In June 2009 over a pint on the boundary at the Jack Frost XI v Broadhalfpenny Brigands match it was suggested by Rob Cheeseman that a cricket tour to Devon would be fun and indeed a plan was hatched between Rob and Alastair Crowhurst for 2010. We are delighted to report that The Devon Tour took place in June 2010 and was well supported by Members.

   The Touring party consisted of:-

1. Rob “The Leader” Cheeseman
2. Nigel ‘Foxy’ Fowler
3. Graham ‘Spatchcock’ Fowler
4. John ‘Fleet of foot’ Hall
5. James ‘007’ Billington
6. John ‘Limerick’ Croysdill
7. Clive ‘Captain’ Hook
8. Ian ‘Milty multi milky balls’ Milton
9. Philip ‘Mrs’ Jones
10. Cosmo ‘The other Teacher’ Jackson
11. Alastair ‘Ten Pin’ Crowhurst
12. Mike ‘Chardonnay’ Chase
13. David ‘Chemise’ Mayo

On Thursday 10^th June 2010, blessed by fabulous sunshine all tour, The Devon Tour began in earnest when several of the Jack Frost XI touring party arrived mid afternoon at the Woodbury Park Hotel, near Exeter, for a warm up round of golf. James ‘007’ Billington, Alastair ‘Ten Pin’ Crowhurst, John ‘Fleet of foot’ Hall and John ‘The limerick’ Croysdill took to golf buggies, the latter for his first driving lesson, which resulted in panic on the part of his instructor as the lives of several staked trees and a few golfers were threatened! A few hours later, ‘death by golf buggy’ narrowly avoided, the remainder of those arriving on Thursday met the golfers/Learner for dinner at 9pm.  The tour got off to a traditional start with an excellent meal followed by much merriment over a few drinks and concluded with a fair amount of whisky, graciously supplied by The Fox, and consumed with gay abandon on the balcony of our private lodge house overlooking the 9^th green of the golf course with the first evening finishing at a creditable 4am!

As one might expect Friday morning started slowly as 9 tourists/bears with sore heads rose one by one to be greeted by a queue for the only shower in the lodge - and it was rubbish - we have seen more pressure from Fox’s bowling as the shower dribbled and was extremely cold! This rather rude awakening was however quickly overcome by an excellent cooked breakfast in the hotel restaurant. By 08.00am 7 golfers were assembled on the first tee of the Championship Golf Course. We played a Stableford competition with ‘nearest the pin’ and ‘longest drive’ to play for too. The Results were as follows:-

Stableford competition -           Winner - Alastair Crowhurst 39 points, (HCP 12)

Runner Up - Graham Fowler 38 points (HCP 25)

Longest Drive -                         David Mayo

Nearest The Pin (1) -                Alastair Crowhurst

Nearest The Pin (2) -                Graham Fowler

By lunchtime the non golfers had recovered somewhat from the previous night’s antics, whilst the golfers, due to the early start, had not, but had finished their round of golf. The Tour coach, superbly organised by Rob ‘The Leader’ Cheeseman, collected us at 12.45pm from the hotel and took us, via another hotel to pick up the opposition, Manland Dads, to take us all to The Ley Arms in the picturesque village of Kenn for our pre match livener and lunch.   The cricket ground was located in the grounds of the local manor house - a beautiful setting. An interesting game, with numerous individual performances of merit ensued:-

Manland Dads  294-9 (P Jones 4-34)
Jack Frost XI    297-6 (M Chase 110, J Billington 58, P Jones 30*)

The match finished with a creditable win for Jack Frost XI. (Full Match Report to follow).

After the match we once again adjourned to the local pub for drinks and awards before being collected by the coach at 9pm and taken into Exeter for dinner at an excellent Indian restaurant. Another late night followed!

The following day, with many sore heads again, (most of) the golfers took to the Championship course at a slightly earlier time - which really was unkind given another ‘long’ night the previous day. However, whilst there were some very mixed performances, the golf on display by some was worthy of merit. A Stableford Competition ensued and the overall results were as follows:-

Stableford competition -                       Winner - Philip Jones - 36 points (HCP 23)

Runner Up - Cosmo Jackson 32 points (HCP 10)

Longest Drive -                                                 Nigel Fowler

Nearest The Pin -                                   Philip Jones

After golf the touring party was once again collected by the tour coach and taken to The Cleave Inn in the beautiful village of Lustleigh for lunch.
The cricket match began with Jack Frost XI winning the toss and electing to bat. The ground was in a beautiful location, the sun was out once again and the Jack Frost XI banter was flowing fast and furiously as it had been all tour.

