Congratulations to our fixture secretary who, from the chaos of a failed fixture against Gravesend 5ths as both squads were short, he managed to get a combined XI out to play. Six of us and five of them henceforth to be known as ‘Gravestone 1st XI’.
Bredgar are the new fodder. Our skipper negotiates another toss and on a screaming hot day, with a screaming hot outfield we put them in. Timed game.
We field well and bowl well but they batted well. Yash and Candyman open the bowling and it seems to be going well as few runs are scored but after 3 overs of variation Candyman complains of a sore shoulder and has to stop bowling. Maybe he saw what was coming as they proceeded to put on 146 for the first genuine wicket (one opener retired out on reaching 50). Even the lamest of shots was racing to the boundary and despite everyone’s best efforts we were not getting any chances but then it happened.
There are times in everyone’s life when they remember where they were when something major happened. In Stumpy’s case it would be when JFK was shot, for me it is when ABBA won the Eurovision, and for all you youngsters it was probably when you received your first tweet or snap chat of some scantily clad Eastern European that Walkie sent to you. Anyway, I was at mid off when this happened
T AYLETT – CT MILLER, B KEENAN, 62
No matter how you write it, it is still incredible.
T AYLETT – CT CANDYMAN, B SEMTEX, 62
T AYLETT – CT MAN OF MANY WIVES, B MAN WITH MANY KIDS, 62
So we had a break through of sorts by an unusual bowling change and, to Semtex’s credit, he bowled well to get figures of 1-26 from 5 overs. The collapse was on. Dino added to his tally with some intelligent and good bowling finishing with 3-40 from 7. Vinod looked very dangerous and kept the runs down to finish with 1-36 from 9. I don’t remember any chances going down, not that there were many. Stumpy snapped a quick one out of the air one handed which was good to watch and took 2 stumpings off Dino. As easy as you like for a ‘keeper of his standard but still he did it well.
At the end of it all, Bredgar amassed 202. Credit to their skipper for mixing up the batting order once he knew how easy runs were to come by as clearly two guys came in much lower than their ability suggested.
TEA. Another good Stone spread, this time provided by Candyman.
I have to admit I was thinking this could be a bit of a block out to gain honour as the target was large and I did not really know how good the Gravesend boys would be. I should not have fretted. (Well, perhaps not once Shamiq was out anyway)
We open with Dartsy and Shamiq. I had asked our new man “what do you do?” and he replied “bat number 2”. Great, that makes it easy, but it turns out he doesn’t and shouldn’t and never will again for us! Not surprisingly Shamiq is the first to go and we are 16/1. Levert comes in and immediately takes the attack to the bowlers with a mixture of good shots and heavy slogs. He falls and we are 88/2. Stumpy strides out, taking many more strides than most people, and combines with Dartsy to keep us in touch with the run rate. Not many slogs from either player but careful and wristy shots are scoring enough boundaries to believe we have a chance. Unfortunately the heat gets to Dartsy and he has to “retire knackered”. Now it’s down to Skip and Stumpy to carry on which they do. The running between wickets has stepped up (well it could not have got any slower) and the pressure is on them.
Around 10 overs left and 50 odd to win. Stumpy nails one over long on and the fielder takes a blinder of a catch to dismiss him for an entertaining and fast 55. (Yes, all of that is true. A day of absurdities) Skip falls soon after and no batsman ever believes he is out but, when you have charged a ball, missed it, regained your ground and watched the ‘keeper fumble and then take the bails off as you lean on your bat to see the umpire at square leg look up from his phone call to give you out. it is somewhat annoying. (It will be some time before I let this go). We now have Brendan and Candyman to hopefully bring us home. The odd boundary, some daring running and some sloppy fielding (I think they dropped 5 or 6) means we need 7 from the last over.
Brendan faces and misses the first – 7 from 5. Second ball, Brendan gets wood on it and they run a seemingly impossible single – 6 from 4 balls. Candyman faces the third ball and straight drives it for 4 through mid-on. Almost a 6 but it was hard and flat and cheered all the way – 2 from 3. Next ball beats everyone and flies for 4 byes (despite Candyman’s claims he “guided it past the ‘keeper”). We have done it. We chased down 202 with 2 balls to spare and actually from 3 fewer overs as they bowled 37 to our 40.
A great day of cricket and played in a superb spirit. Another win for Stone (mostly) and our season shines like the summer we have had. At the pub we all said how great we all are and discussed how we all know everything about cricket.
Awards were easy. Dartsy gets the Ainsley for his 74 that was pivotal to our run chase and Candyman gets SB. Having declared himself unfit to bowl once the runs started to flow, he told Skip he could probably come back on now once the bowling looked much easier!
– Ross