Kinoulton Fun

 Sunday saw me take a side out to play Kinoulton at their pleasant little ground down endless bumpy lanes going out towards the Leicestershire border. 

I was thinking we were going to be going in with an actual 11 players, but as it turned out we had two late drop outs, so I was left with 9. Ah, never mind, I thought. It was a nice day, we'll figure it out. 

After "winning the toss" - me basically being asked by the very pleasant Kinoulton co-captains if I wanted to bat first, I tried to sort out some kind of batting order and see what would unfold. 

Kinoulton had said they had a very young side, but it certainly wasn't as young as ours. But our opening bats, the youngest and oldest players on the team I think, made a fantastic start, and batted with great authority for the first 15 overs and getting a fine 50 partnership on the board. I umpired for the second half of this, while spending the first half filming a hummingbird hawk moth that was putting on a show feeding off the buddleias in the posh gardens overlooking the ground. 

It was after drinks when things started to go wrong. One of the Kinoulton skippers, wearing an Oasis bucket hat which I found myself wearing while he was bowling. 

Cue much terrible punnage - "Champagne Super-Over", "Wonderball", and most disgracefully "Well that's Definitely Maybe out" being said myself when I had to give our young opener out plumb LBW. 

He then castled two more of our bats, taking three wickets for no runs and leaving us without much more batting in the tank, or so I thought. However, a debutant played decided to go postal in the last few overs with some big hitting. 

His power was remarkable, given that he didn't seem to move until the ball was about a foot away from him, before he whipped his wrists through generating incredible bat speed. In partnership with a young players dad, he got us to 124 for 6, much to my joy as it meant I didn't have to bat. 

I was actually going to send out a couple of the young ones to bat again. 

So 124 didn't feel like enough, especially as the big slogger who wiped us out last year was playing. But our young opening bowlers made a good start, although one of them said "You can't catch anything" when I offered to field at slip. 

No respect from the younger ones for their skipper.

He didn't need any fielders, as he soon castled one of the Kinoulton openers with a beauty. But this meant the big slogger came in, and it was time to patrol the boundary. 

But as it happened, he never got away from us. Our young slow bowler had him totally baffled, and he walked up and down the wicket before having to play a little block, or push a gentle single. He eventually holed out to the debutant at the other end, caught by his own captain who was fielding for us, and who refused to celebrate. 

So, they weren't murdering us, but they were getting the runs at the required rate. Gave myself a little bowl, and it went well, bowing their opener who top scored with one that turned two feet out of a footmark and kept very low. 

Too bad in the 28th over I suddently dragged a couple down short to lose us the game. 

In the end though, it didn't matter, we had a great afternoon playing a great bunch of lads, and there was a well stocked bar to retire to after the game. So all was well with the world. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.07.25

One (or five) for the Road

 Last Saturday took us to Upton to take on Wollaton 4ths at Upton's beautiful ground. 

Now we are are very young team, 8 of us under 15 years old, with only the presence of myself, the Captain and a senior bat taking our average age above 13, as it seemed to me. We thought our opposition would be the same, but no, they turned out to be a bunch of very adult big biffers, albeit very nice big biffers. 

Knowing that if we batted first the game would be over in about half an hour, we agreed that Wollaton should bat first, and to be fair, our young bowlers made a good fist of things early on, on a blisteringly hot day where the most important fielding positions were those in the shade under the trees. It was so hot, even I ditched my usual Mr Miyagi headband for a cap as I patrolled my usual areas. 

To be fair to myself, I'm an ok ground fielder, just utterly hopeless at catching. Being reasonably fit, I also let the young ones field under the trees. 

We were doing ok until the last 10 overs, where a Wollaton big unit came out and decided to go big. Against our junior seam bowlers, he was reasonably contained, if you can call 10 an over contained. Against my off-spin, however, it was a different matter. 

I'd done no worse than anyone else until my last over. When this happened. 

Ball 1 - slightly too straight. Hit for 6, landed in a helmet in front of the pavilion. 

Ball 2 - On off stump. Fetched from out there and hit onto the road over the hedge at cow corner. Ball lost. 

Ball 3 - nearly bowled him through the gate. 

Ball 4 - went for 4 at cow corner. 

Ball 5 - Went wider in my approach. Hit straight back over my head for 6 into a haystack. Ball lost. 

Ball 6 - See above. 

Four overs for 61. I'm glad that before this game I decided to stop caring too much what happened to me. They ended up on 271 for 2. 

