Village Cricket Match 2008

After another wet and fairly miserable August the cricket committee were faced with a dilema - by the Friday before Bank Holiday the water meadow was living up to its name and was water logged. So where to hold the match or was cancellation a serious option?  Very kindly Jean and Barry Smith agreed that tents could be pitched and stumps and bales set on their (vast) lawn.

The work party did a sterling job on Saturday and as Sunday dawned fair we were set for the 4th Annual Upton Warren Village Cricket Match.  A very big thank you is due to everyone who helped - the village ladies did a magnificant tea, the barrel of beer was drunk and enormous amounts of food incinerated on a variety of barbeques in the early evening.

Teams this year - picked at random by Kay - were lead by Derry Leech and Tony Hobbis; unusually Upton Warren seems to have invented 15 aside cricket!  Anyone who wanted to play got a chance so instead of 20/20 we played 26/26 - could this set a new trend?  Tony's team went in first and scored 137, Derry's team playing after tea struggled (was there something in the cucumber sandwiches?) and were all out for 85.  Umpiring by Peter Davis and John 'Speedy' Mead was this year augmented by Richard Edgington who dragged himself off his sick bed to attend and he took over from Peter for the second innings.

As noted above the Helen Edgington Trophy went to Team Hobbis, most improved player was Graham Earpe, player of the match was John Cartwright with Grant Smith proudly taking home the wooden spoon (it was observed that when bowling he scored more for the opponents).