Saturday 3rd June 2000

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Saturday 3rd June 2000

As the season continues apace, and all teams except the firsts continue to struggle, Phil Langdell’s ‘Wankers’ – and there are a few of them out there, so you could well be one of them, are riding high in the League. In terms of individual points scorers, Alan Barnard leads the list with 20 followed by John Street (19) and Dave Baker (19).

Over the weekend, the first’s got a creditable draw with top-of-the-table Twickenham, chasing 146 on a tricky wicket they managed to record a respectable 127. Ricko Lewis again bowled excellently taking 5 for 49 and he was well backed up by Neil ‘Cock’ Roche, John ‘Quality’ Street, Stavros ‘Bubble’ Elia and Matty ‘Angry’ Worton. Dave ‘The Reaper’ Smith underlined his poor fantasy value by getting a golden. He was also dismissed ‘Hit Wicket’ on Sunday to compound his ‘Weekend of Misery’.

The 2^nd XI hung on for a draw thanks to Russell Beeden, who batted for 22 overs for his 16*. Not that I need to be telling you this, as he has told everyone who would (or wouldn’t) listen. He was last seen stopping strangers in the street to let them know about his latest batting feat. Mind you, he’s in my fantasy team, so I’m not really moaning. The 2’s bowled well to restrict Alexandra Park to 170, but 55-9 really was poor in reply.

The 3rds were beaten by Brondesbury 5^th XI in the league cup, and were not helped by three of their players going to the wrong ground. Andy ‘Alice’ Coopers decision to field with 7 men (they only had 10 altogether) was a curious one, and he received a fair amount of stick when he returned to the club. On a final note, we had a play with the bowling machine tonight, and it was superb. After Smith was bowled a few times (very true to form) he managed to play quite well until we turned the speed up to 75mph, the swing up to maximum and the length to yorker. Smith was comprehensively bowled – in fact the stumps were all uprooted. To be fair to him though, the ball swung so much it appeared to be going into the other net before moving nearly three feet. We are going to have some fun with this machine!

As I’m away for a few weeks, the website will be updated when I return, as Tim ‘Fatboy’ Beeden is not competent enough to type in a few words. See you in a few weeks – Alan.