President's Day

Our club has always held a cricket match where the peers of a former great player combine to play against the current 1st XI for a trophy in memory of his wife. Unfortunately last season saw a decline in the numbers of players still living let alone able to play. So this year it was a nice touch by the President to combine his day with that of the memorial match so that the winner of the President's Day would win the aforementioned trophy.

The day began early as a number of the club members got together for a big fry-up. Bacon, Eggs, Beans, Hash Browns, Mushrooms, Sausages and Black Pudding left us all satisfied.

It has traditionally been a day where we meet some of our antipodean friends that aren't playing at Frimley. Jarv has been down before and returned this year a little more sober than last, smashing 85 along with Scotty who was playing up North with him. Suffice to say that Frimley got a good hiding at the hands of our illustrious President and made for the bar with our tails between our legs (we had been giving El Presidente some stick since winning last seasons contest).

The night went off as usual and beers flowed aplenty. Squidly joined us at the club and we all made for town hearing of a Joe Bananas reunion night. At first we couldn't get in as the bouncers were being less than helpful but Jarv worked some magic on the door and we were finally making our way upstairs...
...only to find that our group had doubled the amount of people in the club! They were prepared to turn us away when there were only 7 people in the place! We decided to stay and make the best of the night which in all honesty turned out to be a bit of a laugh. There was a tragic hen's party consisting of just two girls and a sparsely populated dancefloor but as the night progressed more people showed up and a good night was had by all. Believe me when you go out with Jarv you'll always enjoy yourself!

Restoration

Today a good friend pointed me in the direction of a television series where a guy called Mark Evans restores old cars.
I found the website and ordered the DVD "An MG is Born".
Possibly a bit beyond my skills but I may pick up a gem of info that could save me some time and money.
Thanks Duncan :D

Additional Enquiries

"Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The noise I made was like the sound I used to imagine some unfortunate "hun" in the Victor comics would make as he was shot by "tommy".

It seems that our purchaser's solicitors need to know who is responsible for the pathway leading up to the pathway that leads to our house. Why this doesn't appear on the deeds is anybody's guess but apparently it doesn't; seems our solicitor's overlooked it when we were buying the place.

So the dreaded call needs to be placed to the council; the property was a council house some 20 years ago. Lets just hope that they make me eat my hat again!

I shan't be holding my breath...

Playing Catch Up

Having not been able to get to see P on her birthday and with all the events of recent months it had been quite some time since I had been able to speak with the gang and find out how they are doing and how the kids are.
I went over at lunch and took her presents. We chatted for ages over a good cuppa and informed each other of all the latest developments, some good and others not so. The point had been made though that nothing was to prevent our all keeping in contact. Chief had already made that clear to me on a number of occasions but it was encouraging to hear it from P too.
One at school and the other fast asleep, the kids were not to be seen but arrangements were made to visit again and soon, there is also a massage in the offing ! ! !

Happy birthday P, albeit a few days late...

Woe is the day when there is no competition...

A 30 run victory against a local side was much more comfortable than the stats suggest. They had dropped out of the league at the last minute but maintained the same fixtures as friendly matches. They complained that the league was now too competitive for bringing youth players through to the senior setup and decided that friendlies were the way forward. In my eyes, if they are good enough to play then they are old enough to play and that limiting them to friendly village cricket is simply going to bore them away from the game or end up producing soft cricketers.
It seems this country's need to wrap kids in cotton wool will be the downfall of national sporting success. Our rugby team is in tatters ahead of the defense of their world cup crown and I wonder if that is because the next generation of player has come from a smaller crop of kids because of the turgid matches fought... ...sorry pranced out by instilling 'touch' rugby in schools?
It wasn't long ago that I heard of a school banning sports day because it meant that some poor soul would have to come last and it might their pride. It's ridiculous notions like that which will produce pansies out of these potential winners. What is going to happen to these kids when they finally hit the real world and suddenly there is no prize for coming last?

That said it seems that benefits and housing are often given to the underachievers of this country so perhaps that school is just preparing their kids for life in the real world.

