Cornwall Tour 2011

For the first time since 2005, we had a full eight-game tour. The tally of four wins and four defeats fairly reflects our inconsistent play during a damp week. At Grampound Road, the Hayder slider and the Hadley shuffle were too much for Jeffery Vandersaay, and we won comfortably. Despite the conditions, Pencarrow (finally) managed to give us a game. They managed a loud and narrow victory by one wicket in a game split into a 20- and a 15-over innings each. Fraser took three wickets in the first inings, Graham took five in the second, including his 50th for the Mystics (beautifully caught by Chirpy), and Chris Ferro marked his debut with two typically graceful innings.

A sunny Tuesday evening found us at Boconnoc's Deer Park, and we won a strange game on a stunningly beautiful ground. The next day, Chris Healey's 41-ball 89 rescued our innings, and we set Bugle a challenging target of 243. With Hayder more than matching the home team's generosity, and two old Bugle stagers scoring fifties, we ended up losing an exciting match in the last over just as it started to rain properly.

Despite Matt's 94, and his partnership of 87 with Fraser, we only managed 132, and Saint Neot passed that with few alarms. Duncan scored a century in his hundredth match, and we made too many for a Lanhydrock team that was missing a few of its usual players. Chris Squire and Matt finished the home team off with seven wickets between them in the last eight overs.

Sid's 65 for us in the Chairman's Cup game was more than matched by Sam's superb 87 for the Erratics, and we lost by four wickets. Runs for Adi and Pete meant that we scored too many for the typically fragile Broadclyst batting, and we won by over 50 runs. Afterwards we did trophies. Tomity Pie Hurles succeeded his twin sister as Supporter of the Tour after a week of selfless devotion and child-care beyond the call of duty. Ernie won the Player of the Tour award for the usual combination of great cricket and brilliant packing.