Wednesday 11th June saw the first of the cricket watching trips by some of the Clay Cross CC members. Over the years these trips have taken in such diverse places as The Grange in Edinburgh to the Oval all watching Derbyshire in their pursuit of glory and our own personal pursuit of beer, food and banter. The latest game was Derbyshire v the mighty Surrey with their host of international stars and unbeaten all season. When Derbyshire last reached the final in '98 they beat Surrey at the Oval in the quarter finals in a game which saw good performances from Slater, Barnett etc and also the Clay Cross lads making a stand for county cricket at Queens Park!!

Coming into the game Surrey were unbeaten in the season and hadn't lost since Derbyshire beat them last season. Derbyshire were coming off the back of a couple of dismal Championship games so the omens weren't good!! At this point I will hand over to club reporter Steve Nottingham....

11th June....9:30am....Chesterfield station. Four travellers had met up in the foyer. "Anyone seen Steve G?" We rang him on his mobile to find that he was on Platform 2. Good start!!

Train was packed with the local rambling club out for ............. a ramble!! Standing room only on the journey to Derby. The inevitable sweep was organised .... how many runs would be scored in the first innings? Clarke's taxis were taking Clarke, Greaves and Evans and the group were in for a surprise when the mobile announced the presence of Tache at the ground. 

Derby Station .... which way? Nottingham takes the lead and after safely negotiating a few dual carriageways the crew eventually end up on track for a prompt start. Have faith!!

It is fair to say that there were very few optimists within the Derbyshire contingent. Surrey could afford to leave Stewart, Butcher and Salisbury at home. They'd also won the toss and invited Derbyshire to bat !!

The sweep was studied .......... Gardiner was now clear favourite!!

Steve Gardiner - 190
Paul Evans - 207
Steve Nottingham - 218
Steve Eyre - 223
Dave Greaves - 230
Jon Branson - 234
John Clarke - 264
Chris Dent - 273
James Sullivan - 301 

"The Mandolin Wind" was certainly cutting at times. Not enough to prevent Sampson, one of Surreys opening bowlers, being accused of being a "Southern softie" by a Derbyshire fan when Sampson was found putting his sweater on. The guy making this gesture was a little sheepish when someone took one look at his attire and said "nice fleece, youth." "You Wear It Well" A definite case of the pot calling the kettle. The aforementioned Sampson was in the wars, he had to call for a plaster for his elbow and he was fielding in front of a particularly vocal Derbyshire contingent. Not much sympathy for the lad. "The First Cut Is The Deepest"

Nottingham entertained the troops with various quiz questions:
name the 14 players to appear for Derbyshire in the 1998 Nat West matches - got there with a little help on two
name the 4 man-of-the-match award winners picked up by Derbyshire players - needed answers on a couple
name the Derbyshire 1981 Nat West final team - Bob flew solo on this one !!
name the 17 England players to appear in the 2002/03 Ashes series - Tache pulled Dawson out of the hat

Di Venuto took a liking to Sampson and co, Kaif played a blinder and a few others chipped in. Wow ........ Derbyshire 271. First-timer Dent takes the sweep money!!

One-day international prospect, Rikki Clarke was also given 'stick' by the home crowd. His bowling was wayward, his fielding dodgy and his name gave an opportunity to practice sounding like ex-Eastenders favourite, Bianca. It's a good job Butcher wasn't playing!! At the fall of one Derbyshire wicket, young Rikki turned to the crowd and cupped his hand to his ear. There would be more to come for young Clarke in the Surrey innings!!

The local brew was wet and expensive although the tent was nearby. Several were consumed and a collection of plastic glasses will be available for use at the Clay Cross ground in the coming weeks. Wonder if Clarke washed 'em?

"Every Picture Tells A Story"

Dominic Cork, sporting a very Rod Stewart haircut, was in the mood. Cleaning up Brown in the first over helped. He celebrated as if to say "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?"

Ward didn't last long either and Corkie was soon able to get at Thorpe. There was indeed "Reason To Believe." It was alleged by someone in the crowd that Cork had number 1 on his back 'cos he was the first with Thorpe's ex missus. The mind boggles .... who was wearing the number 77 shirt !! "I Was Only Joking"

"We need another wicket"

Soon Derbyshire were "Sailing" Ramps had gone to a blinding catch by Di Venuto, Clarke had gone first ball to Corkie and left the field to a chorus of "Cheerio, cheerio, cheerio"

Thorpe and Hollioake attempted a recovery but it wasn't to be. Even Tom Lungley's short of a length bowling wasn't exposed as much as it might have been with so many wickets down. 

It was soon all over ...... victory by 137 runs ...... "In A Broken Dream" people were on the pitch. Who've we got in the semi?

The final opportunity of the day to have a look at Corkie's hair was taken as he was being interviewed by the local media. "Hot Legs"!!

The 'I've Been Out In The Sun Red Face Award' .... Dent with Gardiner pushing him close.

So now what? A beer in Derby and the England v Slovakia game.

First pub ...... Jorrocks. Game of 'Fingers' - Dent won again. He's on a roll. Someone asked what the beer was like. "I Don't Want To Talk About It" In the 3 card game Bob beat Dent in a nail-biting climax having seen off the others. We then had to suffer the first half of the England match. Time to move on. 

Found an Irish bar .... Sky TV.....err.....Ireland v Georgia match being shown. DOH!!

The Neptune offered the chance to see if England could recover things in the second half. They did. "Keep The Faith".............hey, that's Bon Jovi. 

Depart 21:57 for the 22:08 service to Chesterfield. Who decided to run? Breathless, yet successful, Nottingham, Dent and Branson got onto Platform 1 in time. No sign of Sullivan and Gardiner. It's a good job the train was delayed. Sullivan was dripping sweat .........obviously not accustomed to walking !!

"Seems Like A Long Time" since we were stood on the train leaving Chesterfield. All in all I "Had Me A Real Good Time."

Dominic Cork has a lot to answer for...... there may even be an increased demand for the Rod Stewart back catalogue.

"We are sailing, we are sailing ............."