The dismal summer weather did little to curtail excitement and anticipation ahead of the annual GRM Rounders Match, although several of the senior team were clearly still bearing grudges from the outcome of the last year’s tournament. And in stark contrast to the ‘scorchio’ conditions faced by the ‘athletes’ in 2022, this year the weather was more autumnal but did thankfully stay dry.
Staff and family once again gathered in numbers to both play and support the event, which was accompanied by a buffet picnic with a wide range of food and drink brought along by players and spectators. As is tradition, the term ‘family’ extended to pets too, and so the usual canine companions came along in a purely spectatorial capacity. And for the first time we also had a pet rabbit in attendance. ‘Thumper’ (not his real name) was initially very well behaved on his lead, but an impromptu game of ‘chase’ with a Guinness the Labradoodle resulted in an escape attempt into the nearby undergrowth. Order was soon restored and the match recommenced without further incident.
The congratulations went to Courtney’s team who emerged victorious. Commiserations to Lewis P who vowed to return in 2024 with a better prepared team hungry for revenge. A final mention to Jo Hurcombe who emerged as top scorer, although it subsequently materialised that she plays in a league every week and could therefore almost qualify as a professional. I wonder if Courtney knew about this when he picked her for his team!
