Lifetime memories are things that stick with you for ever, and seem as fresh in your mind years after the event as they did at the original time - hopefully they’re generally nice things, which we’re not allowed much in these recent times.

In no particular order for me, and for what cheap entertainment I can possibly provide to you the reader, here are mine:

1) my first kiss (back when people were allowed to do that sort of thing) - I was 13 and Michelle (14, already an away win for me there) was her name and I was obviously far more impressed with it than she was as I never heard from her again afterwards... This taught me that life could be full of disappointment at times...

2) 24th May 2014 - Wembley, play-off final, QPR v Derby (back when we were allowed to attend that sort of thing)...after having a man sent off and repelling wave after wave of Derby attacks, in the 90th minute Bobby Zamora hit a left footed shot into the corner of the Derby net to send QPR back to the Premier League. As the ball hit the net I vividly remember the bloke behind me (who I didn’t know and had barely spoken to during the game) hugging me so hard he knocked my glasses off my head, sending them flying down the steps of the access stairs in front of us. 40’000 Rangers fans going absolutely ballistic and 5 minutes later a steward coming up the steps and holding my glasses aloft (‘Whose are these?’ screamed at the top of his voice) like the play-off final trophy.

3) the birth of Eva and Jude also both comfortably make the top 4 (comedy klaxon in case my wife is reading).

5) For Bingham CC, it would clearly be skippering the team that won the Golding Shield on Bank Holiday Monday in 2011
(Link here, fact fans: https://bingham.play-cricket.com/website/results/1399168). We had knocked on the door of reaching the final for a year or two, especially the year before when (short confessional alert ?) I was batting as well as I’d ever played on the cusp of taking us to the final and ran myself out, after which we collapsed and lost to Queniborough.

In the final we played Queniborough again and won so convincingly (after bowling them out cheaply; Nick Winn bowled guided missile rockets that day) that I enjoyed every single minute of the game in front of the decent crowd of Bingham fans and players that had turned up at Bottesford CC, still my favourite away ground for the memories from this day alone.

Anyway, I digress...the events of today are, without doubt, another one of those lifetime memories.

The short report is that Bingham CC’s Sunday Development team achieved our first ever win to start the 2021 season after a season of only losing matches in 2020...after each game I’d stoically tell the team in the post game chat how we were improving, doing some things well, learning well blah blah, like Tom Jones telling a losing contestant on the Voice how far they’d come...but y’know we never actually made the final/won a game. I assume Tom doesn’t play cricket.

For those who don’t know, the development league allows for a maximum of 4 adults with the rest being junior players. Today, only 3 adults played; me, Ian ‘Leg End’ Flood and Stu ‘Pitchero God’ Wallis.

To add to this, we had two girls - Taylor and Evie (first senior game), James (first senior league game), ‘one season veterans’ Josh, Jacob, Sam S, Oli and our token older junior, Lewis.

We were up against Batman’s home town of Gotham, and they had us on the back foot straight away by winning the toss and making us bat on a wet deck with two very good opening bowlers. Sam and I fell early (18/2) and Lewis, the Floods and Jacob B started slowly moving the score forward, stopped only by Jacob literally killing his bat to death (see picture), splitting it clean in half much to his surprise and his dad’s worrying realisation that a trip to Mad Dog Sports was both urgent and very probably going to be quite expensive. (Minus marks to Jacob for leaving early during jobs afterwards by the way, that’s a fine of bringing team sweets next week).

After Flood senior had reached his seemingly inevitable 50 and retired, we continued adding crucial runs, special mention to Evie and Oli who literally ran everything in the last two overs to take us to 118/8 off the allotted 32.

Credit to Gotham, they bowled well and it was ironically good to see us getting out to some genuinely good balls - a big step forward from last season - the one that got Flood jnr was a particularly nice/nasty piece of work.

**Tea break** my early dismissal meant I’d polished off most of my tea (a ‘New York Deli’ sandwich from Nottingham Road stores, which contained non-specific meat and sauce) before the actual tea break. I both miss and don’t miss actual teas, back when we were allowed to do this sort of thing, teas were great but took ages and disappointing teas at away grounds are like getting stuck at Bingham level crossing, you know you’ve got to stay there, (admittedly whilst picking at unbuttered curled up ham sandwiches and 45p multipacks of 12 ready salted crisps) and look like you’re not desperate to get past the stoppage to the other side.

We came out of the break like a rocket, Flood jnr and Porter taking wickets, and Evie taking a first senior wicket; they were 36/4 and Jacob uttered the cursed words ‘we’re going to win this’ to me at slip.

A few overs later they were 92/4 and cruising. But then strange stuff started to happen...Flood snr takes an amazing catch off Sam to start a nervy spell for the away team. Stu W took a wicket with his first ball. Each run was suddenly hard to come by and we were genuinely fielding well. Sam took 3 wickets and all of a sudden they needed 8 with just one wicket to win. Missed run outs, dropped catch (me?‍♂️) but it didn’t matter as Sam S took his 4th and the final wicket, gently lifting the bails off the stumps with a beautiful delivery for the win by 3 flipping runs.

The celebrations may not have made for a good Covid risk assessment, but what an incredible performance by a young team. The future of the club is here and it’s heart is beating strongly. To win a game by such a small margin is a true learning experience and I’m hugely proud of this group! Well played Bingham and Gotham as well; we’re looking forward to the rematch at Wayne Manor....