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     A day of rather indifferent weather and quite cool into the bargain. As this as the first game of the season we were well pleased to get a full team up, including twp recent recruits, Neil Howarth and Lou West. So it was with some disappointment we were greeted with just the two - yes two - of the opposition. Three more were on their way and once arrived we all split into two teams of eight and had a bit of a knock around. 

     Everyone had a good time and a fair few runs were scored - interestingly there was not one duck between all sixteen players - but you cannot really count it as a proper match. As such, the scores will not be listed here, nor counted toward the averages.

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     The first "proper" game of the season was a home game. As we were waiting for the work to commence on the grass wickets at West End, "home" meant at Frimley Lodge Ground for today's venue. Elthorne batted first but their first few wickets fell reasonably cheaply, Barrett claiming opener David for nought. Peter M. and Nick Marsden with 35 and 71 respectively then formed the backbone of the innings. Only Howard Turner kept troubling the batsmen to finish with 4 for 41 and Elthorne were all out for 205 at tea.

     The top four West End batsmen got off the mark okay and led us to nearly 50 for just the two wickets. All fell before 20 including Ben Pudney especially looked comfortable but could not add to his 19. Dave Lamb went for a surprising duck bringing in newcomer Neil Howarth. A cameo from Adrian Barrett gave a little relief and helped shore up the lower end. But ultimately it was all in vain as West End were all out for 108.

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     West End batted first against Chertsey Rec. and saw every man get off the mark. Yet only three got into double figures. Opener Lou West managed 12 but saw  his partner Matt Balkwill depart for 3 in the fifth over. Ben Pudney looked confident but was caught whilst Kev Cheeseman scored 6. Yewer did most of the damage claiming three of the first four scalps. Johnno Greathead came in and grafted for a slow 18 not out but no-one stayed with him and it was reasonable for the opposition to think the last wicket was imminent. Until Craig Weston came in that is, and had a whale of a time knocking up a spirit-boosting 37! Then Thrift bowled him to finish with figures of 0.2-0-0-1.

     For Chertsey Rec's reply, well, there's not a lot to say. "Stonewall" Ken Eagles and his son Stuart opened their innings and were still there at the close having scored the required amount well within the allotted time. West End's bowlers failed to trouble the umpires. They also failed to trouble the batsmen, which was the main problem. Not so much a problem was West End's team troubling the barman at the club a bit sooner than expected. Okay okay, we lost good and proper!

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     This came was not played, cancelled, aborted, cunningly avoided, got out of, unrequired due to difficulties unforeseen, surplus to requirements, extraneous from the fixture list, extrapolated, excommunicated, sent to Coventry, blasted into orbit, went down the drain, up the spout, round the bend, headfirst into oblivion, and a whole multitude of other collective nasties.

     The second innings description would ordinarily appeared here but as there was a non-appearance of aforesaid game it is with some difficulty that it can be described in such detail as to make clear the circumstances by which the non-combatative nature of the game can in any respect be attributed with the respect which it plainly doesn't deserve.

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