Captain - Pete Tagg  (Report by O. Hogg)

Pete won the toss and decided to field. Frank was late and William Pettitt substituted for the time it took for Frank to arrive, get changed and smoke two fags with the opposition before bumbling onto the pitch. Oliver apologised to the batsman, calling Frank a "sloven," while Keith chimed in with "sluggard" which is probably more accurate. William looked very useful in the field.

Stuart and Steve opened the bowling and were knocked around mainly through the slip and gully region which was sparsely populated initially with only Mike and Nigel. When Grimsdyke had given themselves a really good start, Pete replaced the opening bowlers with Keith and himself.

Keith at first put most of the fielders in the slips, choosing to leave Roger at square-leg and Frank at mid-wicket. The batsmen who were very good - according to Keith - decided to drive continually to mid-on, where they scored a lot of runs.

After Pete took the first wicket, a difficult caught and bowled which he very nearly didn’t get to, Keith began to find a bit of line and length. With the addition of an able mid-on, Keith finally slotted into a rhythm and the batsmen began to look at sea. The scoring slowed and Keith removed the second opener plumb lbw.

Grimsdyke’s number four, Hayler, was a rank non-batsman, who by dint of sharp running and friendly umpiring helped Oram add 30 for the third wicket and then another 16 for the fourth. Oram edged a good ball from Roger into Nigel’s gut, and Hayler was fourth out, enormously hoicking Nigel to Steve who held the resulting "skyer." Dobinson came in for a thrash and was bowled by the returning Stuart for four, and Grimsdyke finished with 179 for 5.

At tea opinions were varied as to where everybody should bat. Stuart thought Oliver might make a good opener. Oliver declined. Steve thought he should have a bat as he’d just finished knocking his new one in. Pete asked Frank if he’d like to open. Frank declined.

So Adam and Mike followed by Roger, Stuart, Nigel for another thrash and Frank followed by the rest in any order seemed reasonable. Oliver put himself down at seven, but Pete hadn’t batted all season so he quickly revised that.

Mike and Adam got out in remarkably similar manner, chasing short wide deliveries. Stuart joined Roger for a swift 50 partnership. Roger perished in the deep, amidst great noise from the pavilion, trying to find the boundary at cow corner, where Weldon making ground from deep mid-wicket held on to a fine running catch. Nigel played his usual brief cameo till he was undone by a change of bowling. Then mad Frankie Hanmer helped Stuart, 43, round off the day, with nine out of their 24 taking Barnes to a respectable 132 for 4. Match Drawn.

Pete didn’t get a bat, but most people seemed quite happy with the additions to their averages. Frank, however, had a bit of a scuffle with Oliver, who hadn’t been scoring, about how many fours he’d hit and if they’d been written in the book or not. Pete heroically dragged Oliver off (actually he was underneath) by his injured bowling arm.

It seems that Frank had challenged Oliver to a duel or something as he slapped him across the chops with his batting gloves. Young John Hanmer was quite shocked and apologised to everybody on his father’s behalf.