It was very touch and go whether the match would go ahead as the weather was...wet. The game was due to start at 11am - this was pushed back to 1pm a couple of days before due to the impending wet weather.

Luckily for us Baz is at the wheel and he ensured the match was on. The green light was given at midday with a renewed start time of 2pm - 25 overs as side.

We arrived an hour before play - swapped pleasantries and tucked into a bbq that was kindly provided by the school and served up by Mr Ponder.

It was time for the toss - the outfield was pretty damp and looked slow. I was keen to bowl first in anticipation of the sunshine making run scoring easier as the day went on. Neither myself or the West Buckland captain had a coin so we revered to rock, paper, scissors. His scissors cut my paper - schoolboy error on my part. The school won the toss and elected to bowl.

Myself and Jas Kalsi opened the batting. We managed to weather a fairly hostile spell from George Nickell who opened for the school. We managed to put on 36 for the 1st wicked before I was caught at mid-off whilst trying to hit the bowler into the swimming pool. I wasn't too concerned as Martin Gear was in at 3 - he was fresh off 75* against North Devon the previous Sunday. He scored just 1 I believe before under edging to the keeper.

Alun Sullivan batted nicely, as did Simon Jennings who hit some lusty blows on the way to 38. Jas batted resolutely and made 36. Alex Priest the rugby coach turned wicket keeping old boy for the day belted the ball to all parts which helped us to 144-7 from our 25 overs. Considering the conditions - I was reasonably happy with this. We needed quick wickets though. Special mention to Noah Dutton the West Buckland captain who opened the bowling - bowled well and took 3 catches at slip.

Alun Sullivan and Joe Hastie opened the bowling. Joe had to shoot off at 5:30pm so he rattled through his 5 overs with Glen Mcgrath'esk metronomic bowling. Alun bowled well too and helped himself to a wicket if my memory is correct!

Jono Slee came on at the Pavilion End. He kept the batsman guessing and got a few key batsman out. Including their main man who skied one to mid off and he was highly unfortunate that I managed to take the catch after running 20 years to get there - diving and making a mess of Baz's square in the process.

Pete Davies, Bernie Wilson, Sam Carr and Simon Jennings all bowled nicely as well. The school were bowled out for 124. A 20 run victory was assured. The school had a year 9 making his debut who scored a sumptuous 50. So well done to him!

Thanks to Monica for getting the team together, the school for hosting us and everyone who played for giving up their day.

Hope to see many of you next year and fingers crossed we'll have a short tour to look forward to!