With no chance in a hail of hells of winning the game, we went out to bat and made a decent start. But with so many young kids against adult bowlers, we were always going to struggle. Muggins here did mange to hit a four to get us a batting point, before getting bowled attempting to hit a spinner to Nottingham.

So, a heavy defeat, but I actually enjoyed the game, and our young players should be given huge credit for the shifts they put in. They made it fun. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.07.25 

Proper Village Green Cricket

 Sunday saw us take a decent Sunday side over to Car Colston, a beautiful and nowadays very rare village green ground, with a pretty pavilion and an excellent pub on the other side of the ground.

As ever the first to arrive, I inspected the wicket to find a moss green mattress, on which I lost the toss and was put into field first.

Nominally, I was captain. However, I had the captains of the firsts, seconds and thirds in the team, and things soon turned into a herding cats exercise. 

We opened the bowling with talented youngsters, but our opponents made a fast start thanks to chonky bats that seemed to consist entirely of edges. We dod get one of the opening bats out, only to then face Flintham's Aussie overseas player, who hit some mighty bombs while I wondered what to do next. 

It wasn't all bad, as to be fair Car Colston had put up a proper village green 11 against us, comprising of a couple of a really good players, with some rustic hitters rounded up from the nearest pub. So it was kind of equal. Ish. 

I bowled a few overs - a rare thing these days - and even took a catch to much sarcastic cheering from my team-mates. Took two wickets, including the guy who made 50, and also a bearded bruiser who hit me into a hedge. 

When we batted, the wicket became rather up and down, and apart from our number 3 who cracked 86, we were always rather behind the 8 ball. Not helped by Car Csolton putting 9 men on the boundary for our gun bat, which just isn't cricket in my view. 

I did get a bat, but having spent the entire innings electronically scoring with a device that made me look like a drone pilot, I had to get ready in a hurry, and ended up facing four deliveries with no box in place. All of which I missed in a sense of self preservation. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.06.25

Finally, a Victory!

 I've not blogged every game, but if you read between the lines on my cricket posts, you can probably see a common theme about this season so far. 

Every game I've played I've been on the losing side, and none of them were close. I was 0 and 5 for 2025. 

Rather rubbish, really. 

So today, I took our Sunday team out to play Wellow, on their beautifully rustic ground above the dam fishing pond, and near the Maypole I attended the celebrations at last weekend. The facilities may not be up to much, but the setting is delightful.

After a bit of negotiating with our friend the Wellow skipper, it was decided that we would bat first, on a snooker table green wicket surrounded by a tangled outfield that the Wellow mower had broken down on with the job only a quarter done. 

As ever, I went out to umpire with six little stones collected from next to the pavilion, which gradually turned my hands black. Lawnmower oil. 

Against the two paciest, and best, Wellow bowlers, it was apparent very early that the wicket was going to be a naughty one, with the ball bouncing chest high one ball, skittering along the ground the next. But after our senior opener unluckily dragged one on that kept low, two young batsmen made a really good fist of watching the ball hard, playing sensibly, and seeing off these opening bowlers, and what came after, for fifteen overs when we took drinks. 

At this point, I risked unpopularity by telling them that they had now done their job, and done it brilliantly, but it was now time to push on. 54 off 15 overs is a little light in the context of a 30 over game, and we had some power hitting in the hutch.

To their great credit, they then upped the scoring rate, one of them making the highest score in his young life of 33, which set the platform for some power hitting later on by our middle order, one of whom blasted 50 in about 35 balls. Many a ball was lost to the unripe green stalks of the adjoining cornfield. 

We closed on 174 for 5, a brilliant team effort. 

Time now to bowl, and also time for a sharp shower after a couple of overs. Again, I was unsure about most of Wellow's batting line up, and they started with a former Notts ladies player who batted with great class. But our young pair who had batted so well were up to the challenge, and got her and the other opener early doors. 

One of Wellow's opening bowlers now came on to bat, after umpiring in his pads, and he looked like he could play a bit. But after hitting me for a boundary, I got one to bounce on his and he spooned it to cover. 

After a month, my first wicket this year, and it was their gun bat, and most welcome after the drubbing I took on Saturday. I was bowling well, pushing the ball through a bit, and I soon had another wicket to end up with 2 for 7. OK, they weren't as good as Saturday's bats, but I really needed that!

The serious damage, however, was done by our second team spinner at the other end, who got some sharp turn even bowling with a slippery ball - the cricket ball that is - and took 5 for 18. Much better than me!

