Saturday saw a great Barny win by one wicket and
85 runs.
There was something for everybody except Hyndo, who
dropped a dolly and made a duck, earning him the prestigious
'Millhouse' award for
the week.
Fielding
The day started well when I won the toss and sent
them in on a soft wicket. We have to delay the start
because Kirsch and Patto turn a 15 minute trip into
an hour to get to the ground. With Dennis 'home-boy'
Huxley in the hood, 10 of us line up in slips, fattest
to thinnest.
Pav comes steaming in to bowl, breeze at his back,
the batsman edges and the ball hurtles between me
and Todman, who dives in front of me to take a spectacular
leaping slips catch first ball of the match! From
there it was all downhill for Youlden as we cleaned
them up for 98 in 21 overs. Amazingly, we only dropped
one catch, had one run out and witnessed a still bent/half
cut/sleep deprived Kirsch make two glorious stumpings.
Everyone bowled brilliantly, except Todman who took
three wickets in one over of unmitigated sh*t. Still,
one of the best all round performances I've been involved
with in the field, with all bowlers contributing:
Pav: 2/17
Hags:1/33 (should have been two for)
Toddy: 3/22
Patto: 1/20
P. Huxley: 2/5
Batting
I try to gee the troops
before we go out to face the music. 'This is a must
win game', 'no stupid stuff', 'bat sensibly' etc.
Desperately hoping for a solid start, both openers
departed for ducks, although M. Vana OCL did maintain
that he had done his job by taking the shine off the
ball in the first two overs. Two more ducks were to
follow: Pav maintained his stellar season with the
bat by getting a golden, and yours truly the last
to wear the hat on the day by playing around a straight
one.
The big man settled things down in a valuable partnership
with Todman (33) that got us near their score and
then went onto bigger things with a score of 98. Because
Youlden were a bunch of incessantly sledging so and
so's, we all cheered and rubbed it in when Hucca went
out - 'HE MADE THEIR SCORE!!!' Without a doubt though,
the highlight of our batting was a 63 run partnership
between Hucca and Mikos, who contributed one run (which
in fact was a leg bye) and a masterful 4 runs not
out to boost his average to 4.3 for the season. Patto
also contributed a very handy knock to help us pass
their score and Wilcox went nuts scoring about 20
off 5 deliveries at the end of the day.
Captain's Wrap up
A special mention and thanks goes to Tommy's
mate Mark, who saved us from a catastrophic situation
of turflessness after Kirsch, supposed turf manager
for the day, failed to stump up the goods citing some
mysterious 'drought' ($16.44 fine and $3.67 for being
late). Also thanks to Shearny, Tommy, Pete and Home-Boy
Hucca for turning up and helping out.
So, we're playing the same blokes next week, who are
going to be massively gee'd up to beat us after the
thumping and the club song, which was bellowed in
their direction with tears in the eyes of Official
Club Legends M&T Vana and D Huxley. If we are
going to get into the finals it looks like we will
need to win every game remaining and possibly make
two of those wins outrights.
President Obama rode to victory on the back of a book
called 'The Audacity of Hope'. To reach the finals,
we too need the audacity of hope. The audacity of
George Hope. Come back big fella!!!
Jars
Vice President (International)
B.N.C.C.
