A good day at the cricket yesterday for me, we had a new skipper yesterday for the day, step forward Older Finch.... who promptly went and lost the toss, and was then accused of being a useless tosser, now I cant think who would have called him that....due to the late arrival of one of our opening bowlers, I volunteered to open the bowling with young Sam our lightning quick, the last time I bowled I went for far too many! so I was a tad worried, I bowled four overs at medium pace and had a few very close calls, the batsmen seemed to have a bit of trouble with me, in the end my figures were 4 over for only 7 runs! a cracking start! sadly Billericay made 231 off 40 overs, a good score, and one we were going to have trouble chasing, but the situation called for a skippers innings, and bles the old bugger he blocked the first then wallop was bowled, tis brought me to the crease to steady the ship, sadly at the start of the next over the other opener was gone, not the best start, I was joined by young Simba and we proceeded to put on another 50 or so before he was stumped, despite me warning him about their wicket keeper! I had decided to hang around and just nick singles but got beaten by a very good ball and so was back in the pavillion just when I felt comfortable, maybe too comfortable!
Sadly we lost, but we had a smashing tea, then headed home for a BBQ, met up with Young Finch and off we went, now the trouble with taking yor son to a BBQ with all your mates is that they then proceed to relive past glories and holidays we went on, Young Finch was amused at the thought of his dad doing naked star jumps outside a Norfolk bakers at 3am in the morning, I had to point out that of course I was very very very drunk..... also a sign appeared which I was told I aquired again in Norfolk, again in the early hours of the morning! oh dear...

The band had a gig last night at a wedding, a very long day, met up at 1pm then headed off to the venue, set up, and then ran into problems with the equipment, so the set up took way too long, having sorted out the problems we finally had a break at 6, so we had 2 and a half hours to kill, so we managed it by sitting in the sun outside the gorgeous manor house we were playing. The Gig when it started was good, party goers were all up for a giggle, all went well until Ian managed to wreck his guitar, luckily yours truly had been tuning up the Strat, so a disaster was averted.
Finished around midnight, then packed up and buggered off home, got indoors about 2am. They had a buffet at this do, very nice, a selection of cheeses, Wensleydale with Cranberry..awesome, and some Wild Boar Pate which I rather enjoyed, several members of the band got a shock when they tried the chilli bread!
Up early this am for a bacon buttie and I am now off to play cricket in Billericay, then rushing home for a BBQ...busy day

Busy old day today, bit of work this morning, then over to Ian's for a lesson in how to tune a guitar, and I know how to play the opeing chords of Queen's Tie Your Mother Down, spent an hour in the garden laering it today, of course this was no use for the gig tonight at Brands Hatch, but still it was fun despite the state of my fingers now, one of which has a cracking blood blister! There was a track day at Brands as we arrived to set the equipment up, loads of speed merchants flogging their road cars round the famous old track. The gig went well, and we managed to sit down and have cup of coffee after and look through the band profiles for the website, another gig looms in Bromley on Saturday.
Ian's neighbour has taken a shine to me, nice woman who looked dissapointed when told I was off the market!
Tomorrow after a 4 long weeks, I lose Young Finch for a long weekend, its very dissapointing when his mother does not even have him for a few days during the holiday, you would think she would want to spend some time with him, apparently not, she has hardly seen him in the holiday, too busy obviously....
This SUnday I havr a cricket match at Billericays ground, the ground is used by Essex's second team, we played there last year, the pitch is stunning and the clubhouse is good, here's hoping the tea is better than last year and that I can get a few runs....

Amazing scenes today at the Oval, The Aussies were never going to make 500+ where they? I admit to being a bit concerned with Ponting batting, until Freddie ran him out. It has been a funny series, Australia will say they were short of Brett Lee, but we had Pietersen out and Freddie misinng at Headingly, to be fair the stats point to an Aussie win, leading wicket takers, most centuries, yet when it all boiled down to it England were the better side, Broads spell on Friday that obliterated the Aussie 1st Innings was amazing, helped by Graham Swann who as the spinner was under huge pressure, this was the Aussies bottling it, its all very well making 300+ in the second innings when chasing 500+, but where were they on Friday when the big score was needed. Its all very sweet stuff, after Headingly it looked bad for England, to bounce back afte that with this win is an incredible achievement.

