First Team Gun for Hire

By some strange inter-dimensional quirk of circumstance and selection, I found myself playing for our first team today, in the nose bleeding heights of Division D where, you know, proper cricketers play rather than clumsy cretins like me who could get knocked over by a passing butterfly.

We were away playing Beeston and Toton Sycamore 1s, the well known BaTS against whose third team I have usually played in the last couple of years. The venue was described as "The Manor Ground" which sounded very grandiose to me, but as it turned out it is a public park and Toton Manor itself was destroyed a couple of hundred years ago.

You can see where it was, and information boards describe the excavation that took place a fair few years ago before Toton Manor was returned to its rest under a football pitch.

We batted first on what we thought was a soft, damp slow wicket. It turned out to be really difficult to bat on and no-one  could really get going - the ball occasionally bounced trampoline like and it was difficult for anyone to time the ball, hence a number of us got caught out, including me out for a duck popping up a catch to a ball from a spinner that seemed to go backwards when it pitched.

We only managed 95 all out. One of  us got 38 and without that we'd have been home  by 4pm.

Tea was the standard fair with the hens of Britain no doubt glad to see yet another plate of sandwiches made from their eggs. However, there were some nice Asian nibbles thrown in as well for a bit more spice.

Batting I was never worried about at this level; no-one thinks I can bat so a zero wasn't unexpected. As long as I didn't get hurt. The fielding however, I was much more worried about, and didn't want to let the skipper or the team down, especially in a tight game like this.

As it turned out, I was fine, having found recent success with my highly energetic if not necessarily being any good approach to fielding. We had them in early trouble too, 3 wickets down for less than 20. But with the wicket drying out with the sun and wind, it got easier to bat on.

Major difference between 1st team and other sides - it's a bit "chirpier" out there. There was a bit of sledging and chat going on from our senior first teamers, which is usual at this level I would think. I would just sound stupid if I did it, as I am too rubbish to back it up.

I did bowl however, a few overs and managed to have the odd experience of having two catches dropped off one ball. At this level, a ball fractionally short or wide gets hit for 4 though, and that happened a couple of times, but hey I didn't embarass myself out there.

And  now, I can return to the depths of lower teams, a deep sea sleeper shark that occasionally rises to the surface...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 25.08.19

Bringing you the Most Thrilling Action

It was bowls day at the green in the library gardens yesterday, and as afternoon turned to evening, the ladies and gents were out there with there score cards, bowl holders, and the new green and yellow jackets to go with the traditional white.

All very genteel and English, and very different with some of the street drinking and drug dealing that goes on the other side of the fence on some days.

I've never played, never. Not proper bowls on proper greens, with thoking great woods the size of cannoballs. Oh I've bouled on beaches, and petanqued clankily, and played in a friend's garden with carpet bowls, but I haven't done the real thing.

Nor will I ever. I'd feel like I was admitting I was old.

I do remember a time when it seemed very important to me however, and that is when I was a young child in Scotland, watching from the window of the house on Kilndale Terrace overlooking the bowls club where mum and I lived with granny and old Auntie Queen. Summers evenings I'd never be allowed to go out and play after a certain time, but the bowlers would appear as the evening went on, and play on seemingly till 11pm in the endless twilight of the Scottish summer.

I'd watch with my face pressed to the glass.

Only once did I ever go in the club, on some function night, and sat eating pea and pie next to their hallowed green as the folk went in and out of the pavilion - NO CHILDREN ALLOWED - chinking their glasses.

I wonder why I was there. I really can't remember at all. But seeing folk playing bowls always reminds me of this time of my life.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.07.16