P-linky-linky-tink

Angels v Hexham Leazes 2011

Me and the kids used to love building massive towers, palaces and cities from the old wooden bricks that I used to play with as a kid. One of the best bits of the whole thing was giving the structure a little nudge with your finger and watching it topple to the floor. It always made the same sound. A sort of tinkling woody noise. P-linky-linky-tink.

I was reminded of this sound last night when a big, red, fast, hard ball hit 3 wooden stumps and knocked 2 little diddly sticks to the ground.

This time, however, I didn't shout 'Hoorah!' like I would've done with the kids as our tower was destroyed. No. I said a very bad word instead. I think it was 'B*st*rds.' (Apologies to the youths in the team)

I was, of course, playing cricket. Against Hexham Leazes at their beautiful ground - set high in the Hexhamshire hills, overlooking the glorious Tyne Valley with its luscious green, rolling hills and....

set high in the Hexhamshire hills, overlooking the glorious Tyne Valley with its luscious green, rolling hills and....

....actually, they have a really HORRIBLE ground. The wicket is set high on a little grassy plateau. It drops eighty feet down a crevasse to the outfield that rolls gently down the hill like a puckered green tablecloth that's covered in rabbit poo. When you try and chase a ball, you end up like Sally did - arse over tit - but only if you're lucky enough to see the damned thing in the first place.

'Get it Andrea, man!' we all yelled, as the ball was hit towards the edge of the plateau.

'Get what?' Andrea replied, from eighty feet down.

'The ball.'

'I can't see it,' she shrugged. And she couldn't. She would have needed a harness, some carabeners and a few ropes to get to the top of the plateau before she could see the damned ball.

We lost.

And it wasn't really because of the rabbit poo, or the plague of midges that descended at dusk. Nor was it the rigg and furrow pitch (say that quickly - have I got the letters the right way round?)

NO! It was because they had 2 lasses that batted their hearts out and a team of bowlers that sent down 90 mile an hour balls that were all aimed for our little towers of bricks.

P-linky-linky-tink.
P-linky-linky-tink.
P-linky-linky-tink.
P-linky-linky-tink.
P-linky-linky-tink.  
WHACK!....catch
WHACK!....catch
And our brave youth Georgia - not oot.

Haway man - ye nearly took our Cheryl's heed off!

All oot for 40 something - despite Sally's valiant effort - whacking 3 4's in a row, AND then prompting the opposition umpire's remark -  'best shot I've seen all season.'
Get in there Sal!!!

Geddin there Sal

Another 4!

She's not just a wicky, she's a whacker too!

Our little yoof Georgia facing the might of the Leazes bowling

And y'know what, we actually bowled REALLY WELL.

Chloe, Georgia, Cheryl and me all took some brilliant wickets and gained valuable points for the team.

And Kerry was outstanding in her first full game as wicky. Its pretty daunting trying to stop some of our county yoof's bowls as they come flying down at 100 mph, and she did a bloody good job. Good on yer Kerry!

So let's not be daunted.

Let's wash the rabbit poo from our whites.

Let's dab on the Aldi mozzie bite formula on our itchy arms.

And let's build those towers of bricks once more.....

...for Wylam seconds....the return.....tomorrow night.

See ya there!

Angels Flying High!

Apologies for the delay in the write-up. My right hand has only just sufficiently recovered enough to type!

WELL! Where do I start? Lets start at the end...

....WE WON OUR FIRST EVER GAME! Wohooooo!

Winners at Last!

Our opponants, Wylam 2nd team were a bit of a mish mash of 1st team experienced players, slightly less experienced players and a couple of brand new players. We all knew that this was our chance, but it was never going to be a done deal because they had their secret weapon....Shelagh!

We put Wylam in to bat first, and then amazed ourselves with some fabulous bowling, some confident catching (OWWW!) and some great runnning and hoying - especially from the excellent Debbie. (Are you hooked yet?)
The wickets soon started to tumble. My misty memory recalls a brilliant wicket by Chloe - stumps and bails flying everywhere - get in!

Super Chloe!

Jen also foxed the Wylam batting line up with her loopy bowls that enticed the batter to dance down the wicket, then completely miss the ball. Howz that, man! Jen got 2 wickets in all - and the most important one too - Shelagh.

Cheryl and Sandra also bowled really well, with Cheryl even celebrating a wicket just after the ball left her hand. It was heading straight for middle stump, but the Wylam player had the cheek to hit the ball.

Great bowling Cheryl!

Oh - and incidentally - if you're in to reading the league stats - Jen is currently 5th for bowling averages in the entire league. Go on Jen!


And so the marvellous bowling and fielding continued - with splendid catches from Chloe, Karen and me.  I loved it that no-one shouted CA-A-A-A-ATCH! Everyone just took a sharp intake of breath and expected the ball to be dropped, but NO, the Angels were on fire tonight!

And so, with Wylam ALL OOT for 33, we knew we had a real chance to win. We could do this. But we had to keep our heads...and watch out for their tricky bowler - Sheelagh.

In went Cheryl and Jen, and Cheryl didn't hang around - whacking the ball around and getting us off to a great start. Sadly, our star bowler Jen gave the ball a great whack and was caught out. Be patient Jen, your moment will come!

Great shot Cheryl!

Lovely stance Jen!

In I went. Determined to play out Shelagh, and try and get runs off the other bowler. 'Chicken!' Shelagh kept yelling as I constantly blocked her deadly, plum balls (that doesn't sound right does it? Blocking her deadly plum balls?!)

Blocking deadly plum balls

After a decent few runs, Cheryl got oot...

Sorry Cheryl! (But great action shot Adrian!)

 So in came Sally - her job - to slog the other bowler which she promptly did before getting bowled. Oh God - things were looking a bit dodgy now. SURELY we could get 34 runs to win the game.

Slogger Sal....hmm whose are those purple legs? Captions please!...

 In came Sandra. A couple of nice shots and then her horrid, evil husband gave her oot - LBW. Howay man Steve, she's your wife for God's sake - you cannit dee that man!

Next up, Chloe. Our county yoof. Hundreds of years her senior, I felt it was my duty to guide her gently over the next few overs, and so I gave her some advice.....'Divvent whack Shelagh, but you can slog the other wifey.'  'Ok' she said. 'No problem.'

My grandmotherly advice paid off, and Chloe duly slogged the winning runs in style. Woohoooooo!

Chloe smacks away the winning runs!

Chloe's canny pleased, and so she should be!

A very proud captain congratulates Chloe

It was a total and utter team effort, with positive contributions from every single player. We can all feel very proud of our first win. This wasn't a dead cert win game, we really had to work for it, so very well done everyone!

Thank you to Steve, (despite the LBW decision :-))
Thank you to all our lovely Angel supporters
and thank you to everyone who helped prepare the winning feast to help us celebrate. The tea always tastes great after a game, but this one was slightly different - it tasted of victory....DELICIOUS!

We won we won we won we won we won!!!!!!!!

The write up can wait - I'm off to enjoy my bottle of fizz!!!