Chocolate puns

E.C.C.C v Stanton Drew

Following a long-awaited deluge that left gardening cricketers with a split personality, the wicket at Frys in Keynsham was a bit soggy for the Cowboys' home match against Stanton Drew. Clearly, the only sane option was to bowl first and use the unpredictability of the wicket to get the opposition out, but for the second week running the benevolent Saturday skipper refused to deny the late-arriving opposition captain the chance to toss and when the coin landed in the mud, it was the Cowboys' opening batsmen who padded up.

It was still sunny, muggy and hot enough to melt a factory full of Crunchie bars (had production of the aforementioned honeycombed chocolate not ceased at the Somerdale site last autumn and moved to Poland) but more importantly, make the ball swing. Dave and Paul battled watchfully as the opening bowlers produced bananas, until Paul was bowled by a peach.

The score trickled along while Simon found his feet, until last week's centurion fell early, bringing Ev to the wicket. As Simon stroked the ball around at one end, Ev cautiously blocked at the other, producing a nice symmetry of dots against his name in the scorebook until eventually being caught at the wicket. Steve then provided a similar supporting foil for Simon, who by now had found the boundary a few times and was helping the score along. When he too was bowled, for a Man of the Match winning innings of 34 and Steve had found the keeper's gloves, Kahlu and Gretch came to the wicket to try a different approach, the former smacking the ball into the trees and provoking an extra flurry of blossom.

Such a direct approach was fraught with danger and sure enough, Kahlu soon departed to a good tumbling catch near the boundary, bringing the owner of a 'messy' ankle to join Gretch at the wicket. Defying probability, the ankle was further battered by a mistimed drive a few balls later but held up for a few twenty-two yard scampers. A couple of welcome pies were gratefully gobbled and sent to the boundary until greedily grabbing at one out of the crease, the keeper removed the bails.

Joe came in and looked stylish with the bat for a while, befitting of his orange cap, Gretch departed having arrived at double figures and Rich succumbed after a promising boundary. Not out batsman Rob, seeing the ball well, helped give some respectability to an otherwise rather crumbly and flaky batting performance as the Cowboys went to tea to contemplate defending 127 runs.

The overlap of sporting seasons brought cricketers and footballers into close proximity in the clubhouse as polystyrene plates were impatiently shuffled and doughnuts eagerly anticipated, but as players returned to the top field afterwards, the sky was past overcast and at an ominous dark grey.

The first spots of rain came as the Cowboys gathered towels and prepared to take to the field, but it was the opposition batsmen who declared the earliest interest in not wanting to get wet, retreating to the cover of chestnut trees. For the next hour, depending on your vision and outlook, the weather was improving / worsening and there was every / no chance of further play. There were those in both camps who at one time or another wandered towards and loitered around the wicket looking for a denouement, but in the end, there wasn't even a Wispa.

The match was abandoned just after six o'clock for a cider Cider Moment in the skittle alley.

Scorecard