Aussie Gold before pie fest

THOMAS TRIPP 142-5, SWAY 118-6. Thomas Tripp won by 24 runs

Sway took on Russell Perrett's midweek friendly side Thomas Tripp at Pennington and got off to a good start as Steve Drayton 1-13 and James Howard who conceded just 4 runs in 3 overs got Sway in early control. Howard made way for the belated debut of Sway's new Aussie star Alex Horton who took a caught and bowled chance with his very first ball, unbelievably it was a fellow countryman the now domiciled Shane Van Dreven. Horton 1-14 and Steve Thistleton 0-9 left the Tripp well off the pace in this 20/20 game at 41-2 after 12 overs. At this point skipper Steve How decided to introduce some pie bowling from himself Alex Hall, Andy Lee and Steve Hannibal which John McGuirk (70) and Darren Ritchie (41) feasted on to such an extent that 101 runs were added in the last 8 overs. The main upshots being Hall replacing Steve Drayton at the top of the 2010 Pieometer going for 21 runs in his first over, and the neighbouring Pennington Scouts Troop Leader having to reappraise his risk assessment policy as they spent most of their time avoiding and retrieving the many pies raining down on them. Incidentally Squeak did pick up 2 wickets as the innings closed on 142-5.

Dapper was sent in at number 1 for dropping a dolly off his captains bowling and hit a turf scorching drive through extra cover for 4 first ball, this however was about as good as it got apart from Dapper recording 25 easily his best score for Sway. Hard as he tried Perrrett couldn't find anyone to match Sway's earlier munificence, as Hall and Pete Bennet both hit 16 and Thistleton finished on 28 not out, Nigel Dickie 2-19 being the most successful of the bowlers as Sway ended up 24 runs short.

As for the Piemaster himself he was hard at work in the family restaurant business serving up plenty of tasty treats but surely nothing on the scale of this match which was the equivalent of one of Henry VIII's banquets though if memory serves me right they only had 1 jester.