2004 Reports
The following fixtures took place, and the reports are below. To jump straight to a particular report click on the opposition's name in the list below.
Day |
Date |
Opposition |
Venue |
Start Time |
Saturday |
June 26th |
Bedales |
2.15 |
|
Monday |
July 19th |
Bedales |
2.00 |
|
Tuesday |
July 20th |
Bedales |
2.00 |
|
Wednesday |
July 21st |
Steep |
2.00 |
|
Thursday |
July 22nd |
Bedales |
2.00 |
|
Friday |
July 23ed |
Bedales |
2.00 |
Stoner v Bedales
Saturday June 26th 2004
Stoner 129-5 (22 overs)
Bedales 131-7 (24.4 overs)
Bedales won by 3 wickets
Within the time constraints imposed by playing on
Parent's Day at Bedales this appears to have been a
very good match. I report this largely from the scorebook, but it seems Stoner
batted first and after a slow start, particularly against the school's star
player Aj Vyas who had
figures of 5-2-18-2, Adrian Odell made 45 and Matt Evans 32* to post a
respectable total of 129-5. Bedales had 25 overs to chase this, and Ed Odell opened with 27 to get
them on their way. Justin Jones kept the game alive, taking 2-40 in 6 overs and as the match got closer at the end Ollie B (no
full name in the book!) made 35 for the school while Matt Evans showed his new
status as an all rounder by having figures of 4-1-12-3. In the end the school
scraped home by 3 wickets in the last over, in what seems to have been an
excellent game.
Monday July 19th, 2004
Wooburn won toss
Wooburn 243-5 dec.
Stoner 214-9
Draw
After 6 weeks of almost continually poor weather
Stoner Week started with relatively warm sunshine and an optimistic weather
forecast, no doubt a great relief to the increasing number of members planning
to camp for the week. Unfortunately for Stoner they had to test the warmer
weather by fielding in it, though whether Justin Jones chose to do so or was
asked remains a closely guarded secret.
Ben Roberts and Ben Seddon
opened the bowling with some tidy seam bowling, Roberts also getting a degree
of swing in the humid conditions. The early pressure produced a wicket for each
of the openers, with Seddon bowling Tennant for 10
and Roberts having Pidgeon smartly caught behind for
0. Roberts was taken off after a short opening spell and replaced by Ed Ellis,
who also picked up a wicket, having Scouse bowled for
13. The next partnership, though, took the game right away from Stoner. Ellis
(with 1-24 in 8) could not make the breakthrough, nor could Seddon.
A short second spell from Ben Roberts only served to slightly spoil his
initially very economic figures, leaving him with 1-15 in 7 overs,
4 of them maidens. Ed Odell, on his Stoner debut bowled well, getting some turn
and drift with his legbreaks, but had little luck,
ending with 0-33 in 9 overs. Skipper Justin Jones
went for 32 in 4 overs and even the late arriving
Matt Evans could do little to get things back under control until he eventually
bowled Tennant for 77 to end a partnership of about 150. Ben Seddon returned to take another wicket, that of Barker for
5, but Jeff Morris then joined Alan Cuthbert in an onslaught that brought a
fairly early declaration at 243-5, Cuthbert ending on 89*.
Stoner had about 1 ¼ hours plus 20 overs
to chase the target, but the opening pace attack meant Wooburn
did not get through their overs as quickly as Stoner
had, and in the end that amounted to 42 overs, 4 less
than Stoner had bowled themselves. Justin Jones was anxious to make a quick
start and was soon unleashing his usual barrage of attacking shots including a
huge straight six off Tennant which landed on the bottom of the bank by the
tennis courts. Meanwhile Matthew Quantrill was
playing himself in patiently against the slightly more hostile bowling of Bushnall, cracking a square cut for 4 from the first loose
ball he received. Shortly afterwards, though, he got a top edge to a shorter
ball and was caught by slip tumbling backwards. Jones carried on the attack,
though he was hampered by an injury to his ankle caused by driving a ball
straight into it! He reached 40 before being rather bizarrely run out by Bushnall, who followed through to a defensive push, picked
it up and hurled it at the stumps, catching Jones not quite getting back to his
ground in time.
