Start with the conditions in front of you

Long before the first ball, have a rough idea of how your opening overs will look. Is the outfield heavy after Friday's rain? Has the square baked hard all week? On most village grounds those two questions shape your field more than any textbook diagram. A damp, slow strip with long grass at third man rewards patience far more than a ring of close catchers. A dry surface with a short boundary downwind might tempt you into an attacking field from the very first over.

Walk the pitch while the opposition warm up. Look for a green tinge, bare patches at the ends, a worn area where the ball has landed for years. Then look at your attack. A steady line-and-length seamer can hold a catching field because he will hit the top of off stump. A bowler who sprays it needs protection for the bad ball as much as the good one.

• Green and damp: two slips, a gully, a catching midwicket, and short leg if the bounce is true.
• Dry and flat: men back on the boundary, making the batsman work for every run.
• Slow and low: a leg-side sweeper, third man up, because the ball will not carry.

Fields for your opening seamers

With a new ball the aim is simple: make the batsman play at balls he would rather leave. That means at least one slip and a gully for the thick edge. If your bowler moves it away from the right-hander, a wide third man is wasted — you want the edge to carry to slip, not to a man ten yards from the rope.

Positions I use most in the first ten overs:

• Slip and second slip for the bowler who hits the seam consistently.
• Gully squarer than you think, three or four yards behind the line of the stumps.
• Short midwicket for the bowler who angles it in and cramps the drive.
• Mid-off up to cut off the single and invite the drive.

When the ball swings, widen your slip and add a second gully. Swing early means edges, and club edges in the first hour are rarely held by a man standing too close to the stumps.

Changing the angle when the ball stops moving

Once the shine goes and the pitch settles, the field must change with it. Captains lose games here without realising: they leave an attacking field in place while the ball stops doing anything, and the batsman cashes in through the gaps.

Bring on your first-change bowler and set a field that says "earn every run." A sweeper on the off side, a deep midwicket, and a man on the square-leg boundary give you control. Then attack with the bowler who bowls in-swing or cutters, using a catching midwicket, a short cover, and a leg slip if the ball is skidding on.

Watch where the batsman scores. If he keeps punching through cover, put a sweeper there and drop your mid-off deeper. If he plays the pull, send a man back to deep square leg and bowl fuller. Your field should answer the shot he just played, not the shot you expected at the toss.

Setting a field for spin on a worn deck

Village spinners rarely turn it square, but they do get drift, dip and bounce that unsettle batsmen who have barely faced spin since school. Set your field around the turn rather than fighting it. For a right-arm off-spinner to a right-hander, that means a slip, a short leg, a leg gully, and a man at deep midwicket protecting the slog.

• Slip and short leg: essential when the pitch is turning and bouncing.
• Mid-off up: tempts the drive against the spin.
• Deep midwicket and long-on: cut off the big shot and force the batsman to run twos.
• Point and cover: stop the cut and late cut, the shots that release pressure.

Left-arm spinners should have deep cover and a leg-side sweeper. Change the field at the start of every over and vary it between the ends. A batsman re-reading the field each over is thinking about something other than hitting the ball.

Adapting through the innings

Fields are not fixed for fifty overs, or even for one. Think in phases.

• First ten overs: catchers in, keeper up if the pitch is slow, protection for the cut.
• Middle overs: squeeze the singles, sweeper out, one catcher in front of square.
• Last eight overs: boundary riders at deep midwicket, long-on, long-off and third man, with one man in the ring to stop the single.

Keep one fielder you can move within an over — usually mid-off or point — and use him to talk to the bowler between balls. When your quickest bowler is on a hat-trick and a young batsman is on strike, bring everyone in and make it uncomfortable. When a batsman is on ninety and your best bowler is tired, keep a sweeper and trust the plan.

Small things that win village matches

The best fields in grassroots cricket are not the cleverest ones. They are the ones where every fielder knows why he is standing there. Tell your gully to expect the edge, not the cut. Tell your deep midwicket to start two yards finer than feels natural. Tell your square leg to talk to the keeper every ball.

Slow the game down when you change the field. Walk across, point at the spot, and let the batsman see you doing it. A field change in the middle of a tight over says more than a dozen team talks. And when a batsman finally skies one to the man you placed three overs ago, be the first to congratulate that fielder — it is what makes him want to stand there again next week.