Three Wins
29/06/2013
Saturday 1 beat Oldfield Park by 36 runs. The Toolster hit 55 in 35 balls and Preece hit 39 as The Cowboys got 176. Oldfield Park hit 140 for 8 in reply. Kalu bowled 2 for 13 and Asad bowled 3 for 8. Scorecard.
A friendly team including Nation and GT beat Whitechurch.
30/06/2013
Sundays beat Kilmersdon by 49 runs. The Cowboys hity 166 with Boults getting 36 and Fat Boys getting 23. Kilmesdon hit 117 all out in 34.4 overs. Stratto got 4 wickets for 30 and Fat Boy got 3 wickets for 13 runs. Scorecard.
TT reports the Saturday 1 match thus:
Halfway through the season, with Iggy injured, the Cowboys were set to ride off to Blackhorse Lane with Ev holding the reins – except Ev was still asleep and his horse had bolted. After a telephonic bucket of water over the head from Iggy, he grabbed a donkey and headed north-west.
It was bright and sunny with intermittent clouds and a westerly breeze. Continuing the run of good luck with the coin, Ev won the toss and decided that the pitch was worth batting on first and strode out to open with Grover. After twelve overs they had managed thirteen runs, with Grover outscoring Ev who had possibly gone back to sleep. The scorers had.
Grover was caught trying to push the score along, after which it became Ben’s duty to keep Ev awake. Together they got the score to fifty before Ev was bowled after his resilient and judicious occupancy of the crease / tedious blocking (delete as preferred). Tooley came in and matched Ben for stylish strokeplay, both of them the epitome of fine batsmanship, sending the ball racing to the boundary across an unpredictable and unforgiving outfield. On his way to fifty, one of Tooley’s mighty blows took the fielder over the line at long-off for six and when he was caught for 55 with the score on 131-3 he’d upped the run rate and helped the Cowboys to a healthy position.
On his debut for the Saturday 1st XI, Asad scored a highly useful run-a-ball 20 with his resolute partner Ben and when bowled, with the score on 156-4, was replaced by second debutant Ollie. With the overs running out and orders to extract as much as possible from them, Ollie was unfortunate to be caught early on but avoided the ignominy that befell his successor Lalith, who perished for a duck. The collapse continued when Ben’s was the fourth wicket to fall for five runs, bowled for a vital 39. Garnier and the Landlord eked out a few more runs from what was left of the 40 overs to get the total to 176-7.
Tea was served in a room accessed through the toilets that made toilets in a French campsite look classy. Everyone tried hard not to drop their doughnuts and indiscriminate baps on the floor on the hasty way back out.
Defending their total on a pitch that exhibited the potential for turn and bounce, Ev selected RT1 and Lalith to open the bowling, the former perfoming with customary guile and accuracy, the latter immediately having both batsmen in trouble and in no position to score. Bowling one opener for a duck, Lalith bowled out his very economical spell as Garnier replaced RT1 from the other end.
Looking very deft behind the stumps, Ollie pulled off a remarkable wide catch off Garnier’s bowling that would later be chosen as the Cider Moment and the excellence continued when Lalith set up and bowled the new batsman with a flicked carrom ball in his final over, ending with 2-13. The Landlord replaced Lalith but didn’t match his economy and the partnership grew, with SteveO unable to stem the relative flurry of runs at the other end. The Landlord’s yorker finally did for the opening bat, who fell short of his fifty with Oldfield Park on 108-4.
Asad bowled a fine, brisk debut spell, limiting any chance the opposition had of catching up with and maintaining the required run rate, which was creeping over a run a ball. Wickets could have arrived sooner, due to the usual one or two spilled catches but also a batsman and umpire’s inability to feel, see, hear or smell an edge that everyone else had. C’est la vie. They departed in the end, thanks largely to Asad’s Man of the Match winning 3-17 and a textbook (cricket) boundary catch by RT1 after a textbook (cookery) spilled one by the Landlord.
Ev bowled an over to show that he was awake now, thought twice, mumbled something about maths and gave the ball to RT1 for a second spell. The opposition didn’t appear to have the clout or will to chase the target and one of their own was heard to shout, “The object of the game is to win.” No such lack of intent from the Cowboys, who put the pythonesque (snake) squeeze on Oldfield Park to a Pythonesque (Monty) soundtrack from a neighbourhood ice cream van. RT1 picked up a late return catch to ensure that the fire was out and after 40 overs the innings petered out on 140-8.
http://nscl.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11652484
Fat Boy reports the Sundays match thus:
As the sun is dipping toward the sea here on the coast I can reflect on a triply victorious weekend for the cricketing fraternity. The nights will soon start drawing in but until they do lets enjoy a successful end to the summer on the fields of North Somerset, BANES and Bristol and beyond. The weekend just gone saw victories for the Friendlies, Saturday 1sts and the Sundays.
