In on the Joke

It was fitting that the cricket season finished just as it had started, with yet another Saturday starting wet and miserable following a lovely few days during the working week. The home pitch was so wet that the firsts never managed to get their game started but the seconds ended up playing a reduced 30 over game over at Harden.

I enjoyed my first Writer's Group meeting in a month and it was lovely to see some old faces again, as well as a new one. The group is thriving, and we have another short story title to work on for next weekend. Somehow!

I then cycled over to Harden in the afternoon, by which time the sun was starting to break through. Roam had made the journey north to play the final game of the season but the importance of the match (needing to win to guarantee avoiding relegation) perhaps got the better of him. That may have been compounded by wanting to impress his girlfriend who had come up with him this weekend. She has a Sri Lankan father so she knows her cricket! Despite getting three wickets he didn't bowl as well as he would have liked and lost his cool a bit in the process. Harden got too many runs and early wickets in our innings soon made the task of chasing them down impossible. The seconds did get relegated.

I watched the game almost to the very end before realising that I needed to get a move on to get back before darkness fell. The nights are now closing in so fast. I just made it.

With the exception of Forrest, who was left sleeping off a hangover at the club, the first team made it over to Harden to cheer on their mates. A fair bit of beer got drunk, and as the game slipped away there was lots of distraction at the boundary edge. I can't tell you what was so funny here. I wasn't let it on the joke. I did enjoy capturing this moment though. Thanks lads for putting up with my camera all season!