Rob Sharp freely admits that his French isn’t very good.

But that won’t stop him from heading over to Paris in the early part of September for a two-day cricket tour.

He’ll be part of a touring party of around 16 made up of players from Gotherington and Woodmancote cricket clubs and, as you’d expect, he’s very much looking forward to the trip.

It’s fair to say that the French and cricket are not natural bedfellows but the sport is played in small pockets of the country and it certainly shouldn’t be confused with the game of French Cricket where a batsman makes a stance with the bat held vertically in front of the legs and is out when he is caught or when the ball hits his legs!

And although cricket is not big in France it should be pointed out that way back in 1900 the country did have a cricket team that played in the Olympics.

“We’re playing two games against Standard Athletic Club of Paris,” explained Sharp, who has opened the batting for Gotherington for many years. “They are primarily a country club and they’ve got a cricket team as well as a whole range of other sports.

“Quite a few from the OECD play for them. They’re an eclectic mix. They’ve got players from Sri Lanka and India and their captain is a Kiwi.”

The touring party will head over to Paris on Friday 7th September before playing a couple of matches on the Saturday and Sunday.

So how did the trip come about?

“The contact was through Woodmancote’s Paul Goring,” explained Sharp. “They toured over here last year and were playing Woodmancote on the Sunday and Monday and we were their warm-up game on the Saturday.

“We normally play on Sundays so it wasn’t easy getting a Saturday side and I apologised to them before the start because I didn’t think we were very strong.

“But we somehow managed to beat them and they kindly invited us back this year.”

While the tour has all been finalised, the one thing that has not been decided is what name the tourists will travel under when they hop over the channel.

“If we can’t agree we might just call ourselves North Cotswold Strollers, which was Paul Goring’s suggestion and that has a nice ring to it,” said Sharp.