I have yet to see a match report or scorecard for the Friendlies so will dangle this invitation out there to all who partook in their victory over Whitchurch to enlighten us with a report on their derring do. I did hear rumours that the Friendly 11 included me old muckers Steve Nation, and Geoff (was that really Chief Weasel/Stockings Geoff as some of us know him?). I would love to read how the Old Dog and Weasel performed so get it down in writing someone. Some of the rest of the team were regular Saturday 2s players, and they will have the pleasure of playing against Whitchurch again next Saturday. If the Otters are victorious again they will leapfrog their opponents into 3rd place and maybe even 2nd if Timsbury defeat Grendel. The Otters haven’t lost in over a month now and I will boldly predict another victory for them, and say hello to the Whitchurch village people from me.
Meanwhile the Iguanas, or was it the temporary Gibbons, were inflicting defeat on Oldfled Park. Tim has submitted his usual excellent decription elsewhere, and although the win doesn’t see the 1sts climb further up the table, they are now healthily clear of the bottom 2. A win against 2nd bottom Nailsea on Saturday at the Farm would catapult them onto the coat tails of the pack chasing promotion in a division that is tighter than a gnats arse. Spanking will be the order of the day and it won’t be the Iguana/Gibbons withe sore bums, despite handing Nailsea their only win of the season back in early May.
On Sunday the Boltcutters without their Indian contingent again were looking to bounce back against Kilmersdon. The opposition put the Sundays into bat and the skipper and Justin got us off to a good start until another in the series of bizarre run outs saw J depart gallantly. Tom and Bolts accumulated runs at about 4 an over but the drinks break lead to a break in concentration, and they both fell to catches, and were closely followed by Biffer Taylor to a brilliant caught and bowled. The rest of the middle order got themselves in and out, although it has to be said that Kilmersdon had put glue on their fingers taking some great catches. The score was looking decidedly on the low side at 104-6. however Wilko and Andy B started accumulating, and after Wilko’s departure the Heavy Roller trundled out, and he Andy and Dean ftched the score up to a defendable 166-8, the Roller hitting 23 off 12 balls.
After a Tesco value tea, Matt D and Wilko opened the bowling. Matt’s bowling has been tighter than a constipated gnats arse lately, his 8 overs included 4 maidens and he conceded only 10 runs however no wickets. At the other end Wilko was unlucky with 2 drops off his bowling, his 5 overs went for 20 but again couldn’t remove the openers. Although the run rate was slow wickets were what was needed. Strattocaster replaced Wilko and immediately removed number 2, then number 1, number 3, and number 4 followed shortly after. His first 6 overs went for 15 runs, however in what DC1 later described as the most blatant jug avoidance he had ever seen his last 2 also went for 15. Stratto’s action was described by an observer who shall remain nameless as being like a ‘dislocated preying mantis’, those who have seen him bowl will appreciate this description, and Martin surley won’t give a shit after taking another 4 wickets. Rob T’s action maybe more text book and he kept the batsmen starved of runs and bowled their wicketkeeper brilliantly executing a plan, however nos 6 & 7 started hitting boundaries regularly to put a small frisson of fear in the watching Cows on the boundary. No fear the skipper had had a plan all along by making the Heavy Roller run the length of the ground between overs while fielding, and then giving him a couple of overs respite before introducing him, and Andy B. Their bowling partnership was as effective as their batting partnerships have been recently, the skipper holding both catches at mid on off the Roller to get rid of the 2 dangerous looking bats, and Andy B bowling 2 before the Heavy one finished it off bowling the last man to give the Sundays victory by 49 runs.
Many thanks to the Cow supporters who turned up to watch, and ever ready Erica, for whom scoring is a work of art. The Sundays are now up to 3rd, 4 points behind 2nd placed Peasedown who were beaten by Blagdon, and level on points with 4th placed Old E, who we have a crunch game against next Sunday at whichever yard they are using next week. We both have a game in hand on PSJ so with victory being vital, and having lost to them by one run earlier in the season I predict a one run victory to keep the central Bristol universe in balance. Come along and watch should be a cracker!