The now traditional Saturday night mass exodus of players & frantic phone calls left us with 11 men assuming Andrew Clayton received a text message saying he & Jamie Green were required (His phone battery had gone dead & so he did not get the message). As we were playing in Dale territory he recommended the Star at Fennybridge for luncheon refreshments. Dobby, feeling a bit rough tried a Guinness top for a pick-me-up! Picking up Alex Taylor on the way to the ground (he had fallen asleep again!) meant that 6 of the previous weeks tour squad were on hand to reminisce (what they could remember!) We discovered that the Barnsley lads were not showing up so Shelley kindly lent us club stalwart Dave Jones. We lost the toss & were asked to bowl 1^st (happening far too often, -3 times in 2 years!).
In all the turmoil we finally went out onto the field, when about half way somebody asked “who is wicket keeping?” Another delay ensued as “volunteer” Mark Harrison donned some gear.
Although we were playing a 35 over’s a side game the Shelley batsmen were all in a hurry playing what Dale would call “A shot a ball” & 25 over’s later were all out for 164 (6.5 rpo) with the returning Richie Barker & Dale himself the main destroyers. Richie’s spell came to an abrupt end when his shoulder seized up & Alex finished his over, his 1 ball not impressing enough to get another over from the skipper!
With the Barnsley crew showing up along with Chipper & Dave Walker & Dale’s Lepton rent-a-crowd the Jesters had more supporters than players!
With the early finish there was another short delay before the excellent chilli, rice & baked potato tea was ready.
After spilling most of his chilli Alex donned the pads to open with Pudsey Congs representative “Rogan” Josh Atkinson. They, along with Mark & Dale all batted with aggression but with more shot selection control than the home side to take us comfortably to the winning total.