The Angels Awards Ceremony (And BIG Feast)

What a splendid feast at the Angel's end of season gathering last night!

All the usual favourite things like banoffi pie and PEK quiche, and the most amazing corned beef pie supplied by Chloe's mum -

With our bellies and glasses full to the brim, we retired to the lounge for the award ceremony. For those of you that missed it, awards were given to the following Angels....

Wicket of the Season - Jen - for that amazing wicket at home to Stocksfield 1sts.

Giant Slaying Award - Chloe - for the 'Chloe and Goliath' wicket at South North.

Best Bowling Performance - Cheryl - for her remarkable 3 wickets for 4 runs at Wylam.

Top Scorer against Stocksfield 1sts Award - Sandra, who scored a brilliant 12 at home, and Chloe who scored a chart topping 3 away from home.

Only Players NOT to Get a Duck Award - Sally, Karen, Fiona, Debbie.
(Jen also got a special mention for gathering the most ducks of the season - sorry Jen!)

Best Batting Performance - Sally - for that brilliant 35 in the moonlight at South North.
(I was awarded a torch for the 'Blind Old Bat Award' thanks to my performance in this game!)

Coolest Catch - Fiona - for her cool as y'like catch at home v Wylam

Best Catch by a Wicky - Kerry - for that wonderful catch at South North.

Most Catches - Catching Chomse - 4 brilliant catches that placed her 5th in the league!

Catch of the Season - Debbie - for her awesome catch on the line v Hexham Leazes.

Most Versatile Player Award - Gillian for being able to bat left and right handed.
(Gillian was also given a big cheer for the fabulous support she has given the team throughout the season)

Only Player Never to be Bowled Award - Andrea - She's never heard that awful P-Linky-Linky-Tink sound!

Pitch Inspection Award - Tishy - for travelling all the way to Tynemouth to see if the pitch really was flooded. (Tishy also got a cheer for her great wicky-ing performances throughout the season)

Best Tea Award - Only one contender really - Gillian - for her marvellous PEK quiche!

AND FINALLY...

The Most Comical Moment of the Season Award

Runners Up - Sandra and Sally for that (now famous) runout.

But the WINNER of this years Most Comical Moment of the Season Award goes to...

WELL DONE Shelagh. That 'Get Carter' moment of the season was undoubtedly the most comical. You are a worthy winner. (In truth, we're all just completely jealous of what a good cricketer you are and if we'd had a Best non-Angel player Award - it would also go to you!)    :-)

A FAB evening Angels! And just in case you want to watch the slideshow again - here it is...


 

Angels in the Moonlight

As the dregs of hurricane Irene swept around outside, I gazed out of my office window wondering if the cricket would be on.

'It's our last match tonight,' I said quietly.

'Oh,' my colleague replied, not averting her eyes away from the computer screen, 'that's nice.'

'It's against South North - they're really good and their ground is like Lords - we'll get thrashed,' I continued.

'Uh-huh,' said my colleague again, tapping away at the keyboard, and smiling kindly.

'It's been a fab season.'

'Good.'

'Do you want to see our video?'

My colleague glanced at her watch then declared how late she was for a meeting, before leaving me alone with my tummy butterflies. No-one at work understands...

By 5pm, there were no texts to say that South North had been swept away in a flood or blown away by the wind or destroyed in a fire. Our last game of the season was on.

South North batted first. The evening sunshine was bright, the shadows were long and the wind swirled around this beautiful pitch. South North doesn't have nettles for boundaries, it has ropes. The grass isn't covered in worms and mud heaps - it has drainage holes all over it, and it is manicured to perfection. They have clean changing rooms and toilets where you can have a wee in the confidence that you won't be locked in for an hour. It is lovely.

BUT

South North had NO spectators and no soul. No marauding kids digging holes, having fights, climbing trees or getting married. No radgie husbands, fathers or sons yelling from the clubhouse, no dogs, no frogs, no midges, no NOWT.

It was earily quiet as we walked out to field - our own band of loyal supporters were tucked away inside - out of the cold.

