DEVON TOUR REPORT 2009
Every Hale Barns tour is a great tour, and this was no exception even though this year we didn't manage to win a single match, which must be some kind of record. It just goes to show that it's a good job the enjoyment of a tour has nothing whatever to do with the cricket that fills what would otherwise be yet more drinking time. It's not the winning, it's the taking part....
We'll deal with the cricket quickly. Despite some very heavy rain that washed out our annual fancy dress parade/Twenty Twenty evening at Stoke Gabriel (and would have turned the togas into wet washing), we had four more or less complete games. Dartington let us down again, so there's another ground we won't revisit, but our good friends at Kingsbridge rescued the tour programme by setting up a 20/20 match with their U.17s for that afternoon - and provided sausage barms as well as the invaluable cuppas. That's what friends are for. We look forward to a visit to Babbacombe and their interesting ground next year.
Although we lost the four games, none was a whitewash. We did win all four tosses - some sort of consolation for the losing captains - and made reasonable scores, but couldn't bowl the opposition out, losing by 6, 4, 2 and 4 wickets as the tour progressed. The bowling problems are highlighted by the fact that the Tour Boss came second in the averages, an unheard of outcome about which he is inordinately even if unjustifiably proud. Finding high spots from the four games poses a bit of a problem, but Huffy's 65 at Broadclyst was well worth watching, as was our guest from Chelford Richard Munslow's 43 at Cornwood, an innings that puts him top of the batting averages. Stu Collins topped the bowling averages with four wickets, including 3 for 8 in our second game at Kingsbridge, and Finers' 4 overs, three maidens, 0 for 2 at Broadclyst deserves a mention in despatches. But overall our best wasn't quite good enough.
However, the night life proved rather more interesting that in recent years. Having a touring doctor is always useful, even if it was Steve who ended up in A and E after an unfortunate altercation with some steps at Mangos, leaving an impressive bruise on that distinguished receding hairline. But he was back on professional duty very soon to take Fretters to A and E for a late-night check on some unwelcome aches and pains - welcome to the fully-medicated elder statesmen's club, Richard. Glad to have both back in their usual approximation to good health by the end of the tour.
Once more, we all look forward to the next tour. Hope to welcome back the Wild Rover and the Whistler if their finances have recovered from the strains of marrying off yet another of the offspring and world touring respectively. Missed Liam's company, but enjoyed having Richard and Danny as new guest members. Looking forward most of all to some new young blood with us in 2010 - Ben, Phil and any others who fancy the trip: our results show how badly we need you! It'll be another great time, whatever.
DEVON TOUR AVERAGES 2009
Batting Innings Not out Runs Average
Richard Munslow 1 0 43 43
Steve Hough 4 1 119 29.75
Jordan Collins 3 1 49 24.5
Richard Bowie 3 0 60 20
Steve Goron 2 0 34 17
John Pope 3 1 31 15,5
Adam Payne 3 1 28 14
Richard Fretwell 3 0 36 12
John Finan 2 0 24 12
John Petch 2 0 17 8.5
Steve Jenkins 4 1 23 7.66
Danny Wright 2 0 12 6
Graham Dooling 4 1 15 5
Robin Grinter 2 1 5 5
Stuart Collins 1 1 0 0
Bowling Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Average
Stuart Collins 9 1 29 4 7.25
Robin Grinter 7 0 30 2 15
Adam Payne 11 2 56 3 18.66
Danny Wright 6 0 23 1 23
Steve Jenkins 12 3 72 3 24
John Petch 7 0 51 2 25,5
John Finan 12 3 54 2 27
John Pope 9 0 62 2 31
Richard Fretwell 5 0 36 1 36
Graham Dooling 8 0 40 1 40
Steve Goron 11 0 49` 1 49
Richard Bowie 3 0 16 0 -
Jordan Collins 7 0 35 0 -
Steven Hough 1.4 0 19 0 -
Devon Tour Report 2008
As always, another great tour - they just seem to get better. And this year we enjoyed Devon at its most glorious, bringing the best weather of the summer with us for the week - a big improvement on recent years. The hotel is better than ever, with new manager Will setting new standards of hospitality. Whatever else is true (see cricket details below) we are very good at enjoying ourselves on tour, and it was 10 out of 10 again this year. It's good to feel that we're welcome guests at every club we visit - though this may also have something to do with the fact that they usually win. Fortunately the results (this year one win out of five) don't have any effect on the enjoyment factor. We've got our values right, have another go at the cricket next year.
Actually, our cricket wasn't that bad, because on hard, true wickets we scored more runs than in earlier years in almost every match - it was just that the opposition scored quite a lot more. At Kingsbridge we rattled up 263 runs in our 40 overs, with Fretters hitting a career-best 93 and Saddo weighing in with 91. But Kingsbridge then ran riot and knocked our total off with four overs to spare. 528 runs in 80 overs at 6.6 runs an over was quite an afternoon's cricket even if we were on the losing side.
Our visit to Cornwood was again the high spot of the tour. As well as the best crack of the tour in the evening, we also managed to win the match by 43 runs, thanks to an innings of 45 by Jordy and then four wickets for 26 by Jenks. The next day Jordy and Jenks provided the bulk of our 120 runs in pursuit of Stoke Gabriel's 133 in our evening fixture. This dark cloud of defeat was, however, brightened both by a champagne moment when Jordy took a boundary catch some 15 feet in the air off his Dad's bowling, and then Fretters took a hat trick with the last three balls of his two overs. What an all-rounder! - and deservedly our ‘Tourist of 2008'.
Our game at Dartington - the game of Throb's small (cricket) balls - was reduced to 30 overs a side, and once again Jordy (75 not out) and Jenks (69 not out) dominated our batting with an undefeated stand of 134. We posted a good score of 170, but Dartington passed it with one over and two wickets to spare in another high scoring match. Our last game at Broadclyst followed a similar pattern: a good total of 153 was chased down by Broadclyst with four overs and six wickets to spare as they recorded a comfortable victory.
Overall, our quite impressive batting averages were topped by Saddo from his one innings of 91, with Jordy averaging over 50, Jenks nearly 40 and Fretters 30 in four innings each. However our bowling was rather too expensive, with the exceptions of Pav and Jenks who both averaged under 10 for their 7 wickets, with Pav having the edge with 8.70.
We're already booked in at the Cimon for next year's tour and hoping for equally good weather, with a good chance of still more tourists as two or three of our 17 year olds are looking forward to taking part.
