Yes. They do. But first we had Saturday to go through and, at the moment, Saturdays suck!!
We were at home to Hampton Park on another sunny humid day and this was the big one. A game we had to win, as they are probably going to shape up to be our relegation rivals. Amazingly, even though I have been here for nearly 2 months, this was to be my first bowl on our home ground this season!!
The pitch looked ok (at best) but it never looks good at our place. It usually plays fine though so when we won the toss with temperatures near 30 Deg, we decided to bat.
An hour later, and we were 24-8.
I was still there and after talking to Thomsy we figured it would be best if I “swung from the hip”. Just my game!! I managed to connect with a few including one very big straight 6 and got us up to 58 all out (I made 29). Dismal dismal performance. Second top score was 5. No-one else hit a boundary.
To be fair, they had a left arm pommy who bowled full and fast. Add to that some big inswing and it was always going to be tough. But not THAT tough!!! Jason (our skipper) gave us a right bollocking at the changeover and it was thoroughly deserved. They could hear it all round the club!
Well, we went back out and they soon raced to 34-0 as Aron took a bit of tap. Not going to plan, but then we introduced debutant Darren Hardy. Along with myself, the next 20 overs saw Hampton Park lose 9 wickets for 27 runs! Darren had the spell of his life, taking 6-17 off 10 and I picked up the other 3. They edged home though and were 8 wickets down when they actually passed our total. Sadly for us, the last wicket then put on 57 runs. Bizarre stuff!
All is not lost though. There is so much time to go in this game that both sides will get 2 innings and this will give us a chance at a “reverse outright”. I can’t even be arsed to explain that in detail at this point! Anyway, we went back out to bat and made a much better fist of it this time as we reached 48-1. This leaves us about 10 behind with 9 wickets left. Game still on!
We had made a decision to stop in on Saturday – something we are going to do more often now. This is because we don’t want to spoil Sundays. Still, I thought it would be best to have a few in our club after the game. Well…a few turned into a few more. And then at 9pm I kept getting messages off Alex and his clubmates to go join them at theirs. I refused at first but they wouldn’t let it go and promised me free drink all night. Sigh….
So obviously I got a taxi through to Springy’s ground and their boys were good to their word. About a dozen free bottles later and I made my way home at 4am. The guys in that club are off their nut….
Onto Sunday and I was excited (and a bit hungover). We were going to hit the city early afternoon but A-Rob had to play in a 2020 game so Mike and I decided to sunbathe round his house while we waited. Very pleasant in Mike’s garden with tunes pumping and his mam waiting on us with food and drinks!
We picked Al up and made our way into Melbourne at about 6pm. First stop Ocean Blue.
Mike got us in for free and as we got there we met up with some girlfriends, Billie, Chantelle and Jackie. Them Katie and Sharon turned up. Then Jordy. Then Anton! It was turning into a good one!
The whole night was turning into a replica of the week before. We moved onto Cushion at some time between 11 and 12 and Jordy got us in free this time. Cushion was on good form but by this time we were hammered! I’m not sure at what time Kim arrived but I think it was there that she met us. I just saw these photos on the Clubsguide website. We look far better than we were. And Anton is a fcking little oddball!
We moved onto Love Machine at some time. I don’t know when. This time it was Anton who saved us the $25 entry. On a roll! It was absolutely heaving and so good. Perfect setup. We were dominating proceedings and I remember thinking at the time what a great little group we had with Me, Mike, A-Rob, Jordy and the 2 mental Asians. We also saw Anna and Lisa who are good for a bit of banter and they seemed to be in great form!
For some reason we left. I don’t even know whos decision it was but we went up the road to Circus. Anton did the business again and we had completed the quaddy! All four places in for free. Probably saved us about $60-$70.
We were starting to fade by now though, so didn’t stop too long before heading back to Jordy’s. A-Rob and Jordy went straight to bed but me and Kim chilled out in the spa for a while, and then Anton joined us. Seemed a good idea at the time but it was baltic for about 10 minutes until the heat kicked in!
It soon made me sleepy though so I crashed for a while. We are still on a budget at the minute so decided to train it home when we woke up. And to continue with the way we roll, we didn’t pay for that either….
Sundays. Some of the best night’s out I’ve ever had. The vibe is so cool and I can’t wait for next week as it is the much heralded Boat Cruise. Yesssss!!!!!