So, I captained us to victory and got myself off the mark for the year. I think I handled things pretty well. I'm not very good at the actual game perhaps, but I do know a fair bit about it, and how to run a Sunday game. 

And lovely house martins flew over the ground too!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.06.25 

The Other Kind of Wildlife

 Saturday's cricket adventure took us out to play Trent Bridge CC, a new league club for this year, at the tank trap wicket at Farnborough Road Rec. 

Situated atop a Table Mountain like plateau, the wicket is well known to us as one of the worst in the county, and it already looked like nothing had changed before some of the local characters had ridden across it on moto-cross bikes while we got ready. 

Indeed, it seemed to be quite the Saturday meeting place for young families to get their young toddlers to go helmet-less quad biking around the park. Luckily they left the playing area alone when we got started, although we had some walkthroughs from local teenagers who gave us a mouthful when we respectfully asked them to get off the field. 

Our opposition was always going to be a mismatch, containing as it did several players who had moved from other clubs that played at a high standard, including a wicket keeper who played for Attenborough 2s last year, probably about ten divisions higher than us. Thus their decision to put us into bat, a mix of oldsters and 13 year olds playing their first league game, seemed an odd one. It basically prevented us getting anything out of the game for our young bowlers.

Perhaps they were worried about being run over by a three year old on a quad bike. 

Predictably, we were shot out for 43 on a wicket which alternated between bouncing shoulder high and ankle high, particularly at the end which the moto cross bikes had ridden over. I was pleased to score one run and bat for a few overs though. 

They then knocked the runs off in five overs, so no need for me to turn my arm over, although I dropped a stinging catch which I tried to go for one handed as my body got confused as to what to do. 

After the sun came out and began to scorch the earth after a freezing start, we left to take in some proper cricket at Burton Joyce with the first team, before going back home to watch the seconds. 

That was a lot of cricket for one day. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.05.25

Freezing in Upton

 Sunday took us to play Upton, our traditional friendly game season opener, and the fact that we were playing a great bunch of guys with a tea in the offing, was rather off-set by the fact that it "a bit chilly".

I lie. It was freezing, freezing cold. Upton's ground is high upon a Trent Valley plateau, and the wind swept in from the Arctic North over the ground. No chance of a buzzard or red kite flyover today. Or even getting in the ground, as Upton's keyholder was a bit late so cars were hogging the narrow lane the ground lies beside. 

Facing a strong Upton side with a keen, but very young, team of our own - it was me keeping the average age above 18 - it was agreed that Upton should bat first in a 35 over game. 

They did very well, but so did we. All five of our young players, two of them being young ladies making their debuts in senior hard ball cricket, did a fantastic job with bat and ball. They took wickets, kept things tight, and batted really well. 

It was myself that let the side down, bruised tailbone rendering me virtually immobile in the field, not helped by some kind of panic attack that made me lose my nerve and not want to field the ball I couldn't bend over to field anyway. I had to resort to fielding with my feet, resulting in some painful whacks on the ankle. 

My bowling suffered from being at two very good bats, both of whom wiped me to the boundary whenever I dropped a fraction short, which was ineptly too often. 

When we batted - we had no chance of winning but were out to acquit ourselves well - I found myself umpiring for twenty overs in the bitter cold, but at least got a chance to watch our youngsters bat really well in close up. Far better than I could, I got out first ball while falling over to a leg stump yorker. 

I wanted to put a bag over my head, and plugs in my ears to drown out the endless mickey taking by my older team-mates. 

I felt like I never wanted to play cricket again until tonight, when I had an ok net bowling. The feeling that there might be a golden day one day comes back. Ha ha. 

Luckily, these young players we have will have plenty of golden days. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.05.25

Cricket is Back

 Feeling low on confidence, it was finally time to return to the greensward to play for our second team against Coddington and Winthorpe at our home grown, on a day where when the sun was out it was pleasant, and when it wasn't it was freezing. 

Even the local buzzards stayed home most of the day, although a great tit was busy at its nest in a tree, and what sounded like a whitethroat was singing away. 

Playing way above my pay grade, and with a bruised lower back from a fall hampering my movement, it fell to me to go out to umpire. Our new opening bat rather eye-openingly hit his first ball for 6 with a lovely lazy flick over square leg, which gave me a chance to stretch my arms up and stay warm, but in the main it was a hard slog for out batters on a slightly up and down wicket against good accurate bowling. 

