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Paul Burns - Badgers On Tour

Paul Burns - Badgers On Tour

Mark Sampson14 Aug 2015 - 08:24
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https://www.thrumptoncc.co.uk/

Here's a brief report from Cricket Tour Veteran Paul Burns on the latest "Badgers on Tour" as they visited Bournemouth in July.

In the last week of July Thrumpton Badgers plus their “Support Team” travelled to Bournemouth, where we last toured toured 7 years ago.

A hotel on the sea front called the “Cliffeside” had been booked and this proved to be a popular choice with access to its own outdoor pool “ Bloody Freezing” by all accounts but in addition we had access to the heated indoor pool in the sister hotel next door which was the much better option.

Thankfully the hotel had a fairly easy manner which in particular made breakfast time a relaxed affair for those suffering from an overdose of whatever the night before.

Coincidentally one of the hotels also had a manager called Brian who was from Gotham and was an old school chum of Marky P.

The beauty of going to Bournemouth is that it gives everyone lots of choices of other activities and things to do during the non playing hours. Not only do you have the Hotel facilities to enjoy which included a personal massage service from the lovely Vanessa (to relax those aching muscles) but also the excellent clean sandy beach which could literally could be accessed from our hotel within 5 minutes.

The beach is apparently rated as the best in the UK and 4th best in Europe and provided us with swimming, beach volley ball and bike hire which all 15 of our party did. Hiring the bikes provided us with the opportunity to explore other parts (Pubs) of Bournemouth away from the town centre , if you went the right way of course “follow the Convoy”!

For the week 3 fixtures had been organised, the first two being evening T20 games against Lymington C C and Wareham C C and the third was an afternoon match against Bramshaw C C on their picturesque ground set in the heart of the New Forest.

The first two games where played shall we say in a light hearted manner with batting positions chosen from the hat and each batsman given the task of performing a designated “shot” within the first 6 balls they faced or suffer the obligatory tour fine.

The first game captained by the ever quiet and modest Adam Pick, who had decided along with the rest of the fines committee that at some point certain tour members (Thanks Adam for your diligence in obtaining them at an extraordinary cost to yourself) had to be seen publicly wearing the rather fetching bright green and pink “Mankini’s or be very heavily fined for not doing so.

The game went well with all the batsman doing their best to carry out their designated shot. As far as who actually avoided the heavy fine (£15) by wearing the Mankini’s shall we say “What Goes On Tour Stays On Tour” however not everyone avoided the fine.

To round off the evening our hosts Lymington C C provided us with a very good impromptu BBQ and they also congratulated us on the way we had approached playing the game as they had enjoyed it as much as we had, adding “We where the best Touring Side they had played this season”.

On the following day we had our next evening T20 which was against Wareham C C and again the playing of the game was approached in the same way but no wearing of the Mankini’s this time, with Jonty Rye getting a lot of stick and providing a lot of amusement do to his previous nights shall we say an “Excess” of the falling down waters and an encounter with a certain young lady called Stacy.

During this game Adam Pick was now beginning to regret his previous evening’s fielding performance by sliding to stop a ball when wearing his Mankini. This had left Adam with a very large graze on his hip and calf muscle which looked rather painful and was now giving him some real gip. After the game we all when out on the town and Adams injury no longer seemed to bother him, as another enjoyable evening in the Bournemouth “Hot Spots” was had by all with a nameless few once again returning rather late to the hotel!

Our final game was our only afternoon game against Bramshaw C C a team we had played against on our previous tour to Bournemouth 7 years ago. This game was a 35 over game played in the normal way with the weather that afternoon complementing the lovely setting which their ground is set in.

Again although the game way played in a more serious way, our joint captains on the day Jack Towers and James Anstey ensuring everyone made a contribution to the game including Harry P who was eventually coaxed into a spell of umpiring during the game.

The Bramshaw tea lady “Dawn” made sure we all had plenty to eat and despite us watching their No 3 bat score his 71st century in his career and the ever increasing affects of the hangovers some of the players where now suffering we all had an enjoyable afternoons cricket.

In true touring tradition that evening being our last in Bournemouth the fines committee Tom, Joe and Adam conducted their “Fines Meeting” in the Hotel lounge area, with some as always getting fined more than they bargained for and others getting away with it. The total of fine proceeds (£178) where then duly spent at various bars starting off with the hotel bar and then once again into Bournemouth town centre for a final late night’s revelry of drinking anything put before you “anyone for a Jagerbomb”.

I believe it is safe to say that even though we did not win a game on this years tour, it was still one of the best. This was largely due to the atmosphere created by all those on tour with everyone entering into the Tour Spirit “winning is not everything its how you play the game”.

Many thanks to our organising team, to the Hotel staff who looked after us well and to all the three Cricket Clubs who hosted games for us.

Also a very big thank you to our “Support Team” Lynn Priestley and Deb Towers for providing transport to and from our games and also for scoring and Debs for getting the “Team Shirt” sorted in time.

And a final thank you to Adam Pick on his first ever cricket tour who not only agreed to transporting of all the players kit to and from the Hotel mostly at 90 mph but also for being such a “Good” tourist. Good Lad Adam

So here’s to the next one!

Cheers
Burnsey

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