Chloe and Jen opened the bowling, and within the first few minutes, Chloe had bowled out their danger player, who stands at 8 feet tall. 'Chloe and Goliath.' She whopped us around the ground last year...but not this time! It gave us all a lift, and we started to believe that maybe...just maybe....

More wickets tumbled as Chloe took another and Super Looper Sewell added another scalp to her season's haul.

And then Kerry's big moment arrived. The batsman scuffed the ball high into the air. It seemed to hang there for an hour as Kerry set herself to take the catch. We held our breath and waited. There was a squeal. For a moment we thought she'd dropped it. But it was a squeal of delight! What a catch!

Cheryl and Sandra's bowling was as accurate as ever and they were unlucky not to get a wicket. Sandra chucked the ball to Jen to see if she could wreak any havoc with the tail end of South North's batting line-up. Super Looper Sewell did not disappoint!

She got 2 wickets in a row to get South North all out for 64. One of these was a catch - coolly taken by Catching Chomse! Tremendous!

Next season, Jen will be on a hat-trick ball! What a performance by our our young bowlers!

By now, the moon had appeared, and it was getting dusky.

As Sally and I strolled out to face - we made a plan. We often make plans as we trundle out there to the crease. We say things like - 'Right, lets shout today,' or 'I'll try not to run you out,' or 'I'm scared, are you?'

Today's plan was simple, and sensible. 'Survive the first 8 overs, then get slogging Sal - we can DO this!'

Their first 8 overs were tricky - one bowler was turning the ball like Swanny and the other was hoying it down like Jimmy Anderson. I defended, swished, swatted and missed everything that wasn't heading for the stumps - Sally played calmly, sensibly and confidently. We ran like hell on the byes and we actually made calls like 'No,' 'Yes' and even 'Wait!'

After surviving 8 overs, we decided to start going for it. I continued to swish, swat and miss - trying my best to see the ball in the darkness (I need to go to Specsavers!) but Sally was unstoppable - whacking 4 x 4's in a row in one over and having some well-deserved fun out there. Our supporters were now braving the cold, trying to pick us out in the moonlight and cheering when they saw 2 little people in white running down the wicket.

With only 6 needed for the win, Sally was bowled for a fantastic 35 runs. It was down to the blind old bat and young Chloe to try and get the runs needed for a memorable win.

We did it. It was brilliant. A total team performance. Smiles all round. A wonderful feeling...

I'm back to work on Tuesday. I imagine the conversation will go something like this -

'We beat South North.'

'Oh?'

'It was amazing.'

'Good.'

Then I'll gaze out of the window, watch the leaves turn brown, wave the butterflies goodbye and smile to myself, longing for the summer to come back soon...

Angels v The Gentlemen (and kids) of Great Whittington

It was their very FIRST match of the season.

The Great Whittington men dug their whites out from the back of the drawer, strapped up their knees and ankles and prepared to take on the mighty...Corbridge Angels!

It was a fabulous game - enjoyed by all of us Angels but even more so by our challengers who thoroughly enjoyed the contest, and who (I think) were a little surprised at the standard of cricket played by their opponants!

In the end, despite putting up a great fight, we couldn't quite match the tactics employed by their evil captain, Eddie, who set his field with a load of slips, short legs and silly mid wickets to catch us all out!

It was great fun, and the GW guys are very keen to play us again next year. It'd be great if we could maybe make this an annual August Bank Holiday event. :-)

Some pics from the day...

A mini-GW batsman in action

OOT! Caught in the slips!

Another mini GW gentleman in action!

Evil Eddie - the GW captain!

Chloe in action - she had a great innings!

Pressure!!

Anxious faces waiting to bat!

Scores on the doors

Game over - GW were the winners.

A great game - many thanks to all the guys from Great Whittington.
Also, BIG thanks to Charlie who umpired brilliantly after 3 pints, Steve who umpired brilliantly despite enduring the pain of his new tattoo! and to Aaron the scorer!

Angels v Under 11's

Thanks for the photo Debbie - another memorable match against our talented youngsters - but I do believe we actually won this time!