The Guildford 4 make 88...

Kimmy reports on a soggy day.... At least the sandwiches weren't. And the title was Kev's idea!!!

Although I'd half planned to come
today, it did depend on a number of factors!

1. What time I finished work the
   night before?

2. If I'd got the house in ship-shape
   order for the impending arrival of my step daughter?

3. If hubby decided that he didn't
   want to come.

4. (and in this order...) The
   weather.

So.... I got home at a good time last
night to find that hubby still wanted to come, step daughter wasn't
coming till Saturday (which gives me extra time to tidy!) and the
weather looked reasonable...

I then received an email from Barmy Kev
to say I had been specially selected to do today's report!!

Mmmm I'm definitely going today then!

The journey down was quick, easy and
uneventful, which makes me nervous!!

Hubby and I jumped in a cab to the
ground, however there are lots of signs from the station to the
ground, so if you can (and like) I think the walk would be easy.

We arrive at the ground and I wander
off to find the ladies... As I do so I bump into Dexy.... He confirms
the team for me, I congratulated him on the win on Sunday and he told
me that the team could hear us singing! (dunno if that's good or
bad??)

So... Sorry won the toss and elected to
field first...

We have a look around the ground and
decide to sit in the stand nearest to the beer (and refreshment)
tent!

The stand was quite empty to start with
and I wondered if people had been put off by the weather?

So... Newman and Robson are our opening
batsmen and Newman opens..... Dernbach bowls the first over and we're
off......

I felt a bit disappointed that after
the first over we only had 2 runs, but then I remembered that this
was a county game and not a T20 or CB40....!

It's not till the 5^th over
that we see our first boundary which takes our total to 8! I wonder
if we are going quite slowly, or was it me? I guess if it was hard
for me to watch (having only seen 'hit and giggle' for months it
seems) then it must be worse for the players, they have to now
remember that they don't have to whack the ball about so much... And
have to concentrate for much longer...

Oooh we get a cheeky little single as
Linley tries to catch the ball he's just bowled and it pops out of
hand and rolls away.... Maybe the 'luck' we had on Sunday is
continuing?

As the ground begins to fill up with
late comers, it reminds me of being squashed in at a rubbish football
stadium! There's not leg room between the seats in the 'stands' I
much prefer 'our' seating arrangements at the out-grounds!

Oh dear!!! Hubby announces he's going
for a cigarette.....And Sam gets bowled by Dernbach! RIGHT! That NO
more cigarettes for him then!

So... we're on 19 runs at the moment
and in comes Chris Rogers who has to face the ball straight away....

Huh!!!! That hubby of mine! He comes
back and asks for the paper to read! (bored already?!) As he opens it
Newman's wicket falls!!!! (Oh p**h!)

AC is next in, hope his hamstring is
ok, as he has a long time to bat!

There's some problems with the site
screen.... It doesn't seem to be tall enough, so play stopped whilst
some white sheeting is put up on the pavilion wall!

Meanwhile hubby has put the paper down
and is asking me some questions....

What you have to remember is firstly he
is a great football fan, and secondly he introduced ME to cricket! I
wonder if someone can help with the answers....

1. How is it fair that one team has
   11 players on the pitch and the other team only has 2... How are
   they supposed to score any goals? (to which I answered that we
   weren't doing too badly as at the time of writing we has scored 32
   and they had only scored 2!!!)

2. Rogers then hit the ball for 4 and
   he asked if that was a 'goal'?

3. How can you tell the difference
   between the 2 teams as they are wearing the same strip?

4. Where's the goals?

5. Then as a train went past he
   wanted to know why all the geeks and train spotters were at the
   ground, it was too far away for them to see the train numbers....
   surly it would be better if they were at the station.... At which
   point I told him to shut up!!

Hubby then was able to go and get a
cuppa without us loosing another wicket!!

I then get a bit distracted by the
arrival of BarmyKev and my cup of tea and soon has moved onto 45
without the loss of any more wickets! (phew!)

Dare I say that Chrissy Rogers and AC
look settled? In fact it's about 12.40 whan I write this and as if
he's reading my mind Kev says that if we haven't lost any more that 3
wickets by lunch then things are looking good despite the run rate
being a bit slow! And as if by magic!!!!

AC is out!! Ooops!!! KEV!!!!!!

Oh well, no more than 3 and Dexy is in
so that's....... I didn't even get to finish writing then
sentence......!!!

So, Kev, you were saying........

JD is in next put in the squad instead
of Tom Smith (who is doing a great job as the 12^th man may
I add??)

Lets just hope that we can stay like
this till lunch...?

And we don't loose any more wickets
(thank goodness!) We're on 61 for 4....

Just as the players leave the rain that
has been 'spit spotting' is beginning to fall a little more.... Kev
decides to go to a local shop for some provisions and we sit and have
some rolls bought from the refreshment tent (very nice and not very
expensive!)

Perambulation is allowed and there are
old and young bowling and bating on the pitch...

But as the rain becomes a little more
heavy the covers come on and we start to think that maybe, just maybe
we wont start again after lunch.....

Which turns out to be right......

We sit for about 20 minutes and when
the rain becomes a little more persistent, not greatly, but enough...
we decide to wander across the road to the pub!!

There didn't seem to be anywhere we
would be able to go and sit within the ground, so pub it was!

And there we stayed until about 4.40pm
when we decided to wander back across the road to see what was
happening......

And the news was that play was going to
restart at 5pm!!!

We bump into some of our players, and
tell them we've been in the pub..... Tim told Kev, that he'd wished
they had swapped places! No one would have noticed!!!

Anyway we take our seats and at 5pm the
umps walk out! And at 5.20pm with our total standing at 88 for 4 they
come off again!!!

We decided at that stage to make our
way home.... I didn't worry that I'd miss some of the play and
wouldn't be able to report, but as 'luck' would have it there was no
more play .

So.... there you have it, a rain filled
day...... but hubby enjoyed himself so much that he is treating me
tomorrow and coming back for some more...... (think it was the cuppa
and the nice roll that did it????)