Black Rose win wet encounter at a canter
As usual on a Sunday morning me and me laddo (Luke) went for a dip in the icy waters of Parliament Hill Lido. As we got dressed afterwards I noticed a message on my mobile. This only means one of two things on a Sunday morning: either Gareth is bored and has invited himself around for a cuppa or someone has dropped out of cricket and Smiler has passed the phone around duties onto my good self.

There was no Gareth to entertain, but a number of calls were required. 15 minutes later I had drawn a blank, the usual suspects deciding a showery afternoon chasing leather was not what their respective weekends required. Oh well 10 men versus one of our stronger oppos.

Smiler won the toss and stuck Black Rose in. Our tried and tested opening partnership, the Cat and Dom, started wheeling away. Dom was getting some extra-ordinary bounce which was testing both batsmen and stand in wicket keeper, Mark Naisbitt.

Cat and Dom both struck in quick succession; Cat nabbing Latham, who could only lob the ball to Golds at short-leg and Dom clean bowling Sandler.

It was about this point we scampered for our first rain break. Just time to catch up on England's heroics in the test match and scorn the two punters in the bar watching the warm up to the Chelsea v Wigan game.

Dom returned to pick up a second wicket, his opening partner snaffling a sharp chance at gully.

From here the innings, as far as Sundowners were concerned, went into sharp decline.

Ringo picked up the wicket of Shah, Alan Russell hanging on to a skier at square leg.

Not long after Ringo was induced into chasing the ball to the long on boundary. He made it about half way before his groin/hamstring blew up leaving us to view his silver mane from the rear as he lay prostrate on the Southover turf. Black Rose realising the injury, very sportingly didn't run a 10 as the home fielders watched from a distance, each weighing up whether it was their responsibility to a. chase the ball or b. run to Ringo's aid.

Alan Russell and James Vassey tried in vain with the next bowling spells, before Smiler resorted to his opening bowlers to finish the innings off. With Ringo retired, our seven fielders were looking a bit sparse. Mark and Golds swapped fielder/wk duties, which gave Mark chance to vent his feelings at fielding on the boundary with his "bad" arm and just gave Golds chance to deny Dom another wicket.

Andre called a halt to Black Rose's innings on 178 for 5. At this point I would normally tell you about the fantastic tea Pat had prepared for our delectation, however we had already scoffed that at an earlier rain break, so it was a ten minute turn around and Smiler and Verno were making their way out to register our reply. Five minutes later Verno was making his way back for 0.

Things were looking grim, we had started with 10 men, Ringo wouldn't be batting and already one of our senior batsmen was back in the hutch. Effectively we were 1 for 3.

Golds continued his fine form of the previous week, and struck the ball well before one shot too many saw him sky the ball off the bowling of Shah for a well made 30.

James Vassey isn't what you would call the typical cultured English left hander. What he lacks in finesse he more than makes up in hand-eye coordination. Bowlers who bowl anywhere near the slot tend to get dispatched. Today was one of James days. 28 runs later he holed out to Shah, but not before he had treated the meagre audience to some glorious drives.

In the meantime skipper Smiler had nicked one to the keeper. Your correspondent had replaced Smiler, and as we went into the last 20 overs we needed about 7 an over. Along with James we managed to move the score along at a reasonable rate before I chose the wrong fielder and was comfortably run out by a couple of feet going for an ambitious 3rd.

Predictably the rest of our innings faded away as Shah cleaned up with figures of 5 for 22 from 9.2 overs.

We had failed by 3.4 overs to survive for a draw, finishing our innings on 122. Oh for a couple of extra batsmen.
We retired to the bar to enjoy Shah's jug and offer our opinions as to England's chances of taking a two to one lead over Australia.

One footnote: the aforementioned Gareth "GIVE ME A MONTH'S NOTICE" Williams signed up for next weeks big match against local rivals Lionel Length in the bar. Fast forward 12 hours and the first email I have awaiting me as I contemplate a week at work, is a short note from G.Williams, " a bit hasty putting my name down for next week, can you get some one else". Ahhh some things have such a nice symmetry!