As the long awaited summer weather is upon us, the month has seen some exciting cricket and not just in the Test arena where “Bazball” has taken centre stage. The demolition of New Zealand followed by victory over India have made Test cricket sexy again and there’s no doubt the longer format of the game will benefit hugely from this new era of entertainment. For the hooligans amongst you, fear not, “The Hundred” is just around the corner ☹
After a couple of wet weeks (remember them?) we entertained The Sunsets at Tuck Mill and after The Millers posted a lively 132-5 with Sam Franks run out by Shane for 21, and Jon Pengelly and Shane Tout retired on 25. The Sunsets response stuttered to 78-9, to see The Millers home by 54 runs. We then journeyed to Plymtree to see how their newly installed pizza oven is working out, what a treat! The hosts posted a healthy 146-6 with Jon Pengelly taking 3-3, but some big hitting from Simon Kittow, Ben Peters and Sam Franks saw the Millers home in the last over! The excitement of the finish was matched by the freshly made margarita and pepperoni pizzas coming out of the oven, proper job 😊
Talaton were next up at the Mill with Matt Kingdon’s boys making a seasons high for the ground, 148-4 and despite the best efforts of Jon Pengelly, Will Wood and a very good knock of 34 from Riley Burgess, The Millers finished 20 runs short on 128 all out. We followed this up with another local derby at home to Whimple, Millers under new skipper Shane Tout making 138 -6 , runs for Ralph Cook and Sam Franks, with the cider men responding with 115 all out, Mark Hammett 3-17 and two superb catches in the deep from new boy Callum Crowe. The game was followed by a delicious ham, egg and chips ( even bread and butter on the side) from Eduardo, legend of the kitchen.
We have had a fair number of injuries to contend with this year and its been to good to see some new faces like Callum, mentioned above, and Dave Lerpiniere. We are on the look out at present for a new cylinder mower to cut the wicket, the previous one having collapsed, so if anyone out there knows of anything suitable please let us know – we’re not fussy.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, since we started playing in 2014, many of our squad have got older. The after match chat used to be about what guys were getting up to at the weekend or which pubs were flavour of the month, but these days its about torn ligaments, pulled hamstrings, haemotomas (is that spelt correctly?) or abdominal aches. Just as well the under 50s don’t realize they have so much to look forward to!
Finally thanks to our small army of volunteers who enable us to enjoy the cricket – Tim Hubbard, Will Wood, Shane Tout, Penny Hammett et al.
Plenty of home games coming up, all advertised on the village website.
Jon, Tale Millers CC
