Match day with the world’s only gay cricket club – photo essay | Cricket has no boundaries

Match day with the world’s only gay cricket club â€" photo essay | Cricket has no boundaries

Asad comes click-clacking up the narrow wooden staircase in his spikes and pulls on a helmet that turns out not to be his â€" he can’t get the chin strap done up. “Do I really need a helmet out there?” he asks, nodding towards the field, framed by the dormer window in a hot and airless changing room. Team-mate Stuart’s response is immediate and firm: “Definitely.” Stuart has already faced Merton’s pace attack and been bowled for five; by the time we get back downstairs for drinks, opening batsman Manish is proudly showing off a growing welt on his chin (he shunned the helmet) and a bloodied elbow.

This is Sunday afternoon cricket in south-west London: there are cheese-and-pickle sandwiches, quiches, and flasks of coffee. The smell of barbecues hangs in the air. At the long-off boundary a family flies a kite, its bright colours a match for the rainbow emblem on the shirts and caps of Grace’s Cricket Club, my hosts for the day and, as far as they know, the world’s first and only gay cricket club. It was formed in 1996 when a group of cricket fans began to gather at Central Station, a gay bar in Kings Cross, which continues to host the committee as well as club socials.

These days the team calls on players from across the capital, and today’s balmy weather boosts supporter numbers too â€" Augusto skipped a rainy match last weekend but is here in the sunshine, paperback in hand.

“What more can you want?” Stuart asks, squinting into the sun from the shade of the pavilion. “When you’ve got beautiful weather, just to get out there and hit the ball, and enjoy being with each other and having a good time.”

Not that Grace’s do not go in for competition. Although they currently arrange each outdoor season as a series of friendlies, they pride themselves on their record (a defeat at the end of May the one blot on their card so far this year) and have their sights set on a return to league action now that the playing squad is big enough to field two teams.

It’s a lot easier to walk into a club of like-minded people

“We all really do enjoy our cricket,” Stuart grins. Throughout the day there are updates from the ICC Champions Trophy meeting between India and South Africa, and conversations about Sri Lanka’s remarkable win over India earlier in the week. When Matthew, the club’s oldest member and its chairman (“I think they thought that’s all I was good for,” he says with a wink) trudges back to the changing room, he’s not happy. “You got out, did you?” Stuart asks gently. “Well,” Matthew says, “the umpire said I was out.”

Later in the season people are quite keenly looking at how they’re doing and what they need to do to get ahead

Despite Merton’s impressive attack, Grace’s post a respectable 218 off 40 overs. “Our tail is wagging!” Stuart shouts gleefully, slotting numbers into the scoreboard as the lower order batsmen poach singles with some fine running. They restrict the opposition to 143 when play resumes after tea.

The club’s competitive spirit is impressive. “We have stats every year,” says Stuart. “Later in the season people are quite keenly looking at how they’re doing and what they need to do to get ahead.” When Stuart’s father joined them as an umpire on a tour to Malta in 2016, Stuart suspects he arrived with low expectations. Instead he was sufficiently impressed to invite Grace’s to play on his patch in the East Midlands.

The overseas trip proved to be a bonding experience on and off the field, and the team flourished in the season that followed; this spring they travelled to La Manga and faced Spanish internationals.

Fundamental to the club is its place as a safe space for cricket fans and players who might otherwise feel excluded from the sport. The squad is international â€" with players from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the UK â€" and there are various reasons why being open about their sexuality in other parts of their lives and with other groups of people might not be possible. Manish recalls appearing in a television interview about the club five or six years ago and fretting that it could be broadcast in India, where his father might see it.

“I wasn’t out then,” he says, standing next to his partner Anthony, who is doling out snacks from a cool box. Encouraged by Manish’s impish grin, I ask if things are different now. “Yeah, I told him,” he says. “He’s been really supportive.”

We’re very sensitive about each other’s outness (or not)

Not everyone can say the same, though, and that is why a club that continues to fly the flag, literally and metaphorically, remains as important now as it was in the mid-1990s. “It’s a lot easier to walk into a club of like-minded people,” says Stuart, who has been a member for five years and is now vice-captain. “There’s no strain about what might be someone else’s reaction. We’re very sensitive about each other’s outness (or not). This is a place where you’re safe and no one’s going to be outing you in public.” For a significant portion of members cricket only exists in their lives through this club.

Support and acceptance from opposing teams is also important; most teams in this neck of the woods know of the club, and have never shown any reluctance to play, or been unfriendly. The teams split the cost of tea â€" here in Merton it’s an excellent spread, with rows of mugs of hot tea waiting alongside sandwiches, nibbles, and cakes â€" and always chat over drinks at the end of the day. “Sometimes, when the matter of sexuality comes up, there’s actually a great deal of curiosity,” Stuart says. “It’s all really good-natured; it helps educate everybody.”

The squad has grown by five or six players over the past 18 months, the newest recruit being Australian Neil â€" he is straight but, after finding Grace’s online, was encouraged to join the club by his fiancée. We chat about the ongoing political wrangling over marriage equality in his home nation, which contributed to his decision to join Grace’s. “These guys just want to play cricket,” he says, before strolling out to bat at No 3. His poise at the crease and wonderful timing â€" Neil used to play “semi-seriously” in his teens â€" is as welcome as his attitude.

Where the club is still looking to grow is in welcoming a broader spectrum of players: Grace’s is an LGBT organisation, but “we’re a bit heavy on the Gs”, says Stuart. There are no female members, for instance, but the committee has talked about a recruitment campaign later this year. “We come in all shapes and sizes,” Stuart says. “It’s great to have a place where you can just be yourself, and grow into whoever you need to be.”

NatWest has supported cricket, the game for all, since 1981. NatWest are proud to be the principal partner of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the official partner of Chance to Shine, reflecting the bank’s own values and commitment to fairness and inclusion.

To find out more, visit natwest.com/noboundaries

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