Village Cricket Match 2007

The 26th August was a glorious day, warm with a blue sky and a slight breeze: the perfect weather for the 3rd Annual Upton Warren Village Cricket Match.  Preparation of the pitch has taken weeks of hard work and grateful thanks must go to John Mac, Barrie Beard and especially to the 'head groundsman' Richard Edgington.

This year the work party gathered early on Saturday as as can be seen the tents and marquees would have graced any event.  Sunday morning saw a gathering of the ladies to prepare the cricket tea - thanks to Chris, Diane, Kay, Jean and all the ladies who prepared a lovely spread.

The Match

Unorthodox is perhaps the politest way of describing the match - you may have heard of 5 a-side football, rugby 7's, there is now 13 a-side cricket but at least everyone who wanted to play got a go!  Captain Jon Tandy and Team B were first to bat putting a creditable 82 onto the score board for their first innings.  Richard Edgington captaining Team A was a little despondent when his openers were dispatched with alacrity (that's a euphemism for 'ducks'!) but the team settled down and were all out for 94.  The second innings was restricted to each member of each team bowling one over.  Team B's total score of 136 all out gave Richard and his merry (very - the beer tent was open) men and women something to go for and they were back in the beer tent fairly quickly having brought their total to 138 in 7 overs.

As for those wondering about Upton Warren bowling Australia out - Stephanie, Will Folley's Australian fiance, was clean bowled!  Man of the Match was Mark Kilminster - an excellent all rounder and already signed up for next year!  Most improved player was Zeno MacDonald - he gets better every year. Captain Jon Tandy was unanimously elected (by Kay [his mum!] and Annie, the scorers) as the 'booby' - he can't bat, he can't bowl and was clean bowled for a duck twice: but he's a great player in every sense and will be back looking for revenge next year!  After the match there was a barbeque party, bonfires and fireworks - a jolly good time had by all - including some Australian tourists who were highjacked and came to join us.

Below are a selection of photo's of the day.  There are far too many people to thank everyone individually and I would hate to miss anyone out - but a special mention to Diane and John who once again let us use the water meadow.

Spectators	The Toss
The Umpires	Team A
Team B	Match in Progress
Match in Progress	Richard, Jon and Kay