Moreton Beer & Cricket Festival 2010

Our 3rd year & "the best yet" according to most of you. The weather was kind, the music superb, the cricket was wonderfully entertaining & the beer & cider flowed.













I thought The Homestead commentary box worked particularly well, so thanks to all of you who did a stint in there; I can only think of one person who disagrees with this sentiment., hopefully he'll do a stint in the box next year ? What do you reckon Tony ?

A big thank you to those that worked so hard to put this event on- there are a few too many of you to mention, without it sounding like an Oscar's acceptance speech, but you know who you are & thank you !

A short, light hearted, review of the cricket follows below- I must confess I didn't see that much of Thursday or Fridays games, and I know Jonny will write something about our emphatic win over Cuxham, but if anyone fancies penning a few words about Thursday's high scoring game v Warborough boys, I would be delighted.

SATURDAY 31st JULY 6 a side competition.

After Wimbledon Wizards pulled out & Nigel "tough guy" Hessey threw Sutton Courtenay out for failing to answer his emails, we had 2 new teams this year; Warborough Wizards (how convenient) & "The Tourists" a second team from Amsterdam. Seeding ensured last year's finalists, The Grizzly Bears & Amsterdam were kept apart in the early stages, and early form suggested these 2 would again be involved at the k/o stage. Blewbury, smarting from their poor showing last year sent a strong team over, & The Wizards, despite losing to The Bear in a tight group game also went through. Very entertaining semi finals saw Blewbury leave early thanks to the young Wizards heroics & The Bear avenged their loss to Amsterdam in last year's final with a convincing win. So youth v experience in the final; The Bear's team looked good on paper, but 3 days of drinking might be catching up with them ? The Wizards had been on Lucozade all day, and no doubt had been sent to bed at a sensible time the night before, so a close game was expected. To be honest I wasn't expecting to play in the final, so had done a bit of quality control in the beer tent, only to hear that Kaz was injured/ feeling his age. The Wizards batted well, without ever "getting away", and The Bears knocked off the runs relatively comfortably. Getting my hands back on the trophy was fantastic, and all the plaudits must go to our team, assembled at great expense at the IPL auction:-

Rowan Macgregor (Skip)

Sam Fletcher

Kaz Miles

Richard West

Rob Macgregor (Keep)

Jonny Yaxley

Sam Smith

& The Landlord

SUNDAY 1st AUGUST - T20 Triangular Comp

Moreton were joined by our old friends from Amsterdam, and our even older acquaintances from Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. One of the many highlights of this year's festival was Moreton retaining The Anniversary Cup, purchased by BcS, at great expense, won last year by our "2nd XI", and now engraved exclusively with the 7 letters "Moreton". Anticipating victory this year, BcS apparently had a whip round to pay for engraving their village name on their cup, but fell short of the sum required for all 21 characters, and as "right well cum" didn't seem appropriate, they bowed down graciously. To lose off the 6th ball of the 20th over is always going to be hard to take, and we are grateful to "Moany Wincer " for pointing out to his team that they had had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, and really shouldn't fret too much over the result. Earlier we had seen Amsterdam beat BcS, who unfortunately ended the day played 2 lost 2. Perhaps the best of all was Moreton v Amsterdam, ending unbelievably in a tie (126 each) with Dive Templedoom the unlikely bowling hero.

Looking forward to next year !