The Jolly Boys Cricket Club

In a return to the spirit of old (where every player took it in turns to bring a crate of beer - ed.) Baz has furnished the team with not only a magnificent batch of cider but glasses and ice to go with it. With a start like this how can we fail ?

What's more Stu has found one of the old sponsors hoardings from the 1999 season (I think we were avowedly non leauge at this point - ed.)

And this week the hot evening sees "fortress" Hodgon positively packed out with spectators including the Fylde coasts king of pickled beetroot "Gradely" Bob who's decided to come and see the action in person !

So without further ado let the action commence. This week we're batting first with Tom and Ogs opening. And thanks to the generosity of Des, who has gifted us a Fuji S5000 camera, we can now even zoom in to give you some "proper" action shots. Well watched Tom !

And well played Ogs ! THings have certainly started well with both openers starting to pile on the runs.

Back at midge central the squad are wondering whether Baz's cider was such a good idea after all.

And with no sense of continuity we see last weeks run meister Stu coming back in with a mere 8. With Tom already back on 11 we're starting to get that "gool old" jittery feeling of old. Time for the middle order to pull us together methinks.

Hooray ! A truly delighted (some might say delirious - ed.) Ogs has retired having reached 25. At this point things are still looking good and we're moving things along.

And it's another good action shot as "Cockney" Stu seeks to keep the score tickling along with some fine attacking shots.

Ably supported at the other end by Ezmondo who is having a cracker.

Back at base camp Joe and Ryan can't decide who loves the Jollys the most so they've decided to settle the matter in the old fashioned way - with a fight ! And whilst Joe has the upper hand now Ryan reminds him that he's only 6 and things will not always stay the same. Too true sir, too true.

Well the score is slowly going up but we're losing wickets too. Dave seeks to relieve the tension by having a quick tab in the Jollys "media truck".

And the pictures out of focus but had to be included anyway as "Cockney" Stu returns having scored 25. Well done tha man !

Unfortunately Dave didn't manage to carry on the heroics as a wicked bounce saw the ball positively leap up into his cheek. But on true Jollys style he simply came back to midge central, waited for his nose to stop bleeding and rejoined the action. Good job Baz brought that ice after all !

Back in the middle young Joe is facing and, as usual, is putting many of the squad to shame with his technique as he plays some magnificent defensive shots before opening up with a massive 4 !.

Once again it's the end of the innings and, despiet some heroics from Ogs and "Cockney" Stu we've only managed to amass a total of 110. And on this wicket that's simply not good enough.

Needless to say there are no pictures of us in the field and Rushale managed to beat our total with overs to spare. So once again we end the week with a loss.

But it's not all bad news as we retire to the Old Town Hall where Des has furnished us with a mouth watering array of sandwiches !