Three Blokes....Three Mountains......24 Hours.....The Challenge!

Well the camp was entirley succesful, the Explorers loved it and the weather was stunning so much so I have a very brown crown (its not a bald spot) and young finch has brown legs, although that may be dirt!
One of the highlights was a scavenger hunt, myself and a fellow leader accompanied our group on the hunt which was our way of livening up a 3 mile walk to Deal, as we got closer to Deal we hatched a plot, we decided we would all act as French tourists.... so speaking no English we entered Deal with some very dodgy French phrases, mine were mainly "the monkey is in the tree" and "the cat is under the table" armed with this we caused chaos including attempts to order 8 99's with a flake, one of the items they had to collect was a photo of them in a telephone box, once the 6 or so Explorers were i myself and my rather rotund companion announced our intention to join them in the box.....chaos......but we managed it.
The site was stunning and the view out to sea everyday was awesome as was the meteor shower we stayed up and watched, to have 14 inner city kids lying out in a field watching something like that was amazing!
Now we are back preperations are in full swing for many events, the Mountain rescue boys are off in late November, we have a walk along the Mumbles and a trip to the rally, throw in a Stag weekend somwhere not revealed and a wedding its a busy time!

More Photos!

Photos from camp at Kingsdown

Today the new League One season starts, its only 3 seasons ago that Charlton were in the Premier League and we had Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal ad Chelsea to look forward to, the club was held up as a model of how to survive in the Premier League, as we all know something went horribly wrong and today we look forward to Wycombe Wanderers, Hereford and Hartlepool, bit of a come down, we even have the joys of Milwall later in the year, oh how we cannot wait for that... as a result the club has lost around about 7000 season ticket holders, and to date have sold around 10,000 for the coming year, Young Finch has had his faith in the club sorely tested. but to his credit he will be venturing back to the Valley where for the past 3 years he has been miserable as sin, watching as a group of clueless gutless players took the money and ran, to his eternal credit using his own money that he has saved he has purchased two tickets for himself, so he can take friends along, one in particular is a Milwall fan and went with him a few times last year, and the boy reckons this Millwall fan could turn turtle and become a fan of the Addicks! get in there my son.
I am not sure of what our expectations are this season, a few overpaid prima donnas have buggered off, and a few new signings have been made, it does look a bit flaky in the defensive area, the midfield looks solid and has some talent, the forward line is an issue though, Andy Gray can if in the right shape get 20 goals a season, sadly last year the combination of his wife being seriously ill and his injury he looked more like our old favourite Carl Leaburn... if we can keep him fit and get him scoring we have a chance. Off the field it is a bot of a worry, the Club is in debt, but it is all owed to the Directors, so its a friendly debt, but we have had to put up wth all sorts of rumours about a takeover, the Charlton message boards have been full of people who "know someone" and have come up with various dates for the takeover that so far has not materialised, although 10 days ago the Club did finally admit something could be happening and according to the South London Press the takeover could be complete next week, if thats the case then great, hopefully some money will be available to sign fresh players. As for Phil Parkinson, he gets a lot of stick form fans who think he should be gone, but he inherited a squad that had suffered relegation, then put up with the fantasies of Alan Pardew, they were demoralised and lacking in confidence, financially speaking he was the only option, we should give the man a chance, he has signed a couple of players and I hope the fans give him the benefit of the doubt.
SOme of our fans worry me, there expectations have alwasy been way too high, I went to the first game of the season in the Championship, when at half time the team were playing ok but not winning the boo's started, this does not help, Charlton fans are not the best in the land as they like to think they are, they played their part in our fall, sometimes the apathy at the Valley is astounding, its time for them to get behind the team for a change rather than boo because its 1-1 at half time....

