report by drb

The Jesters made the 60 mile trek to Hardwick Hall with the now customary 9 men.. On winning the toss normal service was restored when we elected to bat on a very greenish pitch (which played a lot better than it looked).

Hardwick Hall has that quaint essential Sunday friendly feel to it; i.e. an open field in the middle of nowhere, it’s actually in the grounds of the hall of the same name but you know what I mean.

The un-related  Wilkinsons ; David of Rawdon & Steve of Blubberhouses (formally Rawdon) opened the innings & amassed a huge partnership, David the more fluent & aggressive in his 1^st senior ton & Steve very technical correct in achieving his Jesters p.b.

Mention just be made of the 3^rd member of the Wilkinson triplets, Chris of Pool who hit a huge 6 into the woods & then when dismissed got straight onto the phone ( I assume to Sky sports) to tell them about it!

The last dozen or so overs were spent batting carefully so as not to run up an even bigger score after lots of murmurings from the home side, these proved to be rather hollow by the end of the match.

The time old mistake of over indulgence on an excellent tea was again made which may have had a bearing on the fielding performance which followed.

Been a traditionalist I always feel that a team’s energy & performance in the field all stems from the wicket-keeper. Pod, buoyant from his previous weeks stumping victim decided that nobody was taking the keeping gloves from him & then proceeded to find out that it is as hard a job as Matt Prior makes it look. Hopefully we have seen the last of that experiment! Macca after his previous nights activities deciding 2 overs of medium pace was sufficient for him took over & proceeded to remove the bails at ever opportunity.