PWCC – A Club is Born

There have been a lot of things we didn’t see coming over the past year and a half or so, most of which we would much rather had never arrived, but here’s something we can be excited about. On Thursday June 10th we were able officially to launch Porto Wanderers, our vehicle for entry into the new National League, with a healthy crowd of players, supporters and sponsors in attendance. It has all happened incredibly quickly but most people will be unaware of the amount of work that has gone into setting everything up, so big thanks are due to Inês, Premal and Nuno, along with Inês’ brother, Manuel, whilst the funding from our sponsors has enabled the fees for membership and kit to be set at an extremely affordable level.

Exciting times, and I will react on here as the season progresses, perhaps not always too seriously.

The new kit got its first outing for about half of the players in yesterday’s OCLTC internal 25 over match, which turned out to be an excellent game with an unexpected win for Team 2. It was all down to the captain, of course. Maybe Big Tone’s 95 not out, and John Z’s 81 contributed, but anyway… There was an electricity about the game, but that was mostly from the polyester. The were some complaints about the skinny-fit trousers but round where I live, in Lordelo, such garb is the hight of fashion. Simply add an oversized baseball cap turned sideways, and a vest top, and you’ll be able to strut with confidence down to Pasteleira.

After a good match we had a good dinner, too, aided in no small measure by Euan’s generous donation of a huge bottle of Port. Cricket in the sun, getting used to the batsman-friendly white ball (before both were donated to the German school), banter (Pi spending at least ten minutes repeatedly telling Sabha that he was very fat when she first met him, and, whilst still a little bit fat not so much now, wasn’t perhaps meant as banter but was very funny) and a well-attended cricket dinner: now it feels like we are getting back to normal. And it’s a normal we all love.

Bring on Miranda Tigers!