The sun shines brighter, Val’s scones are fruitier, and the beer is more bitter/sweet when we win in the League. The 1XI climbed to 4th and the 2XI climbed to 3rd so things are looking good like Cameron (Diaz not David). I do blanch a little at the excitement in the weekly round up about the prospect of the 2XI getting promotion as there are several individuals lingering there who should be playing 1XI on merit. This rather makes a mockery of a 1st and 2nds, and will it be sustainable next year. Bring on a proper selection policy and a bit of competition for places! I really wish someone would tell me why these individuals prefer to play at a lower standard than they are capable. I hope I get a veto on the annual awards. I am not targeting any one individual, I can think of at least four who grumble at any invitation to play 1XI. ?

Having ‘ground my gears’ (thanks Toddy) I turn to the possibility of replacing the crumbling garage with a newish Container, newly painted I would suggest in lime green. I wonder if I will now get my balcony on top, with a little roof garden and retractable drawbridge so I can be truly grumpy on my own. We may also need to fit a drainage system as advancing years have taken a toll on the bladder. Is a disabled lift a little too much to ask?

I spent an enjoyable hour or so last Sunday watching the combined Sunday sides and getting a rare glimpse of our bolt on Sunday 2XI. I think they would admit that they under performed with the bat but what a decent side for a tilt at the village cup next year? Finally thank you Mr Noah for giving me some biblical references to write about in the report and I promise not too many war ones this week when we play Chalfont and Mr Lancaster. There will have to be a few references to ‘bouncing bombs’ from the spinners, the dam bursting and maybe a crash landing or two.

I have not been blogging recently, too busy filling in my World Cup wall chart and sticking pins into my Fabio Coppello doll. Having watched England nervously stutter into the last 16 I am comforted that it could be worse, we could be French.

Having recently enjoyed visits to Little Marlow and Englefield I do get some perspective on where we are as a club. What a good do at the Club for the England vs USA World Cup opener, beer festival and loads of new faces and colts. The game however was so dull that the kids went outside at half time and it was like a scaled down scene from ‘the 300’ with 3,000 under 11’s taking on half a dozen under 17’s at football. Rita tried my patience by handing out mini vuvuzelers but mercifully these soon became discarded in favour of another sausage. Other clubs are struggling for players and some have tried to address the problem by importing players who will never really be affiliated to their clubs. We have chosen a different, but more difficult path of growing our own. This is a more long term strategy, but one that should lay a solid foundation. Well done Dave and the coaches, Club Mark (who?) will be presented on Sunday morning, be there.

My only gripe, and there always has to be one with me, is the cancer that is the reluctance, and in some cases refusal to play for one Hurley team or the other. I think we all could do with thinking more about the club than ourselves. Isn’t it self evident that you only become a better player by playing against better opposition? And really, should we not support the poor souls who have taken on the task of selecting sides every week only to be told that there are conditions to your availability. Come on lets all pull together and be more Beckham than Terry, Moyse than Benitez, Marmite than Vegimite, and rattle than vuvuzela.

Shame Australia didn’t make it out of Group D else we could have beaten them at football as well as rugby and cricket. Bring on the Germans and Amersham Hill, which is more hated?