Jack Frost XI 207-5 (Chase 47*, Jackson C 37, Hook 28, Cheeseman 26*)
Lustleigh 147-8 (Milton 5-36 )

The match resulted in a winning draw for Jack Frost XI. Alas we were unable to get the last Lustleigh batsmen out. (Full Match Report to follow).
The following day, (Sunday), some tourists went home in the morning whilst the golfers took to the 9 hole course at a slightly more leisurely time of 10.30am which really was needed after another late night the previous day. Again the golf on display by some was worthy of merit. A Stableford Competition again ensued and the overall results were as follows:-

Stableford competition -                             Winner - Alastair Crowhurst - 19 points (HCP 12)
                                                               Runner Up -

Longest Drive -                                          James Billington

Nearest The Pin -                                      Mike Chase

Our thanks must go to the following people:-

• Rob ‘The Leader’ Cheeseman for his exceptional organization of the weekend at a local level by providing us with some lovely venues for our cricket.
• Our Honorary Secretary Alastair ‘Ten Pin’ Crowhurst for organizing the touring party, accommodation and golf
• John ‘The Limerick’ Croysdill for touring despite being injured and standing in as an excellent tour scorer
• David ‘Chemise’ Mayo for producing excellent tour polo shirts at a competitive price
• Jane, (Rob’s ex), and her daughter for producing wonderful teas when we hosted Manland Dads at Kenn CC on the Friday of tour
• Mrs Milton and Mrs Jones (plus children), for their valiant support of Jack Frost XI at the Lustleigh match

Altogether the Devon Tour was considered by the Members to be a resounding success and is likely to be repeated in a similar format in the future.

Alastair Crowhurst

Honorary Secretary

Jack Frost XI

A number of guest supporting the tour as well as The XI themselves departed for North Norfolk on the promise of fine weather, fun cricket and well kept ales on the morning of Thursday 26th May 2005.  I am delighted to confirm that apart from some questionable navigating en route, we were not disappointed!

Arriving at lunchtime (depending upon the quality of the navigation) the touring party checked into the Lenwade Country House Hotel in Great Witchingham, immediately taking up position in the bar to watch England begin the anticipated demolition in their first test at Lord's.

After a particularly friendly welcome from the especially talented bar staff, and of course one or two liveners, we enjoyed some much needed lunch before heading off down the drive to the Clubhouse and Bar where the cricket ground was placed within the hotel grounds.  Jack Frost XI enjoyed a very traditional warm up!

Jack Frost XI v Gt Witchingham
As a result of the warm up play started a little later than anticipated, with the opposition getting off to a blistering start, scoring at more than 7.5 an over for the first 10 overs. The athleticism of the Jack Frost XI, coupled with some fine F&G by some of our Senior Pros, including 'Stormin' Norman Gray et le renard argenté (aka Nigel 'foxy' Fowler), together with some acrobatic catching and deflecting in the field ensured the opposition were restricted to 197 by the close of their innings.

In reply the skipper of The XI on the day, Paul Lack, employed a masterstroke by opening our innings with Dom Bryan partnering one of Jack Frost XI's newest members, Clive 'Hookie' Hook.  Whilst Mr Bryan struggled to find form beyond the bar (0), 'Hookie' played some lovely strokes to reach 23 in double quick time.  With Hookie supported by one of The XI's most able players Mike 'nice car' Chase, The XI enjoyed a start that perhaps surpassed the opposition as we scored at an expansive 8 an over for our first 10 overs! 

As the lunchtime libation wore off and the roasting temperatures began to tell Jack Frost XI lost another wicket or two, to make way for Neil 'Youth Policy' Baker, who demonstrated great fortitude whilst embarking on a classic dismantling of the opposition's bowling attack, picking up where Hookie and Chasey had left off!  After a short while he was joined by Al 'didn't get a wicket all tour' Crowhurst, putting on 89 together before Neil finally fell, jug shy, on 93.  Al was joined at the wicket by David 'Dorothy' Dandridge, who hit the winning runs (on the legside shockingly enough) with more than an over to spare to record a Jack Frost XI win!