Ben Seddon also played
well for a while for 17 before he and Angus Finney were out in quick succession
in Bushnall's last 2 overs
– he ended up with 3-24 in 9. Ben Roberts and Matt Evans then put on the best
partnership of the innings, 67, before Evans was eventually bowled by Pidgeon for 26. By this stage spin was on at both ends to
keep Stoner interested in chasing the 7 an over they needed, and though the
rate slipped slightly they continued to chase hard. Ben Roberts was eventually
caught for 46 and Adrian Odell was bowled shortly afterwards, but Ed Ellis and
Sam Roberts put on 38 for the 8th wicket, aided by 22 from one Pidgeon over when the rate seemed to be getting out of
reach. Pidgeon had his revenge, having Ellis stumped
for 32, and after a quick 8 from Ed Odell Derek and Sam Roberts played out the
last few overs for the draw with some comfort.
A good game to start the week, Wooburn as usual producing a good side who
played the game well, but enjoyed themselves and played in good spirit. They
had the better of the game, but in the end the draw was perhaps a fair result
as Stoner lost wickets at the end throwing everything at the run chase.
Tuesday July 20th, 2004
Stoner 226-7 dec.
Mike Adams' XI 157 all out
Stoner won by 69runs.
Having struggled to raise a team Mike Adams
arrived with ten, made up to an XI by Sam Roberts. It was not as strong a side
as he has produced in the past, and Angus Finney was delighted to win the toss
on another warm afternoon and be able to bat. He opened himself with Matthew Quantrill, and the first 5 runs came courtesy of a number
of wides by the opening bowler, Runsley,
including the first ball of the match which ended up going over center stump on the next wicket along. Once he found his
line, though, the bowling was tidy, but not too threatening and both batsmen
played themselves in comfortably. 50 were added for the first wicket before the
openers were seen off and the off spin of Wade was introduced. In his first
over he put a short one down the leg side and Quantrill
got under a pull shot and was caught on the boundary. Finney went on to 38
before popping one back to the bowler, and soon after that Barney Green, who
had made a quick 21 was run out following a slightly optimistic call by Ben
Roberts. Colin Baty was also caught quickly, but
Laurie Goldsmith looked in good nick as he and Ben Roberts put on 30. Roberts
was caught and bowled by Wade for 26 and Goldsmith bowled by a good one from
Jones, who had started off as wicketkeeper, for 24. At 147-6 Stoner were threatening
to fall far short of the score they were aiming at, but Ed Ellis (25*) and
Justin Jones (58) then added a rapid 79 for the 7th wicket in just over 9 overs, allowing Stoner to declare on 226-7 when Jones was
caught behind.
Ben Roberts and Barney Green then opened up with
another tidy spell of seam. Roberts only conceded 9 runs in his 6 overs, but it was Green who got the breakthroughs, getting
one opener brilliantly caught one handed in the gully by Colin Baty while the other was more straightforwardly caught
behind to a tiny edge, giving Green 2-17. After this it was spin all the way,
with off spinners Colin Baty and Ed Ellis sharing the
overs from one end while Ed Odell bowled his leg spin
unchanged at the other. He was unlucky not to take a wicket early on when Molyneaux edged one which was juggled and held by Quantrill behind the stumps, only for the umpire to give it
not out. It was a short reprieve for the batsman, who was run out in the next
over, just possibly deliberately by his partner who had also thought the edge
behind was out! Odell then got the wicket he deserved, bowling Ransley who tried to sweep a leg side ball and was beaten
by the turn. Colin Baty joined the action when he had
the dangerous looking Wells caught at mid-wicket driving uppishly,
though Wells was replaced by the captain, Oli Jones, who
also looked an accomplished bat. His partner, Les Wade, was standing out of his
ground to both spinners, and playing forward, so a stumping always looked a
possibility. This possibility seemed to become reality when he went down the
wicket to a legside ball from Odell and was well
beaten. He was some 3 yards down the wicket when the ball arrived at the
keeper, Quantrill, who took it very wide, and threw
it back onto the stumps, hitting them with Wade stranded. Stoner's celebrations
were cut short, though, when the batsman didn't walk and the umpire didn't give
it out, claiming that he thought Quantrill had
knocked the bails off with his gloves and dropped the ball! One of the more
bizarre umpiring decisions in cricketing history particularly as Quantrill wasn't within touching distance of the stumps
when he took the ball, but justice was served a few balls later when Wade was
again beaten, this time by a much straighter ball which Quantrill
could take easily and remove the bails with Wade almost as far down the track
as he had been to the first one. This time the umpire couldn't find any excuse
not to give it and Odell had another well deserved wicket. There followed a
useful partnership between Jones and Bowerly, adding
41 in 9 overs before Bowerly
was eventually well caught by Colin Baty running
round from mid-on to mid-off after the batsman mistimed a straight drive off Ed
Ellis. Chris Wade went soon afterwards, caught and bowled by Odell. There then
followed a glorious moment of classic cricketing mix up, as Sam Roberts asked
Wade to run for him as he was suffering from a strained thigh. His second ball
was hit to mid wicket, and a single was called. Sam forgot that he had a
runner, and set off, as did his runner. The runner made the run, as did the
batsman at the other end. Sam, though, stopped half way, and tried to return to
his ground. The throw, though, beat him by several yards, and there were
appeals. Then the confusion started. The law is quite straightforward – the
batsman with a runner must stay in his ground, or he can be run out. It seems
that the square leg umpire knew this, but he (the same umpire who had missed
the earlier stumping!) thought Sam was in. Most of the fielders and batsman
didn't know the law, so there was lots of debating going on. Fortunately Mike
Adams, umpire at the bowlers end, did know the law and had seen that Sam was
out of his ground, and he intervened to give Sam out. A classic moment, it was
naturally awarded the Low Alcohol Lager Moment of the Week at the AGM.
