On this day in 1957, singer and actor Frank Sinatra and movie star Ava Gardner divorced after 6 years of marriage. Whilst Love and Marriage didn't work out for them, we should take a moment to celebrate the great friendships across the club (certainly not Strangers In The Night) and look forward to a weekend of long and successful partnerships. We Were Dancing last weekend In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning and hopefully, The Best Is Yet To Come and we'll be saying It Was A Very Good Year at the end of the season. After all, Upton is My Kind Of Town and to UCC I say, "It Had To Be You" and "I've Got You Under My Skin".

With Tom Marsland on holiday, (whether he is On The Beach, in Singapore, sampling The Snows of Kilimanjaro in New York, New York or taking a Whistle Stop tour Around The World In 80 Days I can't remember) Matt Owen takes charge of the 1s when the Kings Go Forth to Bowdon who lie 3rd in Division 1 with 165 points having picked up 5 wins and a draw so far. We lie 65 points behind them in 11th place, however, That's Life and the team should be buoyed by recent performances, pushing leaders Oxton all the way last week, and will be thinking I'm Not Afraid as they look to push Higher And Higher up the league. In the reverse fixture at Upton on the opening day of the season, Bowdon scored 237-7, Nathan Oliver top scoring with 53 and Connor Smith picking up 3 wickets on his debut. Upton made 179-6 in reply, Matt Owen making 67 and Ross Dixon 63*. Oliver has gone on to have a good season and has 277 league runs so far at an average of 39.57 whilst Chris Ashling, who picked up 1 wicket at Upton, has turned out to be The Man With The Golden Arm and is the division's leading wicket taker with 30 wickets at an average of 10.50. There are a number of changes for Upton with Dan Owen & Luke Williams coming back into the side, Alex Livingstone moving up from the 2s and Callum McCormick will add Young Ideas coming in for his 1st team league debut having taken 21 wickets in the 2s.

The 2s will also be without their skipper when they welcome Marple to the UCG and undoubtedly this will Cast A Giant Shadow. Marple currently lie in 7th place on 134 points with 3 wins and 2 draws to their name whilst Upton are 36 points back in 11th place. Although currently in the bottom two, Upton are within touching distance of 8th place so None But The Brave and a Can-Can attitude are required and they could Suddenly find themselves in a much better position. We know they'll all be working Night And Day to do just that and if Luck Be A Lady, who knows, they could set the City On Fire. The first game between the sides saw our visitors come out on top despite a ton from Sam Talbot, still the only Upton 100 this season. On that occasion, Marple posted 210-8 (James Crisall top scoring with 37 and Tommy Maguire picking up 3 wickets) whilst we were all out for 193, Sam carrying his bat to finish on 104*whilst Andy Massey (3-61) and Joe Cash (5-40) did most of the damage. Massey & Cash are joint leading wicket takers with 13 whilst Crisall has 202 runs.

If the 1sts & 2nds can pull away from trouble, it will be Double Dynamite and lead to quite a night On The Town. In fact the celebrations will probably last until Seven Days In May

Again in a reverse of the opening day fixture, The Band Wagon rolls on when Ian Sharrock, displaying The Pride And The Passion, will be saying Come Fly With Me as he takes his league leading 3rd XI to Lymm Oughtrington Park 2s and the team will respond with Fly Me To The Moon. Lymm lie 9th in Division A with 2 wins and 3 draws on their record. Lymm scored 199-9 from their 45 overs in the first game with Steve Knowles (who now has 193 runs this season) getting 66 and Sawda picking up 4 wickets (the first of his 27 taken so far). In reply, openers Dave Charles (56) & Graeme McGowan (49) put on 76 for the first wicket and Upton got home by 4 wickets with just over 3 overs to spare. Lymm's leading wicket taker is Graham Waumsley with 14. The 3rds were held to a draw last week at Irby, so they can't afford to Show Boat and they'll need to Step Lively if they are going to maintain their 14 point advantage over 2nd placed Didsbury. The way they are going, only an Earthquake will stop them.

Finally on Saturday, the 4ths entertain Tranmere Victoria 2nds on the back pitch alongside The Little Hut. The 4ths have only played 6 games this season (surely Never So Few at this stage) so need a cancellation like A Hole In The Head and they'll be hoping the weather holds fine. Tranmere are currently bottom of the table with only 1 win whilst Upton have 2 wins and are 4 places better off in 9th. Dave Jones with 68 runs and Ronnie Abbott with 10 wickets have been the main contributors for our visitors. This is the first meeting between the sides this season, however, Upton (fresh from last week's convincing win) can take confidence from having won both fixtures last season. We won by 10 wickets at home thanks to 4 wickets for John "Young At Heart" Scragg and an unbeaten opening stand between Chapman (50) & Ali (35). In the return game we scored 198-8 (Paddy Delaney 79 & Faiz Ahmed 56) and bowled them out for 126 (Dec Delaney 4 wickets & Madi Arthur 3) although mention should be made of Vics' Lone Star Steve Walker who scored 83 in their innings and took 4 of the 8 Upton wickets to fall. Remember there are no draws in this league so it is All Or Nothing At All and both sides will be battling like Knights Of The Round Table and will have High Hopes of picking up the win.

There is only one game on Sunday and it's Anchors Aweigh as Phil Wood and the Sunday 1st XI set sail to Frodsham. The side have had a good season so far only losing one game and they'll be hoping their mix of youth and experience sees them through with another Sunday Punch.

So Guys And Dolls, that's it for this week, enjoy your cricket From Here To Eternity. Now, I know what you're thinking ….. how can you have a Frank Sinatra theme and not mention that song? Well, if you can do better, fine, until then I'll do it My Way