The HAC is a remarkable ground but also has a reputation for the wicket to be similar to Luton’s runway and this was only enhanced after the serious lack of April showers. HAC Sunday side is the strongest of the two, and this year they are overloaded with very good players. Captain Pobsy was slightly concerned by the teams’s 100% record including thrashing Grannies ( a strong wandering team) by 7 wickets, and even more concerned by the HAC skipper’s comments for this week.. ‘What a team we have! all eleven could opening the batting.. But there lies a problem. The batting order...’ I picked up Pobsy and Smiggel and we got caught in one way systems in the City before he piped up ‘Come this way Hobbitzees -I know a secret passage…follow me’

Pobsy decided that letting them bat first may be the wisest course, so were took the field. We were all ready, but there was one problem… we were missing a player as Dabbler was refusing to leave the changing room as a plastic folk was not included in his pasta pot meal deal to try ease his hangover from his 6.30am finish . Luckily Cat(??) was on hand to offer him some counselling. As for the rest of the peckers, it was the usual pre-match warm up of tossing a ball to each other and showing the opposition how poor our fielding can be.

It was Pobsy’s new favourite, Trash, to open the bowling, and he did so with some of the best line & length bowling a Peckers team have witnessed in a while, and he trapped opener, Parry ( 17 runs), and then castled Moulton with a jaffa 2nd ball HAC 25-2 game on!. First change was Groundskeeper Smiggle. He however had a torrid time in the field (usually very handy but on this occasion dropping 2 catches )- perhaps Cousin le Davide’s surprise visit on Smiggle’s houseboat on Saturday may have fogged his vision. Smiggle made up for this by taking the handy wicket Ritzema caught by Traash tidily for 43. Greasy replaced Spinach the other and bowled another tidy spell.

With the partnership increasing, on came the trusty off spinner and gun bat, Henners aka H-Bomb for his first game of the season. He bowled with some lovely flight that really tempted the batsman after a few economic overs from Henners, the batsmen starting to swipe at EVERYTHING with cries of ‘catch’ after almost every ball. HAC captain (Casey 54) looked a very decent bat but he skied one high into mid wicket right under my nose but I completely lost sight of the ball, thankfully with The Moleman running in aback stuck out his go-go-gadget arms took a fantastic catch on debut

With two very good batsman in at 5 & 6 pobsy turned to The Cat (fourth change) One can only presume that pobsy was trying to get Cat steaming in angrily to get an extra 10 mph from him as he was in a very unrecognisable lovely & docile mood. Cats mood went back to its usual very quickly after he was brought off after 4 overs, with Henners visibly shocked at the feline anger . On came Butternut to bowl and it was a very brief spell after 2 balls were arrowed in full toss towards the batsman head! We had great support - Tugginmypuddah Snax & Aussie Chef, Avocado and Swedie, Katie ‘Minty’ Moore Lambys Gf on Peckers Debut & Ulsterman father Gary ‘Shepherd’ Moore - Trash brought in some rather hungover looking mates inc Cally and Sally, perhaps to make dabbler feel a little better.

It was now up to Spinach & Trash to bowl the final overs and with the Peckers fielders all getting rather bored with fetching the ball from the boundary, we started to lose our energy, . The two HAC batters continued their onslaught. ED Jones described as a gun by Henners blocked a few on 90 in the last over, and was called out by Pobsy in the pub later for Jug Avoidance and batting for a red inker. HAC ended on 251 for 4 wickets. Tea was assembled in the Queens room where a delicious selection of sandwiches was on offer.

Dabbler & Lamby were sent in as the opening pair for the peckers. With Dabbler still looking rather jaded he was quickly dismissed for 4. In came The Moleman, batting with a mongoose bat & feeling confident after his fine fielding performance, looked solid and did a good job alongside Lamby to see off the new ball.

Moleman dismissed for a decent 18, his 1st bat for 6 years!

Lamby inspired by Minty and under the watchful eye of the Shepherd battled very well for his 36 and also kept wicket exceptionally well. In came Henners who teed off straight away smacking a 6 into the leg side with the ball bouncing off a building and falling into a fielder’s hands with some very hopeful appeals from HAC. Henners then played what looked like was going to be ‘shot of the day’ but for a fantastic diving catch he was caught for 18 off 10 deliveries. Without boring you any further, the next 4 batters (Trash 6, groundskeeper 0, Cat 3 & Greasy 1) were all dismissed in the next 2 overs. With Pobsy and spinach now at the crease with more than 12 an over required, HAC bowlers continued to bowl a very tight line only offering a few singles an over. Spinach charged down the wicket to try and start some fireworks only to get stumped, and Butternuts bails then went flying, leaving the peckers on 113 all out with Pobsy not out on 5.

The day ended with all players and spectators retiring to the Artillery Arms for a much needed refreshment after the Peckers were rather thrashed in the end. The day didn’t end there, its reported some peckers went long into the early hours of Monday morning… a truly splendid way to end a bank holiday weekend.