Wendover don't bend over for Ricky

After a week where the rain looked set to rain on our end of season parade it was eventually a bright day when John, Paul, George and Riddlo (no, the Beatles had not reformed) and another 4 Ricky regulars set off for our annual season closer to Wendover. Always a good tea in prospect and, due to some drop outs as usual, we also had Harry, a 14 year old from Wendover, join us as well as 'Big' Steve, who was a mate of Sam's.

Thoiugh Ricky won the toss, we had to bat due to a lack of players actually at the ground. Paul and Jon opened. Jon had been hidden at no 11 in the 4ths for most of the season, so here was a chance to shine. Unfortunately the Wendover opening bowler was as fast as the Chiltern Flyers that regularly thundered past the ground, and it perhaps was more a baptism of fire as he dug a few in short that whistled past noses. John crashed a boundary on the off side and then got a superb yorker that took out leg stump. Adrian, one of the Colts fathers, batted nicely too, but also got lasythe same ball with the same result. 22 for 2. Adeel and Paul then joined forces, exactly like last year, and pushed the score up to 72 before Paul played on for 33. And the the annual Wendover procession begun. Sam went for 7, George middle stump for 0, 2nd ball, Steve for 5, and Adeel was the lbw for 39, having batted very sensibly for 17 overs. from 92/3 Ricky collapsed to 107 all out with Phil on 4 not out. Another red number for Phil almost doubling his season's runs.

A wonderful tea was had by all. In fact too much tea. What a fantastic old-fashioned cake and sandwich type of tea it was. Egg Sandwiches. Ham and Tomato. Cherry Bakewells. Apple Pies. Lots of different types of cake. Very filling. And then it was time to field.

Ade Green bowled superbly and showed just what the 3rd or 4th team can look forward to next year. A good turn of pace and very accurate. Phil got an opening bat to pop up a catch to Ade Green - that man again. However apart from a couple of other dropped catches, Ricky couldnt really find a cutting edge and only George grabbed one more before they reached their target around the drinks break.

A superb end to the season as we had a final beer and watched the rain finally fall, bring to an end a season that hasn't been vintage, but has had plenty of highs and lows and has been thoroughly enjoyable.