Almost Like The Old Days
03/07/2010
The Saturday Cricket Team lost to Oldfield Park by 7 runs.
After a top of the table clash last week beating bottom of the table this week should have been a stole in the Oldfield Park but, like Ev the night before we were mugged while not paying full attention. When we arrived at Frenchay there were two strips laid out before us; one was flat and light brown like a test match wicket, the other was lumpy and green. We elected for the lumpy green one, the end strip at Frenchay, not for the faint hearted.
Oldfield won the toss and elected to bat. We elected to unleash Budge and Dutch. Budge opened and after 8 overs emerged with 2 wickets for 14 runs. Dutch opened the bowling from the other end and emerged with an unprecedented 5 wides in his first over but finished on 4 wickets for 27. The Cloggmiester got huge amounts of bounce out of the lumpy green, indeed he tonked one of the foe’s openers on the head, “I hate having to wear a helmet” said the dazed and confused batsman. Rob got 2 wickets for 30 and had a huge argument with the umpire about LBW, angles and basic trigonometry. On a hot day and without Kalu in the side the bowling had been an unremitting assault of pace, grumpiness and aggression which left the foe looking somewhat shell shocked.
At tea we were more or less pleased with the 115 all out from 35.2 overs to which we restricted them, after all we know that Frenchay is a good 200 pitch even when a little wet. So what went wrong at the tea interval? Was it Angelo’s amazing spread with rejuvenating juices, detox alfalfa salad and life affirming energy wraps? Was it the choice of the complacence quiche rather than the humble pie? Was it Germany beating Argentina 4-0 that provided inspiration? Who knows?
Now, in the first match of the season, a friendly against Frenchay, played on that same woeful end strip, Grove was out for a duck. Surely lightening could not strike twice in the same place. Well of course it could. Grove got the faintest of edges to the second ball he faced and with the appeals of at least two of the foe ringing in his ears he walked. The wicket keeper who had caught it asked why Grove had walked, the umpire asked why Grove had walked, in fact it seemed that only the bowler and Grove knew he was out. If doing the right sportsman like think is meant to make you feel deep down good, believe me dear reader it doesn’t.
So, not a good tone to set for the innigs. still Ben came in a biffed a few fours until he biffed one straight back at the bowler. After this the innings stagnated and runs were a rare sight as Ev and Uberpops tried to take us home at 3 an over. Without Grove to run him out Uberpops got to 14 before being caught behind (how unoriginal). 3 wickets down and we still seemed a long way from the target. Angelo (LBW off a fulsome full toss) and Alan (caught behind, just not even trying to be out with any originality) both seemed out of sorts and daunted by the low target, neither troubled the scorers much. Surely Dutch would save us, Dutch can beat teams single handed, he never fails, Dutch is a mountain of manly magnificence. Dutch strode out to the crease in his manly fashion, thrashed about a bit scoring 4 singles, holed out and manfully strode back again in manly defeat (with a few choice manly words which are the names of womanly bits). The Edamster never looked comfortable and even managed to survive a ball that span back off his bat and hit the stumps quite hard, however bails (made from Dutch elm) remained unmoved.
A certain and humiliating defeat stared us in the face, we had surrendered the momentum to the foe, we were 7 wickets down and still needed about 40 runs. Enter Greatch and Budge who both did something that the rest of us had failed to do, namely they selected the bad balls to hit and played then on the ground squareish of the wicket. After hope had been restored Budge was caught and Roger strode to the wicket, hit a four, played on and strode back. Just Rob left to support Gretch now and about 15 needed, surely Rob could rain his feisty self in for just a few overs. With 9 needed Gretch took the fatal decision to run a bye at the beginning of an over leaving Rob on strike. Rob then chased a certain wide and was caught behind, Gretch remained 22 not out. ECCC all out for 108 from 36.3 overs.
So there you have it. Who would have thought that 115 could be a winning score on a dry wicket at Frenchay. But with 16 wickets falling to catches the pitch seemed to play like a wet early season nightmare and the Cowboys batted like … words fail me.
MOM – Gretch
Cider moment – shared between Ubes deciding to play on the lumpy green one and Dutch hitting the kid on the head.
04/07/2010
The Sunday 1st Team beat Bath Exiles by 3 wickets. Neil reports thus:
The Exiles eyes lit up as they noticed that the Cowboys Sunday 1st team were having to kick off with only 10 men as young star Harry was laid low with a migraine – replaced by his father Roger after Harry was placed in a dark room and nagged Roger into returning to Lansdown, good lad.
