News
If the Cowfolk are doing it, this is where it’s at…
Some Rain, Some Cricket
The Saturday Cricket was rained off again and the Sunday 2nds had to abandon their match. However, the Sun once again shone on the Sunday 1st Team as they beat Brislington by 4 wickets in an epic struggle. The full scorecard can be found here. Boults’ match reprort goes thus:
ECCC Sunday 1sts versus Brislington 3rds. 17/6/12 – NSCL Sunday Conference Division 3:
Mmmm, the rush you get with a 1st kiss. However, love is not the drug I am thinking of, today. No, it is the rush produced by turning round an almost certain losing position, in a cricket match, into a win. 1st kiss doesn’t come close and this time I had my eyes open.
Despite drop outs from Andy Chester (secret mission with missus) and Sayed (‘emergency’) we were able to put together a strong xi as the Saturdays lost their game to the weather but provided willing replacements to our team with Iggy and Steve O joining our happy band. Blow me down, the game is only on.
Brislington CC have a fine ground, today hosting both ourselves, and their Premier Division team taking on Hinton & Charterhouse. Their team is made up of a few teenagers who were in their Premier team but couldn’t handle it so started their 3rds to give them a chance to develop. The sun (big yellow ball in the sky) was out. Having a look at the soggy but drying wicket, it is obvious to bowl 1st, well isn’t it? So, for the 1st time this season I lost the toss but we were asked to bowl anyway. Look into my eyes, not around the eyes but into my eyes etc.
Omar and Duncan open the bowling, as is their custom, they keep the opposition openers very quiet. 10 runs off the 1st 6 overs but no wickets a-tumbling. An acceleration is attempted and RT2 takes advantage. 34-1 in the 10th over. Like a bearded 20-something, he steamed in and Brislington seemingly on the ropes at 41-3 off 13 overs. Now the game swung, which our bowling should have been doing but failed to do as we desired to show the world that bowling short on a damp and sticky wicket is not the best idea. Compounding this, there was witnessed a terrible, terrible, easy dropped catch from Skipper ( As the ball gently fell into my perfectly positioned hands I began to think, ‘I really should call for this, but it is a bit late for that and no one else is going for it, but I really should call as it focuses my mind, oh balderdash’) and a missed chance off the batsman’s gloves, both off the growling ‘How do you get a wicket round here’ Stratton. Taking advantage, the Brislington 5 & 6 proceeded to bash 113 runs off the next 14 overs. Looking grim, but we never fell apart, negativity was at a minimum, spirit held together and we rallied. RT2 completed a 5 wicket haul. Stratton got his deserved wicket. Omar and Duncan finished with a wicket each. Iggy weighed in with 2. Steve O also ‘bowled’. Brislington all out for 230 off 37.2 overs. Could have been worse was the feeling as we trooped off to a delicious looking tea, of which I ate none as I was still ‘having a word with myself’ about the dropped catch.
With the weather closing in, and Brislington’s openers using the wicket as they knew it should, our glorious openers struggled (well Justin anyway) to keep up with the run rate (it looked a good chance that the match would not go our full 40 overs so wanted to be in a good position should Brislington wish to abandon). Bolts departed to a juggled (bugger) catch with ECC on 49 in the 13th over. Justin followed and we were 68 -2 in the 17th over. Time to put the ‘big-hitters’ in and get the run rate up. Iggy (14 off 9 balls) RT2 (Golden Duck) and Omar (8 off 2 balls) tried to put a spark into our innings but 102 – 5 off 21 overs meant it was a big ask. With over 500 years worth of experience between them, Wilko and Duncan put together a partnership of 45 off the next 6 overs. A bit of pride restored. Brislington still very chirpy, no worries about the game being called off due to the prevailing drizzle as they sail to victory.
However, there was a legend at the wicket. A legend who had hit 3 boundaries in the 1st 5 balls he faced. Duncan was joined at the wicket by Steve O, a legend yes, but an opening batsman with a certain reputation, and we need 83 runs off 13 overs and the recognised batsmen are all gone (no disrespect to Dean, Jeff or Mr Stratton). Personally, I have seen plenty of Cowboy teams that have folded at this point, or chosen the slow death route, but not this time, oh no. Every single one of the next 13 odd overs went for between 5 and 9 runs. Age, cramps, dehydration, the opposition, nothing could stop these two. Duncan ended with 74 n.o. from 55 balls and Steve O 31 n.o. from 35 balls. The winning run was hit off the 1st ball of final over. Much rejoicing, cuddling and rushing.
MOM : Duncan for his fabulous sustained fury, attacking, winning, innings. Possibly also for 8 overs of bowling. 5 of them as opener.
CM: Duncan – my ‘D’ button is wearing out on my keyboard. Cider moment for yelling, ‘fuck you, cricket ball’ as he mashed it over the bowlers head for 4.
