Mike Atherton in discussion with the umpires
it ready for play. Each time I see a break in the clouds, the covers come off, only for the heavens to open again. Eventually, we had to concede, and the match was delayed for one hour. Fortunately, the weather improved, and we got the game on, albeit an hour late. Spain v Italy today. The Italians made the final last year, just losing out to the Isle of Man team. The Spanish bowling is superb in the first innings, and likewise for the Italians in the second innings. The Spanish narrowly miss out in a tight, low scoring game. Reports come in that the pitch was a little slow and inconsistent - those problems have been identified, and a rolling programme of works is underway to resolve a thatch issue and root breaks. With that said, however, this was the same wicket that Denmark scored 302 on yesterday… funny old game. I recall three high points of today; the
See us at SALTEX Stand T26
Josh Bowman likewise
young Gibraltar team taking a dip in the freezing cold Irish sea, on the instructions of their coaches following a heavy loss, a young French player kindly offering to help me cover a pitch as he returned to his room from supper, and the sight of a rogue sight screen from KWC1 taking a trip across the outfield of KWC2 during the match, courtesy of the Manx wind. Perhaps even more humorous was the sight of the ageing and out of shape KWC groundstaff running up the boundary to address the situation, only for the hardy Spanish fielders to beat us to it, and push the sight screen out of the way. Running around the boundary made me realise that, perhaps, I am getting too old for this game!
Match day 3; Rain! First job of the day is identifying any wet patches in the outfields, forking them, covering with hessian matting and rolling to soak up as
much moisture as possible. More problems follow, with umpires
requesting a change of pitch on KWC1 (good job I did get a spare ready!), albeit with a challenge from the Italian coach - much discussion, deliberation and delays followed, and works to try to save the game on the original wicket, until we were finally given the go ahead to get the game on the original wicket. Things ran more smoothly on KWC2, with only a thirty minute delay, where we hosted Denmark v France. It has to be said, that the Danish do look a class above at this stage, and it showed in their performance, by making short work of the French batsmen, followed by some superb batting by the Danish, which led to an early finish to the match. KWC1 hosted Italy v Gibraltar. This game followed the blueprint of the game on KWC2, with the Italians taking the early victory. Some more great memories
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