This Heat is a real Payne

My long planned and awaited trip to Cheltenham was preceded by some rather contradictory weather forecasts. The initial threat of a washout suddenly changed to hot, hot and a bit more heat. Come 9am on the day of the match it was already boiling hot and an early drinks break had to be taken in Newbury before boarding the train.

Once changed at Reading we sat next to a South African chap who was loudly telling the whole carriage via Mobile phone that he was going to cricket. He said he had no idea about the game but had been invited on a corporate jolly and was looking forward to an air conditioned box with a balcony. Oh dear, should I tell him he's going to the College Ground not Lords?

The walk from the station to the ground is a bit of a long one but the scenery and architecture is very pleasing to the eye. Add in a couple of decent pubs and reminiscences of our last visit, The Higgins Tie, and all was well with the world.

We entered the sold out ground to the news that Middlesex would be batting first and AB would be missing, uh oh. Eski and AC got us off to a flying start and then Lincoln played with a combination of understandable nerves and some powerful hitting. Given time and some faith he can score some good runs for us in all formats in my opinion.

The crowd was pretty quiet bar a few half drunk day trippers from Berkshire, cough, but that man Higgins sparked a collapse and nobody really supported Simmo. Our tail looks very long in this format, anybody know where we can get a decent all rounder from? The locals became more confident and we less so, initial thoughts of 180 were long gone. 148/9 never really felt like it would be enough.

A short break and a very long beer tent queue and we were up and running again for the Gloucestershire reply. Helm bowled well up front and the Gloucester batsmen were finding scoring tricky......well, all bar Hammond who scored with ease and looked a very decent player. When he finally departed for 63 with the score 84/5 I thought the tide had turned in our favour.

Benny Howell and Jack Taylor had other ideas and a combination of savvy running and the occasional boundary had the home side cruising to success. Finny produced a really good late spell to have us dreaming of more Cheltenham drama but ultimately we were just too many runs short.

I can't quite shake the feeling that we are very reliant on Malan and the missing AB batting wise. However, this side is likely to win more games than it loses and with a bit of luck, who knows, we could make it to Finals day. Despite the result and a never-ending train journey home, a great day out in the very hot sun.