Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

There is one phrase I can describe about Somerset this season: Jekyll and Hyde. All the good things they do on the pitch, and just when you think they’ve turned a corner, something disastrous happens.

A crushing victory over Lancashire, then getting hammered by Sussex, bouncing back against Essex and now being beaten by Warwickshire, heavily, for the second time this season in the County Championship.

Talk about suffering supporters. Every morning I look at my pin board and stare at the slip of the bet I made on Somerset at the start of the season; for them to win all competitions – in fact a bet I’ve placed for the past four seasons without much joy.

Last season was the worse, two finals, two defeats and narrowly missing out on their first County Championship.

This season, a slight change in strategy, I’ve done my bet on them each way; talk about putting me (along with others) through the mill. One bright spark mentioned that I should stop betting on them and they’ll win something, maybe a thought for next season, but I doubt it.

Oh well, we do have over half the season to look forward to.

On Friday evening at the latest T20 game against Sussex, I was hoping to bump into a gentleman by the name of Phil Pickard – a name which you may or may not be familiar with. He is the brother of Over Stowey’s Simon and Phil is heavily involved with running the village club, Storrington, back in Sussex where he lives.

Over Stowey have visited Storrington on two occasions, while on tour around that part of the country and they’ve recently returned that gesture touring Somerset and having a fixture against Stowey. We’ve always been made warmly welcome, as Storrington are such wonderful hosts. Visiting clubs like this, gives you a great insight in how clubs across the country run their clubs, you tend to hear the same tales: not enough players, lack of finance, vandals etc. However it is great that you can bounce ideas of each other, what has been successful, what hasn’t, ideas to bring up at the next AGM or whatever.

Back to Phil, I say I was hoping to bump into him, in fact I was tracking him down, as I needed to make my peace with him, as I believe he has some kind of death threat over me. The exact wording: They’ve done-in Bin Laden, Sellsy is next on the list!

Watching England can be just as frustrating as following Somerset, having decided to spend some of my hard earned cash on a trip to Bristol, to see them take on Sri Lanka in a T20 international.

Bristol, as an international ground can be described in one word for me: amateurish! Poor facilities (esp. the toilets), poor stewarding, poor seating, poor bars (in and out of the ground) and why is it so far from the train station? Had to walk through Stokes Croft without mentioning the word Tescos!

Enough have been written in the column inches this weekend about their performance on Saturday, but why do they keep on picking Ravi Bopara? He has never done anything to write home about at international level; plus a massive question over Stuart Broad still lingers in my mind – how bizarre they're talking about that on TV as I write!

The highlight of the day for me was off the pitch, we had the usual stuff, plastic pint snakes, fancy dress, even a Tamil protest outside the entrance to the ground.

However one thing stands out for me (apart from those sexy hen parties): Mark Sortwell walking down a flight of stone steps, “be careful of these steps Sellsy”, he says, then falling down the bottom three and landing amongst the wheelie bins! Priceless!

Congratulations to Over Stowey 2^nd XI, winning their second game of the season, beating West Monkton by eight runs. Simon Pickard top scored with 58, supported by Roger Shepherd with 36. Ben Enever performed with the ball, taking four wickets, well done.

The 1^st team didn’t fair so well, losing to Dulverton by one wicket, ending their recent good form.

Don’t forget next week, The Charity Weekend at Over Stowey, with music, barbecue, bar etc on the Saturday, with the six-a-side tournament on Sunday. It’s only £5 on Saturday, so it would be great to see you there.

Well, it’s 10.57, time for a hangover cure!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Rain, seems to be the most common word I’ve heard this week, at the Test, Taunton and even here at Over Stowey.

Frustration is another word I’ve been using this week when I discuss or watch (when it’s not raining) Somerset. The Set were on Sky earlier in this week, playing Sussex in a T20 game, all the experts saying the pitch is a belter, two big hitting sides, should be a mammoth score etc. What do Somerset do, 91 all out. Admittedly, The Set made Sussex work for their win, but another 30 runs, played out their 20 overs etc. and I might off enjoyed my evening in Bungle’s Bar supping my cider.

What next, they go to Essex; Trescothick smashes the ball all around Chemslford, finishes on 108 not out, Somerset 225–2 after their 20 overs and then blast their hosts out for 82, with Craig Meschede taking three wickets in nine balls!

