We won!

Well, we finally got our season under way with a hard fought victory in a close encounter with a new side – the Ellises.

Our victory was largely down to two fine individual performances, one from the increasingly important Rory Jones and the other from skipper Justin Evans, whose three wickets late on turned the game decisively in our favour.

We batted first, having only managed to assemble a team of ten and I was an unwilling starter having come down with a nasty dose of man flu (and of course I was feeling very sorry for myself, snorting and sniffing my way through our warm up.

Anyway, we got off to a decent start through Mike Stokes and Geraint Jones, before Rory, who had suffered a blow to the head during a school match earlier in the day, went in at number four with Steve Daulby. Steve rattled his way to 15 with a succession of boundaries before losing his wicket.

I then joined Rory, who was playing well against a real mixed bag of bowlers. Although I was still feeling sorry for myself, I made 14 before attempting a suicidal second and running myself out for the second time this year. The score was around 90 at that stage with around three overs to go and, thanks to fine attacking shots from Rory, we ended our innings on 123 with Rory going for 40 off the final ball of the innings. That gave us our largest total of the season and definitely something to bowl out.

I opened the bowling with Huw and, after a decent first over, I had a horrible second (going for 10, I think). Fortunately, Huw was more successful taking a wicket in each of his two overs as we started to put pressure on our opponents.

Jimal then produced a fine spell and, along with his brother, Liam, who turned out at very short notice, we made sure were still very much in the game at the half way point. However, we were having difficulty with one of their batsmen, who escaped three difficult catches and while he was at the crease, they always looked favourites.

Thankfully, Justin – who had been keeping wicket – stepped up to remove him, quickly followed by two more wickets to give us victory by 10 runs.

It was a great win – hopefully to be followed by a few more....

Gardening or cricket... that's the question

Well, our scheduled match against JT Hughes at Whittington on Wednesday failed to materialise after the opposition failed to raise a side.

So we decided instead to organise a practice match involving as many of our own players as possible. In the event, 10 of us turned up and we enjoyed a decent night's cricket.

There was, however, one very notable absentee: Steve Daulby, who chose to garden - that's right, garden - rather than play cricket. Now I'm all for gardening, it's almost certainly the new rock and roll, but in a choice between cricket and gardening there can only ever be one winner. And it's definitely not gardening.

Thankfully I'm not North West Water's skipper, but I'm sure Justin will want to sit down with Mr Daulby and have a serious chat about his commitment to the sport. If you think Andrew Symmonds has problems...

Anyway, as for the game itself, we batted in pairs for eight overs. Top score when to father and son duo Huw and Rory Jones, with Rory displaying some very imaginative shots in a swashbuckling performance. They waltzed their way to a total of 60, beating mine and Dave Ryder's 57, the next best score. As you can imagine, any partnership that involves me is somewhat more sedate, but Dave showed a more flamboyant side to his batting, unleashing a series of fine straight drives.

Other highlights included Brian Cole's return - and a fine spell as wicketkeeper which resulted in half a dozen stumpings courtesy of Dale Penrose's willingness to charge down the wicket. Justin batted with his usual aggression and struck some meaty blows in his innings, while I committed the cardinal sin, dropping a sitter after Geraint Jones - who bowled very impressively - failed to connect properly with one of his brother's rapid deliveries.

Speaking of Rory, I faced him during my innings and I can confirm that he's developing into a very nippy bowler indeed; it bodes well for the future of North West Water.

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and useful evening. It's just a shame Mr Daulby couldn't join us...