Victory, but at a Cost

I've had two games of cricket this weekend, but only played in one!

All went well yesterday, where we played Ellerslie IV at our home ground. We had beaten them away, in the match I won with the bat in a nervy finish. Yesterday, they only turned up with 9 players - like us, the Test Match at Trent Bridge had lured away a large number of players, but we had a full 11 and we were determined to use them.

We won the toss, our rather our junior vice captain did, and it enabled us to bowl first. I lurked around for the first half, I tend not to bowl with the new ball these days to let our juniors have a go. We started strongly, not conceding many runs, and neither did yours truly here, taking 2 for 17 off 9 overs.

But me oh my, the humidity! It wasn't sunny, it was overcast and heavy, but the effort of bowling left sweat pouring off us, although how the opposition's top scorer, an enormous Billy Bunter of a fellow, felt is anyone's guess.

We kept them to 102 for 6, which felt a little ominous, and sure enough, it was. We struggled again, just like we did last week, but one of our junior players who having had a fine day with the ball, won the match for us withe the bat.

A major issue of note. Our experienced keeper had his 72nd birthday yesterday, and his son and grandson both played too, making it a mega family day!

All three of our teams won, prompting some of the skippers to launch into a poetry festival entirely worthy of William Topaz McGonagall, or the poem by Wordsworth where he speaketh of his pond;

"I've measured it, from side to side
Tis three feet long and two feet wide".

Such poetry would be welcome now, as I struggle with pretty agonising back spasms which entirely ruined my match today. All I did was reach into a plastic bag.  How I managed to field for two hours today is beyond me, I couldn't bowl or bat! SAdly we didn't beat them, as we don't like them very much, but we hit some big old sixes!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.07.17

Back in the Sun, Back in the Wickets

A much better day today, as I led the Sunday XI to an enjoyably glorious defeat against a powerful Burton Joyce side.

As usual I lost the toss and we soon found ourselves bowling - I don't mind this as it means I can eat a big tea - which meant 2 and a half hours fielding on a hot day against a team of players who on Saturdays play at least 10 divisions above most of us.

I think they thought they were onto an easy one with us, they came out swinging and after my first over was taken for three boundaries, their skipper was so annoyed when I got him out a little later that he threw his bat into a hedge. More bat throwing followed later when I bowled their star batsman (whom in my initial researches I thought was a woman because of their name) with a beautiful inswinger for 11.

We took regular wickets - most gratifyingly with our juniors to the fore -  after that until progress was stilled by a couple of big hitters targeting the bowling green - and hitting it too - on the short straight boundary. I managed to get one of them caught behind, then we had some direct hit run outs as well, more great stuff from our younger players, leading to more bat throwing. 229-8 they got, a good effort by a team of low division players.

Tea! Love my teas!

The batting was another story. We had some irritated the opposition by not allowing them to score the 340 we overheard they were expecting, and they took it out on us by sending in their fastest bowlers, the quickest I have encountered all year - to bowl at our 13 and 14 year old batsmen. Luckily my Saturday skipper, who they said was "shit" scored a few boundaries through the simple exponent of hitting with his eyes closed, and their rather mouthy fast bowler who cleaned me up second ball had the ball smashed into him by one of our tailenders, who got his best ever score today, much to their irritation.

They were hard players to be fair, and that's why they've won every division they've played in on Sundays. But I think they played us a bit too hard, although they appreciated our junior efforts. We were clearly never going to be any kind of threat.

Perhaps it was karma we forgot to pay for tea.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.06.17