Garden Fields vs Alvin’s All-Stars – 20th May 2011
MOFs slip to first 20-20 defeat of the season
Another first class Pakistani cricketer discovered in Verulamium park
Alvin finally finds some real All-Stars
Captain Cock leaves scorebook in office
Ball found on Moon after six off TT’s bowling
On a warm sunny evening a ‘less-shaggy haired than usual’ Fish announced that we were fielding. TT, keen as ever, immediately started his warm-up - lit up a Marlboro and stood around chatting – a lesson to all you youngsters out there on how a real sportsman prepares for a big game. ‘Where’s the bloody scorebook’ came the shout. Apparently in Bunty’s (Captain Cock’s) office came the reply. Frantic searches for scraps of paper ensued and a scorebook was fashioned – Blue Peter would have been proud.
Match started well for MoF with Fozzy and Wilkie taking 4 wickets in the first 4 overs. The All-Stars were struggling until ‘Imran Khan’ strode to the wicket. 5 minutes earlier he had been strolling happily around Verulamium Park with his mate, then Alvin’s press-gang picked him up and he was thrust into the midst of the battle. How would he cope? He looked a bit nervous as he took his stance far too close to his wicket. An ever-helpful Fish strode up to help – pointing out where a good batsman would stand. TT looked confident as he sent down a straight, good length delivery. ‘SMACK’ – a perfect straight six sailed over TT’s head, over long-on and virtually over the trees. This prodigious hitting galvanised the AA-S’s and their score started to move rapidly along (they were at 50-5 off 10 at one stage). A couple of young guns joined in the hitting with one of them, Wesley I think, hitting the Dab’s first 2 balls for six and despatching the unfortunate Jonty to most parts of the ground in one over. MOFs hung on, bowled and fielded pretty well with some good catches. Although the crowd were chanting are you ‘TT in disguise’ as Jock managed to spill one or two (or maybe 3) catches before hanging on to a cracker to dismiss their best batsman at long-on (after a clever Dab slower ball). OKC also managed some fancy footwork on the boundary as, quick as a flash, he turned a quick single into a comfortable boundary with some mazy dribbling. AA-Ss finished on 138-9 after their 20 overs.
Quick Summary of bowling and fielding performance:
Wilkie - 2 wickets and 1 catch
Rookie – 1 run out
Jock – 2 wickets and 1 catch
Fozzy – 2 wickets and 1 catch
Dab – 1 wicket
Windmill - 1 wicket
TT – 1 wicket
Fish – 1 catch behind the stumps
Fozzy and the Jock strode out confidently to start the MOF innings – 139 was a tough target but we’d chased down bigger totals before. Soon Jock was striding not so confidently back to the ‘pavilion’ as ‘Imran’ turned out to be a bloody good bowler aswell as a batsman – taking out Jock’s stumps. Windmill’s stumps were soon following the same trajectory as Jock’s allowing Wilkie to enter the fray (MOF 4 for 2). With wise words to Fozzy of ‘we need to stick around for a while – no need for anything daft’ ‘Imran’ was seen off and the score stated to tick along. Fozzy was up to 15 when Wilkie did something extremely ‘daft’ – not content with calling Fozzy for a very tight first run he also called Fozzy for a suicidal second and Fozzy was gone and so, possibly, were MOFs hopes of winning. An apologetic Wilkie carried on and retired to the hutch (prostrating himself in front of Fozzy and pleading for forgiveness) leaving Rookie to hit some lovely shots before being out on 21. MOFs were still up with the run rate after 14 overs but runs slowed leaving MOFs needing 28 off the last 2 overs as Wilkie came back in as the last batsmen. But there was no heroic ending here as OKC was bowled with the last ball of the 19 over with the score on 114 leaving AA-Ss as the victors by 24 runs and the MOFs to lick their wounds after their first 20-20 defeat.
Batting Summary:
Fozzy – run out by some twat’s daft running – 15
Jock – can’t blame Wilkie for getting out this week – 1
Windmill – Duck
Wilkie – 32 not out (but still a twat)
Rookie – 21
Harry – 6
Dab – 1
TT – 1
OKC – 3
Fish – 7
Brains – 1
Potential jumper winning moments:
OKC’s mazy dribbling, Jock’s Teflon hands (being patented as we speak), Fish’s discussions/arguments with opposing captain Alvin as Alvin started to totally disregard his own rules, Jock’s eccentric dive in the outfield as the ball hit the ‘minefield’ and went for 4 (probably missed some others but still traumatised by the run out) but there was only one winner:
Wilkie – for a quite ridiculous suicidal second run call – sorry Fozzy – still whipping myself with barbed wire and thinking of crawling on hands and knees to Lords as penance.
Well played boys and better luck for us next match.