One interesting side question to this debate,
though, which wasn't really spotted, was this. Sam was run out at the batsman's
end. The not out batsman was already in at that end, and the runner was in at
the other end. Which end should the new batsman have gone to? As it happens he
went to the non-striker's end, and no one queried it. As it was the end of the
over this became the strikers end, and the batsman, Moore, who made no claims
to being a competent cricketer, somehow survived a full over from Ed Ellis.
Seeing that his partner was struggling Jones, who was still in at the other
end, decided he may as well try all out attack, and hit the first 4 balls of
Odell's next over for 6,6,4 & 6 before pulling the
next one to Ben Roberts on the boundary, ending up with 69 and giving Odell
figures of 4-82, which would have been 5 had the first catch been given to him.
Another enjoyable game despite the controversy
surrounding some of the decisions, but with most of Mike Adams' regular now
reaching retirement age the decision was made in the pub afterwards that next
year would be the final year that he would raise a team. Following on from this
further discussions in the week decided to try and make something of an event
of that game – so to any Stoner members out there who have sort of hung up
their boots, but feel there might be one final game left in them make a date
for your diary for next year – provisionally it will be Tuesday the 26th
of July 2005 and Mike Russell has promised to cater for an event afterwards.
Stoner v Steep
Wednesday July 21st, 2004
Stoner 221 all out
Steep 130-8
Draw
The annual grudge match (for Matt Evans and one
or two of the younger Steep players who make the mistake of taking him half
seriously) was eagerly anticipated. A morning of looming grey clouds threatened
disappointment, but no rain fell until the teams were taking the field when
there was a short heavy shower, which forced them off the pitch. Fortunately it
lasted only for a minute or two, and this short burst seemed to satisfy the
rain gods, as the weather then cleared up and from then on the game was for the
most part played in warm sunshine.
Stoner captain Evans was late arriving, being
busy selling weapons of mass destruction to various dodgy countries around the
world. (Did you ever wonder how we knew
The number 3 position was taken by Adrian Odell,
slightly reluctantly, in the light of various excuses of other candidates –
Laurie Goldsmith (late) and Barney Green (left his kit in his Mum's car and had
to ask her to drive down from Guildford specially (on her birthday!)) not able
to take the position.
At this point, at about 4.25, Ben was joined by
Matt 'Grind Them Into The Dust' Evans. The time may
have seemed right for a few attacking shots and an early declaration, but Evans
was taking no chances. Another 8 overs were used as
39 more runs were added before Evans was LBW for 27 and Ben shortly afterwards
caught and bowled by Shaw for 32, the 9th wicket stand of 39
being accompanied by increasingly less subtle hints form all corners of
the ground that it might be time for a declaration. These ranged from Stoner
members calling out 'Well batted' and clapping at the end of each over to moans
about hunger pains from the fielders. Impervious to it all Evans ploughed on
until forced to concede that Steep should be allowed a bat by the fact that
Stoner were all out!
Tea was provided by Rollo
Wicksteed and Tess Evans,
and was marked by a presentation to Rollo of a
scorebook from one of his earliest Stoner matches some 50 years ago. (photographs of this occasion have been added to the gallery.)
