The Jesters have a new “Oldest Fixture” with the return to Meanwood, the 1^st visit since 1965; Indeed this was the clubs 1^st ever fixture in 1961.
With the Rawdon contingent involved in some “Tom Noddy” cup competition the Sunday lunch crew in the nearby Myrtle tavern consisted of the travelling Winterbottoms from Huddersfield & an impressive 3 man party from Barnsley with Ives bringing some quality cricketers in Glenn Yates & Jamie Green; Both party’s struggling to find the ground from the dodgy postcode given to them from Dobby. Also making debuts were youngsters Jack Galley (from the Yeadon club) & Andy Gill (from Horsforth cc & namesake of the iceman {Jester now living in Atlanta}), both friends of Nick Walker (now co-opted onto the player recruitment committee).
On arrival at this tiny ground it came as a bit of a shock when Ben Senior (Jester & skipper of Meanwood) wanted to toss up (instead of just letting us bat first). After walking out to the small square Ben informed me that the pitch we were playing on was called the “widowmaker”!!!! Fortunately we won the toss & created no shock by electing to bat 1^st.
After the injury strewn Ives was dismissed to a cracking slip catch, the bowler claiming it was his 1^stever game of cricket but it looked more like it was the batsman on debut to us, a heavy shower of rain held up proceedings briefly & it was decided to reduce the match from 40 overs a side to 35. The Meanwood fielding could be described as mixed with a fantastic catch to dismiss Jamie Green offset with enough dropped catch’s to dismiss us all twice. One of the worst offenders was Ben; One of his efforts at long-on in particular caused much amusement as the ball missed his hands completely & struck him in a pain-full spot “amidships”, luckily girlfriend Gill was on hand  “to rub it better”.
Unsurprisingly, with the short boundary’s our large total contained many six hits & retrieval of cricket balls proved hazardous for Ives as a gaggle of Geese took exception to him in their field!
A cracking tea provided by Gill & the other girls was spent listening to England’s attempt to win a Lords ashes test for the 1^st time since 1934 when Rawdon’s very own Hedley Verity routed the Aussie’s. Claims that he was in Caggy’s class at school have proved to be unfounded! [Note to all potential thieves that there was no Sky TV to watch the action on].
In reply Meanwood lost early wickets to the stand in opening attack of Bell & Winterbottom (jnr) but the home side have worked out their own method for scoring runs (& surviving) on the widowmaker & made a respectable attempt at chasing down the target despite Dale trying the old chestnuts of bowling 2 balls at once & the no-ball shout after a wicket which somebody falls for every time. (Future opponents beware). Dale also tried to create some building work for himself from the surrounding houses where the balls had to be retrieved from his bowling as well as his batting!
In the field Ives fielded like a man with 2 broken ribs which made him favourite to have to sit out the 1^st game on tour (14 players available) but even better was the effort of Matt Hill who fulfilled a lifetime ambition by keeping wicket. He joined a distinguished line of memorable Jesters keeping performances & his stumping was closer to a run out but given to him just to stop him complaining in this ONCE in a lifetime opportunity!

Catching competition update:- D.Bell=3, RL=4, The Hills=1, Scottie=0
Matty missed a couple again, playing his joker with the gloves did not work!