Veni, vidi, vici ...almost!

Like Meat Loaf said - 2 out of 3 ain't bad !!! 

Winning 2 matches convincingly and just narrowly losing the 3rd match ... 

Overall the Rome trip was very very enjoyable.  Good company, good weather, good cricket and atmosphere with the exception of the joint dinner we had with the opposition on Saturday night where the food was a bit disappointing so if we do make this a yearly tour fixture we should

-  aim to do our own thing especially on the food front as only 3 opposition players and their dog turned up!!! 

- Players should aim to depart late Sunday night or Monday morning so that like this time we are not left playing with 8-9 players  


Quick round up for especially the non touring party :- 

We played 2 x 20/20 games on Saturday 26 March on a warm sunny 22C hot day.

1st 20/20 was against the Pope's XI!! St Peter's - a very strong side who have not been beaten in 5 years at this venue !!  

BCCC - 131.  We won by 35 runs.  
St Peter's - 96

BCCC were put in to bat as only 6 of our players had turned up !!! A few had not had time to digest the 5 or so of my emails on this subject I am told!! Some did not realise it was a 20/20 until after they got out either !! Anyway 
we started very slowly trying to get used to the astro wicket and at one stage were 17 for 4 off 6 overs, however thanks to a very handy partnership of 80 or so between Matt (Brad) and Anthony we ended up with 131 runs.
St Peters were in trouble from the start,  losing quick wickets,  and never looked like they would get anywhere close to our total.  Good bowling spells from Graeme, Anthony, Mo and Suresh helped roll them over for 96 runs. 

Joint Men of the match were Matt and Anthony for their 37 not out, each under pressure when BCCC were tottering at 17 for 4 off 6 overs !!! 

2nd 20/20 game Vs Capannelle  

BCCC- 182 for 4.  We won by 42 runs.   
Capannelle - 140  

BCCC won the toss for a change and batted 1st.  Things went from bad to worse for Capannelle especially once Kiran started to take a liking to their bowlers and hitting them all over the park in his 35 ball knock 
of 115 runs with 14 4's and 7 6's!! Graeme, Suraj, Sanjay and Phil got the remaining 52 runs !!!  Capannelle were never in the game as the run rate was too high.  Saying that, they got to 140 runs in the end.  

Man of the match - Kiran Beri for his 115 runs and 2 wickets.

3rd game on Sunday was a 40 over game Vs Capannelle X1 ( who had 4 Italian international players in their team) 

Capannelle - 252 
BCCC - 227 - we lost by 25 runs 

Lovely warm day as the match started at 12-30 due to a few latecomers from their side mainly !! A few of the BCCC players had had too much vino for their own good and it showed when BCCC started to bowl and field!! 
Capannelle won the toss and decided to bat and bat they did.  They scored over 110 runs without the loss of any wicket in 18 odd overs !!  Finally wickets started to tumble and we got them all out for 252 runs.  Lunch of chicken biryani 
was taken which did not help matters.  BCCC started slowly as we lost a few early wickets.  Not a good start as we were by then playing with only 9 players.  Graeme was clean bowled by their Italian international fast bowler for 3, likewise 
Suraj was caught for 3 and Keith retired injured hit on the face by a fast rising delivery by the same Italian express !!! Kiran and Sanjay came together for a brief few overs until Kiran was bowled on 38 trying to hit another boundary.  Sanjay 
took on the reins for a bit but soon departed for 40.  At this stage the score was 96 for 4 off 20 overs.  Luckily for us Keith is made of of sterner stuff so he very bravely came back later to bat and along with Matt the two of them started to knock
their bowlers all over the park and put on over 100 runs until Matt fell after scoring a quickfire 64 to take us to touching distance from their total of 252.  Unfortunately,  as we only had 9 bats left standing we fell short by 25. Maybe if we 
had not given away 26 wides it would have been even closer !!! A valiant effort but missing 2-3 players did not help. 

Man of the match - Matt for his 64. 

Joint Men of the Series / Tour -- Kiran and Matt (Brad) for their outstanding performances.

I will ask the Italians to pencil in a BCCC tour to Rome for the week of 23-26 March 2018 so that people can plan in advance. All the best for the reminder of the season and thanks to Suraj for all the accommodation help he gave the touring party.