Saturday saw Simon Eddolls (28 points) win the hotly contested golf competition at Wycombe Heights, defeating John Kendall into second place. The golfers were then joined by those arriving after a day's hard graft of league cricket for a tour of Amersham's finest establishments. Given the late arrival for some it was perhaps inevitable that the evening lasted into the early hours, with tour newcomer Ali Glossop conquering the beam challenge at the first time of asking.

Sunday began with a trip to The Polecat Inn, before we moved on to visit our longstanding friends at Hyde Heath in a bid to regain the Brian Hartley trophy. Matt Mann bowled a glorious first over, with a fine spell of 2/28 from Fergus Ainsworth unable to prevent Hyde Heath reaching 196/4 declared.

The pitch became increasingly difficult to bat on, with a series of WWCC batters unable to do much damage to the scorecard. Max Johnson and Mark Streather decided it would be humorous to get out at the death, leaving Richard Down to successfully navigate the final few balls to secure a probably undeserved draw at 119/9. Full scorecard available here.

Tour recruitment had gone so well that there was plenty of activity off the pitch too for those not selected for the cricket side. Richard Kendall and James Gawn were joint winners of the extensive boundary bowls competition, with the pitch side playground helping to create some interesting strategies. Eddolls was again victorious on the golf course, with George Barton spending more time in the trees than is usually recommended.

The traditional Sunday fancy dress theme this year was "Villains" (see picture) with many fine efforts. Brad Skelly a.k.a. Wolf from the original Gladiators was a crowd favourite, whilst a double act of both Gru (or Lord Voldemort according to the locals) and Lord Farquaad were much enjoyed. Post match pizza helped to line the stomach, before an enjoyable late evening back at HQ The Saracen's Head. Harry Varney, Ainsworth and Skelly all excelled in tour competition, with the Wolf's performance living long in the memory for those lucky enough to witness it.

Monday started with a lunchtime visit to The Red Lion, with several successfully walking the plank across a pond despite Gawn's best efforts to fall in. Our second game at Little Missenden started well, before a traditional collapse turned 51/0 into 85/6. The tail however wagged with Streather (46) top scoring as part of a competitive 187 all out.

The opposition were 98/1 and cruising but three quick wickets from Alex Streeter, plus three catches and a stumping for keeper Streather turned the game around. Surprisingly for a tour Monday the fielding had some juice still left in the tank, with three run outs (Streeter, Varney, Ainsworth) helping to bowl Little Missenden out for 172. Winners are grinners and the full scorecard is available here.

Post match curry was improved upon last year, which set us up nicely for the Peter Andrews sports quiz. Streather was successful and earned the right to prepare next year's edition - 2027 tourists can look forward to that...

Tuesday kicked off with an emotional goodbye to HQ, with a few tired looking faces at lunchtime venue The Crown. On the cricket front Ley Hill batted first with Glossop, Johnson and a (surprisingly excellent) Campbell dispatched for a well earned day manning "the wall" a.k.a the road on the short leg side boundary.

Streeter insisted on bowling an 8 over spell to much acclaim, but not to be outdone Dave Friar refused to come off until he had beaten Matt Bartlett's 15 over record from 2024. 16 overs, 0/87.......which don't tell the full story of a very good spell. Anything under 6 an over at Ley Hill is a triumph, as can be attested to by the rest of the bowlers! The opposition reached their annual 262/1 as Johnson claimed the only wicket to fall.

The WWCC response was marshalled by a brilliant Shiraz Husain (101 retired not out) and Samuel Chadwick (73 not out). The required rate was always going to be a challenge with 12 runs eventually being needed from the final over. The fourth ball of the over shall forever more be known as the "~~not a~~ wide seen around the world" (as verified on the big screen in the bar), leaving the Chadwick brothers querying which team umpire Andrews was on. Alas we came up 4 runs short on 258/8 for an entertaining drawn game. Full scorecard available here.

Overall it was another really enjoyable tour and was fantastic to end on a high. Thanks to John Kendall, Mark Streather, Richard Kendal, Simon Eddolls & Tom Campbell for all their work organising the trip, plus all of the drivers who help to make it possible by ferrying everyone around. Thanks also to Robert Waller for his scoring efforts across all three days, plus Peter Andrews and Richard Down for their umpiring when not playing.

Roll on next year!