[Author: Peter Cledwyn.]
He lurched violently, staggered and grimaced as if struck down by a tropical stomach bug.
The colour drained from his cheeks.
Braz had just learnt Princey was skippering the Rioteers!!
At times of extreme trauma people often react by turning to family for support. “I’ll let Simon know” he murmured.
But the fears were unfounded and the nightmare morphed into a dream!!
Princey won the toss and we batted on a wicket of variable bounce.
Alfie was cruelly undone by a daisy cutter but the occasional ball was climbing off a length as well so batting was never easy and our 217 for 3 was down to contributions of 40 from Harrison, 50 from Jonny Gilbert and a memorable 71 from Princey who’s heroic knee injury cost him so many runs that he would surely have been bearing down on a ton that people, predominantly Princey himself, would have been talking about for years!
Tea was superb featuring homemade cakes, scones and clotted cream. Surprisingly Campbell didn’t materialise but we acquitted ourselves pretty well in his absence.
The Racketeers were never really in the hunt for our total finishing around
160 for 5.
Will made it a good all round day for the Gilbert’s with a couple of wickets in an excellent spell. Bertie and Alfie both bowled well with Alfie having three catches dropped on a day he’ll probably choose to forget.
The Raqueteers were a good sociable opposition it was a shame they were missing a couple of their top batsmen.
I only took on the MM duties on Tuesday so many thanks to everyone for responding so quickly and making the job pretty simple and a special thanks to Princey who, as I left the garden of the King Alfred was taking Braz through his innings ball by ball!
See you all soon, Cledders.