report by DRB

With a couple of late changes to the advertised line up ( RL had a poorly finger ) the bulk of the Jesters side headed to Shelley (Huddersfield) for the 1^st time. After a couple of convoy u-turns & missing of a red light we convened in the cask & spindle at Shepley for Sunday lunch.
On reaching the ground we found conditions to be very wet underfoot but the home team, deprived of much cricket in this rainy summer were keen to play & the super spongers were out (had they had been most of the morning). It is not often we see this sort of enthusiasm for a Sunday friendly fixture & it was most appreciated by the visiting team.
Our regular readers will know of Scotties sharp wit (brought up in a knife drawer ) so it was a 1^st when he was left speechless as Matty McCallum noticed the elastoplast on Scottie's face injury & thought it was a fashion statement comparing him to the rapper Nelly.
When play did begin in “light drizzle” the opening pair of McCallum & Harrison made a useful partnership before keeping up their 100% record of ending it with a run out; even the soft underfoot conditions were no excuse for Matty’s dawdling. During our innings it was good to see an old friend turn up as Steve Sullivan came to watch his current Saturday club play the Jesters. The bulk of our score came via a century partnership between Macca (showing the sort of form that the Rawdon spectators dream of seeing) & the ever improving Matt Hill.
After a terrific tea the strong Shelly batting line up found run scoring as easy as we had, with both sides taking advantage of a short boundary on one side & puddles of water on the other & even Dale who has been taking wickets for fun in recent games struggled to contain the home side, although he was not alone in suffering from dropped catches as the Jesters did not seem to have brought any hands with them & only ‘woke up’ & started to coordinate their limbs when attention was focused in the close finish.
After skipper Bell broke the big partnership with a well disguised “slower ball” (not to sure he needs a slower ball at his pace) the ‘death’ overs were well bowled by the unlikely pairing of 13 year old Dane Winterbottom (a chip of the old mans block) & “motormouth” Matty McCallum (provayour of flighted filth) who’s last over victims  incredibly, included club ‘pro’ & 1^st class cricketer Muthumudalige Pushpakumara.  A terrific game of cricket on our 1^st visit which hopefully will not be the last.

catching competition update

S.Scott - 1  D.Bell - 3  RL - 2 Pod - 1

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