A warm August Sunday afternoon , a church bell sounds , occasional swarms of mods buzz past on their way to Brighton and Watts Cookin’ play a rocking set at the Jolly Tanners across the green . It must be bank holiday and it must be Staplefield  –  the longest standing fixture on the Greys’ roster .

Winning the toss the Greys elected to bat but with the outfield impenetrably thick and some tight bowling from Bull and Clarke our usual openers Biff and Jerry couldn’t  seem to get the scoreboard moving  . “Start Me up“ said Biff , “ Let’s Work Together“ said Jerry  –   but it made little difference and after 12 overs Jerry went for a spot of fly fishing and was well caught in the slips with the score on a disappointing 22 . Guy , Hatrick and Terry all went in quick succession as the bowling remained tight and accurate . Only Biff put up decent resistance and top scored with 24 and, as the band played on,  Alex took one for the team in his very own squeeze box .Sajid bowled a firey spell despite being smote by Richy P for 4 through mid-wicket . This seemed to super charge him into bowling two bouncers at the said batsmans head and he ended up with impressive figures of  5 for 9 runs in 7 overs . Some stoic resistance from Alan and a near crippled Ricky at the tail end of the innings rescued the score to an almost respectable 100 in the circumstances .

So it was “All or Nothing “ for the Greys as Alan came into bowl the first over however a short ball to opener Amila was promptly dispatched for 6 in the first over to the “Sunny Side of the Street” and despite some fine bowling from Robbie Hoare Staplefield had the Mighty Greys right under their thumbs . Amila played and missed more times than anyone in the history of cricket and saw his side home with a steady 55 not out * . Not a greatest of games however  it’s always great to visit the countryside . So for the Greys’ it was back to town for the remainder of their “Summer in The City”

Biff sage-like and philosophical  as ever after a tough day at the helm noted that it was “Alright Now”  –  now that we were in the pub of course

* Note from Author  –  the score book actually indicates that Staplefield scored 93 for 3  –  thus the Greys officially won this fixture by 7 runs . However I was there and we did actually lose . I think I noticed  that Kim Jong- Un bloke doing the scoring again. He’s a winner that boy !