It's disappointing to lose but it's those times that stick in your memory and act as the catalyst for victory the following week and the week after that. It's easy to be a part of a winning team but standing up and being counted when everything is going against you is what marks competitors out against the rest and earns you respect from your team-mates and opposition. Why, oh why, deny that opportunity to the kids of today?

Ladies Day!

Last year this event was probably the best to be held at the Club. This year it didn't quite live up to it's illustrious beginnings. With only four of the lads prepared to don women's clothing it was always going to be a bit of a let down but those that did got cheap beer and proceeded to make the most of it!
The match had been lost so the mood wasn't great and the numbers dwindled pretty quickly. Thankfully Webby, Robins and Skip all made the effort with me so I didn't look a total plumb.
But on a brighter note it was Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary today. They had a lovely day. I had always greatly respected the way in which they had made their marriage work. It's a shame that in this day and age a couple who are prepared to commit to each other for life and stick to that commitment appear to be in the minority.

Happy birthday P!

There were a number of things which stopped me seeing her to celebrate her birthday with her. The details are neither interesting nor important. The fact is I didn't get there. A message was sent but I always view this as a cheap way out. So I planned to see her on Monday.

Slasher

They are top of the league and the table never lies.

They approached the game with an attacking mentality and each of their batsmen came to crease and smashed the ball to all parts from the word go. This cavalier attitude can often be the downfall of a good side but their position in the league proves that it has paid off more often then not for them.

Watching some of them bat was like watching one of those American teen horror movies with some type of slasher bad guy hacking the group of friends up one by one. Each of our bowlers that tried to stand up to this intimidating bowling got short shrift as the was sent careering to the boundary.

As is always the case when we play against this lot there was a lot of bad feeling and words were shouted from the boundary. On a better day during a more successful season we might have been able to let it flow like water off a duck's back but this day and this season I feel that we let our frustrations get to us and crumbled in the face of a side that we could have upset had we approached things in a more professional way.

Our response to their target of 255 was laughable, we managed just 125 before being bowled out. Back to the drawing board methinks.

Let Down By An Old Foe

This evening was supposed to be a match for our under 13 side against a team that we have always had problems with at senior level.

I received a call from their manager very early to state that the pitch was waterlogged and that we would not be able to play. Given that the weather was uncharacteristically dry this week (we managed to play on Wednesday evening) I asked him why he couldn't leave it until later in the day to check the pitch again. He never gave a decent response, rather he just flatly refused to play the game.


This has happened a couple of times during the season and it makes me wonder whether they are unable to field a strong or even complete side and so make up some story to legitimately call the game off rather than forfeit the result.


I'm all for the kids playing as much cricket as they can but in our first season with kids that have never picked up a bat and ball before it woulod have been nice for them to have played in some scheduled matches where they might achieve something.

Taking Responsibility...

...or not as the case may be.

Why is it that some people who take on some responsibility in whatever walk of life then fail to actually deliver or should I say try to deliver on that which they had promised?

People like this are prepared to take the kudos for standing up and being counted when they can garner some improved reputation from it but when it actually comes to rolling your sleeves up and getting your hands dirty they are the ones slinking away from the forefront and apologising because other committments have left them unable to help.

The kind of people that are prepared to drop those 'other committments' are few and far between.

Independance

To all Americans that may be reading this little ditty, I hope you enjoy your independance day celebrations!

To those of you that don't know what this is all about read up on it on Wikipedia on the Independance Day (United States) page.

"I'll eat my hat..."

I had to e-mail the council today to book up 3 home cricket pitches for matches during next week for the colts at very short notice. Given their normal turnaround for any type of business I was expecting the council to drag their feet, um and ah and generally act like the solicitors managing our house sale.

She responded in just over an hour confirming that all 3 pitches had been booked as requested.

So now it is time to eat my hat...

Draft Contract

The draft contract has been written up and is ready to send to the buyer's solicitors. So what is the hold up? Why have we had noe news from our solicitor?

You would have thought that selling a house with no chain on either side would be a straight forward affair. It seems that solicitor's have an inherent need to delay things even when there is no good reason.

Happy

Considering the day and all the events of the past year I'm glad to say that I had a really good day.