The tenth Annual Tour went once again to the rugged County of Cornwall. Unless another touring side can be located, Saturday is out for a game with a local side as virtually all teams play in leagues. Thus, the two games lined on Sunday and Monday (confirmed in the winter) were eagerly expected. Two days before departure, Camborne Community College (Monday) was off, due to a shortage of players. The County faces the same problem most seasons – poor early summer weather leads to a backlog of league games and players often put their own club first. Thus, the College lost out and the game was lost to us.

   Perranporth always makes us feel welcome and we stayed, as usual, at the Ponsmere Hotel, who look after us so well each time. Friday’s arrival was fairly smooth for most, except for one car whose journey took a mere eight hours to complete. In an attempt to avoid the Druids at Stonehenge Adie Barrett decided to take the old, quiet stretch of the old A30 to Salisbury. Bad move. The rear part of his exhaust disembarked from the vehicle less than 50 minutes from home. Thankfully it fell off as they passed the only garage in the area and within three hours were on their way. Adie won’t be allowed to forget it for the next three years, though!

   Vice Presidents Martin Weston and Gary Pudney (pictured right at the "Watering Hole") came down for the Friday and Saturday nights – a nice surprise – and their presence was appreciated for their going to bed first both nights. It meant everyone else avoided being hit with a fine for said “offence”! Our “Blottery” made a re-appearance in the re-vamped guise of “Blotto” – as per the National game of Lotto - an apt description for those who had an extremely lengthy session on Saturday night. That was in the Watering Hole on the Beach (a.k.a. the "Beach Bar" to us) on Saturday. They host live music on Saturday nights but the band didn't expect much in the way of competition as Dear Martin and Gary (pictured right) were treated to a string of "adapted" favourite tunes. an affectionate rendition of several songs from the rest of us, favourites like "Woke Up This Morning And I Felt Very Old" to the tune of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep", "You're Old And You Know You Are" (to the tune of "Go West" by the Pet Shop Boys). Here are links to a "mini-movie" of one bit of abuse we gave them (mpeg, 1.45Mb) and an extended audio track (mp3, 509Kb). While we're at it, there are more gems from this and previous tours on the Media Page.

   Sunday, and the game. Mount Hawke has played us every year except the first year we toured Cornwall. Last year they soundly beat us so we wanted a good performance. Batting first, our account was opened by Jay Walliker and Mike Lewis (pictured left!). Mike fell early on bringing in Adie Lamberth who settled in while Jay Walliker was run out on only 8. Virgin Tourist Ben Pudney now partnered Andy and together they put on a slew of runs. Ben hit five boundaries in his quick 28, including two big sixes and a lost ball before being caught! After him came Kev Cheseman (pictured, below right), Matt Balkwill and Tim Lamb who all pushed the score along but fell in the early teens. The rest of the order also contributed to the score after Lamberth was out for an excellent 44. His last scoring shot was a six and another lost ball. West End’s final total was a commanding 182.

   Mount Hawke had a call for L.B.W. go against opener Anderson in the second over and no.3 Skelton was bowled soon after for 1, Adie Barrett claiming both scalps. Next man in Looker dug in and grafted away, soon joined by Turnbull after Osborne fell for a duck to be Walliker’s second victim. Turnbull looked dangerous, finding the boundary with increasing regularity – it turned out he scored a near double-century the previous day. The partnership kept the pace up to the required rate – the Howard Turner removed Turnbull who skied a catch to Ben Pudney who made no mistake. Looker was still there though until Adie Barrett forced an error, a thick outside edge went again to Ben in the Gully area. Mount Hawke’s innings ran out of steam and out of overs, finishing only fifteen runs behind. Pick of the bowlers were Jay Walliker, 3-24; Howard Turner, 2-18; and Adie Barrett, 3-16. An excellent game all round.

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For more pix of the tour, click here.

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