Aug 18 - v Roving Reporters - Match Abandoned

According to our opposition, in 21 years of this fixture it has ever been rained off even when all the other games were. These comments were of little comfort to those due to be playing in their only game of the week!

The outfield was soggy from the start and it was somewhat surprising to hear that play was expected at 3pm if there was no further rain....such rain arrived though within a few minutes, and a further shower just after lunch meant an inevitable handshaken conclusion.

In fact the day's entertainment came in just 2 forms:

A race at lunchtime to see whether the RR skipper could eat 5 cream crackers before his teammate could down half a pint of IPA with a teaspoon - it was close, but the IPA drinker had it by a quarter of a cracker!

Then with another heavy shower approaching, in drove Richard Blaby with 3 covers borrowed/acquired (?) from Holtwhites. Declan's efforts to help put the covers out whilst balancing his old Kleinwort Benson umbrella were somewhat amusing. The efforts though were rewarded by unexpected play on Saturday.  

Another huge disappointment as an early morning deluge ended any chance of an early start. Much to everyone's surprise though Rick was on the pitch marking out the wicket as 3pm drew near and there was hope of a decent match after all.......until it rained again - very heavily.

A 20 over thrash on the astroturf was considered but the likely damage to the rest of the square meant the game was eventually called at around 5pm.

This allowed Spooks to start drinking early to celebrate his birthday.......

At last a game which started on time (well, 11-50 to be precise). Skipper Adam Pigden won the toss and chose to make first use of the track. He soon regretted this as his reliable top of the order batsmen all failed and he found himself in to bat with Andrew Stokes with the score standing at 17 for 4.

These 2 steadied the ship with an excellent partnership of 61 with Andrew pulling the ball well and Adam failing to play the shot! Unfortunately both fell just before lunch.

Rather more unfortunately, with the score having staggered to 81 for 6 just after lunch, the ground was hit by the 'scattered shower' that had been barely forecast and effectively ended proceedings as the outfield was left extremely wet. Another downpour later in the afternoon meant the game was declared a draw soon after 5pm.

A lovely Mexican feast soon followed and everyone settled in to watch the England friendly, whilst trying to avoid disturbing the 3 sleeping babies!
 

The rain from the previous, day plus overnight downpours, prevented a prompt start and in the end a 40 over game was scheduled to start from 1pm with lunch taken between innings.

Malcontents scored 214 for 5, helped in the main by former Fosters players John Ward (83) and Chris Stead (62) as the Fosters change bowlers (after excellent opening spells from Pumpkin (3 for 35) and Matt Stead (1 for 18)) struggled to keep the runs down.

In response Flat Track O'Leary was once again in fine form ending up with 114, but generally failed to find too many players to help support him. What should really have been a victory for Fosters ended in a 2 run defeat as wickets fell at an alarming rate at the over end and Pumpkin was run out off the last ball with the side 2 runs short on 212 all out.

The downpours from the day before and early morning rain and drizzle put paid to any hopes of a good start to cricket week as the square was too wet for play.

Instead, with the skies brightening in the afternoon, the entertainment surrounded the volleyball net as 4 teams battled it out on the outfield. My informants (one of whom was Gregs himself!) told me that Gregs and Adam Pigden remain as undisputed champions of this form of the game, with Shag unable to defend his title.

Pumpkin came good with large helpings of coronation chicken - 'fowl' according to Tim Haydon!

Let's hope tomorrow's forecast of sunshine is proved right for the visit of Malcontents.