3 wins in a row for us now. Divisional leaders up next weekend. At last the season seems back on.
Umpire Training
Umpiring training opportunity for all!
Earn £15 an hour as a netball umpire. Cowgirls Netball are desperately short of qualified umpires and we will pay anyone’s fees to do the training course and help with our duties at league games, we pay our umpires for our duty and other teams are always to looking to hire. Standard rate is £15 hour.
You have to have a good grasp of the game so you would need to attend our training sessions. We’re out of season now so it’s time for development!! (And some fun!) Training is an hour on Thursday nights which you will not get paid for.
Please contact Dainty on welshberd@yahoo.com if you are interested in this and want further info.
St Pauli Antira tournament video
Last month a crew of Cowboys and Cowgirls played hard on and off pitch at the legendary St Pauli Antira tournament in Hamburg. Blue of Republica shot a short video for those of you that want to check it out and share.
St.Pauli AntiRa 2012 from claireblue on Vimeo.
Wet
All cricket was off over the weekend due to the amount of water that fell from the skys during the week.
There was a little some football at Easton Community center though and a comely wedge was earned for Skulduggery By The Sea.
Here are some photos stolen from JD’s facebook gallery taken at Beessands the weekend before last, it looks like a scorcher.
The Plough
According to facebook The Plough reopens on Friday at 20:00.
Liecester Tournament
Tournament date and venue – Saturday 27th July @ St Margarets Pastures, Leicester LE1 3EA
(https://maps.http://goo.gl/maps/jcCgv) and will take place on the brand new 3G pitches. It will be from around 10am til 4/5pm. The tournament will be 6-a-side, 20min a game, unlimited rolling subs.
We’re aiming for 8 teams (2 groups of 4), with the top two going into a cup and the bottom two going into a shield. With semi-finals, 3rd/4th place play offs, and finals, every team will get 5 games.
We have all 4 pitches booked, 3 of them will be used for the tournament and the 4th can be used for friendlies, warming up, or dossing. Should be plenty of time for all 3.
Teams are asked to make/bring a trophy/prize offering with them.
Parking – There is ample parking (enough for 100 vehicles) in the sports centre car park adjacent to the pitches. The cost is £1.80 for up to 10hours. Street parking is hard to find and not worth the hassle.
Entry fee – To help cover tournament costs we are asking each team to pay a £20 entry fee.
Food – There will be food on the day provided by Veggies Catering Campaign (a long standing workers’ co-operative based in Notts) and it will all be vegan. Anyone wanting anything non-vegan can pop 10 mins into town which is round the corner. There will be a 1hr break for some dinner.
Gig – There will be a gig in the evening after the tournament. It will be run in keeping with the ‘Prix Libre’ part of the Leicester punk scene with the entry fee being up to the you, you pay what you can afford/feel the gig is worth. Hopefully aiming for a mix of stuff not just the soothing sounds of pots and pans being hit with spanners at high velocity. No fucking jazz mind. If all goes to plan, we will be running our own bar, please use this as it will be helping us cover the tournament costs.
Accommodation – The tournament is taking place slap bang in the middle of Leicester within half a mile of the City Centre so there will be no camping available. As a team we have a very limited amount of sleeping spaces available in our own homes and those of our friends/supporters with priority given to the Roter Stern Kickers players travelling over from Germany and then to those within the UK who are travelling the furthest distance.
Other stuff – There will also be a no-holds barred table football tournament at some point during the weekend.
Jubilee Clipped
Dunc’s match report from the Sunday 1st Team rained off match reads thus:
Jubilee Clipped.
An agreeable if not sun drenched Somerset village scene awaited the visit of the Easton Cowboys Sunday 1st eleven, no doubt with near immeasurable titillation.Much of the population of Britain had had typical behavior suspended this weekend, replaced by Royalism beyond the usual call of duty even in this, alas, Sceptred Isle. Red white and blue bunting and Union flags adorn sticks and strings in a display of patriotism apparently designed to raise ire in even the more peaceable Republicans among us.
A gently dented Mazda homed in on it’s destination amid the palpable screeching funk that is James Brown. The sight of three burly gentlemen hovering over and discussing the condition of the wicket and offering furtive glances skyward in what appeared to be a rather resigned, almost chagrined manner is not one which gave this reporter much confidence that any subsequent cricket match thereupon would reach it’s full term.
Superbad!
A little rain overnight had given the usually low skidding Blagdon wicket a kind of school chocolate pudding consistency. The ‘Blades’ are a swashbuckling batting side, and so in view of these parameters, Mr. Bolton, upon winning his fifth toss in a row (??), wasted no time pondering his decision to insert them on what was likely to be a helpful strip if one wished to execute a quick victory before the Met Office prediction of heavy rain rendered the playing surface aqueous beyond any reasonable argument to the contrary. It is worth noting at this point that 1600 hours was the prognostication for the Heavens to truly open.
