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Travel Pains, Games and Automobiles (and the odd Nun)

Anyone who has reached the age at which life apparently ‘begins’ (the age that begins with 4 and ends in Ohh … NO!), and beyond, will no doubt have distant memories of long car or coach journeys before the nation’s roads were co-ordinated into the sophisticated network that we see today. It was that long-forgotten time before motorway service stations began carrying on the fine tradition of Dick Turpin in relieving the traveller of the all but the tiniest residue of cash, and before speed cameras had sprouted up everywhere like poisonous metal mushrooms … probably because they weren’t needed much when the average family car would shake it’s chassis loose and render the steering wheel as uncontrollable as a bucking bronco at the merest sniff of 70 miles an hour.

Personally, I remember a mammoth trek to Newcastle in the family ‘box’ Rover 2000, back in the early 70s, as being quite an adventure. I hasten to add that my age means that my life HASN’T yet officially begun according to the saying … I’m over a month away thanks very much (stop giggling at the back!), but thoughts of that trip still elicit nostalgic images every now and then. Oh how my sister and I enthused about being allowed to stay up late albeit on the cold British Leyland faux-leather back seats. Oh how we were scared by that ghostly figure that Dad narrowly avoided hitting on an unlit roundabout north of Nottingham. Oh how we were bored, bored, bored until we smelt the salty air of Seaton Sluice and knew that the dreadful ordeal had ended!

Of course, as little ‘uns, we were blissfully unaware that the minor discomfort we suffered was no doubt visited ten-fold on the frayed nerves of the poor souls in the front of the car and that we were probably the biggest problem in the entire 8 hour hellish undertaking. So it came to pass that, with Surrey scheduled to visit Durham in the second BICC fixture of the season, history came full circle, with spiteful vengeance, meaning it was my turn to be the tortured driver with two kids in tow, and with that previous hike to the North-East in mind … I put the keys away, re-fridged the fruit shoots, fed the marmite sarnies to the cat, took the easy option, bottled it, chickened out, stayed at home. Hey! I’m no saint!

Fortunately, there are others that also don’t currently play who are thankfully willing to not only make such a journey, but also to help those in Surrey to find out what was happening 300 miles away. We have one such heavenly volunteer in our mysteriously named “Blue Nun”, who fed live text updates to the Surrey web-site describing in detail the ups and downs of a creditable draw that keeps our County unbeaten this season.

For those not familiar with the live updates service that Surrey offer, it involves information being sent from a mobile phone to the web-site after every game which is readable in a regularly-refreshed page, keeping Surrey supporters up-to-date with the exploits of the County sides as they happen. It has been a very popular innovation and is now in its 3rd year of operation and has also been adopted by Middlesex.

The Blue Nun, who is not blue and certainly NOT a Nun, is rather adept at firing off the details over her glass of sweet white wine (there’s a clue to her pseudonym), and performed a good job in relaying the action in a match that looked for all the world like it could be a second successive Surrey victory before a late rally by the extremely talented Durham mens A side.

The Ladies B set the weekend off a treat by not losing, that’s always a good sign however rare (don’t shoot the messenger please). Billie Auzins (15.38) who is not short of a few miles on the clock herself (calm down! That’s not rude, she’s a driver!) earned Surrey’s first point of the weekend before Tania Blake (16.61) took Lady of the Match and Julie Austin (14.94) landed the draw in the final single.

The Mens B have also had trouble with the winning formula in recent seasons but they built on a 9-3 win against Oxfordshire by again helping Surrey to a Saturday night lead with a dogged 7-5 success. Lee Smyth (26.00) celebrated his 24th birthday by leading the team off in the first single as he did in the first fixture, and again posting a victory … we’ll be warming his draw card in future seeing as he seems to like playing at the top of the order! Richie Blake (26.93) fought like a dog who’d been deprived of his favourite bone in taking out two ton-plus checkouts to win his point from 0-2 down, and with it the match award, before Ray Smith (25.47) edged the team closer to victory, and B team Captain Nick Holman (25.05) ushered it home with a solid 3-0 win accompanied by his usual casual immodesty!

Two months in a row with the A team being tasked to defend a lead? Surely not. But yes, that was the background to Sunday’s action, albeit with a tad more spice, as the Ladies A were required to perform well, in advance of the spectre of a more-than-capable Durham Mens A on the horizon. Not that anyone could doubt our top Ladies as they pulled off a 4-2 victory, the highlight of which was a superb Lady of the Match display by Apylee Jones (27.33). Mel Henry (19.82) is maturing nicely in the A to fulfil the promise that she held last season & Laura Power’s (20.31) match-winning display completed the win after the foundation laid by Sharon Cullip (17.34), who put Surrey 1-0 up initially.

So Surrey’s Mens A needed 5 points for the weekend victory but fell agonisingly short as, for the second month running, our opponents reeled off the last five singles. Last time, the win was already secured, but in Durham, this meant that, sadly, Surrey surrendered 2 precious bonus points. Long-time Surrey stalwart Gary Creamer (25.29) made a welcome return to the County fold with a strangely reminiscent stubborn win, before Aaron Turner (pictured left 27.74) continued his current electric form by taking Man of the Match. Keith “Benson” Benson (21.17), who not only remembers long road trips in the 70s, but also when the roads were first laid … by the Romans, helped Surrey along and Spike Harris (23.48) made the score 4-3 to Surrey. As last month though, we failed to capitalise owing to the strength of the Durham late order, but again, as last month, our opponents are a team that will cause trouble all season and avoiding defeat to them after such a savage journey is quite an achievement.

Surrey’s next fixture is another long trip up to Lincolnshire in November. Here we go again, dig out the Travel Scrabble, charge up the Gameboys, buy in car sickness tablets for the ankle-biters and Nurofen for the grown-ups, motorway madness beckons! HELP!

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