Friendly
Sun 25 June 2006

It was a lovely afternoon at Broadfields when I arrived, it was just a shame that having spent the entirety of Saturday drinking in various pubs in North West London, I felt like death, barely able to stand or see let alone play cricket. Everyone else looked fine and the only concern, other than my own desire not to be sick, was that we shouldn’t miss too much of the Ecuador game due to start at 4.

The toss was taken and Graces won and choose to bat. This was widely held to be a good decision by our team, as in the afternoon it allowed those of us not at the crease to watch the majority of the game, I on the other hand, would quite like to have batted first because it would have allowed me to get some sleep.

If I am honest, I will have to admit that I can’t remember much of their innings but I do remember Tom taking an early wicket and Britto bowling very well. Aside from that, I was thinking 2, hopefully unconnected, things; first why the ball kept coming to me and second, why we were conceding so may runs. In the end after a timely (finished 10 minuets before kick off) innings, Graces had 240 with a couple of their players getting big scores.

So we all retreated back into the pavilion for tea and the first half and I am sure that everyone will remember that some rather drab, uninteresting football was being played and England didn’t look great.  At half time we went back out on to the field armed with Tom’s mini TV.

There is not much to be said for our batting but Jacko made opening look quite interesting and made an important 10 with an array of shots, from wild, full bodied slogs, to solid wall like defence but unfortunately nothing in between. The middle order then proceed to collapse, I hope it was just because everyone wanted to watch the game rather than just being crap but I am not convinced. The only memorable moment was when as one of our wickets fell (I don’t recall who) just as England scored, so there was cheering from the fielding side at the same time as there was from the batting side, which I assume doesn’t happen very often.

Then the 7th wicket fell and I came into bat, just in time to witness John (O’Hara) swinging at one of the slowest and widest balls I have ever seen, (it was actually off the wicket by the time it got to him) only to hit it straight to a fielder. Spence than came out to join me and Tom advised us that “the pitch is crap, so don’t try to bat properly, just hit it” or something to that effect. Which is what we preceded to do, knocking up a partnership of around 40, including 2 glorious and massive 6’s from me. However, soon enough the hangover got the better of me and I, while attempting to make it a third gigantic 6, top edged a ball straight up in the air and into the wicket keepers gloves. After that we only obtained another 9 runs before we were finished off for 97, with only Spence, Jacko and me breaking into double figures and Extras being the second top scorer.

At least England won and I think we can all blame our poor performance on that and not our own shortcomings. Then again what does that matter now?  

AH