He was presented with this by the newest Stoner Vice-President, Wendy Sanger,
who perhaps little knew what a web she was entangling herself in when she added
a little credit to herself to the Stoner fixture list that she prepares for us.
For those who don't know who she is this may be a good time to explain that she
is the Bursar's assistant at Bedales, who has
prepared and printed our fixture card for a number of years as well as giving
other assistance in liaison with the school. This game marked her first visit
to the cricket pitch during Stoner Week, and though she has (so far) resisted
efforts to get her to the
This may also be an opportune moment to mention
the teas, which have been generally regarded as excellent this year. As well as
being high quality there has been an interesting development in the arrival of
illustrated labels to tell people what is in the sandwiches. The reason for
this has been explained a number of times by Derek Roberts, but as it is
disrespectful to the President it will not be repeated here! However it has
resulted in some interesting illustrations for the various fillings, including
the very popular peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and under Mr. Wicksteed's supervision Smoked (or smoking) Salmon, 'Surprise
Selection' and 'Forgot what is in these sandwiches' – which were actually all
very nice!
Back to the match….
Colin Baty opened for
Steep, and inevitably Matt Evans opened the bowling himself. A full toss first
ball was driven hard by Baty…straight back into a
gleeful Evans' hands. The second opener, Hagen, didn't last much longer, bowled
by an Evans off cutter, and by the time the opening attack of Evans and Barney
Green were rested after 6 overs each Steep were 22-2.
The first change seam attack of Ben Seddon and Ben
Roberts were also accurate, and with Steep only needing a draw to retain the Wicksteed trophy Damian Morley and Adrian Hill were taking
no foolish risks. When Stoner finally turned to the spin of Ed Odell Steep were
chasing something over 8 an over and never looking like making it. Odell in
fact bowled a superb spell, getting lots of turn from a good line and length,
and soon had Hill removed skying one into the covers.
After that, though, although he beat the bat a number of times Odell did not
take another wicket, ending up with 1-22 from 8 overs.
At the other end the serious temptation of Justin Jones was enough to
eventually get both Mike Turnbull and Morley (for 43) but not enough to tempt
Steep into a serious attempt to make the runs. Eventually Evans returned to his
opening seam attack for the last 7 overs, and Barney
Green restored some life to a dying game by getting both Gordon Dale and John
Smith in his second over back. After that, though, Bone and Ed Ellis managed to
survive until the very last ball, when Bone, knowing the game was safe,
advanced down the track and was well stumped by Laurie Goldsmith on his Stoner wicketkeeping debut, giving an excellent example of a
keeper walking in with the bowler!
Too little too late, though. Damian Morley
collected the Wicksteed Trophy, and Colin Baty was presented with an application for membership of
the Primary Club. The tea ladies were all presented with roses, and finally
there was a bottle of Cava presented to the Steep Man of the Match – the man who
contributed most to Steep retaining the trophy…inevitably it went to Matt
Evans!
Thursday July 22nd, 2004
Carpe Diem 226-9 dec.
Stoner 219 all out
Carpe Diem won by 7 runs
The best morning of the week so far gave way to
overcast conditions and occasional drizzle as the match began, but fortunately
the rain never became too heavy and later gave way to brighter conditions for
the end of the match. Carpe Diem were missing a number of their regulars, their
skipper Rob Newmarch having had to contact 40 players
to raise an XI, but nonetheless they produced a strong team, while Stoner had a
strong looking batting line up but were short of bowling with their four most
productive bowlers of the week so far all missing. As a result the day's
captain Matthew Quantrill took the decision to insert
Carpe Diem and back his long batting line up to chase a total.
With Connor Wilkinson testing the batsmen in a
long probing spell Stoner got away to a reasonable start, and Oli Perigo, despite a rather
large wide first ball also produced a reasonable spell, picking up the wicket
of Flinders with one that moved away and took a fine edge. Perigo
soon tired, though, and was replaced by Caius Pawson for one of the more interesting spells of the week.
