Time for a Shotgun Marriage

We had no official game today; instead the third teamers and some juniors not yet playing adult cricket on Saturdays took ourselves off to Sir John Starkey's ground at Southwell to play "an exhibition match."

Actually it was an intra club friendly played in a lovely setting, and a chance to enjoy a pressure free game of cricket, although as ever I still got nervous when I bowled and batted.

The two teams, picked by one of our cricketing families, were evenly matched but not even; we should have had the stronger  bowling attack, they the stronger batting.

Batting first, we had an ok start but we never really took real control of the innings. Batting down the order, but not at the usual submarine depths on a Saturday, I had a chance to explore the ground.

Built on the wealth of fruit growing - this is where the Bramley Apple was brought into being  and indeed the first tree still stands in the town - the facility now acts as a wedding venue and fed up with my life I went into the little wedding gazebo and married myself, or something.

Didn't bring our batting any acceleration but I  liked the flowers.

I did get out to bat today, and managed to score 16 not out and see us to 144 for 7 off 32 overs. It seemed like it might be enough at an excellent tea time.

It wasn't. The guy who scored 149 not out smacked my first ball for 4, and his girlfriend decided she was going to be better than him. My line was good, but length was a bit variable and despite getting some bounce, didn't do very well. Neither did the rest of us really, apart from an excellent spell by a ten year old who will be a superb bowler in years to come.

But it a lovely day. Shame my body ached so much at the end of it.

Si