At last, at long last, after 3 weather cancellations in a row Carlton girls hosted a tournament at Grange Loan.   The fine recent weather meant Grange Loan was in glorious condition, and we welcomed 3 other teams for a kwik-cricket tournament.   These were Hawick & Wilton, Watsonians and, to give us an even number of teams, many thanks to Brian Gill who organised at short notice a team of Carlton u8 boys. 

Before moving on to the games, I must bring my two readers up to date on some exciting Wagner developments.  First, evidence is accumulating that Wagner had more to do with cricket than many realise.  His contribution to the length of test matches has been previously noted, but we now see some genetic evidence with the appearance in the New Zealand test team of distant relative Neil Wagner.  Even the England team got caught up in Wagnerian habits, batting so interminably for the whole of the first day that even Boycott got bored but then finishing in a blaze of glory that almost made the whole enterprise worthwhile.

Brunhilde had her own special protective equipment for facing Brett Lee

Secondly, as you can see from the picture above, Wagner was a great innovator when it came to cricket equipment. 

And finally, and much to my surprise after only seeing it for the first time on DVD the other week, was that Tarantino’s latest film Django Unchained was based on Siegfried, one of the operas in Wagner’s Ring,  Tarantino can be forgiven for any plagiarism, principally because he is completely open about it when in one of his classic dialogue sequences he brilliantly outlines the main plot of Siegfried (when only a true hero who knows no fear can traverse the ring of hellfire where the damsel in distress is imprisoned).   I can also forgive Tarantino for being about the only Hollywood director that doesn’t make me suicidal after watching one of their films.   There are 4 of his films that make my all time top ten, though not Django Unchained where the second half drifted a bit.

And so to the games.  Carlton girls opened with a game against Hawick & Wilton.   Nina skippered first so she could help with any language difficulties during the toss.  Carlton had an inexperienced team, with both Nikolina and Madelaine G making their tournament debuts.  A strong Hawick side had a couple of girls who could “Hawick” the ball over cow corner.   A total of 7 sixes ensued leaving Carlton a daunting 81 to chase.  Hawick were strong in the field too, and restricted us to 37 despite a sterling effort from our last pair of Fliss and Biz who added an excellent 24 against tough bowling.

needing 26 to draw level and despite 3 fours between them we fell 9 short.  Nevertheless, a good competitive match against evenly matched but inexperienced teams.

Next up was a well deserved 15 minute break for refreshments.  Thanks to my own heroine and better half for making it all possible.   Despite being of German descent she doesn’t quite share my love of Wagner's Ring. 

Mrs E takes the news she’s on cricket teas better than expected

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Our final match was against Watsonians, who like us were a mixture of inexperience and ringers.   For my QI of the day, the expression ringers has nothing to do with Wagner, but is a horse-racing term.  Its origin is as a term for a substitute horse of better quality being entered in place of a poorly ranked horse and only certain punters being in the know.  Skipper Maddy F again chose to field first, so for the third time we took to the field first.  A great start from Cara and Nikolina saw us concede only 7 runs and later Fliss took our only wicket of the day with a clean bowled.  Chasing 54, we got off to another superb start with Nina and Fliss scoring a day’s high of 34 of their two overs.  A six from Cara left our last pair only needing 7, which Biz and Grace managed comfortably and pleasing their coach to the bargain with some rare offside hitting, including a glorious 4 through cover from Grace. 

So some great experienced gained for both Carlton teams, played in glorious summer weather at Grange Loan in its absolute prime.  Congratulations go to Hawick (below) – convincing victories in all their games from a strong side. 

Thanks also to our match sponsor Helix Oxford.  They were flush with cash after the Americans had found some of their compasses, protractors and rulers in Iraq, allowing Tony Blair to finally claim that they had found some weapons of maths instruction.