A new season begins, full of hope & promise and the sun is out. On an almost perfect day for cricket the 5th team magic bus set off for the exotic location of the recycling site at Billingshurst. To be fair expectations were fairly low, at least we have 10 players, we can pick up a few points....this is a realistic view, on Thursday evening we had 9 players and the 3rd XI only had 7. Some recruiting of players from the U13 game being played at the Nevill resulted in a full XI unfortunately on Friday evening Alpha lost a fight with a segway and damaged his knee. We arrive at Billingshurst with 10 players, a mix of experience & youth. Our captain, Simon Webster is in good spirits. Everything goes as planned until the game starts - we win the toss, decide to bowl & survive the first team huddle of the season. Simon gives clear & simple instructions - fielders to concentrate & put their bodies on the line for the team, bowlers keep it simple - bowl a good length & aim for the stumps. Unfortunately the bowlers apart from the outstanding Kyle fail to stick to the plan, aiming for the stumps proves to be difficult and the definition of a good length is stretched to include almost the whole pitch & a few spots off it. Kyle deservedly picks up an early wicket but little else goes to plan.A couple of hard catches are dropped & we are soon in trouble. JP picks up a couple of wickets but the Billingshurst batters continue on their merry way. To be fair the fielders stick to their task & no heads drop. After 40 overs we need to chase down 250 (to which we contributed a staggering 59 extras) on what could be described as a difficult wicket.There were moments of joy:

Darron held a difficult catch in the deep (rather spoilt by his look of surprise when he held it).
Ewan chasing a ball to the boundary and "going down like he had been shot by a sniper".
Alex Crawford's first senior wicket (and Finn's first senior catch).
Darron's death bowling (although the big appeal after bowling someone was unexpected).

A rather splendid tea was enjoyed by all followed by a batting display that Richie Benaud might have described as poor (I suspect in reality he would have been speechless). Highlights were few, although at the top of the order both Ryan & Nagrendra looked the part & promised runs, at the end of the innings Simon & Ewan managed to stick around long enough to ensure we got a batting point. In between there were 4 ducks & only Darron contributed anything worth a mention ( 3 boundaries). The magic bus was derailed and we came second by the rather large amount of 170 runs. Still we managed 7 points, 2 youngsters had their first taste of adult cricket & the skipper was still smiling.