Friendly
3rd Septembert 2006
Now although I’ve written a match report recently and would’ve loved to pass this task onto someone else, I felt compelled to write it myself to avoid any further embarrassment / piss-taking than I already went through on Sunday. So, I might as well get it out of the way…
Not a great afternoon’s work by the skipper then (although I did get to drive Stevo’s pimp mobile). Fortunately my 10 teammates were on much better form and once we got this 35 over game underway (the oppo were late for various reasons) they showed plenty of heart and spirit in a hard fought contest only to come up a little short with the bat.
Once we’d sorted the no-keeper situation (thanks Dave and Yorkshire for sharing that), I opened with the returning David Banger at the other end (welcome back mate!) and with the help of some excellent fielding – John O’Hara in particular throwing himself around all over the place - we kept the run rate right down for the first 10 overs or so. Sha took an excellent catch in the swirling wind to remove their dangerous opener who scored a century against us last time round, and after four overs of myself, the bowling change to Simon Wilkinson was rewarded with the wicket of their other opener – another sharp catch, this time courtesy of Brent Nicholls at extra cover. Dhruv at number 3 played patiently until Yorkshire tempted him to one on-drive too many and Banger behind the stumps took the catch off the inside edge at the second attempt. Wickets weren’t that easy to come by, but at least the Ploughmen were making it hard to score runs. RV’s number 3 had to be particularly patient for his 43 n.o. The 4th and final wicket of the innings was to go to Steve Britto who finally removed the flat-batting Hookens after he’d used up all of his luck against others. There then followed a bit of cultured slogging (as is the way in limited overs games) and RV’s ended on 191 for 4. Not an entirely impossible target.
Tea supplied by Lorraine was scrumptious as ever and PCC set about chasing down the 192 needed to win with Sha and Jitto opening the batting. The accurate Petafi started at one end and was ably supported by Papa Smurf at the other end (their nickname not mine!). He actually bowled fairly well, but his slight frame and slightly crooked demeanour did tempt one into thinking that he should be despatched into Harrow Town Centre every ball. But realising, with all due respect to those that played, that PCC didn’t have huge amounts of batting Stevo knuckled down for a long stay at the crease. The run rate remained a little below what was required for most of the innings, but wickets fell pretty regularly. Sha missed a straight one, Alex Hargreaves spanked a few before being stumped looking to hit Papa Smurf into next week. Kev McEvoy played very well for his 23 (mostly on the leg-side) but he and Steve were just short of a 50 partnership when Kev was caught playing half a shot. Banger was run out for 2, which didn’t help the cause; John O’Hara made a decent fist of it. I, well we know what I did (or didn’t) and Brent followed 2 balls later so all of a sudden we were staring down the barrel. The pressure told in the end as Steve tried to manufacture a shot before being bowled off his chest and then the back of his leg. Which just left Ronnie Taberer, John Barron and Yorkshire to go out and have a bit of a bash and try and enjoy themselves. Ronnie hit a couple of cracking straight drives and John Barron made a really good 18 with some well-placed shots. Simon played an immaculate forward defensive as tie avoidance (despite his skippers’ appeals from the boundary) and eventually JB was bowled by what should’ve been a no-ball as it bounced at least twice, but hey, these things happen.
I’d just like to add that having played my fair share of Sunday friendlies this year it has been very noticeable how the likes of Kevin, Alex (or is Ed?), JB, Brent and John Terry seem to have found their feet over the course of the season. Their competitive nature brought about by steadily improving performances (personal and team) and it’s great to here their rallying calls in the field. Keep it up fellas… Long may it continue whatever the result!
TL