A Shiny Buttercup Day

It's been grand (needs to be seen large really)

Today was as good as yesterday was bad - in every way. Despite a rather indifferent forecast which suggested a largely showery affair, the day proved to be quite beautiful: warm with plenty of sunshine and a total of just a few minutes of light rain from just one shower that brushed past the valley. I enjoyed a 50 mile cycle this morning, out to Pateley Bridge via a roundabout route which took in Timble, Birstwith and Darley, then climbing up to Greenhow to return home down Wharfedale. The skies were astonishing and I have some dramatic cloudscapes in the bag but I'm posting this bright and colourful shot in celebration of today's cricket. It's most definitely been a shiny buttercup kind of day!

For the first time in the club's history both first and second teams got through to play in this second round of the cup, drawn against local rivals Ilkley (our small town actually having three cricket clubs in the league). Both games closed with nail-biting finishes. The first team were at one point 89-7 chasing 177 to win and looking like a lost cause. That they managed to emerge victorious was in large part due to 54 from Forrest, coming in at No.7 today. He was out with just a handful of runs left required, providing for a little anxiety (as always with this club) at the death, but the captain, Alex Miller, who shared an eighth wicket stand of 80 with Forrest, held firm. They were two great knocks under considerable pressure. It was a big day for Forrest. This was his maiden fifty for the first team. He rode his luck a little bit but he played some beautiful shots in his innings and the hope is that this will now give him the self-belief he's been wanting to help him score runs consistently at this level.

As soon as victory was secured I cycled over to Ben Rhydding (only just over a mile away) to catch the end of the second team match. On paper this should have been a straightforward tie for Ilkley and we had no great expectations of a result. They are currently top of the first division and we are mid-table in the second division. But this is the cup and anything can happen. And it did. I arrived just at the moment Roam took a catch to take the eighth wicket and leave Ilkley needing a dozen runs to win in a handful of overs, a parallel situation to the one that the firsts had only just won from. It should have been comfortable enough but the runs started to dry up, the overs started to run out, and the pressure built. Roam, having used up the overs of his main strike bowlers in the hunt for wickets, handed the ball to the youngest member of the team, just fifteen years of age, who duly picked up the last two scalps to give us a famous victory. What a fairlytale performance for the young lad. And what brave and bold captaincy from Roam. I've since found out that although Roam wasn't at his best with the ball today he brought about two run-outs (one a direct hit) with some fine fielding, and picked up some useful runs too. I was so proud of both my lads today.

They are still out celebrating as I post this very late. There have not been many better days for the club than this. I'm not sure I've ever seen either of my boys happier than they were at the end of these games.

PS The upturn in circumstance actually started last night. The cheese and vegetable pie from Creative Breads was outrageously good!