There was a slight feeling of "After the Lord Major's Show" as the SADS gathered on a lovely evening at the VSD. Whether this was a combination of the memory of the excellent victory at the Tally Ho sports club or the relief that Saturday's curry had finally passed through the system, no one was quite sure.


A queue at the hastily erected medical tent saw Robbo (did I tell you I hurt my leg?), Williams (Welsh), Pointer (have you seen me bowl in the nets?) and He Who Must Not Be Named all put valid cases to keep wicket. The Dark Lord (imperious curse) donned the gloves quickest and after yet another coin toss in the proximity of Jonesy resulted in us fielding first we were led onto the field by skipper Peel accompanied by Peel Jnr kindly making up the XI.


In a throwback to the tour, RoboShed (or ShedRobo) opened the bowling. Their collective minds were perhaps harking back to the summer's Saturday evening surrounded by Birmingham's finest (hen party/canal/busy pub) resulting in an indifferent opening 4 overs supported by some average fielding. Fair to say Gardenfields got off to somewhat of a flier.


Derbyshire's finest, reminiscent of Mike Hendrick in his pomp, exploited indifferent bounce from the VSD surface. Harsha also bowled tidily enough but the opener soon retired. Tim didn't disa-point (see what I did there) with his prediction about his bowling and Jonesy served a tidy chicken and mushroom but a rather bland beef and onion and soon 3 players had retired.


Theories abound as to the source of Yips's yips. "He struggles on tour" one senior team member explained. "But when one of his family plays in the same team, he's shit hot". Banishing the memory of Saturday's bowling which threatened to take the game into a second day, Yips produced an over of guile, off stump accuracy and discipline which had Gardenfields on a hat trick* and earned Yips a double wicket maiden finishing with 2-8.


Our indifferent/pisspoor fielding was rudely interrupted by a piece of brilliance from Harsha in the covers. Swooping on a quick single taken by "Muff" of Gardenfields (too many jokes) he dispensed with the need to use Paggers (He May Now Be Named) behind the stumps scoring a brilliant direct hit.


In an interesting tactical move, Skipper Peel entrusted the death overs to Peel Jnr who accepted the task with relish. Bowling with a lively action he soon induced a false stroke with the ball heading straight to his skipper. Quite what was going through Graham's mind other than "How the fuck do I avoid catching this?" is best left for the Peel breakfast table.

Williams entered the fray from the upper field and bowled an excellent and angry two overs finishing with 1-5.


Chasing 144 to win was tough but manageable provided we got off to a good start. We didn't. Harsha looked as imperious as ever and connected beautifully only to be caught at mid wicket. Bondy avoided the ball hitting his pad but not his wicket and we were soon 4-2.


The law of unexpected consequences has given us many things recently - Trump, Brexit, Yips's double wicket maiden - but rarely can tonight's selectors have imagined it would bring together Roberts and Williams at the crease at the same time. Turning down everything that didn't cross the boundary (and not much did) the game got stuck in its own throat. "We got served quicker in the pubs in Birmingham" one waiting batsman was heard to comment. Robbo eventually flapped at a half tracker and was caught off his gloves, put out his misery by the umpire.

We were now 25-3 after 7 overs and drifting like a plastic bottle in a Birmingham canal.

Enter Peel snr, hero of the bowling - and exit Peel snr - caught for 0.


At 33-4 off 10, with the pressure of victory lifted, Wilson found the middle of the bat well for 15. Williams discovered second gear to reach 25 and when he retired Jones and Paggett combined well to drag the score to a respectable 99.


Before the game finished the amateur sleuths among us began to suspect we had discovered the origins of Jonesy's "helicopter" shot.

Theory 1. It certainly allows access to an otherwise unreachable tight leg side shot, effectively dispatched for 4 early in this innings.

Theory 2. In an attempt to avoid being given out when you glove it to the keeper (this one not spotted) Michael is misguidedly under the opinion that you can not be out if you are not holding the bat. Dermot Reeve successfully benefited from this tactic in 1996 - but this resulted in a change to the Laws - with the result that you can now be out for obstructing the field. Watch out when batting with some of our more trigger happy umpires, Michael!

Theory 3. It's hilarious to watch acting as a distraction to the oppo.


As ever, retirement to the pub for sausage and chips was a happy event with memories of our shit performance immediately forgotten - unless you were Peel Jr perhaps. On to the next one!