Getting the ball away was very difficult, and at 50 for 5 things were looking very dicey indeed. But our young all rounder partnered our older all rounder, and supported him well as he blasted a 50 against the support bowlers. 

The third team captain blasted a big 6 too. I thought I'd mention that so he lets me bowl in the next third team game. 

I did have a bat, as usual against the rampant returning opening bowler, but I managed to survive two whole deliveries without too much difficulty or physical injury and suggested to my batting partner that he should now take the bowling apart. 

He was caught out two balls later, but it was the right plan! 

We closed on 129, which at least was something to bowl at. Alas Coddington's batters were talented and experienced, and our bowlers were very young. Or very old and rubbish in my case. Or new player looked the part though with a sharp spell that removed one of the openers LBW, but otherwise in the sunshine now it seemed like a different wicket. 

I fielded ok by my lamentable standards, and I did get a bowl, which was unexpected. But I was too slow and a little short, and all I did was finish the game a little quicker. 

Still, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I wold, and it was good to be out there again. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.05.25 

An Old School Cricket Story

 Last Sunday we entertained our friends from Cropwell, a very nice bunch of lads who are big fans of bashing the ball hard and playing nice short 30 over games before retiring to the bar for a well earned couple of beers. 

Things were looking awkward for us as we only had nine players as we assembled at Kelham Road on a fine afternoon. However, a young lad, a major superfan and under 15s wicket keeper, was at the ground. He is desperate to play, but he is still "officially" too young to play senior hard ball cricket. 

However, things are slightly different on a Sunday, and on asking him if he fancied a game, and a quick call to get his kit driven over and for me to assure his family that Cropwell were a gentle team who had no bowlers who could kill him, he was in. 

I promptly lost the toss, and as feared, Cropwell decided to bat, where their big gun opening bat who has never failed to score 50 against us took to the middle, and with his partner, proceeded to wallop our bowling all over the park, with particular attention to the straight boundaries. 

I think they raised the 100 after about 11 overs. The chairman had a bowl, and finding no luck with his usual seam up stuff, decided to have a crack with his "sunday off spin" - actually googlies - but this resulted in more boundary peppering, although admittedly our fielding wasn't the best at times and we were a player down. The chief basher had got to his 50, but he was then replaced by another one.

Luckily, we had an old hand whose controlled medium pace I had decided was the right tactical move - that's one thing I've got right this year then - and he took three wickets with considerable skill. 

He knows exactly how quickly he is going to bowl, and exactly where the ball will land, which is entirely beyond my pay grade in this game. Our young guest, meanwhile, had taken over wicket keeping duties and was doing a stellar job, which augurs well for the third team next year, 

I had come on to bowl at this point, and was doing ok if not spectacularly, wickets, once again, evaded me, That was all happening at the other end, where the young second team opening bat was now proving highly effective with his rarely bowled off spin. 

Damn, they all make it look so easy.

So they closed on 199. 

Our innings did not start well, and we found ourselves in a very unwell looking position of about 40 for 5. However, the chairman, in conjunction with our young guest, proceeded to batter a fine 50 before the enforced retirement, a sort of "Sleep" in "Logan's Run" for batters in friendly games. 

The wicket by now was being rather tricky, so well done to them for scoring runs. It was very heartening for the young player's grandfather arrive in time to see him hook a head high beamer for four. 

I did get to have a little bat, I say little, I batted for 10 overs to score 13 not out. Lluckily for the watchers, the entertainment was coming from the other end. 

We lost, but it been all good fun.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.08.24

A Kinoulton Visit

 A drizzly Sunday saw us head out for Kinoulton, eleven intrepid players looking forward to the first Sunday game we'd managed to get on for a few weeks. 

Kinoulton is a well appointed ground with good facilities at the north edge of the village, and a car park that shrewder players realised was well within range of bigger hitters out in the middle. Cars were moved to more shielded spots. 

We batted first, with what looked a decent side on paper, in a thirty over game. After one ball, the leg stump fell over, and there long followed an amusingly farcical Spinal Tap moment, as first of all the hole was dug out with a teaspoon to try and remove a riotous bit of rock, before very large sticks were employed to pile drive the leg stump back into the ground with such force it was now a half inch shorter than the others. 

It's a friendly, no-one cares. 

Events started very positively for us, hardly surprising as we had the first and second team opening bats first up. It became evident very quickly that the outfield was as fast as treacle, and so our first team opening bat realised quickly that the key to fast scoring was going aerial. 

