A Lot Of Balls
09/06/2010
20/20 Friendly Vs GCCE away at Tuffley Park, Gloucester. Ev reports:
GCCE (Gloucestershire County Council Environment) won the toss and duly inserted us. In intermittent drizzle, on a very slow pudding of a wicket, DC1 and SteveO both made it to 25 and retired. After that we struggled to score, with only Evan (18) and Ollie (12) making it to double figures.
GCCE overhauled our total of 119 fairly comfortably. SteveO, DC1, Trev and Bill were the pick of the bowlers.
10/06/2010
Butcombe 20/20 Cup 1st round away vs Headley Park. Ev reports:
Up against 1st division Headley Park, Angelo won the toss and put them in. We bowled and fielded well to restrict them to 152 for 7. Particularly Kalu with 2 – 24 and Richie Garner taking 2 – 28. In reply openers Simon S and Al scored 19 and 26 respectfully, then, as it grew dark, Headley Park brought their big hairy, scary 1st team bowlers on and they ran through us (3 cowboys batsmen were out to “the best ball I’ve ever faced”). Wilco scored 15 and Roger and Garner wagged the tail stubbornly, but when PeeWee was out to a ridiculously good catch off the last ball the Cowboys had only reached 116.
Still, there’s always the plate…
12/06/2010
The Saturday Team beat Whichurch 3rd Team by 5 wickets.
On a small ground with a dodgy looking wicket in the middle of nowhere (Chewton Mendip to be precise) Uberpops called heads and won the toss. Perhaps as well, because after seeing Whitchurch struggle to bat against slow and uneven bounce their lowly 87 all out seemed like it could have been a winning score. Budge (with mummy Budge and daddy Budge watching) bowled 8 overs, 4 maidens (2 wicket maidens), 10 for 3, Rob bowled 7 overs 26 for 3. Out of 7 catches Angelo took a storming close one and Alan got over his gitters to take his first of the season.
In reply the Cowboys got the runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 22.2 overs. After a shaky start Alan steadied the ship hitting 28 not out on his first league outing since departing from his bike and damaging his shoulder. Dutch, on the promise of a “home made burger” from his special lady (the mind boggles) if he got home in time for the World Cup BBQ, set the controls to Turbo Biff and got 25 in double quick time before he was out show-boating trying to finish on a six. Earlier in his innings when Dutch did hit a huge six into an adjacent field a young lad on the opposing team asked the square leg umpire “is that your ex-Dutch international?”. “No sonny, he used to live in Holland and he can play a bit” came the reply, editing the response to comply with North Somerset League Rule 22 subsection 3 clause b “all players and match officials must lie to minors about what there team mates got up to in Amsterdam to protect their fragile and friable little minds”. On a beautiful June day two strapping Cowboys stripped to the waist, the sweat glistening on their torsos in the late afternoon sun, stepped into that adjacent fallow field to look for the match ball, they went in boys and returned men… The ball was never recovered.
MOM – Alan or Joe (sorry I can’t remember because of my fragile and friable little mind)
Cider moment – Angelo’s catch
13/06/2010
The Sunday 1st Team beat Peasdown St John 3rd Team by 88 runs. Neil Reports.
The Cowboys Sunday 1sts remain unbeaten so far this season, and top of their league table, with a crushing of Peasedown St John at Frenchay. As usual, the Cowboys batted first, this time racking up 252 runs (note: this without any Cowboy reaching 50), man-of-the-match Duncan with jug-avoidance extraordinaire making 49. Peasedown managed 169 all out in reply, a rather large amount of respect is due to them though for batting on through the rain when they had the chance to try and claim the draw through an abandonment. Wilko got 3 wickets for 16 of 5 overs.
The Sunday 2nd Team lost to Stothert & Pitt CC (a firm of wayward accountants) by 80 runs. Grant reports:
Sunday was a bit of a disaster for us. We started well, despite fielding with only 10 men – taking a number of wickets early on, and even looking like we would bowl them out for under 100 at one point – but then a couple of their batsmen dug in, and once more we needed at least one more full time bowler to see us through. Having 30 odd extras didn’t help us either, admittedly neither did my dropped catch, thankfully put right by DC1 taking a blinder in the next over, and me redeeming myself slightly by taking another catch a bit later on.
And then the batting. We lost two wickets early – God knows what happened to Reg, as he left straight after getting out, and a major cock up between Ian and DC1 led to a run out for what could have been a good partnership. But they had a good bowling attack. Hardly any loose balls, good pace and a consistent line. The pitch was sluggish, despite being bone dry. No bounce at all, reminded me a little of Wrington’s, with everything staying low and skidding under the bat. Then it rained, making the pitch even worse for the lower order bats to make any headway after the top order had failed to make a score to work on.
Dave F made a good captain – stayed positive in the field at all times, as did the whole squad. I think we worked well as a team, made easier by excellent field placements with little need for variation – again, down to Flinton – and a good sense of encouragement was made by all. DC2 was off his tits on pain pills, barking orders from the sidelines like a cross between Hunter S Thompson and Fabio Capello, shouting whilst the bowlers were running in and trying to talk to anyone who would listen whilst they were fielding – deny it if you dare, Dave!
Big up to DC1 and Tinx who stepped in when 3 of our squad went awol, and well done Mackie for excellent bowling figures.