Stebbing sporting calendar 09:3 Village vs church Cricket match

Last night, in typical English fashion, we played a game of cricket in the rain!

Thunder and hail greeted teams from the church and the village as we arrived at the cricket ground. The Barbecue was sizzling away, and meanwhile lots of um-ing and ah-ing went on during multiple pitch inspections by members of both teams and legendary groundsman Wal.

In the end we had the post-match barbecue first to see if the rain would stop, and then we agreed to play 12 overs each, on the practice wicket. The church batted first, and scored the mighty total of 95 for 8 (which is more than we scored last year in 20 overs without the rain!) Despite not having picked up a bat since last years' game I enjoyed myself at the (very muddy)crease, but only managed 3 runs. However, our youth group provided some excellent batsmen who amassed the grand total with great aplomb.

It may have been the lager supplied with the barbecue, but the village team, in spite of fielding some new signings, could only get to 83 for 5 off their twelve overs, in spite of the fact that during their innings the rain stopped! Once again our youthful bowlers did the damage; many runs were scored by the village team due to the inability of the more senior fielders to throw the ball to the stumps from anywhere beyond square leg!

It had been pointed out that the church last won this game when the vicar was umpiring and the vicar's wife was scoring, but that was before our time, and I can confirm that no skulduggery was involved. Here are some more photos to prove it!