"Happy to drop out, I hate playing at Greenwood park". Miserable bugger I thought, but there is a certain truth about this.

It is a pain in the arse to get to in rush hour
its massive. It can take days to fetch the ball from the lower boundary


Moaning aside, having played on the VSB lower pitch, the Greenwood Park ground, is by comparison a massive improvement. Even Colin was having orgasms over the tightly trimmed strip and lush outfield.

Having assembled his troops, Skipper Jones won the toss and promptly invited the opposition to bat. His logic being that we enjoy chasing down shit load of runs in the dark.

The scorecard makes for interesting reading.
After 8 overs Killigrew had only scored 33 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. Opening bowlers Coops and Winfield put in a shift that restricted the batsmen to just 13 runs, the latter only conceding 3 runs in total, his second over a wicket maiden with Williams snaffling a catch at square leg.
First change bowlers His Grace, the WG and Willers continued this excellence, WG finishing with figures of 0-7. Wilson took a wicket in his opening over; Winfield grabbing a mistimed pull shot at mid-on. The Saddoes were clearly feeling rather confident at this point, but Willers' success only brought a big hitter to the crease.
Overs 9 to 16 saw Killigrew up the run rate to just over 8 an over; with a certain amount of luck. Plenty of mis-hits and slices off the bat that just seemed to elude the fielders.

In amongst this carnage, there were some glimmers of hope. Colin's near-maiden over after being spanked in his first and in what was simply the worst delivery of any bowler that evening, a rather over-pitched pie from Bondy clipped the top of the bails. "No ball!", we all cried, having noted the ball passing the batsman at nipple-height, but the umpire was not to be moved. It was shortly after this that I was accused of 'diving' in an attempt cover up a misjudgement in the field. There is some truth to this.

Wrapping up the bowling were Robbo and Williams. Robbo finishing with 1-13 in a robust spell. Williams conceded the only 6 of the innings, in a shambolic spell of pies, wides and log-hops.

Chasing 135 for victory, Saddoes fell short, finishing on 98 off the 20 overs. Killigrew bowled accurately and it felt that we never had a chance. After 12 over we were right in it, only 7 runs behind the rate and with more wickets in hand. Then with a combination of a rapidly fading light, cooling temperatures and a pitch that became lifeless, scoring became more difficult. After the retirements of Williams and Longbottom, the middle order of Busted, Coops Wilson and McKinnon just could not get going.
By the time Bond and WG were slugging it out at the death (and darkness), we needed around 10/over and with Killigrew bringing on their pace bowler, the game was as good as over.

A really good effort from the Saddoes.

The post-match de-brief at the King Harry was a sombre affair washed down with assorted pastries and beer.