Tour Leader, David 'The Chair' Lipop, was good enough to act as official scorer for this game, for which we are all grateful.

We then adjourned for our first evening on tour, the highlight of which was a formal dinner with jazz - 'nice'!  It was an evening full of fun and frivolity which went on until 'sun up' for more than half the tourists, with Dorothy in particular putting a great deal of time, money and effort into rehearsing for the following night's conversations!  He was ably supported by Geoffray 'no LBWs until August' Last, as they depleted the supply of Babysham  the bar had especially ordered in. 

Many thanks to the Chairman for organising the dinner and presenting the awards with such aplomb!

Jack Frost XI v Aldborough
As one might well expect the following morning breakfast was not enjoyed in full by all of the Tourists, no doubt due to the barman's remarkable efforts the night before.  All however did put in an appearance for the interesting tour of the countryside to Aldborough taking in Blickling Hall, one of England's great Jacobean houses. 

Upon arrival at Aldborough another fairly orthodox training session commenced at a lovely hostelry blessed with arguably the best ale of the tour, The Old Red Lion.  An excellent light lunch was served and skipper for the day 'nice car' Chase was dispatched to survey the picturesque ground, reconoitre the wicket, win the toss, and come up with his game plan whilst the rest of the team began finding their feet again, with further light training.  

Aldborough started their innings against two of the batting heroes of the previous match, 'Youth Policy' Baker and Al 'didn't get a wicket all tour' Crowhurst.  Initial conditions, dictated perhaps by the training, lent rather towards the home team until 'Youth Policy' Baker picked up a wicket in the most unexpected way.  Garnering an edge from one of the left handed opening pair 'nice car' Chase snaffled up a sharp chance to his right at fifth slip (not gully - despite what he claims) as the batsman didn't ever really control the shot, well bowled arguably without due reward at that point.  This perked up The XI who were perhaps starting to wilt in the roasting temperature. 

'Youth Policy' Baker made way for 'Stormin' Norman Gray at the Red Lion end.  'Stormin' built on his F&G in the first game taking a wicket maiden in his last over before making way pour le renard argenté who gave Geoffray more exercise in two overs than he would normally expect in the course of a tour.  Al 'didn't get a wicket all tour' Crowhurst having toiled into the wind for 10 overs, gave way to John 'Diplomatic Corps' Croysdill who took only a few moments to scent the batsman's weaknesses.  'Diplomatic Corps' finished with 3-33 having surprised Aldborough into only posting 229-5 dec.

The XI's reply began with two batsmen who had scored 1 between them on tour, and 'The Chair' had an excuse as he was scoring in the first game.....the first 12 runs of the innings notably coming in extras, with the next eight from the edge of Graham's shiny new blade.  Before long 'Youth Policy' Baker joined 'The Chair' who proceeded to run him out, 'nice car' Chase then joined 'The Chair' and did the same to him..... at which point the skipper was joined by le renard argenté who failed to trouble the scorer (Jim 'smoky' Jeffries) at all.  It was at this point that Al 'didn't get a wicket all tour' Crowhurst joined the skipper for an exhibition of batting which finished with all Aldborough's fielders being posted on the boundary.  A great skipper's knock by 'nice car' more than ably supported by 'didn't get a wicket all tour' which put on the runs at almost two a ball.  Jack Frost XI had required well over 10 an over to win when they started their partnership and for the whole of their partnership this rate was exceeded with some clean hitting that had the crowd entranced.  Finally, when the rest of the team thought the improbable was indeed possible they both holed out and the last couple of tightly bowled overs to new batsmen ensured the draw was the fair result.

Many thanks to Jim 'Smoky' Jeffries for scoring and to Dave 'Fish' Salmon for keeping the telegraph/ales ticking over.

Following the game an exquisite meal was taken in Cromer (The Mary Rose Fish and Chip Restaurant) with the highlight being Hookie and Chasey's romantic stroll on the pier.  A superb piece of navigation enabled us to return to Lenwade swiftly where another evening of fun and frivolity ensued.  The remaining tourists welcomed those who had just arrived for golf until the first light was seen in the sky.  Which gave Dorothy ample time to perfect his previous evening's conversations much to our amusement.