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Dear Friends and Members
We start this newsletter, as we did with the last, with a plea for help. We would like the newsletter to reflect all of the wide-ranging activities that take place in our busy club; however, it can be tricky as we are a club that plays fixtures all over the region, on different days and times with everybody involved volunteering their time freely - this places a restriction on what can be done.
Therefore, our plea is to you for any contribution of news, facts, forthcoming events etc.
You do not need to provide the latest gossip from England's dressing room or be able to write in the style of Shakespeare.
The rules are simple – do not speak badly of any person, team or club. Please give it go and any work published will be credited to you personally.
Send all contributions to the Club email address Portsmouthcc@hotmail.co.uk
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BOSHED OUT, THEN WASHED OUT
View From Silly Point by Jamie (Mitch) Mitchell
On FA Cup Final Saturday, Pompey 2s were indebted to Mother Nature, after her late-afternoon intervention bailed out Pompey 2s, as they played cricket's version of Watford against the Man City that were Ferndown Wayfarers.
After a surprisingly incident-free journey into Dorset, the players were greeted with damp, "bowl first" conditions, due to some overnight rain, and lunchtime cloud cover. Given Pompey's appalling record in this corner of the country, it was inevitable that visiting skipper, Nicky Wyatt, would lose the toss, and be summoned to bat first.
With many deliveries "spitting up" at the visiting batsmen, the preservation of facial features was the No. 1 new entry on this week's chart of objectives. The challenging conditions certainly contributed - directly and indirectly - with the early wickets of last week's centurion, Wyatt, the returning Simon Jones, and (comically) Paul Hungerford, which exposed a middle order as soft as Will Smitherman's hands.
And so the predictable procession continued, leaving Pompey's previous visitors to this neck of the woods wondering if Ferndown is twinned with Punxsutawney. Opener, Jamie Mitchell, who looked more organised than in previous outings, tried (and failed) to coach/advise each incoming colleague through the ordeal of survival on such a testing surface, until he was accompanied by Martin Ballards-Collins with the score at 54 for 7, in the 17th over. What followed was an innings-high partnership of 18 runs, lasting a concentration-sapping nine overs, before Mitchell was caught at backward point for a stoic 41.
A quick 10 from Asad Sahak, and Andy Chapman getting "Micky H'd" rounded off yet another poor performance from Pompey's batsmen at this ground, as they sat down to a much earlier than scheduled tea, having been bundled out for 90.
The heavens allowed 6 overs of Ferndown's chase, which contained Chapman dishing out a dose of their own, landing blows to batsmen's body and helmet grill, and a wicket to Oscar Davis, before deciding they'd seen enough with the score at 15 for 1, and opened up like Wyatt on the sauv blanc.
An hour of persistent rain later, both captains agreed to abandon the game, and Pompey clamboured aboard the fun bus, having "done a Neo".
A return home awaits our heroes next Sat, with unbeaten Bramshaw venturing across for a day at the seaside.
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