And so as August draws to what seems to be an increasingly normal damp and overcast end, we put our bats away for another summer and predictably mid September sees temperatures in the early twenties and glorious sunshine! Its been a good summer, whilst no one could claim that the weather gods have been overly kind, we’ve lost very few games to the weather – come to that in 21 attempts we also only lost to 5 opposition teams. Sixteen victories is by far our best season to date, well done and thankyou to all who contributed.
Whilst our stalwart umpire John Somers has hung up his jacket this year, and we thank him for standing for us over the past few years, we have been fortunate to welcome new players like Sam Franks, Zara Maynard and David Kittow amongst others. The End of Season Awards night saw Sam collect the Batting Award for the season, along with the Champagne Moment, Zara collect Newcomer of the Year, Neil Chambers was bowler of the Year, Player of the Year was Shane Tout and Club Person of the Year Penny Hammett for all her hard work in getting the club house sorted out and the bar running smoothly. Dan Rugg, who has been playing for us since 2014, at long last showed some improvement, probably connected to not being distracted by Rugby and picked up the Most Improved Player.
Over the course of the summer we had three Skippers, largely dependant on who was fit at the time, thanks to Si Kittow , Mark Hammett and Jon Pengelly for all your efforts. We are very lucky in having a really eclectic mix of characters within the club, “Mr Reliable” is Jason Wood who played nearly every game until his summer holiday, “Mr I don’t know what is going to come out of my mouth next” has to be Riley Burgess, whilst Will Wood returned from his studies in Liverpool to reveal that he is “Mr Naked Aggression”, certainly where the opposition are concerned – but just for clarity he wasn’t actually naked. Ralph Cook is definitely “Mr Bendy” whilst Cleggy ( AKA The Burnley Panther) and the chairman compete for least bendy. Ben Peters is simply the player most likely to have an opinion! ( about anything and everything)
It is all those guys in the background who help make the club tick so mustn’t forget Tim Hubbard thank you for mowing every week, Adam thank you for scoring and Chris Kittow our younger up and coming umpire. Last but not least, where would we be without chef Eduardo – the legend and King of culinary-ness ? The oppo sometimes say that the attraction of coming out to Payhembury to play is the lavish spread that is guaranteed afterwards – there’s me thinking the cricket was important.
Keep well and healthy
Jon, Tale Millers CC
