
Sunday, 9 July 2023, SACC vs Embassy CC (35 overs)
Embassy CC won the toss and elected to bat, and managed to score 167 for 8 off their allotted overs. In reply, SACC began the run chase badly being 4 wickets down for just 33 runs before a partnership between Sandy and Alex steadied the ship and took them to victory in the 30th over. The result – a 5-wicket victory for Standard Athletic CC
Sunday, 16 July 2023, SACC vs St. Brice (40 overs)
Batting first, the St. Brice team posted a mammoth 282 runs off their allotted overs. In response, a much-changed SACC batting line-up could only muster 131 runs in return, with Anser top scoring with 30 runs. The result – a 151-run victory for St. Brice
Hopefully, things will fare better for Standard and their players in this Saturday’s fixture against the Kerala Tuskers.
SACC opened the final part of the cricket season with matches against Valenciennes CC on Saturday and Lisses CC on Sunday.
On Saturday Valenciennes were set 235 for their 35 over and unfortunately for the SACC, they made it 2 overs and with 3 wickets to spare. Oh, woe!
On Sunday, SACC made 228 for 8 in their 35 overs, but again, Lisses managed to chase down that score with 2 overs to spare. Woe, again!
Read the main article for fuller details.
An Asian hornets' nest over the back staircase door was eradicated this week.
(Please see the main article for full details and some photos of Matthieu Bize, the anti-wasp specialist, in action)
SACC batted first in this 40-over match. Shivang was the standout performer, smashing a quickfire 79 runs off just 53 balls, including 11 fours and 3 sixes. Dilip, in partnership with Shivang, made 71 runs off 71 balls, with 10 fours. Other notable contributions were made by Gurudev (60 runs off 44 deliveries - 7 fours) and Anser (35 runs off 20 balls, 4 fours and 2 sixes). SACC concluded their innings on 313 runs for 6 wickets.
In pursuit, Thoiry CC struggled. Suresh played an outstanding innings at number 8 scoring 104 runs off just 51 balls (8 fours and 9 sixes). Unfortunately for them, the rest of their batters fell regularly to the SACC bowling and fielding. Thoiry CC's innings came to an end for 262 runs, 51 runs short of the target.
SACC celebrated a second consecutive victory and reclaimed the JH Shield for the third year running!
The result – a 51-run victory for Standard Athletic CC
The final match of the series, now a dead rubber, will be played on Saturday 29 July.
(More details in the main article)
Andrew Jackson in full SACC uniform and youngest son (with Army Air Corps doing steward duty for this test) at Lords for the second England vs Australia test - hoping for a better showing from the England side! Click here for a pic.
Junior Football coaching restarted after the break at 3 pm on Saturday 11 November. (Preparing for a match at home against the British School on Saturday 9 December.)
The new Junior Football coaching season will start this Saturday 16 September, at the exceptionally early time of 9.15.
Last Sunday SAC and Thoiry played the opening 35-over game of the John Hardy Shield, with SAC looking to retain the trophy for the third year in succession.
SAC won the toss and elected to field, and, despite the heat, the SAC bowlers and fielders restricted the Thoiry run-rate by taking wickets at regular intervals, and at the end of the innings Thoiry finished on 182-9.
Despite losing an early wicket, SAC were soon in charge of the game, posting an 89-run partnership for the second wicket, and racing to 94-2 after 12 overs. As the Thoiry bowlers and fielders wilted in the blazing heat, SAC took full advantage, racing to an 8-wicket victory, with Jon Taylor unbeaten on 103 and Alex Cathrop 32 not out.
SAC will be looking to take this form into next week's second match and clinch the John Hardy Shield once again!
(More details in the main article)
Both pools are now open.
Please remember:
- No food, drink or smoking in the pool area
- Children under 12 must not be left unaccompanied by the pool
...and don't go outside the pool area in bare feet and please cover your swimming costumes.
The next coaching session will be on Friday 26 April at 6.30 pm, with Shaunak Khot.
(Same evening as TGI - Friday)
If you are interested in these coaching sessions one Friday a month and have not yet signed up, contact .
Feel free to give it a go, it could be your big break!
The large handmade snooker marker board has needed some serious refurbishment for quite a time.
Our friend Ben from the Embassy graciously offered to remount a new set of beautiful copper markers, clean the glass and wax the wood.
The snooker scoreboard has now been fixed and is back in its place.
Many thanks to Ben for this!
See the main article for some before and after pictures.
