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Match report Version 1.0 by Brian Dunbar
Fielding phone calls, organising players and locating the keepers gear is all part and parcel of being a crossbats captain. Although the keepers gear was never located and Ash’s eleventh hour phoncall to say he could no longer play threw a slight spanner in the works, the remaining crossbats gathered in Sunbury to face a rather young looking Spelthorne.
With Lips running late, still negotiating the sale of his ever popular Banana’s in Pyjama’s car, it was decided that if the toss was won, we would play 35 overs and have a bat. Unfortunately for stand in captain Dunbar, the toss was lost, we were put in the field and it was to be a time game!Lawrence and Gumbley opened the attack and before too long Gumbley claimed the first victim, a neat outside edge to Mr. Reliable in the slips, Graeme Winch.
With Lips still AWOL, we had only 9, and the batsmen began to find the gaps. After a solid spell by Gumbley, he was replaced by Fitch, who made good use of the bouncy pitch and was desperately unlucky not to claim 2 prior wickets before finally breaking through, by way of a faint edge into the gloves of Spiro at keeper.
Fraser replaced Lawrence and was on song early, but the edges were not going to hand and the game was becoming increasingly frustrating. After some good pressure bowling, Fraser delivered the goods, hitting the top of middle with a peach of a delivery, sending the Spelthorne No.4 for an early tea.
However, there was to be no quick disposal of the middle order as Harris came to the crease and looked in fine touch from ball one. The bowlers began to suffer as Harris got his eye in and Crossbats were bcoming frustrated with the Spelthorne Captain Harman, who was anchored at the other end giving more chances than a game of monopoly.
After what seemed like an age, the breakthrough finally came in the shape of Dunbar, trapping concrete footed Harman LBW for a well deserved wicket. New batsmen Patel and his in form partner Harris started to attack the bowling and put on a good partnership before Lawrence, with his customary grunt, finally dismissed Harris with an absolute jaffa, beating the batsmen all ends up.Reeve arrived in time to take what was to be the last over, claiming 2 wickets for himself before Spelthorne declared on 177/7.
A somewhat early declaration left Crossbats wondering what type of bowling was about to be unleashed upon them……….fortunately, it was that of the hittable kind.
Spelthorne, playing with a plethora of colts, were no match for the experienced Crossbats batsmen, who sent the young bowlers to all corners of the park. Although they tried there hardest and did so in good spirit, the only real resistance came from Zimbabwean Dunn, who bowled a good line and length, claiming the only wicket – that of top order batsmen Fitch, who after racing to 27 edged one through to the keeper. From that point onwards there would be little joy for Spelthorne as they chased the ball all over the ground. Winch was in scintillating form, racing past fifty and was joined by Carter, in equally good touch.The runs were being extinguished at a rate of knots and with two lusty fours from Carter, taking him past fifty, Crossbats passed Spelthorne’s total with ease, in 26.4 overs and for the loss of only one wicket. Man of the Match was undoubtedly Graeme Winch, posting 76* and taking a great catch in slips.
Another great win for Crossbats!
Match report Version 2.00 by Alan Carter
We won again despite being only 10.
Shandy’s initiation to Crossbats’ captaincy failed to live up to Clive’s baptism of fire but was getting there. Frantic phone calls, including one to Arse that went unanswered, where’s the keeper’s kit, who can we get as number 11, what’s the address of the ground again etc.
Oppo didn’t confirm until Thursday and several emails and phone calls only rendered a list of who of Melrose were on holiday or had left the club.
So we turned up, just the 10. Shandy knew I was going to leave early so with that in mind was looking for a prompt 1.00 start. Lips, however, was going to be there as he was trying to sell the banana car. He was under the sad illusion that the bloke who was supposed to turn up at 11.00 had been unforeseeably delayed would turn up at the promised later time of 12.30. Shandy had the immediate predicament of do we bat first to make sure we don’t end up defending an unknown total (strongest bats in the line up Winchie and Fraser) with only 9 men as a consequence of my early departure or do we start off with only 9. He lost the toss. No decision needed we went out to field.
The first of a succession of colts came out to show us what batting should look like but fortunately couldn’t strike it too hard. Our fielding was crap as usual. I dropped the first of several sitters that were put down. With the next ball Mal (keeper) fumbled a dead cert, loopy, skied top edge and his only excuse was that Winchy was right beside him and could have taken it if he made the effort to knock Mal out of the way. Other culprits were surprisingly Winchy himself and Clive dropping a sitter. Rags was Mr Angry personified following Mal’s and my debacles but Lips was traumatised by Clive’s drop. Brought on for the last over, his first ball, a slow, loopy full toss is missed by by the batsmen and just about manages to knock the bails off. I’d like to say the next batsmen strode confidently to the crease but most of us were trying to work out if he was 1/3 of Lips’ age or just a 1/4. Lips gives him a gentle long hop outside off which the kid lobs up to Clive at mid off. Clive came close to imitating that w..ker in Oporto who clapped his hands before dropping the easiest of catches. Lucky for Lips, the whole process was repeated with the next but one ball, only going to Shandy. Now have a look a Lips’ bowling figures to see how the rest of the over went!
Melrose is not the club we used to know. They only had one batsman and he must have scored about half their total of 177. He was well and truly Monicaed. A classic grunting slow ball had him playing the shot almost half an hour too early. Byes must have come a close second but fortunately for Mal the oppo didn’t know how to score properly so they went down as something else.
Our batting was nothing to write home about cos Shandy didn’t get a look in. Rags and Winchy opened and Rags blazed away. Just the kind of batting we always hope to get from Rags. I joined Winchy at the crease, he soon made his 50 and was in the 70s when he kindly farmed the strike to allow me to get 50 too. I got there and the winning runs with a typical Mupé paddled 4. I have to say though, the bowling wasn’t too challenging. So Shandy was a happy man. His first foray into Crossbats’ captaincy and he gets a big win and no-one is pissed off with him.
Mupés