Seconds out, Round One

So, I'm back - although it's taken rather longer than I anticipated - with news of my 3rd trip to the home of cricket for the National Club Championship final against Malden Wanderers.

To be honest, the overwhelming impression I retain of the trip is one of sitting around waiting, primarily because the latter part of our time in St. John's Wood mostly entailed sitting around waiting! But there was other stuff...

As honorary members of the team, Dave and I travelled down to London on the coach on Monday lunchtime to begin a 2-night stay at the Danubius Hotel which is, literally, across the road from Lord's Cricket Ground. We checked in and a number of the lads wandered over to the ground to take in the last few overs of the final of the National Village Cup which saw Valley End defeat the 2007 winners Woodhouse Grange.We were all fully aware of the weather forecast for the following day, and with the weekend behind us having been rudely interrupted by rain we knew we'd be lucky to avoid getting wet, but the Villagers didn't lose any playing time to rain.

The chairman had thoughtfully instructed all the non-players attending Monday evening's pre-match Dinner to drink as much as possible in order to remove temptation from the reach of the players. Hosted in the Thomas Lord Suite, the fabulous meal:

Grilled marinated salmon

pea, mint and broad bean veloute

tomato fondue and truffle oil

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Roast breast of free range chicken

with wild mushrooms

fondant potato, creamed leeks and baby carrots

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Passion fruit cheesecake

tuile biscuit and passion fruit sauce

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coffee and homemade truffles

Accompanied by several glasses of wine, the feasting was followed by short speeches from the finalists chairmen, and an amusing ramble on life in and after cricket by the guest speaker Chris (son of Colin) Cowdrey. Unfortunately for Mr Cowdrey, no anecdote he could have told was going to be as funny as the suit one of the Malden Wanderers players was wearing!

Next morning the party breakfasted at leisure and then convened at 9am, all very smart in Blazers and new club ties, for the walk across to the ground. While the boys spent an hour warming up and having a quick look at the pitch, Dave and I took a few snaps and i dropped by scoring gear off in the scorebox and re-introduced myself to Andy (no idea what his title is, but I guess something like Lord's Scorebox manager) and to Maurice Henderson, the Malden scorer. I was allowed to venture into the main Pavilion (Dave wasn't as he was tie-less) and went into our (Home) dressing room. In both previous finals we've been the designated 'away' team, so this year the boys got the changed in the room with England's centuries and 5-fers board! I also wandered through the Long room (but didn't have the nerve to get a photo) and into the Library, where I did cheekily pinch a few sheets of headed writing paper.

Ambling round the grounds, we stopped to look at the stall of wonderful cricket paintings of Jocelyn Galsworthy and found that she was manning the place herself. She was lovely, and we chatted for half an hour or more about Kibworth and cricket in general and managed to get a list of the price she would charge to come and paint the club.

At 10.30 the teams assembled for a few official (and lots of unofficial) photos and game time was almost upon us. The 6 coaches from Kibworth had arrived as well as a number of friends and supporters who had made their own way down. Pedro had won the toss and elected to field. There were even patches of blue sky visible. OK one, there was one small patch of pale blue sky!

The score card for the game shows that we bowled Malden out for a pretty low score, and inside their allotted 45 overs. Their top order were no match for Amir in the prevailing conditions, and he took a magnificent 5 for 25 from 7.5 overs. They recovered well from 25 for 4 thanks mainly to Alan Cope's 47, but progress was slow, mainly thanks to Spiro's 6 overs for 6 runs, and 144 was never a testing enough target. Or so we imagined.

Sadly, when the drizzle that had flirted with the game in the later stages of the Malden innings decided to upgrade to serious rain just 3 overs into our reply, despite the fact that we were 9 for 2 at this point, it was the Malden skipper who felt his teams interests would be best served allowing play to be abandoned for the day and re-starting at a later date. I can understand his thinking; his best 3 bowlers were spinners who wouldn't have been happy bowling with a wet ball, and given another go at our bowling, he had to back his batters to do better next time. And with no good clear break in the dampness, no amount of gentle persuasion from Pedro or the umpires was gonna change his mind. Though of course we had to wait until there was officially insufficient time left for enough overs to constitute a game, which meant sitting around from 3 o'clock when we first stopped playing, until after 5.30.

