Once again the weather dominated the cricket this week, or to be accurate the lack of it! Nets on Monday as usual, but with a junior game being played not so many in attendance and that was it: no nets or junior training on Friday.
Rained off on Saturday we somehow managed to play on Sunday at Whittington, and despite the black clouds and pretty constant light rain from around 4pm onwards the team won convincingly.
The Sunday 2’s roll on. Another great win in the rain. A brilliant batting performance scoring 262 with a brilliant 92 from George Price and a fantastic 86 from James Heaton and a quick fire 20 odd from Jay Schoie Then in the field some brilliant performances. Luis Sturgess and Reharn Chisti setting the tone with the new ball. Reharn bowling an absolute snorter to dismiss their captain. Then great spells from James, Fin Jones and Lucy Axcell. The evergreen Chris Marshall taking the final wicket bowling them out for 99! A great team performance again. Special mention to Stephen Jones for an amazing performance! He was involved with everything today! Thanks for coming! On a serious note ,beating top of the league comprehensively was a great achievement. Well done all.
Skippers report from Facebook.
My form continues to be ‘showing potential’ but once again I fell foul to the gremlin in my addled brain telling me that a pull to the shorter boundary on a very slow pitch was the best means of scoring. Fair to say it was heading towards the end of our innings and we had stopped scoring very freely, but once again the dismissal was avoidable and a little bizarre. I missed the pull, the ball went down leg side, hit me on the heel (which was on the ground) and gently rolled onto my leg stump – all in very slow motion. On the plus side the old body is feeling more and more comfortable and fielding is far less painful and I am pretty relaxed about wherever I am asked to field, although slips, gully, point, short mid wicket remain the best use of my lack of speed!!!!
Even had a bowl and got the final wicket so we could head back to the bar in Penkridge for a beer – a first for me being inside the clubhouse and it was great to talk to a few people that before now I had only really said hi to in passing or at the nets. Being dry whilst you drink a beer is such a luxury!
I am pretty sure I know what I need to do: play the ball later (struggling with this given the difference in pace between the nets and the pitches we are playing on), concentrate on staying in and waiting for the bad ball, concentrate on drives and cuts. I think my technique is holding up OK and I will crack the above but if anyone has any suggestions or fancies a net during the week I would be more than happy, and appreciative.
As we go to press there are 4 teams left on the Football Name Card (Exeter City, Ipswich Town,QPR and Gillingham) for the Williamson Boucher cricket bat. Once all the names have been sold, and paid for, I will give the bat and card to the committee to draw. t would be nice to do this on Friday evening.
On the subject of Friday evenings and Williamson Boucher, they have once again demonstrated their generosity and willingness to help support the club and the NHS.
Firstly they are offering a 10% discount off all items on their site to members and parents with the code PENKRIDGE01.
Secondly they have given me a price on their Junior Bundle (Bat, Gloves, Pads, Box, Bag, Thigh Pad, Arm Guard and Cricket Ball) so the club can run a Football Name Card on a Friday night with £20 going to the Club and £10 to the NHS. The plan is to run this most Friday nights and although the items to be won and the price of a team may vary (never above £5) the Club will always receive £20 and the NHS £10.
Again thanks to The Committee for indulging me in my project to raise funds for the NHS.
In other news …..
Masuri responded quickly to my tweet on a friends thread about the amount of cricket bats that seem to break these days, where I pointed out that if a 57 year old returning to the game after 33 years can hit the ball hard enough to break a bat there must surely be something wrong with the bat. Fingers crossed that age has some benefits and they replace it. So far they have acknowledged its return and said they will report back after assessment!
As I post this I have set off for my second jab, joining my parents and Sands in the fully vaccinated club. They all received the two doses without any side effects at all. I was OK after my first, so (yet again) fingers crossed I will be at nets tonight, weather permitting of course. Does anyone else check the weather forecast every hour!!??
Thank You
Gray-Nicolls are generously supporting this diary and my return to cricket for the 2021 Season.