A wonderful start to cricket week as the excellent weather that had finally arrived a few days before continued into the opening day.

The Presidents XI - including some CCC guests - batted first and racked up the excellent score of 311 for 3 in just over 53.3 overs before the declaration came. This innings including a rapid 60 from Tony Sayers. Not surprisingly none of the Fosters bowlers had sparkling figures, although Wellsy (0 for 21 from 7), Leo Sayers (0 for 44 from 10) and James Stead (1 for 44 from 9) all did their bit to keep the President's XI in check.

The reply didn't start off too well as Joe Clune (12) and Xav (16) both fell reasonably cheaply. The second wicket though brought in Doris Stokes and he proceeded to successfully go after the bowling. He was given 3 lives by the same fielder (!!) before reaching his second ton of the season. Good partnerships developed as he was given good support by first James Stead (24) and later by Gareth Hooper (31) and Adam Pigden (31).

Doris's good fortune finally came to end when that same fielder finally held one to see him depart for 118. Wellsy made sure the innings did not go to waste by racking up a quick fire 48 not out. He was well supported by Matt Stead (23*) as they saw the team home with a few overs of the final 20 to spare.

A great start to the week with bar takings going well and all the jacket potatoes supplied by Naomi quickly disappearing! Let's hope the Tuesday and Wednesday forecast of rain is proved wrong.....
 

It rained very hard on Tuesday morning.......and it was no surprise that with further rain forecast this game was called off early! In fact by the time a few hardy soles made it to the bar for late evening drinks it was raining (very hard) once more, with little hope for the Wednesday match........
 

The rain continued into the early hours and was quickly called off early in the morning. This looked potentially premature when the sun came out with some strong winds but the square remained wet all day......and the rain retuned by early evening so that if a game had've started later in the day it would not have finished.

Biggest entertainment of the day came at the bowling alley where many of Cockfosters' finest did battle. Details are sketchy but good performances were reported from Messrs Steady, Cheesy and Doris.

More persistent rain in the evening meant more concern for the following day's game despite the improved forecast - never mind, at least the wicket had been covered...........
 

........of course it might have helped if the correct wicket had been covered! As it was the sun and wind made an early afternoon start probable....and then after some discussion it was agreed that 12 noon would do just nicely.

Gregs won the toss and promptly chose to lose it and give Bob Cole's XI first use of the slightly damp track on their 20th anniversary visit to Cricket Week.

Wellsy and (C)hunks bowled an excellent opening spell. (C)hunks took 2 wickets finishing with 2 for 24 from 9 overs and Wellsy was unlucky to see the other opener dropped twice off his bowling during a rapid spell of bowling. Unfortunately for Fosters the change bowling was to look like declaration bowling as Third team bowlers were coming up against first team batting.

Bob Cole's XI were aided however by some poor fielding that saw a number of relatively straight forward catches dropped. This allowed the opener to make a ton before he holed out to (C)hunks off of Cheesy, and to also allow Gatting Jr to make 125 not out, as once he was given a life in the 30s and came through the early barrage, he found life easy, with the ball flying (literally) to all parts.

A generous declaration took place around 3-45, just after 2 very large rain clouds went either side of the ground. Early wickets fell as Former Yosser was caught for a duck and (C)hunks was perhaps unlucky to be adjudged leg before. Doris and Adam Blaby settled things down before they fell in successive overs to catches at mid off and mid on respectively. This brought Neil Hale and Xav (deputising for the injured Anthony Levy) to the crease to take things unsteadily to 76 for 4 at tea.

After tea Neil went for 12 run out, Xav for 32 and Wellsy for a typical 16. Ronnie Barker joined Steady at the wicket and he surprised most onlookers by scoring a care free 35 before his luck ran out. Cheesy batted for 40 minutes while Steady compiled runs at the other end. With 50 required from 12 overs Cheesy fell to one that rolled back on to his stumps. Steady realised that more serious bowling was available to the opposition and in his attempt to make the most of the weaker bowling he holed out to long on.

Defeat by 40 runs in a game made closer by some clever captaincy by our opposition -more first team players available next year perhaps?

Chicken kebabs from Ruby were quickly gobbled up as the bar made up for the previous 2 days lost ground.
 

Aug 17 - CCC 171 all out drew with Roving Reporters 165 for 8

The week closed with a much better day all round - lots of money made through bar, BBQ and raffle; an interesting cricket match; and an U17 playoff game rescheduled to Southgate Compton.

In the cricket skipper Neil Hale won the toss and in due tradition against the Roving Reporters decided to bat first. Karen Brady and Dan Rollo made a safe start before Dan got out having just hit 2 fours, for 18. Karen and Xav took the score on nicely (if sedately) to 90 for 1 before Xav lost his wicket for 46. Matt Stead came and went for 1 before John Worley joined Karen for another useful stand.

Just when the skipper was looking to push on to a comfortable score in excess of 200, the wheels came off as wickets tumbled. Kev went for 42 and John for 15. Spooks on his birthday (and allegedly tee total) batted as if he had had a few and was caught at slip off the back of the bat. Neil was unlucky to be run out by a direct hit and eventually Ravi ran out of partners as Chris Stead chopped on for 4.

171 all out looked to be nowhere near enough until Roving Reporters played pretty poorly to be 64 for 5 at tea. Spooks bowled unchanged up until the interval taking 4 for 29 from 11 overs. After tea RRs made gradual progress as Tall Guy Ravi and John Worley bowled tidily but without success. Once the score reached 100 Neil took his gloves off and unleashed Matt Stead. His spell of 7 overs 2 for 11 included broken stumps and a caught behind that wasn't given.

Bowling in tandem with Xav the runs almost totally dried up and suddenly the impossible result of a draw became a distinct possibility. Behind the rate but with Fosters unable to make too many inroads, a final effort almost got RRs home but in the end the final ball went for 4 to leave our guests on 165 for 8 and the match was drawn.

Over at Southgate Compton our players for the future got fairly well beaten by 8 wickets by Bessborough - Colts manager Geoff Williams was typically philosophical after the game pointing out that victory would have meant a Bank Holiday trip to Teddington at 10am!

A good night then ensued in front of the BBQ - thanks to Doris, Shereene and Sarah (and everyone else who helped) - and the bar and Matt SHore was to walk away later with the signed KP cricket bat. All over for another year - how about a complete sunny week next year!