Loss at Elmley Castle

Please note this report is without the benefit of the scorebook to hand, so may contain some inaccuracies but the spirit is correct. After horrendous traffic delays around Evesham and road closures in the village, we arrived with 12, which had not been conveyed to their captain. While I was eating my sandwiches, Paulo insisted on doing the toss and despite winning, chose to bowl - last time I trust him with that. Bryn and Adam Farrow opened and contained their openers, one of whom was a junior. They were however keeping the score moving with a number of well run singles and the adult started to launch into the surrounding properties. Pete came on and took a couple of wickets while the Mayor, who had been the last to arrive and so was the first to sit out, contained at the other end. At drinks they announced that their 12th man had arrived, so we continued a 12 a side game. When both batters started to let loose, I came on and first ball, according to Lewis, took "a perfect spinner's wicket", by bowling one of their big hitters middle and off, by pitching it outside off and avoiding his swing. Unfortunately that was as good as it got, as the new batsman then started to add runs quickly and with some dropped catches, they advanced to around 235 for 6. Chris Hillman, Tyler Austin and Abbas Kazmi all had a bowl and performed well in the field, - take that into the final next Sunday boys and you'll be fine. After a fruit laden tea, Russ and Panther opened and both were soon back, given out LBW by different umpires. Adam was looking good until he fell but Paulo was playing himself in nicely. Lewis again started encouragingly but played around a straight one (he said it swung in). The 3 under 13s all had some time at the crease but wickets were falling (quite a few from their junior contingent) as Paulo started to enjoy himself. He passed 50 with a six and ended unbeaten in the mid seventies with 6 sixes in all. However he ran out of partners, as he ran out the last 2, going for 2s that he made but we didn't, which I hope makes sense. It was all played in a good spirit and it was good to see so many juniors on the field, on both sides. I must now Split from the side for a week, as Croatia beckons.