Well what can I say?

Well I can say
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?"  

but it's not really relevant to this report so I won't

First of all, a big thank you to James for massive hard work in getting us in a position to play. There had been a 10 minute downpour earlier which put the game at serious risk but James cut another wicket and worked hard to give the game a chance. Even so it looked gloomy at the start and we agreed to reduce the game to 16 overs.

We were playing Profit and Loss today? Nope! Papplewick and Linby is their name.

Debut captain Zac lost the toss, but they elected to bat which is what we wanted so no problem there.

The gloomy weather and uncertainty over whether we would play definitely seemed to have an effect on the team. Fielding was not as sharp as usual, giving away unnecessary singles and looking generally untidy in, for example, returning the ball to the bowler. Things did pick up as their innings went along but we need to be sharp from the start for the rest of the season.

Zac opened along with Ruth with playing conditions that made bowling more tricky than normal. Delivery strides were impacted by wet landing areas and the ball was getting stuck in the pitch sitting up nicely for those batsmen who read it well. Others contributed well but I sensed that none felt comfortable with the condition of either the pitch or the ball.

We needed wickets but their openers kept the scoreboard moving. It didn’t feel like they were running away but they reached 98 for 1 off 16 which was a real target.

Bowling:- Zac 3 overs for 12, Ruth 3 overs for 20, Emily 3 overs for 18, Josh 3 overs for 24, Eliot 2 overs 1 for 12 (Nice catch from Richard) and Greg 2 overs for 10.

It was a good target, but with the conditions you couldn’t tell.

Jake and Joe opened. Unfortunately Jake went early but Eliot joined Joe and a good partnership followed. Joe (15) and Eliot (30) kept us in some sort of touch but as wickets fell the run rate required increased and we ended on 70 for 6 off the 16 overs.

The 30 run gap between the sides did not feel like it reflected their respective quality but P&L did everything that bit better than we did so victory was well deserved.

Special mention must be made of Robbie’s excellent debut as keeper. I hope he enjoyed it. I’d also like to call out Ollie’s fielding which was faultless.

I’m not sure what Peter Piper would have made of it but, to be honest, pickled peppers sound naff so I don’t care!

I am also monitoring the John Stanley attendance to burgers availability ratio.

Thanks to Stuart for umpiring, Ted and Richard for scoring and James, once again for giving us the chance to play.

Team
Zac Ashworth
Jake Saleh
Joe Stutchbury
Eliot Checkley
Ollie Stanley
Robbie Brown
Ruth Sprawson
Richard Brock
Josh Cottam
Emily Stutchbury
Greg Behl