Preparing the Wicket

I've not been posting too much about the Saturday cricket. The lads weren't quite on it at first, perhaps a bit complacent after just missing promotion last season and thinking it was going to be easy. Mid-summer and they'd lost three games and had two rained off. They were only mid-table and promotion looked very unlikely. Since then, though, it's been a different story, pretty much coinciding with when the wickets hardened up and Ben, our young Aussie overseas keeper, found a rich vein of form. It's also helped that Forrest returned to opening and began to take his batting more seriously! Everyone has chipped in, though, and it's been terrific to watch. After beating the top team in the league last week, a win today was pretty much going to give us promotion to the first division, barring a disaster. As it happened, we won and both the teams above and below us lost, so it's now guaranteed that we'll go up. We find ourselves top of the league with just one game left. The Division  2 title is ours to lose - especially as we're playing the very bottom team. But you can't take anything for granted in cricket!

For the record, Forrest is in great form but keeps getting good ones. Roam is in a great groove with the ball. I have to remind myself to post links to the scorecard on cricket days like these. Here it is.

When the sun shines, and sometimes even when it doesn't, Saturday afternoons at Ben Rhydding are increasingly becoming family affairs, with lots of young children around. The next generation is being cultivated.