Weather – Overcast and dark!

DCC first game of the new millennium began much as the last one finished, with persistent dressing room rumours that Jamie was going to be batting for the other side, as it were. However, all these were proved to be false as Kiwi strolled in to the unfamiliar 'Away' changing room, as opposed to the 'Home' one he normally inhabits on Saturdays, at 2.15 pm.

To carry on another tradition, Paul lost the toss, and his team talk before the first over was along the lines of "Right lads, they’ll get some, we’ll knock ’em off, then we can all have a drink, OK?" A cunning plan indeed.

The first over of the new millennium went to Smudge who dropped on a nice line and put in a maiden, as did Rob from the other end, in an unaccustomed role as opening bowler. The astroturf pitch played a little friskily to say the least, but the first 2 wickets went to suicidal run outs. A fine opening spell of 6 overs each saw only 30 on the board and Rob's figures of 5-2-5-0 were his most frugal for the club by an order of magnitude. Let's just say he hasn’t got a reputation as a containing bowler. Deano’s bowling was as short as a stunted short thing, but Dave Spencer bowled some very tidy spin to make up for it. Continued shouts of "His half, Blakey!" kept the geese awake. Debutants Rod Coleman and Graham Bird bowled a tidy spell, and kept wicket superbly, respectively. Rod also chipped in with a catch. Andy Gaunt started in fine fashion and, as usual, deserved more than he got. Jamie's bowling was, erm, variable, but not as much as the real story of the game, his fielding. It followed him around all day, and he went 2 for 5 in catches, as well as some very glass backed fielding. Notts Amateurs ended up with 157, and at 4 an over, it looked gettable.

DCC, or more accurately Jamie, started in bovine fashion with some lusty, Friesian invoking blows. Jamie reached 50 with a mixture of mooing and strokeplay, but I wouldn’t dare voice my opinion of percentages of each in print. Libel is a nasty thing. He was dropped at least 5 times though. You decide. Skip weedled out a 50 of his own, and Rob began his season as VC in truly unspectacular style, as he has in the last 3 seasons (2, 4, and 10 in first matches) with 4. Dean and Dave Spencer knocked them off in fair style, and the lager plan worked to perfection.

Perhaps the last word should go to The Cross’ dog, Monty, who whilst walking round the boundary and watching Dean bowl like a drain for 5 overs, chose to mark his territory on the boundary…….and all over Dean's discarded sweater.