Long awaited update

Apologies for the long abscence dear reader, my keyboard broke and I have only just replaced it with a Swiss version which my Uncle has given me. The occasional letter is in the wrong place so please excuse any amusing typos!

We last left off with the extraordinary tie in the Twenty20 league and not much has happened since due to the English summer coming to town and flooding out most of the country... The 1st team have only played one match since that defeat to Fleetwood, which was the Stuart Cup Final against Thornton. Unfortunately we lost in a highly competitive and amusing game. Full match report by Thornton here.

From a personal point of view, I was happy to help the Captain rebuild our first innings, going in at 30/6 and getting the team past Thornton's first innings total with a 40 odd partnership. In that was a highly amusing over from Dobbie who, no doubt upset after I bowled him out, set to bowling one of the most hysterical overs I have ever witnessed. Beamers at my head, hilarious schoolboy sledging after a no ball was given "why are you crying like a girl" responded by me "feel free to bowl at the stumps" a few wides, more no balls, his own team turning on him, genius. We decided on a groundhog day 2nd innings and this time I helped Rob to rebuild, with him running me into the ground with his excessive fitness! However after two top order misfires (unheard of!) it was always a tough task to win and Thornton managed to chase down their target with ease. Still it was nice to play a competitive match and at Blackpool CC, an international ground this season no less.

In the Fylde Twenty20 League we have kept our 100% up, managing to lose to Jolly Boys on a very soggy Cottam Hall pitch and also to Rushale at Rossall School. It was nice to go back and play there for the first time since 1998 when I managed to hit the winning runs in my last match for the school 2nd XI! I'm starting to get very frustrated with the 2020 this season, with our batting failing every week I'm running out of ideas to motivate the squad. Next week we play back to back matches on Wednesday and Thursday against our bottom of the league rivals, Warbreck and Henry's Marauders. If we can somehow get 2 wins we will sneak into Finals Day and can prepare for a comeback greater than Lazarus!

Anyway as I write this the sun is shining and we have 2 matches this weekend. Playing Fleetwood in the Wareing Trophy, a 40 over cup competition with my little brother Andrew answering the call to fill our depleted team and away to St Annes in the league tomorrow. Bring it on!