Romerils v Old Victorians GEOFF WILLS, who was at the Side by Side Charity match, said he could only give me 9 1/2 for this column as it doesn’t mention the venue of each match as he would sometimes like to see if events unfold as predicted.

His actual words were, he would like to see if Browny did actually get spanked all over the park as is regularly predicted.

Well Geoff, this week you can see Browny getting spanked all over Grainville, possibly by Pete Blackburn who, out of desperation, has decided he will try and fill the dreaded number three batting slot for Romerils.

That’s not fair actually, Browny took three wickets last week to take his seasonal tally to seven and claimed the wicket of Bill Athey in Sunday’s Side by Side Charity match.

Another person who often finds himself in the firing line is Johnny Gough, but having just walked off the field with him as a team-mate, when his batting helped set up an unlikely Evening League win against Sporting Club, I can think of nothing but praise for him this week.

This was the first time ever he and his brother have been on opposing sides and Johnny will have enjoyed getting one over on Pete.

Love you Johnny.

Romerils capitulated in their title decider against Sporting Club last week and there is talk of them being a team of bottlers.

I think Saturday was just one of those days when everyone bar Peter Scott played well below form.

Not much went right either; Ryan Driver was out for a golden duck to Mark Reynolds’ loose opening delivery and although he is without doubt a great batsman a worrying pattern is emerging.

Bowl him a rank delivery and you stand a chance of getting him out.

This must put him at severe risk of becoming Richard Gimmetheball’s rabbit.

Ian Crocker then inexplicably ran himself out, claiming his batting partner had called him through for a second run.

I am getting a bit worried about Ian and the voices he appears to be hearing …

he even claims someone has told him he’s been selected to go to Scotland for the European cricket tournament.

Old Victorians’ form has failed to recover with the return of their college boys and their only victory in their last four games was against Springfield.

You would, perhaps, have expected more from a team that contains five of the recently named squad heading for Scotland, but they are too good to be underestimated.

Chris Jones has been in good form all year, his 86 not out put him on 439 runs for the season, 17 behind leading run scorer Steve Carlyon.

You have to look all the way down to 17th spot though to find the next member of their team on the list.

Who is it? Browny of course on 166, second highest run scorer for the club and third highest wicket taker.

Now try finding something to criticise him about? Hard isn’t it? Norah is on holiday this week, which is fortunate as she has a big bias toward Old Victorians as her brother is one.

Fellow office worker, Gillian who is best known for her karaoke rendition of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep at the Trafalgar, has twice stepped into Norah’s shoes in the past and will have no such bias as she’s from Lancashire.

After carefully considering the merits of the sides she says Old Victorians will win because Norah’s brother went to the school! Prediction: Gillian asks Romerils, “”where’s your bottle gone?”" Far far away, far far away is the reply.

Springfield v Sporting Club Sporting Club saw off Romerils’ feeble challenge last week to emerge worthy champions.

I’m sure this season’s triumph will mean more than some of their other championships as the league has been more competitive this time with St Ouen, Romerils, Caesareans and more recently Old Victorians all having pretty strong squads.

Another unbeaten season beckons as they are sure to soar over the final hurdle on Saturday when they play Springfield at Quennevais.

Or are they? There may be some reasons to believe a shock could be on the cards.

The first is that Matty Hague is not playing.

Add the absences of Mark Reynolds and Nick Jewell who are at the Test match (I knew England were short but …) and cast your mind back two years when you may remember that they were in a similar situation having secured the league after another unbeaten season but lost their final match.

That was, however, against Old Victorians who would have provided a much sterner test than Springfield are likely to tomorrow.

Nevertheless Springfield managed a decent performance last week against Caesareans but their bowling again just lacked the necessary penetration to turn a promising position into a victory.

Much depends on how Sporting Club approach this game.

They may decide to let those players who have not had the opportunity to score too many runs have a bat.

Whether this helps the Springfield cause sufficiently enough to create a shock remains to be seen.

They have to set a good total, but their batsmen have hardly been prolific.

Suthan is the top scorer on 121 with Pete Canham, who has recovered from a slow start where he only scored seven runs from his first five innings, on 105.

Richard Parker (199 runs last year) has not been able to reach those heights scoring 78 runs, but he’s considerably better than skipper Phil Evans, who has only managed 20 runs from his seven innings.

Still, at least he has played the majority of the games, unlike Alan Lesbirel who doesn’t mind having ‘outstanding evenings’ for Abacus but prefers to spend most weekends in his French residence rather than turn out for Springfield.

Even if Sporting Club do take things a bit easy here I cannot see a shock occurring and would have to back them to have another unbeaten season.

Prediction: It’s a perfect 10 for Sporting Club just like Bo Derek, or this column now it tells you where to go.