What a game the other week! I went over to Hurley fully expecting to see fours a plenty but instead it was wall to wall four by fours. I could not park and had to go down the road and sneek into the Old Bell car park. It was the first under 11s game and our boys were taking on the might of Royal Ascot. Set 112 to win in 20 overs, our brave lads set off at a terrific pace (fuelled by coke and fruit pastilles) and as the runs flowed (admittedly mostly in wides) so the bar did a roaring trade. The highlight had to be Ollie Dawkins’ reverse sweep and Dad Lardy’s chest swelled with pride and Stella. Sadly the boys fell just short on 103 but it was a terrific evening albeit a few tears as messing about turned to a split lip for one tadpole. There is certainly a buzz around the place that was not there last year and certainly a few green shoots of recovery. The colts programme is progressing better than expected and we expect to secure Clubmark very soon. The promising U17s are breaking into the senior sides and showing real promise and the two innings from James Taylor and Ross Brown against Little Kingshill were brilliant to watch. It must have been much less fun for the adults bowling to them. I realised that the last time we won the Chilterns League, Ross was only 1 year old and the term ‘fill yer boots’ had a whole different meaning. A miserable evening at Holyport saw us crash out of the League ko in the last over despite the heroics of Jacko. Never mind, we fielded a very reasonable side but never pinned down two of their batsmen. Finally, congrats to Steve T for his century on Sunday and Scotty’s and Sam’s exploits on getting us across the line at Theale. I realise that the weather was not so hot as the Saturday Steve got 52 for the 1XI, but if there is any correlation between runs and the crimson colour of his head then commercial jets must have been using it to approach Heathrow on Sunday.

I have been a bit slow posting my blog, blame the arctic conditions, volcanic ash and concentrating my efforts on winning the pub fantasy football. I fully expect to get a free meal from the chef Sean as I ‘battered' him in the final couple of weeks. Somehow I think I had better not touch the hollandaise sauce or gentleman's relish with the free chips.

And so onto cricket and what an inspiring weekend. It was great to see young George and ‘Paulo' Rossie bolster the flagging 1XI batting and contributing 31 of our tortuous 148-7 to register an opening victory. Bless them, they could not resist the swings on the far side of Denham though before the match. Ross brought down his revision but was prevented from doing much as we took an interest in the paper, something not many of us ever did when we were his age, though I remember Orbes trying the same method of revision nearly 40 years earlier. What with 30 minnows turning up at Hurley for practice Sunday morning maybe we should install a play area on the far side by the ‘mound'. Dave did a roaring trade in bacon butties and now even has the parents bringing contributions for breakfast.     

So, England are World Champions at 20/20. Never mind that for long periods there was not a native born Englishman on the pitch. Cricket is now a multi-national game with players plying their trade across the world much like football. So goes my argument when I alight in Australia for the Ashes if British Airways is still flying. Immigration is a hot topic at the moment, and even if the Coalition brings in controls based purely on skill needs we should be ok for England players. Anyone need a laugh at the Australians not being able to beat the South African 2XI? :

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/identity-theft-foreign-legion-adds-to-our-ashes-pain/story-e6frg7mf-1225867936349

As a cloud of volcanic ash settles over Berkshire, the new season is clouded in uncertainty. Where will the 1XI get a middle order from and will youth fill the gap before the burgeoning over 50's finally call it a day and retire to the Berkshire Over 50's cricket. Mother Hurley is trying to give birth to a new generation of colts to keep the club alive and I am not sure if Ringo is father or midwife. To make another analogy, the excellent CricketForce weekend at Hurley was a little like the happenings in my pond or a scene from American Pie, frantic activity and lots of tadpoles. The U11's held an inaugural training session supervised by Lardy and Veg and the kids looked like they were having fun. The more wizened members painted, chopped, hammered and drank coffee; but it was encouraging to see all this pre-season activity although not too many new faces.

It has been a really long cold winter as everyone kept telling Dave Jackett (9-10 still a club record) when he visited us for a week in March over from Australia. Poor mite could not get over the cold. I think we deserve a good summer but for me that also means some results in the League. I am a little tired of Hurley being the statue and not the pigeon. Time to crap on someone else! If these things go in cycles then we are due a resurgence to the heights of the mid 90's. While it was brilliant to see so many of the Club's greats return for our 50^th celebrations last year we must look forward, build activity on all fronts and make the club a magnet for balmy weekends, burnt flesh and good beer.

And finally, a few questions not in the Summer of Sport.

• How early in the season will Ringo break another finger
• Will Half Way Line still have super powers
• Just how short will Prof's run up be this year
• Will D-Day have a new set of Berkshire (over 50) kit
• Will Dave Walton's arm ball ever reach the wicket
• Will those orbes ever shine so bright
• Will Mike W ever leave the crease
• Will Steve T cheer up
• Will humbug cheer up, how early in the season will he concede the League
• Will Rita ever tell the difference between a run out and a stumping

Have a great season.

