Sunday XI Report v Madni 23rd July 2006

Pap are back on Sundays was the shout after an ill tempered affair at the home of cricket. Early morning drizzle did little to dampen the spirit of the lads as 2pm approached, an early de-stoning sesh of the new net area was suitable warm up for the faithful and the boys went into the game with high spirits and high hopes under the new temporary leadership of "my owd". A bit of background, Sundays lately couldn't have been any worse for pap as defeat has followed defeat and the Sunday XI languished at the base of the division following recent promotion to the top tier. Encouragingly though it seems that cricket in Lincolnshire also isn't very good so a win today would be enough to lift Pap off the foot of the table with a slew of home games approaching.

The signs were good as Pap won the toss and elected to bat on what was becoming another scorching day. The captain in his team talk set a target of 240 from the 40 overs, after a few unclear words of encouragement from Sooky, the openers left the dressing room and entered the dazzling arena, the rest of the strong batting line up ambled upstairs to take their seats and watch their team mates face the best that Madni had to offer.

The scoreboard ticked over at a healthy but not dramatic rate as arbajhan singh sidhu and Edward Somekh kicked the innings off, the openers were then replaced by Fletch and TK who picked up the scoring rate with some lusty blows into the cottage end, this all but silenced the shouts of shabas shabas from the visiting fielders. After numbers 3 and 4 fell, messrs Rhodes, Secretan, Dear and Roberts did their best to reach the target of 240, not surprisingly however the boys finished up a little short at 210 odd but were confident that they had a target to bowl at.

After an excellent tea prepared by Ellis Rhodes the boys returned downstairs for more incomprehensible words of encouragement from sooky and the skipper telling us to bowl areas and push on for the win.

So it was that the openers set off at a reasonable pace and on track with their 5 an over required run rate but the fellas bowled their hearts out and Jim Rhodes fresh from no bowling on Saturday was rapid from the hall end. The cottage end however was proving more difficult as bowler after bowler declined the chance to bowl from that end, a request to umpire Berridge that we just bowl from the hall end to save changing the field at the end of every over was declined so it was that the skipper finally cajoled and cuddled the old war horse Steve Alford into making the cottage end his own. No sooner had the problem end been sorted out when Jim Rhodes was heard to complain of the foot holes at the hall end (too much time listening to daffy and footy) so TK tried his luck instead. Anyway, back to the match, and all action was from the left arm king of swing as he bamboozled the oppo with a master class in slow comfortable swing taking wicket after wicket. It was becoming clear that the oppo had only picked one batsman so pap had the bit between their teeth as they pushed on for the win. Some tight bowling from TK only added pressure to the opening batsman who seemed more intent in playing for his ton rather than winning the game, you will be sad to hear that he fell just short in the 90s as alfie got 6 for and his name on the board for the second time this season.

So it was victory for the Pap massive, a game spoilt by some slow play from the oppo and a failure from half their team to clap the victorious pap warriors off the park, the pap players however stopped at the pavilion turned to the top bench were the oppo were congregated and gave them generous applause along with derisory shouts of shabbas shabbas.

The taste of victory was sweet was for the players as they entered the dressing room for a post match debrief from the skipper, a sweetness soured only when sooky returned downstairs with 2 pints of fosters rather than the customary 11. Sunday cricket returns unsurprisingly this Sunday at Pap as we take on Sleaford 2pm start.