Following the sun cancelled match of last week and with a weather forecast somewhat similar, Skip put his faith in the Great Missenden micro climate and called the Pelis to arms.

Whether it was the humidity or some other atmospheric phenomena the opposing Skip called correctly and the Pelis were put in to bat, on what looked quite a nice wicket to bowl on, or as Clive would put it “Someone will die on this wicket”.

As Skip took in the fine array of manly specimens slowly changing into their whites, the inclusion of two Legends in the team must surely bode well for the Pelis. Yes Rickmansworth would face the wrath not only of Tickles, but also The Kerala Express, Mr Govind Sankar. Back for a bit of R and R from the frontline of husbandry. Oh yes Gov was now manly enough to tell Mrs Gov that he was playing cricket, this manliness was helped by the fact that she was in Belgium and was unaware of the fact that he wasn’t home.

Opening for the Pelis we had Asad and Kunaal. Kunaal quickly found his stride and after a few overs Asad found his too as a fine array of fours made it to the boundary. The spectators not only enjoyed some good old fashioned slogging they also wondered at the incredible running between the wickets, especially on the 5th and 6th ball of the overs, when let’s be honest Prof Hawkins would make more ground without the aid of his wheelchair as the strike beckoned.

This fun and games came to a close for Asad on 48, leaving Kunaal to carry on with his new partner Ali, who carried on where Asad had left off as he peppered the leg side boundary looking almost Toobyesque.

Ali contributed a fine 18 until he too succumbed to the bowling of Rickmansworth who had decided everybody in their team would get a bowl irrespective of whether they could or indeed could not throw a ball with a straight arm.

This did give us a wonderful moment of Asad who was umpiring, looking round to the clubhouse rather sheepishly at not giving a forth consecutive wide which had actually gone wider than the preceding three balls, indeed it was closer to the next wicket along than the stumps.

Next out to join Kunaal was Haimes, “what do you want me to do Skip?” inquired Haimes, “errrr whatever” was Skip’s concise instructions.

These Yoda-like words of wisdom were taken to heart as Haimes too found the Ricki bowling to his liking and decided the boundary needed a bit of ball treatment, meanwhile Kunaal have blasted past his fifty and was swishing, swatting, swacking towards another century.

Haimes at this point having scored about 15 or so decided his time was up and duly let JG in to continue the run fest, which in a more stylish way was what he did indeed.

The runs continued to flow and Kunaal edged ever closer to that century, unfortunately the sight of Tickles padded up put a bit of the wind up Kunaal as he knew that if JG was out fast singles would be the order of the day, he then holed out just in front of the pavilion having scored an excellent 86.

This then allowed Mrs Kankate to also leave the meadow having explained that she had done her time watching cricket when Kunaal was young. We took that to mean she couldn’t really be arsed with the rest of the game.

Striding out to the wicket with all the purpose of a Panzer division Tickles quickly got into his stride and indeed quick singles and slashed 4s became the order. With a comforting familiarity like old slippers we witnessed Greenwood and Tickler enjoy themselves for a few overs until Ticks one slash too many was his undoing.

Tea had been provided by Mr and Mrs Kankate though I suspect it was more Mrs K, but a mighty fine feast it was with a mixture of curry, sandwiches and cake, excellent.

With stomachs bulging, opening from the railway end was Toobes. Having put 215 on the board there were runs to play with, unfortunately after Toobes’s 4 overs there were not quite so many runs to play with as the Hashim Amla lookalike carted the ball to all four corners of Great Missenden. Toobes having tired the batsmen out at his end, it was up to Gov to mop up the supporting act to Hashim Amla which he did with aplomb, taking three excellent wickets, although Hashim was a bit confused by the Gov run up which in one ball was 10 paces and the next 3, the only difference was the number of paces as the reduced run up did not alter the speed with which the ball flew down the wicket.

Toobes having taken himself off before Hashim won the game for Ricki, Rags was duly handed the ball; as ever the Rags magic produced the goods as wickets continued to fall, but not Hashim.

With thoughts turning to Asad, Rags was asked if he would take the Nags Head end, a request to have a bowl at Hashim which he had not done so far was requested, three balls later Hashim was trudging back to the clubhouse and Rags was retiring on a 4 wicket haul, Niron called in to finish the job.

Haimes had followed on from where Gov had stopped and with pace and accuracy he too had enjoyed considerable success taking three wickets for as many runs.

Game over and out.

There were as usual some notable moments as the Meadow witnessed Tickles excellent form behind the wicket including a couple of catches.

There was also the usual comedy moments, as Asad for no apparent reason but mischief making shouted for Govi to throw it in hard, the command was accepted and in it came like a bullet to the wicket, and like a bullet past the wicket as nobody was neither expecting it nor indeed ready for it.

We also witnessed the usual Toobes comedy catching moment as getting confused by the pace of a looping dolly he initially ran backwards only to quickly run forwards and then finish this hapless effort with a dive that concluded a full five minutes before the ball actually hit the floor.

BUT moment of the day must go to Jalil who at first slip actually managed to get to a ball that had shot off Hashim’s bat at warp factor 8, having done the hard part of stopping it in its track he then pushed it up into the air, dived full length and just couldn’t hold on. It would have been the champagne moment.

Reports are intended to convey an entertaining picture of the day’s play. No disrespect is meant, but if on occasion we misjudge matters, please take it in the friendly and humorous spirit in which it is intended.