Since time almost immemorial, the wives and girlfriends of batsmen and fielders in smaller Saturday and Sunday cricket leagues up and down the country have spent their weekend afternoons listening to the gentle “thock” of leather on willow and the occasional shout of “Howzat!” whilst buttering bread. They are preparing for one of the most important parts of any cricket match – the tea interval.
Cricketers' Favourite Tea Treats
A straw poll of amateur cricketers overwhelmingly favours a menu which includes assorted sandwiches, cocktail sausages on sticks, bowls of crisps, home made cakes, scones with cream and jam, jugs of squash (not fruit juice) and, of course, a bottomless pot of properly brewed tea with milk in a mug. None of that scented Early Grey type nonsense please!
The following menu ideas will help any new WAG of a cricketer produce the perfect English Cricket Tea. Bread can be white, brown or granary and it’s probably best to include a choice. Cakes are really best home made.
Best Cricket Tea Sandwiches
- Egg mayonnaise and cress. Allow one hard boiled egg per sandwich. Chop it finely and mix with a teaspoon of mayonnaise. Season well with salt and pepper, spread on a slice of bread, sprinkle cress on top, cover with the second slice of bread and cut into quarters.
- Salmon and cucumber. Traditionally, tinned salmon rather than smoked or fresh fish is used for this. To prepare the salmon, open the tin, remove any obvious bones, season well with pepper and salt and mash thoroughly with a fork. Top with thin slices of cucumber.
- Cheese and Tomato. Mature English Cheddar with thinly sliced tomato.
- Ham and mustard. Thick slices of baked ham with just a smidgeon of English mustard spread on the top
- Battenberg (sometimes Battenburg) cake is definitely a traditional favourite though the recipe is a bit fiddly. It involves baking two sponges, one uncoloured and the other coloured with a drop or two of red food colouring so it turns pink then cutting them into oblong shapes, sticking the shapes together with apricot jam then covering the lot with marzipan stuck down with more apricot jam. It is acceptable, and probably more efficient to provide a shop bought one.
- Scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream. These are the scones made using self raising flour rather than drop scones which are more like pancakes. They should definitely be home made.
- Victoria sponge with jam and cream in the middle. The lighter the sponge the better.
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