And then to Friday, more frustration, more rain (used both words in the same sentence) and for the third consecutive home game the weather becomes the winner. Ok Somerset pick up three points for the abandonment's, however I feel they would of won all three and not looking over their shoulder to see what they need to do to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Fair play to Guy Lavender, Somerset’s new Chief Executive, for sorting out and communicating the refund and exchange policy, good PR. Has it gone far enough? I don’t know, however, it’s had a lot of positive responses on some social network sites and from people I speak to. I would imagine even Guy is frustrated with the rain (those words again), with all that revenue going down the drain (excuse the pun), and with fewer T20 matches next year, it must do carnage to their budgets.

So what do you do at cricket when it rains? For me the answer is simple; as a spectator I go to the nearest bar have a few ciders and talk bollocks with some friends; when I was a player, go back to the dressing room, still talk bollocks, this time with my fellow playing colleagues and with no cider – I took the game seriously then!

Rain will inevitably lead to abandonment, which will lead to an early visit to the nearest hostelry to try their local ales and cider. Another reason for an early finish, or even no play at all is an under prepared pitch.

In one such match for Over Stowey 2nds, we visited a Taunton side on the last game of the season, knowing a win would secure us promotion. Having turned up at the ground, and inspected the pitch we found it was under prepared and dangerous to play on. After a brief discussion with the home captain, the match was abandoned and we were given maximum points…… let the celebrations begin, boy we know how to celebrate, getting home in the early hours of the morning!

Unknown to me until about a week later, one of our players, who shall remain anonymous, told his wife that we played and won. However, the wife then asked the question: why his kit was still neatly folded in his kit back, like it had just come out of the airing cupboard! I think you can guess the rest! They are still married by the way!

Despite the early downpours on Saturday morning, both Stowey sides managed to play in the afternoon, a testament to the ground staff in getting the ground ready – for me the wind done most of the job!

The 1^st XI made it four wins out of the last five matches, beating Bishops Hull by six wickets, however the 2^nd XI were not so fortunate, going down away to Bishops Hull’s second string.

A couple of notable performances over the weekend, Julian Pocock claimed five wickets, and at one stage was on a hat-trick. The disappointing thing about that Michelle is that I missed out on Julian buying a jug, cider as well I hear!

The other, think I shall call it not so notable, was poor old Nick Rich, having not dropped a thing for the last two seasons, dropped two catches again on Saturday. Talking to him afterwards, he claims that his glasses are to blame. The week he forgot to wear them, he caught two blinders (one I hear in dispatches that he leapt like a salmon to grab the cherry). However the past two weeks he has been wearing them he couldn’t catch a cold! Nick, believe me, form is temporary, class will always tell – good job the ball didn’t go to Dale!!!!

Well, it’s 10.57ish, time for a pint!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Tea ladies, for me, are the most important thing in village cricket; at Over Stowey we are privileged to have one of the best around, in the form of Elsie Rich.

Elsie turned 80 this week, I was honoured enough to be invited to her celebration on Friday night, along with about another 150 other guests, boy did we celebrate!

It was great to catch up with some former players as well, Clive Sellick, Les Biffen and Clive Bellamy to name just three, reminiscing about the old days, looking at old photos (and laughing at the hair styles), talking about tours and having plenty of Thatchers cider!

I have been playing for Stowey for near on 30 years, and Elsie has always been there making the teas, having a chat, making the away team welcome, making the home team welcome, selling raffle tickets.

Other clubs, I should imagine, may be envious of us, perhaps we take may take her role for granted somewhat, however we always show our appreciation at our annual presentation evening.

I do say other clubs may be envious, as in some discussions with the opposition they say how it can be a burden to sort out the teas, they have rotas, do it themselves etc. in some cases a trip to the local chippy may be in order!

When travelling away, there are a few things I look forward to, a nice shower, the local pub, however teas are on top of my list. I have had some awful ones, but it is always the best ones you remember: Ashcott and Shapwick on a Sunday, chocolate gateaux, flans, strawberries and cream, scones.

One year at Stogumber, there were so many scones, Philip and myself had a contest to see who could eat the most, with jam and cream on, of course I let him win, had to go out and bat!

Back to Elsie, her husband used to play for the club (it is alleged that they were married in the morning, and he played football in a cup final in the afternoon) her son Philip is now the Chairman, his son, Jack, has now forced his way into the 1^st XI. Elsie’s Daughter’s Sue and Wendy are Treasurer and Secretary of the club respectively; all three of Sue’s sons have played for the club; Wendy’s husband Kelvin played for Stowey, and is now President and their Grandson Michael is now a 1^st XI regular.

With tea ladies being the most important thing in cricket, rain must be the most frustrating. Was so much looking forward to watching Somerset play this past week, especially that I missed the game on Sunday when Kieswetter and van der Mere went mad with the bat, only to be thwarted by the bad weather on both Friday and I expect today (Sunday).

