LAST FRIDAY'S DREAM: my mum played cricket for England...

Mum Played Cricket For England? In My Dreams…

Bizarrely, my mum and her friends were playing cricket

On Birmingham’s Hodge Hill Common, it appeared;

My father seemed to frown in confusion,

Enquiring if it was true, what he’d heard…

His wife would apparently play for her country

Against the Kiwi women’s touring team

And even open the innings, despite the fact

That previously she’d never held a bat, it seemed…

When asked how the match had evolved by phone,

Mum reported with relish and pride,

That she’d scored +50 and +50

But what that meant, I couldn’t decide…

House-sharing nephews Mart and Paul

Were throwing a 65th birthday party for me

And en route I told Paul about my mum’s fine deeds,

Leaving him gawping incredulously…

Excitedly I rambled on about finding coverage

On BT Sport of mum’s remarkable success,

And as the guests sat around the table,

My own celebration meant less…

The house next door was actually crumbling,

Like a bombed dwelling from the 2nd World War

But Mart was rather desperate, it turned out,

To retrieve something he’d been searching for…

Oddly, it was Schools’ TV programme booklet,

Which he tore through the debris to find,

But without any success, his anger arose

And I awoke from the dream in my mind…

Pete Ray

June 2015 

Around 1964 in the back garden, Shard End, Birmingham...
Mom? Not a cricketer, but a good runner and netballer, apparently...

Actually did dream this ridiculous scenario on Friday, 19th June 2015…