SCORECARD

The return of The Golden Curse

Old Mo 171
Uncle Raj’s All Stars 175-3.
Fitmen lost by 7 wickets.

After a refreshing break in the hoodoo of golden ducks this season…………….it returned on Sunday.

Playing on the day the summer returned (briefly?) The Fitmen duly lost the toss and were inserted against the roving ‘Young Lions’ from Nottingham. The alarm bells should have been ringing an hour before the scheduled start when the opposition were starting their warm up………….the Old Mo tyros were still in the kitchen slicing the cheese wafer thin…..

Still……cometh the agreed start time (2pm) the full home compliment (just about) were present. A last minute withdrawal from Sharif (a premonition of damage to the averages?) meant that a late call up (post tent drying out duties) for Nutterrrrr made the full 11.

Papa was still adjusting his Vatican box, but eventually strolled out to the centre with Tom. A ball later ‘I didn’t think they’d bowl the first one on the stumps’ saw the hosts at 0-1. Didn’t get much better as The Old Mo turged to 9-1 off the first 8 overs.

A glimpse of the effect of a trip to The Vatican as Papa Howarth smote a 6 but ex-communication was to follow swiftly with a run out next ball …………….but by then the recovery was underway at 30 odd for 2.

T scrambled about until he got his bearings and there followed a fine 50 (53 @ 75) with Tuckerrrrr (32 @ 80) providing the stability tucking into some delicious pies. We missed out Umberto as he followed up a/ his 99 for us with b/ a ton for the carrot munchers and then c/ a brace @ 11!

Still, not all was lost with ‘Put me up the order’ Dawes smiting 23 @ 123….tragically no-one else joined in the fun and a below par 171 (bolstered by a generous 41 extras) meant that tea was purely an opportunity to boost the carbs as opposed to preparing for victory.
Tea was ‘standard’ (i.e. very good incl the famous Mrs Singh’s Glory Pakora) and featured a fruit feeding frenzy…………..we really must do strawberries, clotted ice cream etc. more often.......with the emphasis on more strawberries (but keep it secret from the oppo next time!). Special thanx to Mandi Martin for coring the strawberries and chopping the tomatoes whilst under the guidance of Umberto's culinary advice.

Post tea the finely fed XI were out in the field to have a ‘crack back’ with more hope than expectation………….good job the Aspulls stock was in excellent condition. Pick of the bowlers (not much competition) was Umberto with a manicured 3-26 off 5 and a bit……apart from that the best that could be said was that it was a manful effort.

No great criticism of the bowling but the target was always going to be a stroll. Plaudits to Guy (conceding 3 per over).......how different the outcome of the game may have been if George would have held a very difficult chance at gully......we will never know? Well supported by Jonesy boy (just 4.25 an over) and Nutt (@ a few more an over). It needed wickets and we couldn’t buy them once the Lions had marked their patch. A final mention for those with webbed fingers – Geraint and T which meant it was only a 7 wicket loss and not the full Monty.

Look on the bright side……………..Blackwood next weekend!