Technically, the season never finishes, because with all of the sports I watch, one always gets overlapped by another. This makes for a never ending trail of sports that I can stay up to date with pretty much through the year and also makes for a boring morning's surfing on December 24th - 26th. Still, I've just played what will probably turn out to be my last game of the year on the cricket pitch and what a damp and somewhat dismal affair it was.

The season started out with some good net sessions and a lot less bruises than I've nursed over previous seasons. A little soreness is customary, for getting rid of that off-season rust, but shifting a little excess from around the middle has proven to be a thorn in my side. I must still do something about that, but we'll see.

We began with a few friendly matches, to get our bearings on the field and see what we were looking at for the year. With all of the work I've been putting in over the off season, it's always annying to see a guy that hasn't taken a single practice just stroll up and take 5 wickets in his first bowling action of the year. Still, with Luke Groves getting his maiden ton and Dan Soley taking 5-not a lot, we rolled over Neen Solars at a ground that we had a job to find. The long and winding dusty track eventually leading us back to the pub, for a well earned post-match drink. Sunburn in England is really harsh, because you don't expect it.

The first league game rolled around quickly, against hotly fancied Bridgnorth, but we were informed by the skipper a day before that they had cried off, due to not being able to get a side together. That equated to our first win of the year and considering that we managed 2 all of last season, we began on the highest of highs.

One game after another and Cookley started to find themselves at the sharp end of the Sunday League, with a full head of confidence. Four wins, no losses and two matches abandoned due to the weather. Sundays weren't the only team I played for though. Brian, the impromptu Wednesday skipper, after the disappearance of Ad Matthews to Brighton and stand in Mark Hadley's persistent unavailability meant I was promoted from "only use me if you're desparate, as Wednesday is Cinema Night, if anything good is on", to "You're available this week, aren't you?"

Playing a few games for the Wednesdays proved pretty fruitless, as I rarely got the chance to do anything, except for providing an easy wicket for John Martin in the Senior Cup, as Cookley A beat Cookley B, by a tactical shelling of the new pavillion building site.

At this point in the year, we lost two players from the Sunday team, as Brett Murphy disappeared off the face of the earth, while his vice captain, Mark Hadley pretty much followed suit. No matter, Brian can captain this team as well, as I was promoted to head scorer and daily treasurer, where it was my responsibility to collect monies and write the scores in the book while everyone else had a bat.

On a soggy night at Kidderminster Victoria, the best ground in town, I managed to eclipse my previous best with the bat and put on a little show, despite the fact that we lost, we would not give up. 20 not out was great and briefly saw my average climb into the 30s with the bat, which is awesome. Fortunately, this also saw the weather improve, but I believe the circumstances to be mutually exclusive.

Having lost to the "A-Team" earlier in the season, we were given a place in the Invitation Cup and lined up against the Sportsman at Stone. We went out to field on a nice warm evening and on the first ball, I was thust into action, as the ball neatly ended up pouched at deep backward point. Impressed with my fielding resume and the fact that I'd taken a few wickets on Sundays, Brian the skipper thrust me into action, where I duly obliged, with one wicket for six runs off my first over. The next over, I allowed a single to the "lead partner", but wickets fell so often that the lead wasn't really acknowledged all that much. Then I proceeeded to systematically remove the next three wickets in three balls for my first ever hat trick. Caught behing, bowled and then caught at backward square leg (Google if you need to know) by the skipper. The jug was on, but the pub didn't do jugs, so a round of halves had to suffice.

In the next round, I duly obliged again and added that to my spree which saw me take 18 wickets in the best part of 6 games. On one of the Sunday matches, I returned career best figures of 4 wickets for 7 runs and was called "devastating" by the local media. How little they know. Our second cup game followed towards the end of July and we adanced to the final on the 25th of August, while still racking up the wins on Sundays. By this point, we had still to lose and had racked up 6 wins, which was a season best for this league. Then we ran into Bridgnorth.

The titans of Division 3, Bridgnorth had conceeded the first match of the season to us and had understandably got a powerful batting and bowling lineup, with players from the Birmingham League taking the field against us. We restricted them a little and they managed 190 from their 40 overs, which was good (some of my 18 wickets streak came here as well), before we went to bat.

Batting at number 4 is pretty daunting, though I had managed a career best score here earlier in the season, so I strode out and guided a few balls around the pitch, moving to 14, before I got myself out, frustratingly, as I had felt in good touch. Then it was back to the basics and getting the score book to add up once more, in spite of the makeshift scoring having made a mockery of it. Will Morgan and Brian guided us to respectability in our one and only loss for the season.

Moving into the final stretch of the season, we concluded a mediocre season in the Wednesday League, but focussed on the cup final. On Sunday, we beat Belbroughton, a team that I had never previously beaten and the league was staying tight. Thanks to Romsley & Huntingdon, Bridgnorth finally slipped up, pulling both us and them into a tie for the top spot. Heading into the bank holiday weekend, we were tied for points at the top, with Bridnorth having played all 12 matches and us crucially having one left. (8 wins, 1 loss, 2 abandoned for rain) Sleepless nights ahoy.

Wednesday the 1st of September, after the rain the week before had caused the game to be abandoned, we met with Gas for the fourth time this year. Finally, with a chance to beat them, we made it count, tight fielding restricting them to 129 from their 96 balls. We went out and while there were a few early wickets falling, Will Morgan guided us home with a massive 6 over square leg, to guide us to 130 from 89 balls. We were cup champions!

Not content to stop there, we met Pedmore yesterday, despite the early rain and claimed the toss, as they had not showed up early enough. Putting them into bat, we bowled them out for the princely sum of 85. Confident, Brian immediately assigned me with #4 in the lineup once more, "as you've not had a game". Clearly, my bowling arm has been shut down for the year. Who do they think I am? Marc Rzepczynski?

Waiting my turn, we lost a wicket with 30 on the board and as Luke "Byker" Groves was still in the changing rooms, I strode out at a career highest #3. Nerves? Hell Yes! After flailing miserably at the first few offerings and chastising myself heavily for these, I managed to get off the mark, as John Martin decided that he was going to get out with a silly shot to the slips. Enter Groves.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. He promptly started to despatch most of the balls he saw to the ropes for 4s and 6s, which left me with a bit of time to consider what was going on from the non-striker's end. I scored occasionally, getting myself a few singles and up to the mighty score of 6. Ironic really, as that was what Luke hit to win the match and the league, dispatching a similar shot to Morgan's from Wednesday night. The beverages flowed and we were crowned champions.

That's not bad for 6 seasons at Cookley - 3 league titles, 2 cups. Not as good as my Dad, but I doubt I'll get into a national village knockout side and all the way to Lords, to win something like that. Still, I've had a lot of fun this year.

Edit - now that we've had the awards presented, I managed to sneak out with the Sunday League trophy and my raffle prize - a 12 year old single malt.