An Il-ston too steep to climb

It was the week of the opposition okey cokey. Several teams thought they were worthy of facing Scooters All Stars but finally Ilston Abbey arrived and what an afternoon it was.

Three late drop outs had left the visitors with only 8 players, 5 of them with the surname Malik. Apparently on any given Saturday there can be 9 of that family in the same side. We also were told there were two others that could be called upon to make a full team and would we be interested in playing them? I have no doubt we would be I ain't volunteering to score that one....

Ilston batted first and Scooter sent out messages to recruit new players, he wasn't successful but in a way that set the game up perfectly. You see, the players that Ilston had were of a fine standard, their batting team didn't need 11 players.

Three free flowing visiting batters reached the pre agreed retirement figure of 50, and in good time too. Scoot allowed young Shahan Malik a second chance to bat to try and even things up a little but Ilston still finished on 273.

To maintain the bon aimee the visitors were offered spare fielders which they declined but reserved the right to call upon should the runs flow too quickly. However when Imran and Nigel were already back in the hutch with only 2 runs on the board that seemed fanciful and seasoned Sunday watchers were whispering the word 'Ibstock', they need not have worried.

Lennon Devlin scored 17 in a promising innings from a promising player. Mandeep who had already secured the MVP by bringing both Samosas and Bombay Mix blasted a typically entertaining 50, The Mole matched that (albeit in a more sedate fashion) but he loses marks for not running the single that would have matched Lucy Batemans top score. Mohit got 27 , heck even the fat (usual keeper ) got three boundaries in an innings of 16.

In the end Fleckney fell 50 short but it didn't really matter. Ilston, we salute both the way you played the game and the way you represented yourselves and your club.

Hot day, hot Bombay Mix, lovely afternoon of Cricket..Who would want more?.