Despite the promise of some heavy
rain, the trip to Sutton was only
once greeted by some splashes of water. It was during this delayed
trip that the skipper of this week's Sunday Club X1 learned the
stand-in
tosser Richard 'PC' Saunders had correctly called and he and the
now-so-oft-identified Spectral Ungulate that is Andy Donelan were
padding up and on their way to the centre.
Three consecutive maidens saw Saunders survive an early chance
behind
before Donners spanked a couple through the V. Then, as rapidly as
the
scoring rate wasn't, the light deteriorated to a point the
perambulatory circumnavigators lost sight of the far side of the
ground. With only Donelan's day-glo epidermis offering any clue as
to
the whereabouts of the square, the umpires sensibly took the teams
off
with only 41 runs and 13 overs on the board.
Before the batsmen had even reached the boundary, however, the
heavens
opened, and flashes of lightning strobed around South London.
Within five minutes, standing water on the outfield had appeared and
the outlook was bleak. But sterling work from the home side with a
remarkably effective super-sopper cleared up the worst within 45
minutes raising hopes just high enough to render cruel their dashing
moments later when the covers were peeled back. A half-flooded pitch
signalled the end of the match.
Tea was taken, the sandwiches in particular yielding rave reviews,
then, in mockingly bright sunshine the twos traipsed back to drink
with the seemingly part-time first team whilst taking in the
successful bowling of the Ladies' outfit.
|
|