Rain also affected Stowey this weekend, with the 2^nd XI game being cancelled when on a bit of a knife edge against Fitzhead and the 1^st XI having to take shelter on a couple occasions, however, they did goo on and beat Cannington by eight wickets, thanks to a hefty contribution by Barrie with his willow!

Rain had also effected the Test match this week, with breaks a plenty, which lead England looking for quick runs so as to declare, so much so it forced Matt Prior into a suicide single, he was run out and consequently smashed a window in the Lords dressing room (who said Test cricket is boring).

Lastly, click onto this link, from the last Test match, Aggers and Michael Vaughan at their best, good old TMS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaNAgIbvsM

It’s 10.57, and it’s a long walk in the rain for a pint!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

999-1, the odds, at one stage during the first Test match you could of got on England to beat Sri Lanka, and win they did, by an innings, which seems the norm for England nowadays.

With all the time lost due to the bad weather and after four days the first innings was not even completed. When play started on the fifth day at about 3pm, the two overnight batsmen strode out to wicket, Bell quickly reached his ton. Looking to insert some pressure on the Sri Lankans, Strauss promptly declared with a first innings lead of only 96, and not in his wildest dreams could he, or anyone else in fact, believe Sri Lanka would crumble like they did.

Saying that, was only talking to Kai baker in the pub (surprise, surprise) before play started, and said to him: “England declare and let’s see if we can knock them over!”

A reporter to Graeme Swann:

Reporter: “Did you think you'd win this match when you turned up here at half-ten this morning?”

Swann: "I didn't get here until half-eleven."

Reporter: “We'll take that as a no!”

Now things have started to get really spooky later on in the week, when speaking to a work colleague about the new England call up, Dernbach, I said in jest about how tall the England attack would be, with bowlers quite easily over 6’2, and low and behold, an article appeared in The Telegraph the next day about the tall England attack.

Who needs experts eh? Just ask this bloke in the pub, as we know everything!

Seeing the Sri Lankan tourists over here reminds me of my trip to their country back in 2001, watching the three Test series, the cricket was of high quality, however it’s the incidents with the locals which also stand out in my mind.

I always like to use local transport, and the sub-continent is full of tuk-tuk’s, you know the little three wheeler taxis.

During the 2^nd Test in Kandy, I left the ground after the 2^nd day’s play, jumped on a tuk-tuk, haggled for a price to get me back to the hotel and off we went. During this journey back, I struck up a conversation with the driver (use that term really loosely, more like kamikaze driver), and started to talk about England, where I come from, how he has friends in England, and the conversation went on. Out of the blue, he mentioned he had two young pretty daughters and would I like to come back for tea to meet them.

I politely declined, and then they guy mentioned how much they are looking for an English husband, so they can move to England and have an education! Can’t repeat what I said after, but the rest of the journey back to the hotel was done at some speed and in silence!

There are other amusing stories to tell, things like how cheap the beer is, worked out to be the equivalent of 10p a pint, and they doubled the price for the English. Pesky beggars, so much so, one day started to talk German and they never bothered me after that. Was meant to play cricket for the England supporters against the natives, however went down with chronic diarrhoea, something I drunk, and was unable to play.

I could go on with little tales, perhaps I should write a book about it!

T20 cricket is back, and as for Somerset, the first game is one to forget against Hampshire, a repeat of last year’s final, but this time there was a bigger margin of victory for Hampshire.

The Kent, chasing just over 160, The Set chased down the target with the lost of one wicket, Tres played a bit part only scoring 64 of 74, with the South African van der Merwe leading Somerset home with 89 of just 51 balls, which included six sixes.

Now this afternoon, Middlesex, come on The Set.

I do enjoy T20 cricket, especially live games at the County Ground, great atmosphere, good company, plenty of beer and great cricket. However, the longer version of the game is still the pinnacle.

For those of you at the County Ground this Friday, look out for the guard of honour, none only than youngsters from Over Stowey. If you fancy buying me a pint I’ll be somewhere near The Old Pavilion!

Now, it felt strange on Saturday watching Over Stowey, all dressed up like a penguin, ready to go to the Charity Ball, however that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm as it was a gorgeous day, and watching Stowey win and did they win well. Chasing 193 for victory, they knocked them off with the loss of eight wickets, with over’s to spare.

Now I’m typing this as a very tired person, yes it has appeared a bit early this week, what a great ball that was.

It’s 8.57 and it’s not time for a pint, but for some Zzzzzzzz’s!