Of course, argument to the contrary does not always have to be reasonable to be aired, and so when a grumpy young opening batsman maintained he wasn’t going out to bat until it stopped raining, barely muted Cowboy rumblings alleging poultry-style courage were heard emanating from the visitors changing room.
But the vagaries of the British weather, such as they are, allowed a vapid sun to peep timidly from behind a dense blanket of cloud for a microsecond and the game began.
The pitch has a distinct slope running across it’s full length which can be exploited by a bowler. Mr. R. Tinkler, seemingly buoyed by his third selection of the weekend, set about the task of bowling from the ‘Cutting Back into the Batsman’ end. After one leg side delivery, the appropriate radar adjustment was made and an accurate 5 balls followed, the last of which somewhat ruined the batsman’s afternoon by clean bowling him.
One was trusted by the skipper to have a bash from the ‘Giving the Batsman Swishing Room Outside His Off Stump’ end. The trust appeared to have been a trifle misplaced as the over yielded 7 runs. A reference to testes was the singular gist of a loud and angry outburst from the errant bowler. Mr. T’s next over was accurate and 2 runs from the bat ensued. Mr. Errant Angry’s next over was a wicket maiden. I think we all went off for a rain break enabling us valuable drying time.
Upon our return, the run rate upped a few gears. A rather vacant Antipodean umpire then counted a 4 ball over. But that was enough for another wicket to fall caught behind thanks to Jeff’s ravenous glove work.
RT1 Esq. conceded just 2 from his next with no entries to the W column. Mr. Vex’s next was then smacked over long on for 2 boundaries by one of the aforementioned burly gentlemen, who then edged one to Jeff who snapped up his second regulation keeper’s victim of the afternoon. We all went off again. Nowhere was dry enough anymore. Rizla ninjas began their obligatory exercises.
The ninth over of the day was bowled by RT2. His first ball was quite good, despite the fact that it was delivered from a body position perhaps best described as base over apex. The remainder of the over was conducted in increasing inclemency and included one wide which trickled to the batsman’s end following a very high parabolic trajectory indeed.
Ya basta was the general consensus.
We all skulked off.
It stopped raining.
A few disgruntled Cowboys carried out a makeshift trial on the soggy square. It concluded that ‘The Blades’ were guilty of evading a thorough pasting if the finishing score of 35 for 4 from 9 overs was anything to go by. With the absence of opposition representative cross-examination, no mitigating circumstances were taken into consideration, the judges and jurors were about to pass the axe to the executioner when the time reached 1600 hours and five seconds and it hammered with rain.
Sheepishly, we retreated knowing the correct conclusion to this game had been achieved. The peace and repose of the Somerset countryside was reinstated as we all rolled off presumably to muse with limitless incredulity how on earth we still have a monarchy, and why, oh why, is Gary Barlow apparently now in charge of British entertainment.
CACKK Camp
The address is Clyngwyn Bunkhouse, Ystradfellte Road, Pontneddfechan, Powys SA11 5US.
We have booked the whole venue and its facilities – bunkhouse, B and B and camping field.The bunkhouse has 19 beds, showers and toilets and a big kitchen facility. The bedrooms are upstairs and away from noise. There are some family rooms. There is a polytunnel which will have electric. We can run a bar having been given permission by the owner. We can have the kids’ disco and music later on. There are plenty of toilets in the bunkhouse and some showers.
There is plenty of space for the footy pitch and camping and a few designated fire pits.
Camper vans are permitted and there are 2 hardstandings for them. The rest are in the field.
So regardless of where you stay, the price is the same apart from the 2 rooms in the B and B.
So the price is:
Family of 5 – £81.25
Family of 4 – £65
Family of 3 – £48.75
Family of 2 – £32.50
Basically £16.25 per person per 2 nights. Children under 3 are free.
The B and B has 2 twin rooms, bath, shower, living room, kitchen. It is possible to have a baby or
toddler in with you.
Each room is £100 for 2 nights.
To get sole use of the whole site and therefore not have a noise curfew, we have had to book the B and
B.
All this covers the cost of the campsite, electric and bunkhouse and the CACKK events and expenses.
If you can, please pay up front as soon as possible.
See PC for more details
Powys SA11, UK
EDL
The thuggish bigots of the English Defence League are planning to march in Bristol on Saturday 14th July. The communities of Bristol are organising to oppose them (full details in attached leaflet). All Cowfolk are urged to get involved on the day. Also, if you can help out beforehand with publicity and fundraising, please contact bristolantifascists@riseup.net.