My day in the Lord's scorebox was, as it had been on both my previous visits, most enjoyable. Andy and his various assistants and mates are endlessly amusing, making witty, knowledgeable and entertaining comments about all manner of cricketing subjects. They were interested enough to look the Kibworth ground up on Google Earth, and asked me about my experiences of scoring with Graham York, the LCCC scorer. They make it clear that the teams scorers are in charge and leave it to us to keep them informed about batting orders, bowling changes and fielders making efforts worthy of note on the hallowed Lord's scoreboard. but they guide and nurture very nicely, hinting when information is about to be required (like when Cope neared 50 they were confirming how many balls Maurice and I thought he'd faced) and generally making us feel comfortable. They make good coffee too. I left them with generous wishes for a happy 'retirement' and an invitation to come and visit any time I'd like.

The guys were obviously disappointed not to have been able to conclude the game at Lord's, but knew that it was better than having lost in a rain-wrecked slog. After a couple of drinks in the Tavern bar, we headed back to the hotel, and on the Cafe Rouge for our pre-booked post-match dinner. A rather more organised, and subdued affair than the 2007 version, we had a lovely meal and a good deal of cheerful banter before the lads headed off in taxis in search of a 'proper' night on the town.

After another yummy breakfast, the party began gathering for the 10.30am coach home, only for some hiccup with a faulty emergency exit to delay proceedings and we had to wait around for a couple of hours yet again before the journey back up the M1 began.

Tune in soon, to hear my experience of the replay at Southgate CC.

The main reason I've decided to start writing a blog is that from next month onwards I shall have a little more time on my hands, and I thought I'd try something different. I always believed it was the height of arrogance to think that other people would want to read your thoughts on anything, but this isn't necessarily the case, and it'll be up to me not to be boring, or no-one will read it whether I want them to or not!

You may well be asking why I'll suddenly have more time on my hands, and the reason is simply this: after 20 seasons of scoring for Kibworth Cricket Club's 1st XI , I'm giving up at the end of this season. I started scoring in 1989, and now, having completed 20 years I am finally (although not literally) handing in my pens. From the odd comments I've been getting around the place over the past few weeks, it would appear that word has got out about my impending departure from what is, after all, a pretty small world. The most common question, naturally I suppose, is why? And closely following the “why?” is “what are you going to do instead?”. It seemed natural, therefore, to try and address these questions as I commence my post-scoring life.

In response to the “why”, it's easier to list the reasons that don't apply:

• I haven't fallen out of love with cricket
• I haven't fallen out of love with scoring
• most importantly perhaps, I haven't fallen out of love with Kibworth Cricket Club (and I certainly won't be going off to score for anyone else, unless one of those occasional opportunities to score for a touring side at Grace Road comes along again)
• I'm not going off to have hoards of children, or even one, so anyone noting my recently expanding girth should be happy to know I've gone back on the diet
• I haven't lost the ability to see far enough or concentrate long enough for scoring (although I realise those days are closer than ever)
• it's not about the money
• I've not started a new job that means I need to work on Saturdays, I've always had one
• I'm not moving to Australia (more's the pity), or Scotland (ditto) as if I was, I'd probably find a club that needed a scorer so that I could meet some of the type of people I've always found and liked in my years at Kibworth
• Dave hasn't asked me to stop (in fact I think he's a bit worried about the impact it might have on his free time!) and
• it's not because, as with so many sports-folk, I'm looking to go out on top, because if that was the plan, I'd have either quit after we became National Club Champions at Lord's in 2004, or after we moved to our fantastic new ground in 2005 (or after I'd scored for my beloved Australia at Grace Road!)

OK, all those being true, maybe they don't help a lot in understanding my decision.
Being 1st XI scorer for a team as great and successful as Kibworth has been an incredible journey and, as almost as much as being a player, has required enormous commitment. You may not appreciate that in 2004, having got to the final of the National Club Championships (Cockspur cup), as well as playing virtually all of the County and League Cup matches that season, there was a game on all but about 3 weekend days of the season – so no days off from mid-April until almost the end of September. And other years can be almost as busy. It's a time-consuming sort of a game, cricket, and although this is most often pointed out by Americans who fail to see the beauty in a game which can fail to reveal a victor after 5 days of combat, this doesn't mean it's any less true!

In essence therefore, I'm giving up my commitment to scoring every weekend in order to try and fit some other things into my life before it's too late.