Cowboys won the toss and elected to bowl, a plan to skittle them out and make the runs before the expected rain fell. However, as the 3rd Exiles wicket fell with the score at 181 off 29 overs, the Cowboys seemed to be staring at their 1st defeat of the season, however, Cowboys plugged away and grabbed the initiative by bowling out the Exiles in the 38th over for just 207. Aaron 3 for 27, Sayed 3 for 31 and Stratto 2 for 28.
The Cowboys reply was typical for this season, a good pace to the innings with most players chipping in with valuable runs, Justin Avery (64) and Duncan Brewood (73 no) were the main architects of reaching the target whilst enduring 2 stoppages for rain. Cowboys hit the winning runs in the 38th over.
The Sunday 2nd team lost to Brislington Sunday 2nd Team by 8 wickets. TT reports thus:
It’s one thing to lose when you’re in nice surroundings and you think you’ve given your all, but when the drone of the M5, drizzle, the peculiarities of human behaviour and the frailty of the aging human form make the afternoon not all that enjoyable you sometimes wish you’d been at home to answer the call from your crying teenage child, which must have come close to the moment that the ball, destined for a six, held up on a strong gust of south-westerly wind and found its way into the fielder’s greedy hands.
Oh. You want a proper match report?
Brislington won the toss and inserted the Cowboys on a lively batting wicket and despite losing Wayne and his toe early on, the run rate was gurt awesome for a long while, thanks to Mister Higgins’ masterful display of square cutting and stuff, ably supported by the early order. After his departure for 70 the team rallied to bat out the 40 overs, ending up on 220-8, some 20 or more runs short of what might have been possible but respectable nonetheless, give or take the odd, remarkable run out.
Drizzle interfered a bit towards the end of the innings and continued throughout and after tea. Brislington didn’t appear to want to come out to play. Was it a bluff? A tactical delay within the rules pertaining to weather? A ploy to make us round off our almond slices with a(nother) pint? It didn’t seem any worse then than when we’d been batting. Pass the rule book. Oh, it’s stopped.
OK. Set mental calculator to 5.5 an over. Anything less, we’re winning. Some tight, aggressive opening bowling from Hidayat, supported by Andy C saw to that and kept the openers down. Then, in the skipper’s own words ‘it went a bit pear shaped’. This was directly related to said skipper’s plan of coming on to bowl and offering up ripe strawberries for the batsmen, one of whom eventually filled his punnet to 111 not out. There was a glimmer of spirited and wiley resistance to accompany the frequent trips to retrieve the ball from the hedges (three were found in one, the true one the soggiest) but against a very solid batting performance the bowling lacked the penetration and depth blah blah, especially as some shirker was claiming incapacity and in others it was quite apparent.
The opposition completed the task within 27 overs for the loss of only 2 wickets.
Originally posted at http://greenlung.blogspot.com/2010/07/winners-losers_04.html
The Exiles eyes lit up as they noticed that the Cowboys Sunday 1st team were having to kick off with only 10 men as young star Harry was laid low with a migraine - replaced by his father Roger after Harry was placed in a dark room and nagged Roger into returning to Lansdown, good lad. Cowboys won the toss and elected to bowl, a plan to skittle them out and make the runs before the expected rain fell. However, as the 3rd Exiles wicket fell with the score at 181 off 29 overs, the Cowboys seemed to be staring at their 1st defeat of the season, however, Cowboys plugged away and grabbed the initiative by bowling out the Exiles in the 38th over for just 207. The Cowboys reply was typical for this season, a good pace to the innings with most players chipping in with valuable runs, Justin Avery (64) and Duncan Brewood (73 no) were the main architects of reaching the target whilst enduring 2 stoppages for rain. Cowboys hit the winning runs in the 38th over. The Exiles eyes lit up as they noticed that the Cowboys Sunday 1st team were having to kick off with only 10 men as young star Harry was laid low with a migraine - replaced by his father Roger after Harry was placed in a dark room and nagged Roger into returning to Lansdown, good lad. Cowboys won the toss and elected to bowl, a plan to skittle them out and make the runs before the expected rain fell. However, as the 3rd Exiles wicket fell with the score at 181 off 29 overs, the Cowboys seemed to be staring at their 1st defeat of the season, however, Cowboys plugged away and grabbed the initiative by bowling out the Exiles in the 38th over for just 207. The Cowboys reply was typical for this season, a good pace to the innings with most players chipping in with valuable runs, Justin Avery (64) and Duncan Brewood (73 no) were the main architects of reaching the target whilst enduring 2 stoppages for rain. Cowboys hit the winning runs in the 38th over.