The chairman of the Freiburg Nomads Cricket Club writes, "We are quite a small club and are always looking for new members to join us. We only play friendly games, but to a resonably good standard. Our members range from very skilled cricketers to just starting out, so anybody is wellcome."

Their website address is www.freiburg-nomads.de - Pay them a visit if you are interested in playing Cricket to a reasonably good level. They play all their home games at the Seapark stadium.

So if anybody is interested in becoming a member, either playing or social, they can email Freiburg Nomads at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

History of the Club:

The sound of leather on willow has been echoing around the Black Forest for longer than you would think. It started back in the mid-eighties when a group of ex-pats working at LITEF (an electronics company in Freiburg) decided that it would be a lark to play cricket. The details about when and where they came to this monumental decision are hazy, but one thing is certain - Yorkshireman Richard Marley and copious quantities of beer greatly influenced the chain of events!

With no equipment and no pitch, several guys (of whom, some had never played cricket before) decided it was a bloody good idea and set about convincing others and arranging for the appropriate kit to be brought over from the mother country. As most of the ex-pats at that time were members of the recently formed Freiburg Rugby Club, the obvious venue was the rugby pitch at Hugstetten - and so it began.

Sunday was the obvious choice to play, as not only were the shops shut, but you could nurse a hangover in the company of other equally sympathetic hangovers playing a sport that didn't involve much movement. The May and June Feiertage were also popular, but this was mainly due to the fact that most ex-pats didn't know what to do with themselves on a public holiday that isn't attached to a weekend (Bank Holiday Thursday! - it just doesn't sound right, does it?).

The abilities of the early combatants were mixed - some couldn't bat, others couldn't bowl and many could do neither, but fun was had and new skills were learned, such as searching for the ball, swatting the horseflies which plague the area and drinking beer with your wrong hand to leave your good hand free on the off chance that the ball came your way. Wickets were taken, catches were dropped and runs (although on the balmy, hot summer days, it would have been more appropriate to call them "walks"!) were scored.

 The first games, although competitive, were played in a relaxed atmosphere, but it soon became necessary to expand the very laws of the hallowed game. The self-explanatory "Six and Out" rule was introduced due to the small pitch, bordered on one side by a small stream and on the other by thick nettles and trees. Leaving the field for a "Quick Single", as in quick single fish, which due to the sad lack of sanitation facilities at Hugstetten usually involves a trip round behind the shed (Watch those nettles!), was only allowed between innings, when a wicket fell or when absolutely necessary. The "Leg Before Wicket" rule was simplified to apply only when the batsman had been at the crease for a decent length of time or was just extracting the Michael by standing in front of the stumps. In due course it was also expanded to get rid of flash gits who had been at the crease for much longer than a decent length of time.

The first venture to play another team took place in July 1988 and came about when Ray Austin (Yes, The Ray Austin of the Hallelujah Stompers!) arranged a match against the Pasadena Roof Light Ochestra, who were due to play at the Jazzhaus in Freiburg and are all cricket crazy! As the rugby pitch at Hugstetten is to small for an eleven-a-side match, Ray dropped some names and managed to procure the vast FT1844 Stadion, which meant only the weather could beat us. At 1pm, the Freiburg team had donned their whites, the local press were out in force and the sun was blazing when the news filtered through that due to inclement weather elsewhere the flight carrying the P.R.L.O. to Zürich Airport (or was it Basel?) had been delayed by over three hours and the match was off! The spirits were low, but fortunately the beer wasn't and we got over it. However it may have been different if we had known that it would be many years before we would have the opportunity to play another team.

At the end of the summer of 88, two of the original founding fathers, Dave Webb and Ian Farr, annouced that they would be leaving Freiburg for pastures new and so a testimonial was arranged. Dave captained the Gentlemen and Ian captained the Players - and those of you who know them will realise that it just couldn't have been the other way around!

The match (6-a-side) was played at Hugstetten, once more the whites were dusted off and it was such a success that everyone agreed that it had to become a regular event. It has. Just last night the date for the second Gentleman versus Players match was fixed for Saturday, 25th May 2002.

