This week the 3s had to move to the Meadows because
With only 8 players there at 1pm [that's surely above the HX average?] I decided we better bat - normally we'd bowl so we could scoff the remainder of the tea and have beers in the second half of the game. Alas everyone forgot to bring beer and at that point there were only 2 bags of tea [only 2 teabags?] so it wasn't looking good...
Anyway, Broomhead and Shifty took to the crease and batted away for about 30 minutes before Jon got a good ball from their 1st change bowler and was dismissed for 3!
That brought in Dave 'the powerhouse' Coaton. Having failed a fitness test late on Friday night he was dropped to the 3s [so Div 8 cricket is fine for unfit players]. A sore ankle meant he couldn't really run but no fear he'd just hit boundaries. Three 4s off one over and then he decided to swing...and missed and was out lbw! Out of there on 13!
No worries, we'd seen off the first 8 overs had 8 wickets in hand and 33 runs on the board -happy days!
Debutant Rhuradi Grossart was in on the action next, our second youngest crosser this weekend at 16, his partnership with Shifty was short lived - after Shifty was dropped twice he swung right across the line and was bowled by Kingsley (who is in the running for the world's slowest bowler behind Coco). He was out of there!
Grossart and Graham's hockey swinging combination got us up to 54 off 12 and we were looking good! Then Graham hit one back to the bowler (3) and Grossart was bowled (21 - top score and a good start for the cross).
That brought the oldies to the crease: Mahmood and old man Graham came in and scored 6 runs off 6 overs to let us face a few more balls! Mahmood (6) unfortunately fell to the worlds slowest bowler and EK was given a golden by the same boy!
Henton had a flurry (7 off 3) and then Appleby and Graham snr (9*) ran a lot of runs (including 2 3s on the bounce!) Appleby was trapped lbw for 15. Keith came and went 1st ball and it was all over !
105 off 24 overs and tea: good effort by the boys and Appleby brought some Krispy Kreme donuts that went down a treat too! It was a leisurely tea but Mahmood still managed to be late for the restart!
We went out to a roar from the Meadows' crowd - it was like playing in the IPL - there were drums and chants from the hippies at the Forest Cafe. But I'm pretty sure their song was on repeat!
Geddes and Appleby opened the bowling - we needed to keep it tight and get a couple of wickets early doors to be in with a shout [copyright -Sporting Cliches Volume 3].
They supplied just that - Geddes was on form as per usual and bowled some excellent deliveries- they really couldn't get him away! Helped a lot by the field there were no leaks or misfields and with an average age of 34 it was extremely sprightly!
Geddes bowled through 1-12 and Apples (who's run up just seemed to get longer and longer) 2-16! Apples really did show his cox and he certainly kept the pink lady happy! [steady on] Excellent start!
So they only needed 75 off 24 - I did remind them that the run rate was very important on more than 1 occasion [HX in sledging shock..]
Henton and EK (15 yr old) came on to bowl, Henton was like a steam train [?]- he got 3-16 and was unplayable at times!
After ignoring Mahmood's advice to take EK off after the first over because he conceded 6 runs, he went on to get 1-15 off his 4! He would have returned but Shifty popped up and took 2 wickets for 3 runs off his 4 overs!
Old man Graham wasn't too chuffed at one point in Henton's spell when Henton decided to try some bouncers! Graham was getting black and blue marks from diving all over the place behind the stumps to stop the high ones! I'm sure he'll be ok for next week!
Excellent stuff by
*with a few edits by cje- designed to assist readers over 25..
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment