Icing on the Cake for Weekenders

Chippenham 30-2
Match abandoned.

Travelling to Chippenham without Mike Harvey is a bit like trying to clean a pub floor without a decent hoover. But we’ve always tried to be there for each other - if one Weekender struggles another puts his hand up, or in this case his plate out. When rain and sleet forced an early tea on Sunday the visitors looked certain to miss the skills of the peckish Sydneysider (whose phenomenal meringue-eating form in 2004 earned him the club record). Yet somehow the boys pulled together and dispatched Mrs D’s spread like a team of top-of-the-range Dysons. Sandwiches, pies, sausage rolls, mini scotch eggs, Pringles, crisps - even the cress - disappeared in moments. Likewise the swiss rolls, fancies and fairy cakes, also the jam tarts which we have occasionally been guilty of overlooking in the past.

The chocolate and coffee cakes proved slightly harder to shift but in time they too were cleaned up thanks to some dogged work from the seamers. It’s invidious to single out players from such a tremendous team eating performance, and although Marvel’s record is quite safe for another year it has to be said that Hogben and Lyons’ demolition of the brandy snaps filled with whipped cream and jam was as ruthless a display at the trestle table as any this century. They simply murdered them. The Weekenders’ day ended in fairytale fashion when the hosts generously refused to accept payment on account of our long drive for no cricket.

The club has now entered a staggering eighth month without conceding a single penny in match fees.

For the forty minutes that were possible before the hailstorm drove us from the field the Enders did slightly better than expected although history teaches us that the wheels would surely have come off if we’d gone on much longer. Skipper d’Inverno’s leadership could not be faulted except perhaps for his choice of Maloney to field at cover.

Chippenham 30-2
Douglas 6-0-14-2 Franks 6-0-14-0
Debut: Corey Swift (in silver trainers)