Charity Cricket

Junior & Ashbrittle on the Gallops Earlier in the Year

As I mentioned on yesterdays blog, there was a very important game of cricket happening in Culmstock yesterday and even though I was not present my spies tell me the game went ahead, beating the weather and Tom Scu's team lost!  They batted first and set a target of 158 (not sure how many overs they were playing - it was shortened slighty because of rain breaks!).  Tom Scu and brother Michael opened the batting and then also on their team were David, Sam Thomas, Joe Tizzard, Warren Greaterex, Charlie Huxley and Tom Bellamy.  David scored a respectable 15 runs while Tom Bellamy was out for a duck!  After tea the opposition showed off their batting skills and scored at quite a high run rate and it wasn't too long before they sealed victory.  I must just mentioned David took a very fine catch and bowled well to apparantly!  A good time was had by all and everyone enjoyed their afternoon, despite the weather and the main thing is they raised a nice bit of money for the South West Children's Hospice.

There are four flat cards taking place today, at Carlisle, Warwick, Wolverhampton and Windsor and all three turf meetings have the going on the soft side.  We want some nice weather for Royal Ascot as lots of the horses want better ground to show therir best form as do the ladies and their outfits!  David has two runners in the Ascot Stakes tomorrow, Fiulin and Ashbrittle and both should have a good chance.  We have great jockey bookings in Richard Hughes and Paul Hanagan and David is looking to win this great race for the second time having won it with Junior two years ago.  Decoy was our only other entry in the race but unfortunately he did not make the cut.

Former jump jockey Graham Lee gave Rasaman a great ride to win at Doncaster yesterday.  He only won by a short head but he was given a superbly judged ride to get up on the line.  Graham does certainly not look out of place against these flat boys and I bet now he is wishing he had switched codes a little sooner!

In the football, can you believe that Holland are out of the European Championships?  They did not get a single point and yet before the tournament started they were one of the favourites!  Cristiano Ronaldo bounced back to form in style for Portugal, scoring twice in their 2-1 win over Holland.  He looked like the star he was when he was with Man Utd.  Spain play Croatia tonight at 7.45pm on TV and I shall be watching to enjoy the great Spaish passing game.

I did not realise that tennis is such a rough game, its normally strawberries and cream!  At the Queens tournament, David Nalbandian got disqualified for kicking an advertising board into an offical which drew blood.  Whatever next.  I agree this behaviour should not take place and should be punished, but surely not by abandoning the game, that is no good for tennis or the fans.