 

And so finally the league season has come to a close with the final match for the 1XI at Little Kingshill. A red kite circled over the ground on the look out for a tasty morsel, Ross was on the menu for lunch. Maybe that was the incentive for him to keep moving and score a rapid and shockingly classy 36 for a 15 year old (or a 45 year old for that matter). Was that a whistling of wings, or the wheezing of Denis trying to keep up? Still, there is 40 years between them. The opposition bowler was going to take it easy on Ross until he timed the ball off his toes to the mid wicket boundary faster than Dave Walton heading for tea. Later in the day Dave's opening ‘bomb' provided the comedy moment of the afternoon as the batsman's eyes lit up, his mind calculated seven places where he could deposit the pie, the grass grew another inch, Empires rose and fell, a huge heave and the ball nestled at the base of the middle stump surrounded by bails and fielders rolling around with mirth. The batsman trudged off with a self depreciating smile and I could hear David Lloyd shouting ‘start the car'.

If we ever think we have problems then just look at LK who regularly struggle to field 11, depend on a car full of Sri Lankans from London, and Englefield have folded their 2XI. So another league season comes to a close with real progress in results and playing strength. I watched George Lewis and James Taylor open the batting on Sunday (combined age 30) and add 100 while Sam Draper and Ross Brown added to the youthful profile. George made 92 and would it not have been brilliant if he and Ross the previous week had got their maiden tons at such a tender age. Exciting times ahead if they stay loyal to Hurley, and we are confident that they enjoy it so much that they will. Val will have to ensure there is plenty of jelly and ice cream for tea and some party bags.

I was going to do a bit of a review of the season, but Prof has written one that cannot be bettered so I posted it under ‘News'. Have a read and I challenge the other teams to do similar. Our trophy cabinet may be bare (not only because it was cleaned out some years ago by a ne're do well) but we are in good company with Australia (missing are: Rugby League World Cup, Rugby Union World Cup, International Rules Trophy, Tri Nations Trophy, Super-12 Trophy, Trans-Tasman Touch Football Trophy, Davis Cup,
Hockey World Championship Trophy, Bledisloe Cup, and oh yes, an Ashes urn). Good times ahead I feel especially when we get Clubmark and a sports psychologist.  

For Christmas; the ironic glove for Prof for his hand shake with the most obnoxious cricketer in the league, a red cape for the talismanic Naeem, a Japanese Aircraft carrier for Trev's Zeros, sat nav and a lead duck for his bath for Farooq, metal polish for Orbs as they are getting tainted, cold cream to remove Tim's thumb print, a bionic hand for Ringo, some more black paint for Pete, a draw bridge and moat for Denis, some Aboriginal art to decorate Alex's boomerang ball and 360 points for me next season please.

 

Now, two readers of my match report last week commented that it sounded a little like ‘Watership Down' and now I cannot get the annoying theme tune out of my head. Somebody please shoot me! Next week's report will be based on ‘Titanic', ‘The Poseidon Adventure' or ‘Armageddon'. Just think of all the clichés I can employ (and have done - sunk with out trace, subsided etc) whilst describing our batting. I liked the little bunnies reference but I shall have to think of new and imaginative ways of describing the total inability of the Saturday 1XI to post a score and so ruin my afternoon.

I have a scoring protégé! Mary has been taught by a proper scorer and so appeared on Saturday ready to sub for me as I was due to go to the Oval (but didn't). She then proceeded to upstage me with colours, symbols for byes and leg byes and charts showing umpire signals, none of which remotely resembled Billy Bowden's antics. I managed to keep her in her place by pointing out every little error and not let her copy me. I am the senior scorer after all. I can see that Rita, Mary and I shall have to have a score off at the end of the season. I am whittling my 2B as I write.

