Where did those two days go then? Foolishly I assumed that the expensive shopping trip at the beginning of the summer had sorted out all the school uniform stuff so that we were free to enjoy the rest of the holiday. But no, there were still a couple of odd bits to get. The trouble is, everyone else realised on the day after the bank holiday that they really ought to be sorting these things out too, so the shops were absolutely packed. At least we only had to get one or two odd bits, a fact that I must thank Mrs Bram for because the main expedition was quite relaxed compared to Tuesday morning. Sorry, it started out in the morning but ended up mid way through the afternoon. The problem was that most shops were running out of the sizes that we actually needed.

Then on Wednesday it was the three-weekly event of gathering together all the Avon orders and typing them into the computer. That bit usually falls to me because I supposedly understand computers a bit more. It's not normally that much work, except that yesterday the Avon website was suffering an attack of the gremlins. A simple two hour job turned into more like an six hour marathon. In amongst it all we still had three kids to entertain; I'm sure that this summer holiday is longer than usual - someone said it was seven weeks this year, but it feels like nine or ten. And then there was a fantasy cricket team to keep tabs on ...

Week 18 Day 1
As mentioned last time, there was just one match starting on Tuesday. I'd hoped for another good day for Tresco and the ability to see whether any of my challengers didn't have him. What I got was a good day for Blackwell and the realisation that at least one of them has got him. Thankfully Keiswetter managed a duck so he's now almost caught up with New in that department. With just Tresco as captain I scored 72 which meant that some of the lead was eroded. Nothing to worry about yet, especially as the weather forecast predicts very little cricket this week.

Week 18 Day 2
OK, maybe I do need to start worrying. The other games all managed to start and some play was possible everywhere. About the best thing I can say is that I didn't get any ducks (though I'll probably regret saying that tomorrow). Those that did bat made small contributions and none of my players bowled at all. Meanwhile another challenger has a really good day and the lead is down from over 700 to just over 500 in two days. Yikes! This could turn into a very long last four weeks at this rate. Here's the top of the table at Wednesday night:

Team	Start	Sat	Sun	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	72	86	18388
Outside Edge	1	117	230	17878
GOLD 1	3	58	99	17767
Jones Boys Two	4	105	75	17455
Red Eleven	35	192	40	17420
All Out Winners	2	57	69	17407