Hello dear reader. How many of you remember the TV programme “That Was the Week That Was”? For those of you who think that television only started when Sky launched their satellite, TWTWTW was a satirical television comedy programme hosted by David Frost from November 1962 to December 1963. For those of you interested you can view episodes on You tube. What’s that got to do with cricket I hear you ask? Well welcome to my world, captain of the 4th team.

To be the captain of the 4th team there are several traits you need. The first being the ability to plan ahead. The second never be surprised by what you hear. The third always expect the unexpected. And finally a good sense of humour. If you posses these you will not go far wrong, or will you? So job one plan ahead and never be surprised by what you hear. At the end of the game ask your players who is not available for the following week. After the Irby match I asked this very same question expecting the usual one or two suspects to raise their hands. The last thing I was expecting was for five hands to shoot up into the air! Not a good start. So between Saturday night and selection on Monday numerous calls were made to those players who can only play when work permits. The result being I attend selection with eight names. So selection started, Andy picked his team Matt picked his and when it came to third team I was totally taken aback by what I heard? They had seventeen players yes seventeen players available meaning that to my list of eight names I had an additional six players to pick from. The team was selected with three reserves! Never be surprised by what you hear. As for the sense of humour this starts almost immediately after selection when you receive calls from the other captains advising you that player X,Y and Z are unavailable So for our game against Timperley all three reserves found themselves in the team.

What a pleasure it was to wake on Saturday morning to blue sky and sunshine. And arriving at the club early I was greeted by the usual gang of willing helpers. So with the sightscreens in position, the boundary markers out and the wickets pitched we sat back and awaited the arrival of our opponents, Timperley. A team that we had only played three weeks before and who on that occasion had arrived half an hour late due to traffic congestion on the M56. And guess what they arrived late again!

After his success the previous two weeks I asked our expert tosser Mr Tufty if he would do the honours once again and sure enough he did the business and ask Timperley if they would like to bat first? We opened with the left arm twins of Joe Fisher and Sorry John. Only 50 years between their births. Joe choose the scenic end leaving Sorry John to bowl from the pavilion end and yes dear reader you’ve guessed it, into the wind. And it was Joe who struck first when in his third over he bowled Timperley’s number two batsman Padidela for nought. In the very next over the skipper had Hassan expertly caught by young George Williams one handed at second slip, Timperley 11-2. This soon became 16-3 when the returning Maltese Falcon ran out Lumb with a direct throw from cover point. 16-3 soon became 16-4 when young Joe struck again and not finished there he accounted for the next batsman as well, leaving Timperley with half their side back in the pavilion and their score on 21. With Joe having bowled his allotted seven over’s, young Callum took over from the scenic end and bowled well without any luck against the experienced Timperley captain Garry Fisher and the swashbuckling Timp’s number seven Garg. In an effort to break this partnership Callum was replaced by Nathan who in his first over had Garg caught by Joe (you can’t keep him out of the game) Fisher. The partnership had added 43 runs leaving Timperley on 64-6. Having bowled his fifteen over (1/26) Sorry John was replaced by young Tom Blake who’s steady off breaks resulted in a temporary deceleration in the scoring rate. Joe was brought back into the attack and immediately accounted for Garry Fisher with a ball the Duke of Wellington described as the ball of the season (so far) an in swinging yorker, bowling the Timperley skipper for a very well constructed 24. This was the last wicket we were able to take as sensible batting from young Tom Matthews and the veteran Jim McCall saw the Timperley score reach an impressive 158 with both batsmen not out on 35 and 36 respectively. And so to tea.

As is usual we opened with the Good Doctor and Mr Tufty with memories of the last time we played Timperley and the opening partnership of 193 still fresh in our thoughts. However unfortunately for us we were unable to replicate this opening stand and in the first over with the score on one Rob gently guided the ball into points hands. In the next over we went from 1-1 to 2-2 as young George Williams was stumped off a wide. A sense of humour required? Things went from bad to worse as by the fifth over our score read 19-4 as first big Phil and then Tom came and went. The seventh over saw young Nathan heading back to the pavilion and by the end of the eleventh over we were six down with only 34 runs on the board. Young Callum steadied the ship somewhat with a partnership with the good Doctor adding 18 valuable runs to our score before Callum became the seventh Upton batsman to return to the pavilion. The Duke offered some resistance before falling LBW leaving us on 67 and with only three player still to bat things looked grim for the forth team. What a pleasure it was to see the Pope return to form? As he and the Doc batted out the remaining 19 overs for a creditable draw.

So the game swung backwards and forwards, with Timperley 21-5 the thought of an early finish were there for all of us. At 34-6 Timperley must have been thinking of the traffic congestion on the M56. As it happened the game ran its full course and from my own perspective a thoroughly enjoyable game to be part of. So next week we are, after five consecutive home games back on the road, this time to the south of the county to visit our friends at Haslington. I wonder what this week will bring as I’ve already had four hands shoot up into the air.