Victory, but at a Cost

I've had two games of cricket this weekend, but only played in one!

All went well yesterday, where we played Ellerslie IV at our home ground. We had beaten them away, in the match I won with the bat in a nervy finish. Yesterday, they only turned up with 9 players - like us, the Test Match at Trent Bridge had lured away a large number of players, but we had a full 11 and we were determined to use them.

We won the toss, our rather our junior vice captain did, and it enabled us to bowl first. I lurked around for the first half, I tend not to bowl with the new ball these days to let our juniors have a go. We started strongly, not conceding many runs, and neither did yours truly here, taking 2 for 17 off 9 overs.

But me oh my, the humidity! It wasn't sunny, it was overcast and heavy, but the effort of bowling left sweat pouring off us, although how the opposition's top scorer, an enormous Billy Bunter of a fellow, felt is anyone's guess.

We kept them to 102 for 6, which felt a little ominous, and sure enough, it was. We struggled again, just like we did last week, but one of our junior players who having had a fine day with the ball, won the match for us withe the bat.

A major issue of note. Our experienced keeper had his 72nd birthday yesterday, and his son and grandson both played too, making it a mega family day!

All three of our teams won, prompting some of the skippers to launch into a poetry festival entirely worthy of William Topaz McGonagall, or the poem by Wordsworth where he speaketh of his pond;

"I've measured it, from side to side
Tis three feet long and two feet wide".

Such poetry would be welcome now, as I struggle with pretty agonising back spasms which entirely ruined my match today. All I did was reach into a plastic bag.  How I managed to field for two hours today is beyond me, I couldn't bowl or bat! SAdly we didn't beat them, as we don't like them very much, but we hit some big old sixes!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.07.17