Precisely Half the score 

True to the traditions of Sunday cricket the Greys once again ventured north
on a hot sunny afternoon to the impressive cricket club that is Ansty with a
spring in the step , an occasional captain in Dave Day and a team that ,
once counted, numbered  12  . Commiserations and thanks to Guy for so
gallantly stepping down and sparing big Dave the task of digging very deep
into his managerial skills to sort the situation. Captain Biffolini was on
manoeuvres in France and the team were light hearted as whistful thoughts of
the Hassocks spring once again filled the team with a gay abandon  .

However reality soon bit back as Ansty won the toss and took to the crease.
Clearly forgetting they were playing a pub team Ansty ‘s opening bat was
Chris Barnes ,currently the leading run scorer in their 1st 1X and averaging
53 at that level . No great surprise then when he scored a chanceless 103
before politely retiring only to be followed to his hundred by the third
batsmen in Anderson ( currently averaging 61 in the 1st IX) who also
politely retired on 102 . Granted our bowling was shite , with Day the only
bowler to return respectable figures , however these two chaps were
literally in a different league and even half decent balls were smote over
trees and into hedges. Greysmen chased around like lost rabbits for a few
hours under a merciless sun occasionally meeting each other in the thorny
hedges to dig out yet another four and six and to wryly grumble about
cricket and life in general –  these were some of the afternoons more
special moments .

Ansty duly posted a total of 298 and the Greys were left hot , tired but in
philosophical good humour. After an excellent tea provided by our extremely
affable hosts the Greys began their innings filled with food but not hope .
In theory scoring was easy  , touch the ball and off it went. The Ansty
bowling was respectable but quite manageable and decent contributions were
made by  Burgess, 26, Sewell ,29, and Partridge 34 . However it was never
going to be about winning –  the mountain was too high to climb and the
Greys were left somewhere around base camp – all out for 149 off 37 overs –
precisely half of Ansty’s score which is surely something to be proud of !

So pints of Hophead downed we headed back to the big smoke wondering what
sort of team Newick would be putting out against us the following Sunday …

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