In 2 weeks time I shall celebrate, in a quiet modest way (probably at home) the 2nd anniversary of becoming the girlfriend of the wonderful Solly, and (fingers crossed) we'll be looking forward to spending the, albeit miniscule, profit from his flat sale and extra income that will arise on improving our home and investing in our future together. Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows that I waited a long time for Dave to come along, and as 4 days before our anniversary I will celebrate my 44th birthday I don't intend to miss any opportunities to enjoy time with him while I'm still able.

I don't really know about 'normal' folk, but there's a host of things i've got in mind, and although many of them could easily be crammed into the winter (given that my life plan of about a decade ago of living and scoring at Kibworth in the summer here and then moving to live and score in Australia every winter seems to have come to nought) I've realised that they, as well as my job, my health and my relationship probably need more care and attention than that.

Some of things I'm planning include the following:

• getting fit – we've finally got our Wii Fit now, and it's great fun and will no doubt be a boon in the cold and wet of an English winter (yeah, laugh, I was gonna put summer) but we've also decided one of our first buys will be a pair of bicycles on which to get fit and get about. And I may even get back into going to the gym once in a while to help me lose some weight
• watching cricket – not least because I'd miss all my favourite people and places if I didn't
• photography – both at and away from the cricket this is one of my most enjoyed pastimes and the chance to do it during more often is one I'm looking forward to most. I have several places where you can see my photos, my slideshow comes from my Flickr account, but I also post a lot of stuff on my Facebook page and I'm also a member of Nikonians where I go by the name Girl on Fire, and I post some of my more accomplished stuff on their pages, mostly the wildlife forums and in my gallery there. Feel free to check them out.
• sorting out the hundreds of photos I already have in my collections, both in print and digitally. I'm hoping to contribute a substantial and (with any luck) valuable collection of cricket photos from over the years to the KCC website, to go with the selection of books, including old scorebooks which I've already offloaded, um, I mean, passed on to the club :) I have some vague plans to produce a bit of a summary of the statistics from the Judi-years, but that may be a bit ambitious!
• travelling – I was never one for going away particularly, especially as a single woman without much confidence it was difficult to find places I was comfortable going to and enjoying, but now, with big brave Dave at my side and a little more time on my hands, the world, well the UK certainly will be my play ground...with my trusty Nikon D70 in my back pack!
• shopping – hey I am a girl after all and with all the other things I'll be doing, I'm certainly going to need more clothes and shoes
• visiting my folks (and Dave's) – let's be honest, not everyone gets to their 40's with both of their parents alive, let alone in good health, so I'd better make the most of mine while they're still around. My lovely dad in particular (and he's just turned 79) will be more than happy to see me turn up on a Friday evening and spend the weekend and not have to drive for a couple of hours there and back to spend the middle of a Sunday with me. And my fabulously talented nephew Rory (9) who is up in Newcastle is getting to be such great company to his auntie Judi....not to mention his adorable Scottish cousins Fergus and Sandy.
• decorating and generally working on the house, which, after several years of virtual neglect is in need of a good deal of tender loving care, a new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, more storage, built-in wardrobes and, if I get my way a lovely new conservatory/extension on the back which will house our new dining and/or utility room as well as making a change in the back garden necessary.
• gardening – one of the worst things about spending so much time at the cricket in the summer is the lack of time it leaves me to spend in and on the garden which my lovely brother so beautifully designed and created for me – after all if the only days you get off in the cricket season are the days it's raining there isn't much gardening you can do!
• generally getting out and about to some of my favourite places which include zoos, the seaside and anywhere you can see and handle birds of prey
• dog walking, because, yeah, some time soon (probably once the extension/conservatory) has appeared, we are hoping to get ourselves at least one dog. If Dave's family has anything to do with it,we'll have a greyhound or a lurcher, and as I seem to be unable to decide (every time I see a dog the words “we could have one like that” seem to escape my lips almost without me noticing lol)
• because it's not something I've been very good at in the past 20 years, going out and enjoying myself and having friends round to my home. I think in the time I've lived in Kibworth (apart from for my house-warming and members of my family) I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people I've invited here. Bad eh!

Well, until next time, when I'll bring you news of my experiences of the great Kibworth Cricket Club's third trip to Lords in 5 years, I'll say goodbye, and try and figure out where to announce that this has been posted so that you can find out about it.

Judi