Rain Stops Premier Division Preparations

Cricket was the loser today as the gods took vengeance on the meek and threw gales and freezing rain at the players daring to play the great game in April. A 40 over match soon became reduced to 35 overs per side, and then neither Captain could take the rain delays any longer and the match was abandoned after 6.3 overs of Speedliners' innings.

A promising start from the Islanders saw Dave Blackman open with Tony Quayle before their partnership was cut short when Blackman was dismissed for 20, bowled by Rob Hodges playing the ball onto his stumps. Jan Davey entered the fray and, after initial stuttering efforts to get off the mark, hit some lusty blows on his way to 54, riding his luck at times as he was dropped on three occasions. Unfortunately his partner, Quayle, was unable to match this scoring rate and ground out a dogged 19 off 58 deliveries in a painful 87 minutes for the few spectators who braved the conditions. When ordered by his Captain, Martin Hewson, to "Hit out or get out", he failed in getting bat on ball and was dismissed L.B.W. by Phil "Stevo" Stephenson, the famed karaoke crooner.

The great white hope, Jason Styles, joined the man of the moment, Davey, and got off the mark with a quick single then a sublime straight drive for 4. He was then trapped shortly afterwards, plum L.B.W. (the second easiest umpiring decision of the day) by Alex Warner and was back in the pavilion for 6, launching a volley of abuse towards the more than capable umpire.

Captain Martin Hewson joined Jan for a brief partnership, as almost as soon as he got there, Davey was walking after being hit on the second bounce by a deadly slow flipper from Robbie Druce, which if it had hit the middle stump where it was destined, would have had difficulty removing the bails.

A Captain's innings was required, but luckily Hewson had Gary Randell as his new partner, who hit a quickfire 51 off 28 deliveries, including 2 very big sixes. Hewson supplied able back-up recording 21 runs to his name, as he declared with PRT on 189/4 off 33 overs.

After tea, PRT came out to field under forboding skies, as Druce and Brown prepared to face the 2002's new-look opening bowl pairing of Kelman and Trevett. Glen charged up the hill having to cope with a fierce crosswind, his tall frame being blown sideways as he launched himself into the popping crease, and found control difficult in these conditions. Coming down the hill, Trevett bowled a full length as he also battled against the elements, but this proved to be an economical tactic.

Fellow Speedliner teammate Brown soon got to grips with Kelman's bowling and hooked one for four and then dispatched the following ball back from whence it came. He then applied the same approach to Trevett when he drove his first loose delivery for a sharp boundary. A brief, heavy shower then caused both teams to scamper for shelter in the pavilion, before returning to the field when it appeared the rains had relented. Barely two more overs had been bowled before they were back inside again and Captains Jones and Hewson decided to call it a day.