Will be quite on here for a bit, I am off to camp on Sunday, Young Finch is attending as well, should be good fun, although the thought of a week under canvas does not fill me with joy....

Age is creeping up on me, late this afternoon a friend rang and asked if I fancied some cricket practice in the nets, being a fool I agreed, I have not picked up a bat or bowled in ages, and to be honest tonight in the nets I felt very very rusty, but worse has followed, my knee has blown up like a balloon, my wrist is very sore and I have done something to my elbow, not sure what but it does not bend as it should, coupled with the fact the Babe Magnet (Young Finch) had to help me out of the chair to have bath, I am considering if its worth whle putting myself through this for a game of cricket?
Talking of the Babe Magnet, I met his squeeze last night, her name is Georgia, a pretty little thing who is totally smitten with Young Finch and he likewise with her, I was evicted from my own living room after dinner last night, this lasted for about half an hour until the boys arrived for our game of Golf on the Wii, all credit to the lass she coped well with us lot and stood her ground, although she really enjoyed the photo of Young Finch meeting the Queen a few years ago in Elizabethan costume, he protested rather loudly at this, but as I pointed out with at least two females he has dragged out a pic of me with rather dodgy hair colouring, and no G I will not scan it and put it on here!
So the boy is in love, and I predict tears by September.
A stag do and a wedding loom in Nov, oh dear, I do worry.......

The cricket, when played, this weekend has been very entertaining, a few short years ago I used to enjoy having the tv on with the sound down and Test Match Special on the radio, simply the best way to enjoy a Test Match, sadly in the age of Digital TV, Digital Radio this does not seem possible because of the delay, I have tried various different ways but they are always out of time with each other, a great shame...

I vividly recall visiting my nan as a small boy and her listening to the Test on Radio 4, I am not 100% sure she liked cricket but just liked the gentle chat in the background. The commentators in those days were a joy, Johnners, Jim Laker, Fiery Fred Trueman who was never quite sure "what was going on out there", Fred was a harsh critic of bowlers "the lad can't bowl a hoop down a hill" was a quote I recall. These Days we have Aggers, Blowers and Boycott, Boycott gets on my nerves a bot these days, nobody is any good, the batsmen are all useless and the bowlers cant bowl, about time Geoffrey changed the record, poor fella was on with Matt Hayden last week and was quite clearly losing the argument so he stormed off with the hump.....

Human behaviour confuses me sometimes, its bad enough to work out what a woman wants or is thinking, but ti gets worse, I have a neighbour, about 65-70 mad as a bag of frogs and on a few occaisions he has been carted away by the men in white coats, two weeks ago he flipped again, this time aimed at me, he (wrongly) accused young Finch of damaging his air vent on his kitchen window, I know it was not the boy as I saw who did it..... So two weekends ago Young Finch was outside with a cricket bat, no ball, practising his defensive stroke, all very good, and highly impressive of the lad, after a while I heard the nutter having a go at someone, on looking out side the old git was at his bedroom window gesticulating at my son and shouting the odds, this pissed me off a tad so I went outside and asked what was happening, at which the old git launched in to a verbal attack on the lad and myself, I was coping quite well until he said Young Finch was stupid...at which point my tone raised somewhat and I defended my son pointed out to the old git that the vent had been dmaged by someone else and told him who it was, this was quite clearly not enough and he announced he was coming down to me, by now Dans amusement had turned to anger, then the old git came storming out of his front door stood a matter of feet from me and started ranting, I noticed Young Finch moving and managed to stop the now agitated lad before he dealt with the old git himself, after a battle I managed to get Young Finch back in the house and then wnet back out to see the old git was still fuming, and calling me all the names under the sun, and then he decided that a fight was required...sweet jesus... with a slight difference he shouted at me to throw the first punch....now I am not stupid, had I thrown the first punch I would be the aggressor, whcih I was not, so I refrained and invited him to throw the first punch with the following immortal line " you hit me and there will be two more hits, I hit you you hit the deck" jesus what a crap line, this went on for a good five minutes, him trying to goad me into whacking him, luckily I have good self control and did not, so eventually the old git backed down and buggered off indoors, in the two weeks that have passed there has been a silence, until last night when I got home and there he was all smiles saying hello as if we were old mates, all very confusing it sems he had forgotten the whole incident, so I did what any normal human would do......... I told him to fuck off...

