Having suffered deep depression at the 1XI dismissal for 88 against Holyport and bemoaned our lack of batting, I was only a little more buoyed by the 188 against Wargrave, but another defeat. Veggie's 77 was pivotal to us staying in the game. But 6 lbw's in the match spoilt a fine afternoon even though they were evenly distributed. I thought the rule was give the batsman the benefit of the doubt. Veggies kit hit the clubhouse wall with another dubious decision this time for a run out and messed up my book when he was called back 4 minutes later, poor Sam having already taken guard. The dear lady who gave me the finger whilst driving home the other week would make a fine umpire I thought, blind but dexterous. Sadly she did not look like the lingerie model co driver for James May in top Gear last night, and I had to laugh as he leant across to help her with her seatbelt and was in danger of brushing against ‘the works of the Devine plotter'.  The Saturday 2XI move up to 4^th and are in danger of promotion. If they achieve that it will be a tremendous effort and will achieve one of our goals in the new development plan.

An exciting opportunity with Berkshire Cricket Development Board has come about thanks to the persistence of Ringo. It is an opportunity to lay real foundations for a sustainable club but it does require commitment from at least half the club. We are confident of putting forward at least 4 members to become coaches and then run regular structured evenings down the club. BCDB will go into schools and help us get the colts which should lead to U11, U13, U15 and U17 and then hopefully a conveyor belt of talent for the senior sides. It is a five year plan but one we must commit to if Hurley is to survive and prosper.  So if you have some time any Wednesday, come down the club in the evening and join the not so Devine plotters of Hurley's world domination.

The beer festival and BBQ was a qualified success with perhaps 30 to 40 people in attendance. It was good to see 3 colts stay for a burger to line their stomachs but then disappear with a bottle of apple schnapps to the serenity of Val's mound. Rumour has it one small batsman only rented his quota and left Jeff with a nasty stain on the outfield.  Lets see if we can make the 50 year celebration even better on Sept 12th.