Saturday 16th June, 2007

The day dawned cloudy and overcast and a very poor weather forecast was not too promising.

The first (and most important) Job was picking the beer up from Big D's house to take up to the ground and setup. We had a barrel of East Kent Goldings and a polypin of porter which were setup in place before we headed to the Bricklayers. A couple of beers were had in the bricklayers before the teams headed up to Mile End, with the first game to be P'boro CAMRA v Colchester CAMRA as the farmers were still waiting for a few players.

P'boro batted first and made a decent score, unfortunately we have no record of it for reasons to be explained later. We started our reply before a shower forced us off and back to the beer, which was upsetting for the Supporter, Peter Whybrow, having had the beer to himself until then.

We resumed amongst complaints from the P'boro players about the pitch which was a little damp. Jules suggested they bowl off a shorter run, which was not appreciated. We lost the game, not sure by how many, as Jon played immaculate forward defensive shots for the last couple of overs, see pics, when big hits were needed.

The beer was going down very well, so the next game was us against the Farmers. We batted first and scored 110, a good score, before another rain interruption. After this the P'boro players, well some of them anyway, decided the pitch was too dangerous for further play. Us and Ipswich were happy to carry on but half the P'boro team were having none of it. The Diplomat in the Ipswich team, Frostie, then quipped in "Well F**k off back to Peterborough then you to**ers" which helped no end. So off they went leaving us and Ipswich. We decided to have another game after the present one. Ipswich scored 69 for 8 in the first game. More beers consumed and then we had a second game, which was won by us as well in front of a crowd which had doubled in size with the arrival of Heather. The beer had all been finished just before the end of the last game, so we adjourned to the Bricklayers to chew the fat.

A very enjoyable day despite P'boros sodding off, and many thanks to Big D for arranging the beer with Pitfields. Thanks to the Local CAMRA branch for the contribution of £0.00p to the event.

(Report complements of Mark Whybrow )

Scores:

P'boro CAMRA bt Colchester CAMRA by a few runs then sulked off

Colchester CAMRA 110 (K Tyler 25* Jon Bennet 19 John Hepburn 23*) bt Ipswich CAMRA 69 for 8 (M Whybrow 2-7 Steve Edmonds 2-9)

Ipswich CAMRA 62 (K Tyler 2-1) Lost to Colchester CAMRA 63-5 (Steve Edmonds 23* John Hepburn 15)