LOAD OF BALLS!

One of the most annoying things in Lincolnshire club cricket is the time wasted looking for balls lost beyond the boundary.
Rural grounds suffer most, of course, especially at this time of year, with big sixes disappearing into fields of crops - with precious little hope of retrieving the ball.
Some clubs, however, could certainly speed things along with minor investment in small chicken-wire fencing to combat delays following along-the-ground boundaries being struck.
Not much expense is required, but the benefits would be great, in terms of keeping the game flowing.
South Kelsey CC set a super example at their old postage stamp-sized ground at Skipworth Ridge. The fence running round the boundary - infront of a very thick hedge - resulted in many balls bouncing back into the field of play, rather than being lost in the undergrowth.
If sixes were hit, however, and landed in the infamous Bull Field, not many fielders were keen to shin over the fence to look for the 'cherry'. And especially not if they were wearing anything red.
If Kelsey were doing well with the bat, veteran secretary Walt Blackburn often appeared on the edge of the field with a box of balls and tossed a replacement to the fielding side, with an instruction like: "There you are boy - try that one!"
Strangely, when his beloved Kelsey were on the receiving end, dear old Walt never seemed keen to repeat the exercise.
We lost Walt earlier this year, of course - one of the truly great characters of Lincolnshire cricket. He got a fine send off from the senior Lincs cricket fraternity, with Judge Michael Heath (a fine batsman in his day) delivering a magnificent eulogy.
What problems Walt overcame raising Sunday teams, especially with a good number of his players involved in agricultural pursuits to fund their after-match beer funds.
In the days when regular friendlies and Grimsby League games took place on Sundays - before the expansion of the North Lindsey League - many of us local club secretaries 'in the sticks' received Sunday morning calls from Walt, imploring us to loan a few of our best players for Kelsey guest duty that afternoon.
"Arvesting", "Bea-ting" and "Peaa-vining" were just three of the oft-quoted Walt reasons to call on other clubs' willing volunteers - duly outlined in his Lincolnshire dialect.
Local clubs, and players, did their level best to help out this gentleman of the game, who served Kelsey so well as secretary for half-a-century. But, for all his many good points, Walt was a plain-speaker and not exactly renowned for tact and diplomacy.
Quite unashamedly he told me many times on the phone: "If you can't find anyone decent, you'll have to play yourself!"
Fair comment - but it left some of us of lesser cricketing mortals feeling a little deflated. Especially as, one Sunday at Ross Group, I helped Walt out, in a real crisis, by appearing for Kelsey in a Grimsby League match.
Finding myself pushed well down the batting order, I went in after the cream of Kelsey's batsmen had been dismissed and was promptly whacked behind the knee by a decidedly quick delivery from Pete Tillison.
Ouch!