Which is how he hit his own car, although fortunately without damaging it. 

He retired on 50, no doubt setting his form up for the 131 he scored in the next first team game - who says Sunday cricket isn't important eh? 

When his partner got out for about 28, we were well set, but alas, things got a bit sticky from there on in and run prediction dried up as we ran out of power hitting, not helped by Kinoulton putting their most experienced bowlers on last. 

We closed on 120 for 7, defendable if we bowled well. Me, of course I hadn't batted, choosing instead to umpire and watch yet another cricket ground be visited by a red kite, and poking around the flowers at the edge of the ground. 

I won't ever change. 

The idea that our total was a good one was sadly dispelled in about 10 minutes, as one of Kinoulton's openers went absolutely mad and smashed 50 in about 25 balls, with the pavilion taking a fairly serious battering in the process. Even after he retired, we couldn't stem the runs, although I did take a wicket thanks to a great catch from my co-captain. 

However, we had an exciting mini finale when our youngest players, and the first team opening bat turned off spinner, made them work for eight overs for the last few runs. We were desperate for the young lad to get a wicket, sadly it was not to be. 

Yes a loss, but it was a really enjoyable game with a really nice bunch of Kinoulton lads, who were well worth a drink with after the game. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.08.24

Unexpected Heroics

 With a lot of players missing for Saturday's game at Upton against Thrumpton 2s, a big decision was to be made.

Who could captain the third team?

Who had the skill, fire, fight and tactical nous to take on the second in the league with a very young team, and get a result?

Er, that would be me. 

Having won the toss against the Thrumpton captain, who bore a resemblance to Dwalin from "The Rings of Power" I put Thrumpton into bat, knowing that bowling first offered our best chance to get as many points out of the game as possible.

Things did not start well against the powerful Thrumpton openers, with our young opening bowlers a little wayward, and they were scoring runs for fun as they have been doing all season. I was a bit at a loss, felt slightly out of control of things in the field, and kept forgetting everyone's names. 

Luckily, I soon settled down, and so did our next pair of bowlers, a very young seamer who has been taking a lot of wickets at junior level, and a guest player from Farndon who bowled some excellent leg spin, and they took three wickets between them. Add to this that there was some superb fielding going on resulting in a few runouts, and we were going well. 

"Everyone is doing fantastic" I would exhort ungrammatically. "Let's bowl them out!"

I even got a wicket myselfm caught at mid on. I actually bowled better than I thought, with figures of 1-23 despite getting a bit of tap from a big lower order hitter who got 41. 

We bowled them out for 160, which I'd take any day of the week. Maximum bowling points obtained. 

I did not anticipate us getting anywhere near, and so sent the opening bats out, one of whom was the guest leg spinner, with an initial target of 90 to get the first batting point. I had to go and umpire, of course. 

From that vantage point I had a great view of our opening bats make a good start against bowling that was a bit less rapid than in our previous game against Thrumpton. A rather massive 6 was hit, and there was a bit of over-excited chirp on the boundary concerning a bit of fielding where one of the Thrumpton chaps trod on the rope while picking the ball up. 

Dwalin the Thrumpton captain told me to get our players to cool it, so I did. 

Sadly we lost one of our openers with the score on about 50, and now things were going to be rather tricky as we had a section of young players in our batting order, so there was a bit of procession at one end.

Meanwhile, the leg spinner, 13 years old, was still out there, and joined by our experienced wicketkeeper began to score runs at a cracking pace. To see such match awareness in a 13 year old was totally new to me. When the keeper was out after having played really well in a supporting roll, he began to farm the strike with another batch of youngsters, while slamming the odd boundary.

Alas he then got a ball that stopped and bounced, and that was it. Game Set and Match.Out for 78.  But we had put up a tremendous fight in a game we had no right to even compete in, and I was very proud of my young side. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.07.24

Excitement in the Rain

 Saturday saw the third team,  now captained by The Man from Blidworth, head out to the lovely ground at Colston Basset to face Keyworth 3rds again. 

As ever early, I headed off into the gloom up the hill to photograph the ruins of St Mary's Church that overlook the venue and help make it so scenic. 

Well it would be scenic on a normal day, but the entirety of this match was played in what ranged from a misty drizzle to full on heavy rain; that we played the whole thing was remarkable.

We were surprised at being asked to bat first, as we had what on paper was a weak team and we thought this meant we were going to be skittled and the match be over in an hour. 

