There were some interesting tales around the breakfast table on Wednesday morning. Some of the lads had gone off to see a late night show and one lad allegedly fancied a stint of late night building work.

David Clayton didn’t make breakfast but suggested a trip with former RL to the Albert and the Lion, a JD Wetherspoon pub, where trying to get served was a nightmare with the coffee queue hanging out of the door. Two pints and two Vodka Monsters were ordered along with some toast for Claytz.

Belly’s Bulgarian Sat Nav let us down again on the way to South Shore but we arrived in plenty of time for a pint and a chance for Dave Clayton to explain about rugby league sports development to the barman.

Sid Gower who was playing his final game on the tour was asked if he was finally going to have a bowl after refusing the day before but mentioned he was waiting for his second injection of the day to see if he was fit, “cortisone” someone asked, “no, gaviscon” he replied.

The key to any tour game is to bat first but unfortunately we could not negotiate the toss and the opposition skipper asked us to field first much to the dismay of the snooker school in the clubhouse, especially Dale who took everybody to the cleaners for £3 a frame. The opposition skipper also asked us to keep it quiet on the field as a funeral wake had been booked in for 2.30pm.

Some reckless batting, poor backing up and Dales’ wind ups allowed South Shore to reach a score of 119 all out but it was that man again Dale who had the line of the day. A young lad and his nice blond girlfriend were walking on the path next to the ground so Dale without any instructions from the skipper decided to go and field on the boundary. “Had a good day?” Dale asked, “No not really, we have just been to my Granddads funeral” “oh well, keep smiling” Dale replied.   

In reply it was either hit out or get out but luckily Rhodes'y got dropped 7 times scoring 66 not out in his V much to the amusement of Claytz who did a tremendous job of scoring.

More beers and snooker after the match provided a good end to a fixture we hope that will be enjoyed again next year.   

In the evening we had a trip to the bar in the amusements so 16 year old George Myers could have a sneaky half followed by a trip to the Blackpool BierKeller that only had Fosters lager on tap and a few acts that were so bad, it was like we were at a school concert. After 10 minutes in there Broughy got hungry so we had to leave.   

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