Tour Begins

The feeling I get each time I'm at the Club on the morning of tour is incredible. It's like being a little kid again on the morning of your birthday or Christmas, having woken too early, just sitting there waiting for everyone else to get up so that you can open your presents. It's one of those moments where you know that you're going to have some great laughs with your best friends.

Herman jumped in with me, the car stocked up with all our clothes, cricket gear and beers. The journey down took just over 2 hours with Bandai trailing us. He was carrying Dazza who had made a welcome return to England just to come on tour with us (admittedly he had only been in Scotland seeing family and friends). Dazza had come over from Tasmania to play with us back in 1998 along with Minty. They were both great cricketers and top blokes too. In fact I had travelled out to Tassie that Winter and stayed with Minty for about a month.

Our usual meet in Bickleigh at the Fisherman's Cot started with an attempt to fix the faulty passenger window. Pritts lent me a screwdriver and I tried to get it sorted, eventually leaving it wound up never to be opened again. Oh the woes of owning a classic car. As ever the food at the pub was tremendous and the views fantastic, marred only very slightly by a few spits of rain.

Onward to Thorverton for the first game of the tour. I had been pencilled in to play this match but as Bro was coming down just for the one day I sat it out so that he could get at least one game in. Thorverton are a fun side and we have played this game first on tour for as long as I can remember. As ever the game was played in great spirits and when they heard that tomorrow's game against Filleigh had been called off they offered us another match to fill the gap in. We obviously accepted their generous offer and after a few beers with them all we made for the hotel.


A shower and a quick settle in to the rooms and we were ready to hit the town hard. The plan was to converge on the local Aussie theme bar and then stagger onto Rococos, possibly the cheesiest nightclub in Exeter but the scene of some cracking times on previous tours. A few shots later and we dragged ourselves out of the Walkabout bar and made for the nightclub. It wasn't as busy as it usually gets when we first arrived so we sat at the bar and started on some more drinks. Taffy and Herman were practicing their model poses made famous in the comedy Zoolander, the latter using this as his "pull story." The night improved as more and more of the locals arrived and the place was soon pumping to the sounds of dance music and we were all gracing the floor and the blocks with our presence.

As is always the case with Roccocos the best place to pick up is in the Golden Horn kebab house on the corner having just left; Bandai and Robins obliged picking up two of the most horrendous specimens of the female form. I'm not prepared to go into details, not because I'm a prude but simply because I may vomit over the keyboard as I type. I'm feeling a little queasy at the thought so I'll sign off. See you tomorrow.

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!

Leo Sayer

With no game today and a bank holiday the following day we all converged on the Club with the intention of going on a "Leo Sayer". The Carlton Colds flowed a plenty as we whiled the early afternoon away enjoying what we knew was going to become a huge drinking session.
A mammoth hand of poker ensued, a game which if you remember I am no good at, and for the first time in ages I partook. I got the distinct impression that I was being favoured by my mates as one by one they were dropping out whist me a mere rookie began collecting chips for fun. Victory was mine as a punt on a bad hand went my way which left me feeling on top of the world, albeit if I had been handed the win.
As more drinks came and went in the usual manner our thoughts turned to sustenance and Pizza's became the order of the day. A quick bite and then we were preparing to head out to a local club to round the evening off.
Having queued for over an hour I was desperate for a drink as we entered the club, JD and cokes by this point had taken centre stage, a favourite tipple of mine. The club played on around me as my stupour began to take hold. I had been drinking since before midday and it was taking it's toll on me, until I finally gave in and fell asleep. I woke up still in the club to find a girl talking to me, quite how she hadn't noticed I was sparko I don't know, but with a head on me already I had to just get up and go. Fortunately H was on hand to pick us up and Herman, one of his mates, Robins and me all piled into her car and got taken back.