Rob Winter and his merry men were faced with a trip to Calverley and were delighted to walk away with 6 points from the first fixture of 2012.

Winning the toss, Rob invited Calverley to bat on an incredibly wet surface at a flat ground with basic protection for the square. Parvez Khan & Joel Morley took the new ball, and at 20 for 2 the home side did well to recover to post a respectable and challenging score. Opening batsman Thornhill rode his luck and was on the receiving end of a generous decision by league legend, Mike Clegg, who turned down a vociferous appeal for caught behind from PK.

Four other Calverley batsmen reached their 20s, but failed to press on and match Thornhill's half century which would have then presented a difficult total for the Norths to face after tea. 2 wickets each for the opening bowlers, and whilst Wales and Singleton remained wicket less, Jack Burke picked up a wicket on debut with his whippy medium pace left armers. Lots of room for improvement in the field from some of the team, particularly Barry who gave the impression he was auditioning for Dancing on Ice after Parvez had a pointless shy at the stumps on the final ball of the innings.

With Tim Hollis suffering from an unidentifiable tummy condition ( Timmy's Tummy ) for much of the first half, Barry Singleton,the giant ginger with attitude, gladly accepted the offer to open up with Tom Boxell ( who had a stunning day in the field ) against a new ball that swung and seamed ferociously from the Road End.

Tom started well under a barrage of fairly weak and nonsensical attempts to sledge him, and was dismissed for 8 by a seriously good delivery. Barry had failed to trouble the scorers by the time Tom was dismissed, but the two left handers proceeded to take the game away from the home side bit by bit. It was the type of wicket that, from time to time, served up deliveries that would cause problems to far better batters than Barry & Rob, and both grafted through the new ball and incessant chatter building a partner ship of 144.

Barry chipped over fielders, nudged the odd single but also hit 9 4's and 3 6's on his way to 89, then tiredness took over as he failed to make it to his first ever century once more. The aforementioned umpire will no doubt still be grateful for the intervention of off stump as Barry clobbered one straight drive towards Cleggy's aging body.

With the match not yet won, Martin Kellaway joined Rob at the crease and will be grateful for some time at the wicket as the two veteran batsmen cruised home with over 3 overs to spare.

There will be tougher challenges this season, and there is room for improvement with both fielding and bowling however one game one win looks, sounds and feels good. The bodies of certain players, on the other hand, feel the opposite of good and shall remain so well into the working week.

Next up we face Green Lane at home who opened their account with what appears to be a convincing Winning Draw against Ilkley.

24/4/12 BS (Ginger With Cricket Batitude)