Bowling off the wrong foot with a high action he produced a sort of loopy
medium pace, with rather varying degrees of effect. There was some swing, but a
full toss some six feet over the batsman's head and some very wide wides meant that after two rather expensive overs he was in danger of coming off. Given one more over
he managed to tuck up the dangerous Marc Klus, who
lobbed up a catch to square leg. Two balls later Gary Browning was tempted by
the loop, had a huge swing and was bowled, triggering massive celebrations, and
gaining Caius another over. The second ball of that
over produced a repeat of his second wicket, with Spencer Pocock
winding up for a huge swing, missing and being bowled centre stump. Caius then bowled two fairly good overs
without taking another wicket, but was then expensive in his last over, ending
up with 3-54 in 7! At this point with Ben Seddon
taking over from Connor and Ed Ellis on for Pawson
Stoner were on top, with 4 wickets down and another threatening batsman Vic Mayers retiring hurt with a pulled shoulder muscle. However
sensible batting from most of their lower order, particularly skipper Rob Newmarch kept Carpe Diem in the game and the run rate
remained steady. Stoner were a touch unlucky with a number of shots in the air
passing just out of fielders' reach, but they also dropped a number of chances
that did come their way, though few of them were easy. In the end the
declaration came at about 10 to 5, marked by a huge straight six from number 11
Ian Lindsell, leaving Stoner a tough 227 to win.
Stoner opened with the contrasting pairing of
Angus Finney and Justin Jones, against a contrasting pair of opening bowlers,
the pacey Andy Stuart and slow, very tidy inswing of Ian Lindsell. Jones managed a 4 off Stuart and a big pulled
6 off Lindsell before Stuart pulled up with a thigh
strain at the start of the 2nd over and had to go off. He was replaced by the
almost equally quick Vic Mayers, and he struck in his
first over when Jones skyed one and was well caught
by Andy Mayers, son of the bowler. This caused a
distinct slowing of the run rate, with three successive maidens before Jack
Fray was bowled by Lindsell trying to break free from
the shackles. At 17-2 after 8 overs Stoner were
looking almost dead and buried, but Finney and Laurie Goldsmith rebuilt the
innings patiently, running well between the wickets and increasingly picking up
boundaries as well. They saw off Lindsell and Mayers and took full toll of the replacement bowlers, Scanlan and Flinders, Goldsmith in particular looking in
excellent touch. Scanlan and Flinders were hit out of
the attack, going for 29 and 25 respectively off four overs,
and the 7 an over Stoner had needed at the start of the 20 was down to 6 as
Andy Mayers and Spencer Pocock
were also expensive initially. Running between the wickets had been a strength
of the partnership, but when they had added 113 they took one risk too many and
Finney was run out for 38. Goldsmith was past his fifty and now batting
superbly, getting Andy Mayers removed from the attack
with 0-25 in 3 overs, but just when he seemed likely
to do the same to Pocock he squeezed one out to point
and was caught for 82, with his maiden century for Stoner firmly in his sights.
It would have been a well deserved century as he had made his 82 out of 146 and
set Stoner up for the run chase perfectly, the innings subsequently being
judged to be of such quality that it was awarded the Champagne Moment of the Week.
Following Goldsmith's departure there was a bit
of a slow down, with only 22 runs coming from the next 6 overs.
Oli Perigo, despite one big
six, was showing his lack of regular cricket and Andy Smee
was also struggling to get the ball away as Pocock
was now bowling more tidily and Linsdell had returned
at the other end. With wickets not falling Carpe Diem reverted to their strike
bowlers and Vic Mayers replaced Linsdell
and immediately had Smee caught behind. At that
point, with 8 overs remaining, 59 runs were still
required. Matthew Quantrill and Oli
Perigo began to pick things up, taking a 4 each from
one Mayers over and then 16 from Pocock's
next (and last) over with Quantrill hitting 4,6,4
from successive balls to put Stoner right back in the game. From the first ball
of the next over Perigo was bowled by Mayers, but Ben Seddon combined
perfectly with Quantrill, running hard between the
wickets to add another 20 for the 7th wicket. With two overs
remaining Stoner needed just 9 runs with 4 wickets in hand, but the turniung point came from the first ball of the penultimate
over, when Quantrill drove the ball straight and
Flinders stopped it by the stumps and was able to run Seddon
out backing up. Quantrill got a single off the next
ball, but Ed Ellis was then bowled first ball and Caius
Pawson could not score off the next three. With 8 now
needed from the last over, to be bowled by Vic Mayers,
and Quantrill now being the last experienced batsman
he needed at least one boundary. He mishit the first
one, but to the second ball came down the track and drove hard through the
line. Unfortunately he got under it a touch and it went high enough in the air
for the batsmen to have turned for their second run when Andy Mayers, again off his father's bowling, got under it and
caught it 10 yards in from the mid wicket boundary. The last pair were left
needing 8 from 4 balls, with instructions to play straight and try and use the
pace of the bowling to edge or glance a couple of boundaries, but Caius Pawson thought the next
ball was off line and swung at it, missed and saw his middle stump knocked back,
leaving Stoner the losers by 7 runs with just 3 balls left. Mayers
ended up with 5-31 and although Stoner were disappointed to lose their last 4
wickets for just one run it was still an excellent match enjoyed by all, even
the famously hard to please Stoner spectators.
