The Jolly Boys Cricket Club

The team arrive early to be find a rounders game in full progress. And the eagle eyed amongst us soon notice that the ladies playing can hit the ball better than some of our batsmen.

Following a hospital visit after last weeks game it appears that Dave is sporting a cracked cheekbone. But this doesn't stop him turning out for the Jollys where it soon becomes apparent that he's also suffering from "World Cup Fever".

Put down that kickball and prepare to field young man ! (thank goodness he's not got a Vuvuzela, those things sound like a swarm of demented bees - ed.)

Having lost the toss we were put in to field and a disastrous bowling performance sees us return to the pavillion needing to beat 168 to win. A tall order indeed !

Umpire Tony warms up for our innings by repeatedly flexing his "finger of doom".

And Stuey warms up by hamming it up for the camera. (One for the ladies to make into posters for their bedroom walls methinks ! - ed.)

Oh Disaster ! The very first ball of the innings narrowly clips the top of Toms stumps and he cops for a dreaded "diamond duck". on which note was this the name of a David Bowie album ? (you utter twit - ed.)

This is the worst of all possible starts.

Opener number two, the Ogden-Burger, is soon facing the bowling and the ball must be moving a bit as it beats the bat but, thankfully, also narrowly misses the wicket.

D'oh ! Ogs gets hold of the next one but is well caught. So that's both openers back in for a duck. Things are not looking good at all for the Jollys.

As if by magic two ducks waddle on to the outfield and wonder why the Jollys don't want to give them any bread. (Actually that's only because we hadn't brought any with us - ed.)

Back at the wicket Stu is trying to move things along and is making some nice shots.

Ably supported by Dave who is also scoring a few. Sadly though our run rate is already well behind Warebreck at this point in the innings.

Back on the boundary Dave looks hopefully at the score board and wishes that was our total.

Typically as soon as we'd finished fielding Mr Sun decides to put his hat away and some dark clouds, and another duck, gather over the pavillion.

Thankfully though this duck wasn't an omen as Stu made a very creditable 15 before being bowled, ably supported by Powelly who also made a creditable 13 (and featured on some blurry photos).

So it's time for Ez to get his bat going which he does with a nicely angled single.

Botheration. Another wicket falls as Dave comes back on strike just in time to get bowled.

So now it's "Cockney" Stu at the crease where he starts off by decisively breaking wind in the direction of the square leg umpire.

And with that unpleasantness out of the way it's time for some great cricket shots as he makes his way to top score with 21.

Back at the scoreboard Shannon and Ryan are trying to get the right score up. Sadly we were probably about 50 odd at his point but with about 5 wickets down.

Moving further along the innings I'm afraid it's another close up shot of flying wickets as Dave Stoddard is bowled. In a vain bid to make excuses it must be said that there was a fair old wind blowing towards that wicket whch didn't help our bowling and certainly didn't help our batting.

Back at the pavillion Stu makes a quick call to his bookmakers in a vain bid to try and cancel his bet that we'd win by 10 runs.

Well done sir ! Baz gets off the mark with a well placed shot.

But as the low summer sun floods the pavillion it's now obvious that we're going to end up well behind so we end the evening with our fourth defeat of the season.

But as our club motto says "win, draw or lose there's always the booze !" and once again we retire to the Old Town Hall where Des has put on another excellent tray of sandwiches. Sadly though news now reaches us of Wills shoulder injury so all in all it's been another disastrous week for the Jollys. Get well soon Will is all we can say !