Tour Report 2023

Another tour has now been and gone, and despite the weather cutting the week short, another fantastic few days was had by all who attended.

Monday saw a first time visit to Buckley CC – a convenient stop off on the way to Llandudno. Buckley elected to bat first and raced along to 262 from their 40 overs, thanks mainly to some ‘friendly’ bowling. Overseas Kershaski Jno Lewis got his week off to a flying start with his first Bury ton, retiring after passing the century mark, whilst administering some revenge with some lusty blows after his spin bowling took some tap earlier in the day. Dom Morris (98*) almost repeated the feat, only having himself to blame after finishing the game with a 6 when on 92*, to ensure, alongside Paul (22), that Bury crossed the winning line with a couple of overs to spare. Arguably our biggest achievement of the day however was finding tables for everyone at Wetherspoons in Llandudno amidst the Monday Club chaos.

On Tuesday, we batted first at Bangor but couldn’t repeat the batting performance from Monday. Bangor’s guest Craig Belston took 3 wickets as we were bowled out for 107, with only James Weston (38), Dom Morris (26), Jno Lewis (14) and Dave Bowen (13) reaching double figures. At drinks, Bangor were almost over the line, into the 90s without loss. Both in batsmen were retired, Neil rolled back the years with an impressive wicketkeeping stint to show it must run in the family, and a late flurry of wickets before the home win was confirmed added some respect to the scoreline – the Bangor pro eventually nervously getting them over the line, but only after Craig had to rush to put on his whites and pads.

After a day of trips to the Orme, Whiskey Distilleries, Pubs and Arcades, unfortunately the forecast which had threatened Wednesday’s evenings T20 at Llandudno turned out to be correct, and there were no prospects of play when we arrived. Instead of our cricket bags, the darts were brought out to keep the competitive fluids flowing with 5 singles games (501, best of 3). Our inexperienced darting side put up a good fight before falling to a narrow 3-2 defeat. Those not participating in the darts ‘enjoyed’ an evening of Uno – which for the second night in a row tested relations within the touring party!

On Thursday morning, with a majority of the touring party spending one last penny (or note in Joe’s case) in the Pier Arcade, news was received from Colwyn Bay that the overnight rain had put pay to any chances of play, disappointedly ending our week a few hours earlier than planned.

Thanks to everyone who came and supported the week and made it another success despite only 2 days of cricket taking place!