Well – Well – Well – Who’d Have Thowt

Ninety Years Old Today – Tuesday May 22nd

That’s the Lancashire Schools Cricket Association not me – although after the million miles I walked at Old Trafford on Monday my feet felt around the same age. All the building work at the ground means that moving from A to B can take some considerable distance and effort.

We had a brilliant day on Monday except for the score. The sun, yes the sun, shone from beginning to end. The ground looked superb and the wicket could not have been more central. What an experience for the young Under 15’s of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Apart from a problem with the electronic scoreboard all the arrangements worked well and our guests were well fed and eventually bought a fair number of copies of my “BOOK”.

Yes after many trials and tribulations one hundred copies were delivered to the ground at 2.00pm. By 3.00pm I had sold a dozen or more – even to our Yorkshire friends. A further 400 were due today to complete the batch. I am quite chuffed with the finished product and already have had a number of pretty complimentary reviews.

A number of people have ordered copies with me and I will do what I can over the next week or so to arrange delivery. The best way of getting your copy before “the initial print run” disappears is to go online at the LCB Website www.lancashirecricket.co.uk and order from there.

Back to the day at Old Trafford on Monday and a big thank you to Warren Hegg and Jack Simmons for doing there bit as illustrious old boys. Below we have a picture of the Lancashire players and Warren before the game started.

The bare facts of the game are as follows:-

Lancashire 196 for 6 wkts.  (Haseeb Hameed 89 n.o.  Harry Dearden 48)

Yorkshire 197 for 7 wkts.

 Yorkshire won by  3 wkts.

The game was played in an excellent spirit with some fine individual performances. The stand out one came from the Yorkshire Number 6 who took his team from a difficult position with five wickets down to victory. Such things make this game the challenge it is.

So from being favourites to retain the National Title we have slipped down the list a little. BUT I did say this season would not be easy.

I was off to Ormskirk today with my “grandad hat" on where I watched a pretty tense Final Trial for the Under 12’s. Heaven knows how many of these I have been involved in over the years at all age groups.

Tomorrow I have an unscheduled Taxi Service to perform. The Under 15 Girls Development Squad has a match at Austerlands CC against Yorkshire.  Sophie was asked if she would like to be involved. She does however have a County Schools Football Final involving Woodhey School kicking off in Manchester at 6.00pm. With the great support of her Head at Woodhey and the combined efforts of Number 1 Son and Yours Truly she will take a good part in the match at Austerlands and then be whisked to somewhere in Ardwick for the soccer match. All I can say to her is good luck in the Cup Final but please – I could not cope with losing to Yorkshire twice in one week.

Many of my bloggers plus players from different age groups have been asking about the Excellence Intranet. Where is it ??? Well it is just round the corner. We asked for a number of improvements to make the Excellence Intranet much better and much more useful. The problem has been linking my Database on Turks Road and the Intranet one based at Spiders Websites (also known as the LCB Website) . My good friends Dipesh and Martyn have been beavering away at the changes needed but I have been deflecting Dipesh in particular to other matters e.g. THE BOOK.  I am hoping that all our problems will soon be over and you will be able to enter your performance details for transfer then to coaches and the website.

Anyway what better way to finish this 90^th Birthday Blog than by raising a glass of Tesco Whatsit and saying – Happy Birthday to Lancashire Schools and everyone involved past, present and future.

Bringing matters to the present I have to report that I have become very bored with my Tiny Zoo. I think I will relinquish braggers rights to the good lady.

During today I have had to make good use of my new motor and will have to do so tomorrow. There are rumours that I might be at 2 football tournaments to end the Westbury Girls season this weekend with one at Bispham on Saturday and the other at Fleetwood on Sunday. This will mean that I will be able to use my new Blue Toof thingy in my car to check on the progress of the Mount. The problem will be that if Sophie is on the field in goal then my official Blue Toof Fairy will not be able to help.

Enough. Enough.

HB LSCA