The Road do three things better than anybody else: match teas, batting collapses and mid-season excursions.
We’ve already served up some delicious teas in 2019, we’ve enjoyed many a weekly (sometimes twice weekly) batting collapse, so you know what it must be time for: TOUR TOUR TOUR!
To whet the appetite, King Keats, self-anointed godfather of the King’s Road Cricket Tour and lover of big hits, has been flicking through the Jedi archives to assemble a characteristic ‘Big Six’ list of his greatest tour memories.
Honourable mention – ’15 Tour
The Bournemouth Pool Party.
Six – ’09 Tour
The year was 2009 when the Road embarked on our first ever tour! After a seriously long drive the night before we played Swansea Law Society at St Helen’s, formerly the ground of Glamorgan. Sir Gary Sobers famously hit six consecutives sixes in an over on this very ground. We didn’t have Gary Sobers, but we did have Chris Beckett, who famously struck three fours in a row. Thus it was that on an absolute Road, KRCSC were 70 all out for the loss of twelve wickets.
Scorecard: http://krcsc.tripod.com/20090807.htm
Five – ’12 Tour
The Isle of Wight Part 1 marked my first tour as Manager/chief organizer, a role I am yet to relinquish. Two matches organized. Two matches cancelled due to rain. Highlights however included a pub quiz win after taking part in a local fundraiser for the Ryde Pier Historical Society, an historic Keats win during KRCSC pitch & putt tournament and the infamous memories from the King Lud (pictured below) – Sham spent the night boogying away with the perfect dance partner, himself, obviously, reflected in an adjacent mirror.
Four – ’13 Tour
As if one trip into hell wasn’t enough, we plumped for Isle of Wight Part 2. And for this one, The Road hired a mini-bus. Early signs were promising when driver C-Mac exclaimed “It’s broken”, having stalled the engine before setting off. Three matches organized, three matches played. After a couple of forgettable losses against a Unison touring XI, we then played Cowes CC on the Sunday. KRCSC restricted them to 153-9 in 35 overs, and then went on to tie the game! This was a really memorable moment for two reasons: up to this point in history the Road had lost all of their games on tour, and this remains the club’s first and only ever tied match.
Three – ’14 Tour
Bristol Part 1: the year we learned that Bristol had introduced 24-hour drinking licenses to many of their drinking establishments (bonus). The drunkest man on tour was most definitely Cocken. He initially tried to start a fight with a moving taxi in the middle of the City and followed this up by with an interesting journey as he tried to find his way home. This entailed stumbling around the hotel trying to find his room for an hour and a half. There was, of course, just one problem. Unfortunately he was staggering around the wrong hotel.
Two – ’17 Tour
The international ten-year anniversary tour: Cork 2017. From start to finish this was an amazing weekend. The weather was astonishingly good, we stayed in a stunning hotel, and we got a fabulous win on the Friday evening against tough opposition (thanks to a magnificent partnership between Jamie W & Robbo). The following day we won at the same ground – Richard Peralta taking a catch at point for my 100th club wicket. On the Sunday we went to a Hurling match which was great craic! And in the evenings after hitting Cork city (hard), we played “the game” till the wee hours on the hotel terrace-bar. Orchard Thieves was drunk.
One – ’18 Tour
Norwich 2018 was memorable for so many reasons. It was our first tour trip by train and the year that Oscar crash-landed on earth to win the much coveted “KRCSC Top Tourist” trophy. But the highlight has to be my all-time favorite and funniest tour memory: it involved our current captain, a burly northerner, an unsuspecting Kiwi, two canoes and a very big splash. The words “Ramming Speed” immortalized by the carnage that swiftly followed on the canals of Norwich. Some say that to this day, Patz is still coughing up pond water.