Although a few people outside LITEF had joined in, the bulk of the players still came from the original group of engineers and their successors, but as the marketplace slumped in the early nineties, many moved on and the number of games dropped dramatically. These were known as "The Doldrum Years", but not by anybody outside Freiburg.

In the mid-nineties, a revival was staged and some of the LITEF residue, Andy Holton , Clark Nicol & Steve Toghill , who had experienced the glory days (although they were very young then!) were joined by new faces, Nick Ketley , Jim Myers , Nick Procyk and the enthusiam was rekindled. The crack of leather on willow, accompanied by the plop of ball in stream and clink of bottle on bottle, once more resounded around Hugstetten.

In September 1997, over nine years since the cancellation of the P.R.L.O. match, we accepted an invitation from the Straßbourg Strollers to play a match at their home ground in Hüttenheim in the Alsace. The Strollers batted first and made 92 for 9 off the agreed 35 overs. A modest total and certainly not outwith the reach of the cricketing virgins from the Schwarzwald. However, it was not to be - the boundaries were nearly twice the distance of those at home, the pitch was flat causing the ball to bounce uniformly and the Strollers' bowlers could hit the wickets with the ball. Nik Potter, now of Haßloch Cosmopolitans fame, scored 21 runs as the rest all went cheaply for a meagre total of 50 runs. We had been stuffed, but the disappointment was nowhere near that of July 1988.

Thirsting for revenge, we returned to Hüttenheim on 16th May 1998 lead by Aussie Rob Edwards for the first (and sadly only time). The Strollers were 115 all out in 33.2 overs, a formidable total in comparison to our previous match, but with the fourth ball of the 29th over, Freiburg reached 116 and our deflowering was complete.

Another three matches were played in 1998 (once against Bern C.C. and twice again in Hüttenheim), but we could not return the hospitality as we were unable to obtain the use of a suitable playing field. The same was true in 1999 when we again played four matches (twice in Bern and twice against the Strollers in Hüttenheim). In 2000, due to a combination of weather and our continuing lack of a venue in Freiburg, we only played twice, although we did have a new opponent in the guise of Haßloch Cosmopolitans, courtesy of our ex-player Nik Potter.

However in 2000, the decision was made to join the Freiburg Rugby Club e.V. to form a Cricket Division which in addition to ensuring our continued use of the pitch in Hugstetten for practice would give us more leverage to approach the Freiburg City Bureaucracy regarding playing facilities with the backing of a registered club.

In the summer of 2001, we played our first match in Freiburg against the Freiburg C.C., although ironically the match took place on the pitch that they, and not us, had been allocated by the city fathers, and elected our first committee (Chairman: Steve Toghill , Match Secretary: Andy Holton & Treasurer: Tony West ). We have played many times with Sri-Lankan and Asian sub-continent players who formed Freiburg C.C. in 2000, as they have often strengthed our team for matches where we have been short of players and we continue to good relationship and healthy rivalry with them.

During the winter of 2001/2002, a sponsorship deal was arranged with O'Kellys Irish Pub, who are situated on Milchstraße in the city centre and at a meeting there on Sunday, 25th November 2001, a vote was held to decide on the team name. There were eight nominations in all and after Barons, Foxes, Taverners and Wanderers dropped out in the first round of voting, to be followed by Horseflies (a bitter reminder of the multiple bites endured over the years at Hugstetten) in the second and Buccaneers in the third - Nomads defeated Forresters in the final round and the Freiburg Nomads were christened.

And that is were the history stops and the future begins (Terribly clichéd! Sorry!).

In the close season, we have prepared by playing indoors at the Birklehof School in Hinterzarten and there are nine fixtures arranged for the Season 2002. We have new whites, new equipment and a web-site to record our future daring and deeds. So now it is up to our first captain, Clark Nicol , and vice-captain, Frank Augier, to lead us to glory.

http://www.freiburg-nomads.de