Another game where retro was order of the day. Players crying off late (Thursday and Friday, unconfirmed rumours are that Ed had to go to IKEA on match day…) but with the popularity of Zami 1 these days it was no problem to get 12 players on an ungodly time at the club for a crash course in water disposal management.

Better still were the antics of Stijn, on the piss on Friday night, waking up definitely not enough hours later, finding himself in another house/bed very near Kampong, no cricket bag however so back to the north of Utrecht to collect it. Kudos for a classic early 2000’s Zami player re-enactment of preparing for a game. I have informed the (very) old guard that, although rare, this still happens. It will gladden their hearts.

With the wannabe firsts playing after us on the turf we were kindly asked to look after the square as it was still a bit sticky, so Schwalbes only on the rest of the field please. This fell on deaf ears as this has become such an integral part of our game, the Schwalbes were of a high standard this time round. 

Joost de Boer points were also duly collected, as done last week some clever thinking by James combining a Schwalbe on the square with the intricate hand movements of a veteran Bollywood dancer while the ball went past on its way to the boundary. Wolfy made a mad dash to a skier and got there just in time to drop the ball, Stijn made an effort, Derk chipped in with not going for a possible caught behind and Hans also is in the archives now with one point.

Although there was a terrific atmosphere in the field with Ahbi for instance bowling non-existent no-balls that went for quite a lot and a lot of friendly banter with our friends from Ajax we forgot the politically incorrect appeal, with only Bavesh, Stijn, Terry and opapa tentatively asking for the lbw occasionally. Must do better next week.

With another wonderful lunch actually eaten at lunchtime on this occasion in our bellies the ruthless captain duly put all of those not bowling in the first innings into the top 7 bar Willem in order to give everyone a game. Usually a total of 180 should be enough to give everyone up to number 9 a chance to score a duck but Willem had other ideas. Scoring 107 of the required runs in 25 and a bit overs is very selfish and unsociable with now three players scoring points in the thank you very much for coming along league for those not batting and/or bowling. He made amends afterwards by buying a penalty crate to atone for his sins alongside the kegball crate of James. 

The points:

Duck: went for a duck itself. 

Joost de Boer: James 2 points, Wolfy, Stijn, Derk and Hans  1 point.

Politically incorrect appeal: Bhavesh, Stijn, Terry and opapa 1 point (rounded up on all occasions)

Schwalbe: James 3 points, Hans 2 points, Wolfy 2 points, Willem 1 point , Terry 1 point, opapa 1 point, Gert 1 point, Ahbi 1 point, Bhavesh 1 point, Stijn 1 point.

Thank you for coming: Stijn, Derk and James 1 point

Wolfy