| Name | Runs | How Out | Catches | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
North Holmwood 152 for 9 beat Old Dorkinians 151 for 8
On a Sunday that turned out to be a great day for cricket NHCC entertained Old Dorkinians at the Lane, the skipper in charge for the day won the toss and followed in true historic North Holmwood tradition (since Joey joined the club) "Win the toss BAT". What an unbelievable mistake that looked to be, Ghilas and the OAP Wally walked to the wicket with plenty of confidence and although the bowling was tidy it wasn’t Flintoffesque and both looked relatively comfortable, however after only a few overs, Ghilas was bowled for 3, the pensioner followed not long after back to the pen leaving his mark with a couple of trade mark Wally 4s. The moment had arrived Nobby "I never get a good long bat on a Saturday" marched to the crease at No.3" and within 6 balls was marching back to the pavilion with Truncheon (sorry bat) between his legs, scoring a splendid big yellow furry duck. Ollie fortunately had started to play himself in and when Guesty "The Skipper" arrived at the crease Ollie took control, playing some excellent and some creative shots both sides of the wicket, Guesty somehow managed to make the bowling look like the West Indies attack in the 1980's and perished after boring the supporters (all 2 of them) to death scoring 7 off 13 overs. 4 Down for not a lot.
Gavin strode in impressively but soon also was on his way back to the changing rooms with a 0 against his name. Joey and Ollie took control for at least 10 minutes to see Ollie growing in confidence but then tried to MOOOOOO one over cow corner and was unsurprisingly bowled, (Keep that bat straight Mr Wall but an excellent 27). "Me hit ball hard" Cairnsy aiming to increase the run rate by 600% defended one, and then second ball smashed a missile high at Mid Off but was somehow caught without scoring. Now 7 down for not a lot, Goffa arrived and played some of the most delightful defensive strokes seen at the lane for some years while, Joey started to punish the bowling. Things looked good for a while until Joey swooshed at another one and was bowled, a very well appreciated 27, Pagey under strict instructions to support Daryl and not play any extravagant shots, tried to MOOOO his 2nd ball and was out plum LBW. 9 down and again for not nearly enough and then in walked "Alex Hit One Defend One Wyatt" with almost 100% accuracy Joey predicted shot selection based upon odd and even number of balls faced, you laugh but I recommend that the majority of our club should consider this unique tactic, Alex soon rattled up a score of 33 not out, at the close of the innings only one behind Goffa at the other end in half the number of balls. A truly excellent innings. We ended up amazingly on 152 for 9 off 40.
Tea was plentiful and awesome, thanks to Lucy again for this. Once everyone had consumed more than one helping we then set about defending our total, a strong off side field was set and all bowlers were asked to keep the ball away from leg stump, and what a plan Alex bowled a brilliant spell of 8 overs 1 wk for 21 runs, from the top end and with Goffa from the Quarry end frustrated the batsmen from ball one, Wally replaced Goffa and bowled a tidy 4 over spell, time for a change, Jordan bowling his leggies down the hill and Wally was replaced by our very own Stuart Broad (Gavin), in no time he took his first and only wicket of his spell by bouncing out their most aggressive and highest scoring batsmen with an absolute beauty of a Bouncer, it bounced once by Gavins foot and then again by the batsmens foot and clean bowled him. Who cares Gavin it says bowled in the book, no one will know what type of ball it was.
Nobby recovering from his quack quack and felling better after beating some kid up in the street for parking his bicycle on a double yellow line, came into bowl with lots of intent, apart from the fact that he was bowling uphill from the quarry and into the wind, came off his short run up and his line and length was superb, along with Joeys mixture of leg and off spin the other end continued to take wickets and build pressure on the oppo. With Goffa replacing Joey for the last 3 overs of the innings and Nobby's great line and length at the other meant Old Dorkinians needed too many with the not enough balls left, (In fact they needed two to draw and three to win off the last ball) but Nobbys final ball yorker finished the game with the oppo only running a single. We WON, the odds of us winning would have been astronomical when we were about 46 for 5 after 20 overs. I can only congratulate the whole team on never giving up and producing one of the best fielding and bowling performances of the year I've had the pleasure being involved with on a Sunday.
Old Dorkinians finshed on 151 for 8 off 40 overs.
I must give a special thank you to Man of the Match by a mile, (okay Daryl you were close) Alex Wyatt. Made it look easy with Bat and Ball, (Needs to work on stretching that back though it will save bruising his feet so much)!
Don’t worry normality next week, Wyo returns to bring some sanity back to proceedings.
Stats to follow