Nick and I had a really good afternoon playing cricket today.

Nick is a much better batsman than I am of course, but we asked that we could open the innings for our team – that is to go in as the first two batsmen.

From my point of view it worked well

Nick and I scored 51 between us, in pursuit of the oppositions score of 78.  So far, so good.  At that point I had only scored 2, and Nick 45, but we seemed to be going well.  For me this is excellent.  I can hold one end whilst Nick gets on with what he’s good at: scoring runs.  The bowling was good, but clearly not that good – we were more than 15 overs in at this point.  

Then Nick was out: he cut behind square, a full-blooded meat-of-the-bat shot, but it went straight to a fielder and he was caught out.  I was out two overs later, unfortunately, and my team was all out for 73 !!!

So we lost.  Not what you would have expected at the point where we were 0-51. I think we are a good opening pair – it would be much better if I scored like Nick can do, but then we would be playing in a higher grade anyway.  I get to have a very good view of Nick’s batting and I can tell you it’s a pleasure to watch.  If we had just scored half-a-dozen more …. That’s cricket, at anyway that’s what it is in Ninth Grade!