Stoner v Ropley
Friday July 23rd, 2004
Ropley 237-7 dec. (45 overs)
Stoner 238-7 (39.4 overs)
Stoner won by 3 wickets
At last a full day of sunshine,
and with a little breeze to take the edge off the heat this was a perfect way
to finish the week. The AGM in the morning was followed by an excellent match
and a superb tea, and finally a good long evening at the
The game started with Connor Wilkinson taking his
traditionally defensive decision at the toss and opting to bowl first,
particularly as he was still smarting at the loss of Barney Green, who had
dropped out of the Stoner side to allow Oli Perigo to play, and had then found himself a place in the Ropley team. However it was the senior Green, Ollie, who
came out to open the batting with the shaggy haired, pierced lipped South
African Andre Roux. Ollie claimed he could hardly see to the far end, a claim
which perhaps explained his collision with a BMW in Petersfield
golf course car park the previous day, an incident in the grand tradition of
Green family driving in Stoner Week. Ollie seemed to see the ball without
difficulty as he and Roux started off very steadily, exploiting the loose balls
from Ben Seddon and comfortably dealing with the very
tidy bowling of Geoff Hobbs at the other end. Although Ollie seemed to have
something of a let off when on about 10 when the square leg umpire was possibly
the only person with a view who didn't think he was stumped off Seddon the opening pair progressed otherwise serenely to a
partnership of 85 before Roux was eventually out for 45. Green progressed to
his 50, getting there two or three times as the scoreboard, under the care of
Derek Roberts, moved his score up and down a number of times, but once he was
sure of his 50 he had something of a heave and was caught. Colin Baty had replaced Hobbs, while after a short spell from
Connor Wilkinson Ed Ellis was on at the far end, and they worked their way
through the Ropley middle order, though at the cost
of a steady scoring rate. When Ropley were about
180-4 at about 4.20 a huge total was looking on, but in the mind of Stoner
skipper Wilkinson it was obviously not enough to challenge the Stoner line up
as he was wondering anxiously whether keeping his prime bowlers on might keep
the runs down too much and delay Ropley's
declaration. Persuaded otherwise he kept Ellis on and only replaced Baty with
However it ended up happening
this left Stoner the very challenging target of making 238 to win in what
turned out to be 40 overs. First, though, the week's
presentations had to be made, with the Champagne moment given to Laurie
Goldsmith for his sparkling innings of 82 against Carpe Diem, the Low Alcohol
Lager moment going to Sam Roberts for being run out while batting with a runner
for Mike Adams' XI and the BandAid award to Matt
Evans for his minutes of writhing in agony on the pitch when struck in the
'nether regions' from a ricochet off the stumps from Ben Roberts throw against Wooburn. It has to be said that he had some competition in
this department with both Finney and Goldsmith suffering similar strikes, but
neither of them were quite so dramatically pole axed as Evans!
Back with the match the target seemed even more
challenging when some tidy opening seam bowling put pressure on the batsmen,
and Angus Finney called a quick single as Ed Ellis hit one past Olly Green. Green was able to get a hand on it and deflect
it straight to Andre Roux who produced a flat fast throw and direct hit at the
bowler's end, leaving Ed several yards short and able to set off in plenty of
time to get to his party in
A successful end to a
good week, marred only by the inability for insurance reasons to use the
swimming pool. For the first time for several years there was no need for
desperate ringing round to try and raise teams and indeed there were reserves
available for most days. Everyone who took part seems to have enjoyed
themselves and we can only hope that the spirit of the week will still be in
people's minds next year when people make themselves available and the good
times will carry on! Thanks to all those who took part, to the variety of
supporters and tea ladies without whom the week would not be half as pleasurable
and who give their services without the reward of playing, and I hope to see
you all next year!