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The wicket was covered but the square, with several large puddles in the footholes seemed to pose a greater problem (as did the fact that it was still raining, and the cloud so low that you could barely see the other side of the ground). A giant wheelbarrow of sawdust and some optimistic banter later we were playing, the home team totally convinced that the ground would hold up and it would all be OK. They were right. The drizzle stopped, the clouds lifted, and by 6pm, as
XL took the last wicket to secure a narrow victory with just nine balls to spare, we were bathed in glorious sunlight.
The most unpromising circumstances had been beaten by a determination to play simply for the enjoyment of playing – an appropriate nish to the summer of 2020.
When Chippenham ‘saw dust’
FORTHCOMING FORTY CLUB TOURS
What we can look forward to in 2021-22
A round this time last year, the Forty Club was returning from another enjoyable tour of Cape Town. It has been one whole year without an overseas tour with
coronavirus acting as the spoilsport. Although the pandemic has nally entered the decline phase,
it will be a few months before it becomes safer to tour overseas.
The rst long haul tour we are planning, coming
up after the enforced break, is to Dubai scheduled for the 25th of November till 5th December 2021. Some of the highlights of this tour will be 7 xtures at world class facilities like Sharjah stadium, Dubai stadium and the ICC Global Academy. These ven- ues were home to the last IPL in September-Octo- ber 2020. The outstanding hotel we have picked for this tour is a 5* beachfront hotel in Ajman.
This tour will be followed by another mouth- watering prospect with a 7 match tour to Sri Lanka from 30th January until 12th February 2022.
After ying to Colombo, we’ll transfer to our rst base in Sigiriya, staying at the Aliya Resort and Spa, from where we hope to play up to three matches. Then on to Colombo from where we plan to play xtures at Galle, Surrey Village and in Colombo itself. There will be 7 xtures in total with a plan to play some of them at international grounds. The hotel stays will be in the wonderful Aliya Resort owned by our good friend Chandra Wickramas- inghe, and in Colombo at the famous and gracious Mount Lavinia Hotel. This tour programme is still “work in progress”.
The Sri Lanka tour is ideally suited to wives and partners as there is so much to see and do, and they are of course very welcome to be in the party.
If you are interested in joining either of these tours, please send an email to Rob Nelson before the end of April. [robnelson@uwclub.net]
But there’s more! There are exciting times ahead as we are in the process of planning the Forty Club’s rst ever tour of Pakistan. The idea is to coincide a tour with England’s tour of Pakistan in the last week of October 2022. The plan will be to play 3 xtures against local veteran sides, as well as to watch an ODI and a T20. This tour will also give us the opportunity to partner up with some of the cricket charity organisations based in Pakistan working to help the underprivileged through sport. On the way back from Pakistan, we will stopover in Dubai for 5 days and plan to play 3 xtures in that time. Again please email Rob Nelson [robnelson@uwclub.net] before the end of April and let him know.
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Alan Jones and Nathan Bradley scoring at Dubai International Stadium
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