When the weather is nice, I like to go down and watch the Sunday 1's for an hour or so, maybe have a beer and swipe a slice of pizza, but this Sunday I had to watch the brilliant Ashe's victory. I had arranged to go and see Ma for dinner, so during the dogged resistance of the 8^th wicket I took my chance and got in the car only to be frustrated by hearing the fall of the 8^th AND 9^th wickets on the radio. I had to get to see the final act, so drove like a loon round idiots oblivious of the history about to be made. Made it in time thanks to Mr Cricket digging in before Swanny got him! Dave in Australia was very gracious so Sydney here I come to see a repeat of the result this summer (here's hoping).

 

 Sometimes, when writing emails and even Blogs, it is worthwhile having a period of reflection before hitting that ‘send' button. I think I have waited long enough. There could not have been two more contrasting days of cricket over the past two weeks for the Saturday 1XI. Two weeks ago we played a team, lets call them Hammersham Mill to preserve their anonymity, and we had a thoroughly unpleasant afternoon. To be fair, we anticipated this having played them earlier in the season. The racket and cacophony of ‘encouragements' while they were fielding was a little like Wimbledon Centre Court, but substitute Andy for Buddy. The ‘common buddy' count and clichés reached epic proportions and was clearly aimed at putting off the batsmen as they obviously did not back their bowlers to do the job. Our obdurate ‘go slow' and determination to grind out a draw would not have been half as effective had they not been so objectionable. Let's hope they get promoted to Division 1 and others can enjoy their particular brand of village cricket.

Meanwhile, at the lovely Little Marlow the silence was blissful, the game enticing and the company witty. The game swung more violently than Linford Christie's shorts and was lit up with a superb century from Naeem to pull us out of another batting mess, Alex R ripping out their middle order with career best 3-22 and the Profster hitting the stumps three times in the penultimate over to secure victory. The opposition were very sporting and even had almost as many as us in the King's Head afterwards; also kudos to the superb rack behind the bar.

The enthusiasm of our colts fills me with great hope. James Taylor was down the club today (Sunday) and in the nets after his brush with a collapsed lung and Portuguese doctors and hopes for a return to the ranks next week. Even dad Steve (who follows my musings) was offering son to the sacrificial altar of the 1XI next year. George Lewis was peddling around the boundary organising drinks and a select batch were contributing to two fine performances by the Saturday sides. Poor Ross could not play this weekend as his parents were going away and would not leave him on his own despite his protests. I am sure someone would have adopted him for the weekend!

And finally, common buddy, I mean Freddy.

 

During the Sunday of the 3^rd Test, my friend in Australia was texting the hell out of me with cliché comments about the weather here. He then tried to suggest that Jimmy Anderson had Australian roots (bleached blond?). I may have jeopardised my trip down under in 2010/11 by saying that I had made a search and could find no criminal record for Jimmy and therefore he did not qualify. The texts stopped.

Now, this little blog is not meant to upset people, it is just a personal view from the boundary, and if I have upset anyone I really do apologise, these are not the views of Hurley CC! Of course a little controversy can be a good thing, I would hate for this blog to be bland and uninteresting, but not offensive. I take full responsibility, my comments are supposed to be constructive, and sometimes we all need a little perspective.

The development plans for the club took another huge step forward last week. About 8 of us gathered to plot the progress of the club. The support of Berks Development Board is dependent on us providing volunteers to train as coaches and deliver structured training sessions for colts next year. We think we have identified 6 but could always use more, anyone else interested should contact Dave Forrest. Things look bright a few years hence, but I worry about this season and next.

Both Saturday sides are beginning to fall away to the blight of brittle batting but the youngsters are doing well. I just hope we can keep them interested until both sides can be competing again.  It was good to see Alex Dunnings, Ross Brown and Alex Ridgeway all contributing on Saturday and Ross and Jack Chambers on Sunday. Well done skippers for giving them a game.

Now hopefully that did not upset anyone except a few million Australians

 

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.