Ruben's Cooking: Cricket teas and YouTube at seven

The Ferris family are discussing mac and cheese. Sam is captain of Scholes & Harley 2nd XI while his partner Steph does the teas with Ruben, their seven-year-old son who has his own cooking channel on YouTube.

Here at Cricket Yorkshire HQ, we decided, along with Yorkshire Tea, to add an award to our cricket teas competition to recognise the efforts of Ruben who helps prepare the food at his club and also serve it.

In fact, he wants to cook for people who can’t necessarily afford it themselves so he’s recorded a few videos for The Community Fridge at The Cabin on King Street in Hoyland.

The charity saves food from landfill, donated by local supermarkets and food retailers. It is shared equally and fairly with the community for free, as they put it, ‘filling fridges, plates & bellies’.

Steph tells me Ruben is something of a local celebrity: “Ruben enjoys it when the players come and shake his hand. He’s had a few people point out that it’s been an amazing curry.”

Sam chips in at this point: “The fan favourite with our lads is the pork sandwiches with stuffing and roast goose fat tatties! We’ve had umpires take food home, haven’t we?”

For someone who has not yet reached his eighth birthday, Ruben is definitely not short of ambition. You only have to check out his channel to see everything from giant sausage rolls to chocolate torte to crispy chicken and creamy paprika sauce.

His parents tell me that he’s been asking them for weeks if he can learn sushi. Division 9 of the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League can expect some Japanese influences in future.

With Sam captaining, it’s a long day for Steph with three kids and it’s a credit to her juggling childcare, Ruben’s flourishing YouTube career (congrats on 100 subscribers) and prepping the cricket teas.

With Sam, we dive briefly into the rollercoaster that is captaining a cricket team, especially at second-team level with a smaller club of some 40-50 members where availability is often tight.

Though I no longer play, we swap notes on losing a key bowler or batter on a Friday up to the firsts that requires a dig into your phone’s address book and a favour or two.

Sam (above) says: “The ethos at the seconds is all about development. We’ve got three juniors that play that we’ve brought through. We’ve got lads who are just taking up cricket for the first time. Some of the older generation that are there to enjoy their cricket.”

All good captains lead from the front, as the Ferris family collectively are, with Sam heading up the club’s bowling figures with 36 wickets at an average of 22 to date.

He’s lucky to be playing at all really after breaking his collarbone in three places in a football match (at this point Ruben chips in: ‘Cos the guy jumped on you!’) An operation was required with a metal plate in his right shoulder.

“It was looking like I weren’t even gonna play this season. Luckily, I had a lot of support from Steph and the kids to help me to recover. Now, I’m pretty much bowling ten overs on a Saturday and eight overs on a Sunday.”

It’s very much a family affair with Steph filming Ruben presenting and cooking in the kitchen while he will explain later to the players what the dishes are. Sam’s mum and dad also help out with teas and coffees.

While Sam is hoping for more wins on the field, it’s clear that having the family together means a lot. Meanwhile, Steph is at the club for 10am to get underway with prep and won’t be done until the last ball has been bowled. She runs a tight ship where everything is clean and tidy.

Village cricket comes in all shapes and sizes but volunteers and the unstoppable drive of families is often a theme. Their deserved prize of 1,500 Yorkshire Tea teabags has arrived in their corner of South Yorkshire. The chef in the family has first dibs of course, as Ruben is apparently keen on a proper brew, according to Sam:

“We went to Cornwall last week and the amount of shocked faces when he ordered a cup of tea with his meals was surprising. Ruben loves a good cup of tea!”

At the time of the interview, the family were off to the coast for a well-deserved break having left a curry for the cricket club teas while they’re away. Sam was driving everyone to the beach then coming back to play in the away fixture against Elsecar 3rd XI before re-joining Steph, Ruben and the girls.

As for Ruben, cooking and cricket seem to have inspired him and with his parents’ support, that is building. He was even asked for an autograph in Tesco apparently. I ask him if he practices his autograph? ‘I just write my name’ is the beautifully logical response.

You can subscribe to his channel at @RubensCooking on YouTube and all the best to #TeamFerris for the rest of the season.

🫖 Thanks to Yorkshire Tea for their support in backing the cricket teas competition since the beginning, as we seek to champion volunteers during the season and tell their stories.

You can read about our Yorkshire Tea articles here on Cricket Yorkshire from the world of cricket teas and our monthly Community Awards.