How many words do cricketers have for rain?

Brighton & Hove Crescent at Horsdean, weatherman said sun, he was half right but more of that later.

Not sure who won the toss but the Greys found themselves in the field. Gallagher and Newland have cemented their respective places in the opening bowling partnership and ball in hand they set about the Crescent batsmen.

They look the part and Gallagher in particular looked on top form. 5 overs in he found, B&H’s #1, Kidman’s edge, unfortunately Fenton behind the stumps lacking confidence in his slip (Hoare) lunged across him and gloved it to the floor.

Gallagher’s next over and he found the young man’s edge again, this time not even the eager Fenton could reach it and it was pouched by Hoare at slip, it was sharpish but most slip catches are, but the Mighty Greys deemed it worthy of the PSM. More importantly a Crescent opener was back in the hutch.

Next over Gallagher picked up the wicket of B&H’s #2 Garoghan, tight lines got him to force his shot and he spooned one to Burgess at mid-on. Crescent were 23 for 2.

Time for Newland to get his name in the scorebook, his trademark late in-swing removing B&H’s #3 Geary, 37 for 3.

Gallagher not finished, knocked over Crescent’s 4, Goldenboy?, 39 for 4.

Gallagher finished with figures of 8-3-16-3, top effort.

Azami replaced Newland and struggled with his line and length and was pulled off by a disgruntled skip after going for 23 off 3 overs.

Hoare replaced Gallagher and bowled good lines but surprisingly struggling for fitness he came off after 5 over going for 11 runs but failing to pick up any wickets.

Sewell had replaced Azami and struck in his first over trapping a vexed Carter LBW for 7. At the other end big hitting Gatford had been making the most of Azami’s loose bowling and had raced to 22 before Sewell’s subtle swing beguiled him and he squirted one to Hadrill in the gully, 74 for 5.

Hoare was replaced by Brasher, a part time bowler who relies on a dubious tactic of bowling at the stumps. In tandem with Sewell, they removed 4 further wickets for 25 runs, 99 for 9.

The 10^th wicket proved more difficult to secure as LBW seemed to go out the window, Brasher had 3 close calls turned down. This allowed the Crescent tail to wag and take the total up to 139 before Line clipped the young B&H’s skipper’s leg stump bowling him behind his legs.

The skies were darkening as tea was taken.

TMG’s openers saw off the Crescent opening bowlers un-scathed. Younger and quicker bowlers replaced them and both Brasher and Line were bowled by Kidman, TMG 43 for 2, and dark skies had turned to drizzle.

Line & Brasher were replaced by Burgess and Ashton, but they were playing second fiddle to the weather drizzle had turned to mizzle.

Burgess and Ashton knocked the ball around but the mizzle had become pizzle, and pizzle is not a pleasant state in which to play cricket. As Burgess fell to the bowling of Gatford, the plug was pulled and the bedraggled combatants retired to the pavilion.

So the answer is 3, unless you count rain, in which case it’s 4, but surely rain cannot be a word for rain can it?