One Run Shy

I didn't foresee being able to take this shot a few weeks ago. And certainly hadn't expected to be able to spend all day watching the cricket in shorts and a T-shirt.

There had been snow and then rain. Lots of rain. The ground was saturated. And it was cold too. The first day of the new season was saved by last week's warm and dry weather, which has suddenly transformed the landscape. Speaking to the former groundsman here, the word is that it's been the most difficult winter in living memory. That mirrors what I've heard from a few other people, including an eighty-year-old woman who has been walking the moor for fifty years and said that she'd never seen it so wet. I have to concur.

Forrest enjoyed his new bowling role in the team, taking 3-30, finding a bit of pace and swinging it a little. In reply to Saltaire's 155, we lost early wickets. Forrest hung around for a while without ever finding any fluency and we never really got ahead of the game. A late flourish brought us to within sight of stealing an unlikely victory, before it was cruelly snatched away at the last, with just one run needed to tie. Heartbreaking stuff.