I see a problem looming at summer camp,. Young Finch will be in attendance, trouble is he is "in love" he has a girlfriend, young Georgia is very pretty and the pair are besotted, its very noticeable, when his phone goes and he gets a text he moves very fast dropping whatever he is doing and whoosh he is out the door, now this happened last week when his mother came to see him, they were chatting away and the phone vibrated and whoosh the lad was out the door without a word, now me being a caring parent and not a nosey sod was intruiged with this behaviour, so upstairs to my bedroom I crept and peered through the nets, there was my son in a clinch with a female of the species!!! I could see her not him, so a plot formed in my mind, summoning his mother i decided to throw some rubbish away! which would mean I would have to go outside the house and walk past the couple, not that these two would notice anything else going on! so items were gathered and off I went....I guessed right neither of them noticed me creeping past, but I got a good look at who I now know is Georgia.... very pretty and way to classy for a Finch!!! this behaviour has continued all week and the poor lad is very distracted, his mum wanted him to go shopping but no, he was concerned he would miss Georgia, of course being a leading expert in the dating game (yeah right) I have offered my advice to the poor lad, one little gem is as follows, never do anything for them in the early days of a relationship that you may live to regret, and are not prepared to do when in a mood, like buy them flowers on the way home from a trip with the lads, or agree to meet them at the airport to carry the luggage, in the early days of a relationship its easy to be too eager, once its all settled down a year or so later when frankly the idea of a trip to the airport to greet them with a hug and a kiss does not appeal as footie is on tv, you will live to regret the first flush of eagerness, you tell them you will see them when they get home, this is never commented on by the female until and argument over the toilet seat or something petty ensues and then it will be dragged up "you never met me at the airport like you did when we first went out together" so dont be to eager.... there thats one of the Finch gems to a long fruitful relationship.... I do hope he listened to the voice of experience.... barring the odd nutter/stalker/pyscho I have done ok to date.
Well the issue is we are away on camp for a week from next Sunday and I have sneaking suspicion we will have a love sick 13 year old on our hands.....god help us....

Its been a good weekend, Friday night was a quiet night in doing absolutely bugger all, then up early Saturday cooked breakfast for my self and Big Nose Bruffton and then we were off, first stop Waverley Crescent, to the District Scout HQ to load up the van with camping equipment, our Explorer Scouts were heading for Windsor Great Park for a weeks activities, it was only when we hit the M25 that we realised we lacked certain information, where the camp was, and how to contact the leaders who had just helped us load the van!!! I tried messaging them on Facebook via my phone, no luck we phoned people at home for numbers, no luck, and in no time Windsor Castle loomed in view, after a delightful tour of Windsor we spotted a AA sign for the event and managed to get there and even beat the Scouts and their leaders! having unloaded part two was upon us and off to Banbury we went ot collect a group who had just finished there weeks camp, looking at them on our arrival told a 1000 stories, damp, tired and ready to go home....these poor sods had a hard old week of rain, rain and then a bit more rain.... so we loaded the damp kit up and headed to Bermondsey, it was at this point that Big Nose and I decided to have a sing song on our own in the van, so the Beatles was stuck on and off we went, what an unholy racket, luckily we can both hold a tune, so that helped pass the time! finally got home at 7 12 hours after we started the day. Today its down to my own Scout Hall to sort the kit for our camp next weekend..... cannot wait.