Sunday XI v The Greys 28th
August
Van
Bradbury was absent today due to having to attend an old school friend’s 60th
birthday so Teen Wolf took up the Captaincy slack.
On a fine,
clear blue skied day and with ASBO “acquiring” a portable tv so we could watch
England on the brink of winning the 4th Ashes Test at Trent Bridge
it was essential the toss was won. It was and to hell with any chance of
wanting to win our game, we’ll bat first.
With some
slight batting order tinkering, in an attempt to get batters batting and
bowlers bowling, it was Messrs Bacon & Avocado who started proceedings. The
score had soon rattled along to 1 for 1 off several overs when Cliff edged one
to slip for a quacker. Avocado looked in reasonable batting nick. He spanked
one over long on which pitched a metre inside the rope which Gazza signalled a
“six” and then followed that up by spanking another one which pitched a metre
over the rope which Gazza signalled a “four”. What goes around comes around in
the world of Gary Ireland’s umpiring. Avo didn’t survive much longer after
that, missing a straight one. Pikey was offered the No.3 berth and it seemed
like he was taking the opportunity, trotting along to 11 before he was
“Gazzered” leg before. Matt McDermott wanted to build on his good batting
performance last week but failed with some aplomb only mustering a mediocre 4.
Master Luke had scored a personal SCC best of 22 the day before and today
nearly topped that, scoring a creditable 18. Zim was the pick of the batsmen
earning himself 33 runs, including a couple of maximums. Our scorecard would
have looked very bleak if it wasn’t for those mincing runs. Captain Shrubb
elected to play as a bowler today and just as bloody well as he batted like a
complete turnip with ASBO finally putting him out of his misery by adjudging
him leg before for 13. Dodgy tried to give the tail a bit of a wag scoring 15
and the rest (Orange Tony, Davross & ASBO) contributed the usual helping of
comedy to close our innings on 116-9.
Carol, the new tea lady produced an inspired spread. Prawn & mayo sandwiches, beef & relish sandwiches and large man-size home made cakes are fast becoming the norm. Christian even took half of a home made cake home to present to his sister as it was her birthday. Lucky girl. Also during the interval, Cliff tried his best to steal the wicket keeping gloves away from Zim, but the Mincing Zimbabwean stood strong.
116 is
never really a defendable total and we underlined that point. There was some
tight bowling at the start by Orange Man & Teen Wolf and then a tasty spell
by Dodgy who managed to get a few to spit off a length. ASBO chipped in with a
personal record of bowling 5 overs off the reel and must have shed about 8
stone in perspiration alone during the process. Davross refused a spell
sighting a nagging groin injury as the reason, so the last roll of the dice was
to give Mercado & Pikey a couple of overs each. They conceded 26 runs of
3.3 overs between them and that was that. Cliff had also nagged about wanting
to bowl but was denied on several counts, partly because that would mean
denying genuine bowlers their go, but mainly because you have to at least have
some clue about the discipline first!