Scorecard

Garden Fields Cricket Club Men of Fields v Ol Boys/Young Pups on Sun 26 Apr 2009 at 1:30pm
Garden Fields Cricket Club Lost (as gentlemen)

Match report Huge crowd gathers to watch friendly grudge match

Head on collision leaves the Dab shaken

100 plus partnership not enough to save old boys

Brains scares massed families with his Lycra number

Fish traumatised as TT’s first victim

Chukka gets Rookie out - again

Mass confusion over venue

A beautiful day awaited those who passed the first initiative test – where was the match – upper pitch, lower pitch, middle pitch. Concerns arose as Brains flew past the pitch on his bike, oblivious to the shouting and screaming from his team-mates. More on Brains and his bike later!

To be fair, at least Chris had the right park – Nice Guy arrived at a very quiet Verulanium Park! I blame the organiser.

Once we had assembled two fine looking teams, TPO won the toss and elected to put the young pups into bat in a 30 over match.

Leslie and Bomber bravely faced the hostile environment at the crease, putting on a good opening partnership and seeing off a few of Godders overs. Bomber went on to make a fine 44. As you can imagine, he faced absolutely no sledging or barracking at the crease, and gave none back!

Bomber decided to test the morale of the opposition by lobbing a ball into the air, very near the Dab. The Don was bowling and was taking no chances, sprinting to mid-wicket whilst calling loudly that it was his ball. Unfortunately the Dab was too focused to hear him and an almighty collision occurred resulting in no catch and frankly carnage. We all laughed hysterically until we realised that the Dab was still down and clearly hurt. Fortunately he recovered and went on to give a great all-round performance.

Fozzy’s time in the nets had clearly paid off and he hit some impressive boundaries in an unbeaten 28. The runs kept coming as Wilks and Toolbox quickly raced to 26 and 31 not our respectively. Noddy, TT and Bunty added a few more before Chukka finished off the innings with a big-hitting 28, including his first ever six.

A special mention for some excellent fielding from The Don, Nice Guy and TPO amongst others.

A total score of 215 was amassed, and at 7 an over, confidence was not oozing from the old boys. Mutterings of ‘shall we just go to the pub?’ were heard.

Early on it appeared that this lack of confidence was justified. With Bunty at one end and the Stella Express at the other, runs were hard to come by. Stella took three quick wickets, including the prized wicket of Godders, sharply caught by Toolbox. A run out and a wicket for Noddy and 5 wickets were down after 5 overs.

Rookie came in and was typically defensive, smashing the ball to all areas of the pitch (well one area) and scoring a quickfire 24 before being bowled by his good friend Chukka….yet again!

This brought in Jock and the Dab, who put on a fantastic stand to make a match of it. The Dab was dabbing and noodling in great style while Jock was just smacking it everywhere. Dab reached his 25 and strolled back to the pavilion, no doubt looking forward to a well earned leisurely smoke.

The Don fell to TT and then in came Fish……….and then it happened. A defensive shot looped a couple of yards in front of TT, and Fish must have thought he had hit it to the safest place on the pitch. Tim stepped forward (yes – he moved) and with no sounds of uh-oh – he caught it before lying on the pitch in disbelief. There was silence – Fish looked on in shock – and then most of the team dived on top of TT as history had been made – TT’s first ever catch!

I dread to think what Fish said when he got back to the pavilion, but poor Dab was back at the crease before he had finished his first smoke. TT completed a sharp piece of fielding in the next over to make us all wonder if that vasectomy had done something to him.

Meanwhile in other parts of the field Bunty managed to rile Jock by constantly talking as the bowler came in, Bomber limped off injured and the Stella and Chukka comedy club did their own thing, largely oblivious to the cricket.

Smudger came out to bat for the old boys to loud boos – his excuse – he looks old! He got his just desserts for defecting by being bowled early doors.

Jock ended up on 61 not out and the Dab on 41 not out – a great partnership which even managed to survive three savage overs from Toolbox. Lots of cries of ‘well left’.

The young pups duly won, but everyone batted and pretty much everyone bowled, so ideal preparation for the new season.

By now a large crowd of families and other players had gathered including Stirling and Shep, who admitted he was confident of picking up some business from all the injured members amongst us.

Just as we thought the day was over, Brains appeared in his cycling ‘outfit’. Difficult to describe but suffice to say it was made of lycra and very tight in all the wrong places. The Men of Fields gallantly tried to shield the wives and children from the view and Wilkie promised to give Brains some cycling fashion tips.

All in all an action packed day with an excellent turn out and beautiful weather. Definitely gives us all a taste for the season ahead.

Jonty

Garden Fields Cricket Club Men of Fields Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
168		        
Chris Parker Run out  1
Paul Evans Caught  2
Nick Bennett Caught  4
Martin Ferguson Bowled  1
Rob Walter Bowled  24
Duncan McAllister Not Out  61
Richard Jones Not Out  41
Patrick Donovan Bowled  2
Gary Fisher Bowled  2
John Smith Bowled  1
Paul Anstee  
Paul Anstee  

Ol Boys/Young Pups Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Ol Boys/Young Pups Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
215 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Garden Fields Cricket Club Men of Fields Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.