This was not the case, no sirree. Things started very slowly, with one of the Keyworth opening bowlers bowling seven overs for two runs, until one our first batter, having done an admirable job in seeing off these very good Keyworth bowlers, fell right at the end of the 14th over, at which point we had 15 runs on the board.

A remarkable partnership then developed between the other opening bat, the Owmby coach of our women's team, and the grandfather of our young opening bowler who was out there using my bat and in the process that it is me, not my bat, that is talentless.

The two of them out about 90, starting cautiously before unleashing an array of powerful shots around the wicket despite a very tricky pitch and the awful weather. After they were out, we did subside a bit when the opening bowlers came back on. 

But ask us before the game, we'd have taken 125 for 6, in fact we'd have bitten your hand off to the shoulder. 

The weather worsened. We went out to bowl. Could we do it? Could we pull off an improbable win?

Things started well. The aforementioned young opening bowler found his range very quickly and castled one of the openers, while others fell to the Keele captain LBW. There was a deflection run out - gosh luck really was running with us! 

Before too long, they were about 65 for 6. 

This is where our problems started. These lads did not panic; they knew what they were doing. They played straight. Meanwhile, we were running out of bowling - you could tell this as I was brought onto bowl.

50 runs needed, 45, 40. There was a brilliant run out before a young bat came on and started smoking us everywhere, including a mighty blow off me. The ball was like a bar of soap, it was hard to bowl, but the young opener snagged the big hitter to claim his fourth wicket! 30 runs, 25, 20. I was bowling as well as I could but one bad ball an over was costly, as was a batsman nicking one past the keeper's gloves. 

15 runs, 10. THe number ten bat managed to hit a coulpe of fours while looking like he didn't know what he was doing. Four runs to win, I floated one outside off stump, and got walloped for four. Scores level. 

I then agonisingly beat the bat with a beauty. 

However, he cross bat swatted the next ball for a single, and that was it. We lost. Winning runs scored off me. 

"Well that one was my fault" I said in the dressing room, hoping that the others would tell me it wasn't. 

They did.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.07.24

Under a Collingham Cosh

 Saturday saw our third team playing at Upton once again, this time against Collingham's third team complete with the familiar figure of my stepfather's next door neighbour who it has taken me several years to get to play against.

Against expectation the weather was good, and the ground looked immaculate. I was thrilled to see not just one red kite, but a pair, who appeared before the game and graced us with their presence at various times throughout the afternoon.

"Can you eat them?" asked our resident geographer, unimpressed. 

There were kestrels and loudly keening buzzards around too, although the question of their culinary status never arose. I'm glad other players did turn out to share my interest in nature. Well, one did, anyway.

As is customary it seems, we bowled first in a 36 over game, and Collingham's senior bats, one of whom was the first profoundly deaf player I have played in a match with, made a fast start and it took a while for our captain and the Keele captain to find their rhythm and start taking a few wickets, at which point we dragged ourselves back into the game. Our young opening bowler, after having been clattered a bit in his opening spell, came back well later to take three wickets.

The captain noted "If I don't give you a bowl you will be moaning about me in your blog", so I did get three overs at the end. It went ok-ish, as I tried to bowl of a straight approach to avoid dragging the ball down, but for some reason I bowled my first no ball in ages and so a catch off me didn't count. One bad ball got flogged for four by a young bat, who in truth we hadn't bowled well at, and Collingham closed on 159-9. 

We had a bit of a makeshift side, so that looked probably a few too many forus to get, and it quickly became clear that Collingham's bowlers were going to be far more accurate than us on a wicket where it was hard to score. We lost the geographer and his son early as the aforementioned next door neighbour nabbed a couple of wickets with his left hand medium pace loopy stuff. The other opener stood form, but scoring was very difficult, especially when a young speedster came on and ripped through our middle order.

The captain was the only bat who could really handle him, and he used the extra pace to show us some classical front foot driving, but alas he couldn't stay in.

Back in my usual number 11 spot, or rather 10 as we only had 10 players, I went in with the game well and truly gone, nervous as hell after four consecutive ducks - they should call me Audi, like they did Alan Mullaly back in the day - but reasured by the Upton captain, who just told me to relax and do what I could.

I managed to score one run, but that was it, as my partner was out shortly after. 

All in all, a pretty heavy thrashing, but it was a really enjoyable game and I didn't mind too much. I thought, stupidly, that Sunday would go better...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.07.24

All flattering references to the captain are there to ensure he might let me bowl again one day