There is only one thing better than beating your enemies

And that is beating your friends

This weekend’s game is against Bournemouth 5s. It should be a good competitive game as they are a team that are in many ways similar to the Kapils. Both are teams made up of a good youngsters mixed in with a bunch of has beens and never weres; each team having a good mix of youth and experience. Looking at the form guide, both teams attained solid mid table mediocrity last year, with the Kapils coming 9^th and the Fivers 12^th. This year so far they have both won one and lost one, so can’t really put a Rizla paper between them there. It seems like it will be a true ‘who performs best on the day’ type thing. Which team has the players that can step forward and do the business for them? It should unfold as an exciting contest.

What should add an extra bit of edge to it is that I am fairly certain that the youngsters in the team would be used to playing against each other in colts cricket, but also with each other on the same team for their county age group teams, so they will be desperate to do well against each other. For me, it is also a bit of an odd situation in that this Bournemouth team is the team that I first played for and indeed was on the other side of this fixture last season. So there are people in the opposition team that I like, respect and consider friends and ordinarily would wish them to do well. Not this weekend though, this weekend they are the enemy to be crushed beneath my chariot wheels. And then have a pint with afterwards.

Another factor that may have an effect on the game is the fact that it is a bank holiday weekend and the start of half term. This can be problematic for any amateur sports team as people go away for the weekend / for the week. It can be especially problematic for a lower level cricket team though because of how team selection works. If the first team is missing a couple of players they will nick some people from the 2s. Who will have to replace them from the 3s, as well as the players that they having missing anyhow, this cascading down the club. So by the time that it gets to the 5^th team, they are having their better players poached, have to deal with some of their players being away anyhow and have no team to steal people from, so it can be a bit of a scramble to get a team out.

This is the Kapils first home game of the season, so something to look forward to as it is close enough for me to walk home. Two well matched teams that may or may not be weakened by selection issues, the winners getting to push into the top quartile of the table, should be a good one. Bournemouth 5s are carrying one extra problem that the Kapils are not. They are missing their stalwart, stylish, reliable opening bat from the last couple of seasons, that’s right, Gary  isn’t playing anymore.