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For the first time in known history the cricket at sports day started at 10am,
great for an early beer-laden finish but not great for captain of the Soups, Jason Marchant, who arrived at the ground straight from an
overnight shift at the Olympics. |
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So at soon after 10am the Soups took to the field for their first game against Leg before Bricket.
The team was Anand, H Kumar, TNT, K Barry, Nichols, and a very tired Marchant. Captain JM won the toss and put the opposition into bat. The
opposition scored reasonably well but the final over from Jason, including 2 wickets which included a hat trick ball slowed the scoring.
TNT scored well while Nichols struggled to score freely, before Vijay and Kenny pushed on to score the winning runs. |
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Dodgers looked woefully short of good players in their first match and as they were the Soups
opposition for the second match dozing captain JM felt decidedly confident of a win and progression into the final despite Phil McBarron
strengthening the line up by joining Dodgers for the second match. James Nicholls had decided that he had plenty of time to go and play a
game of football and be back in time for the second match - he was wrong so Barry Gigg stepped in to WK the second match while TNT went to
play for his other team Green Sox and Merv took up his place in his proper team having already played a game for Superstars. The team
against Dodgers was Anand, H Kumar, Aranha, K Barry, Gigg, and a very, very tired Marchant. JM won the toss and put the opposition into bat.
Dodgers scored reasonably well but wickets fell in an over from JM which meant a relatively poultry target was set. Merv and Vijay chased
down the target with no wickets lost. Kenny Barry due in at number 3 seethed with rage at not getting to bat. |
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Meanwhile the first team, Superstars had cruised through to the final...... Now what happened
in the final is up for debate - so in a "Sliding Doors" type way let's read the alternative stories. |
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SOUPERSTARS REPORT |
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SUPERSTARS REPORT |
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The team for the final was Anand, H Kumar, Aranha, K Barry, Nichols,
and a very, very, very, very, tired Marchant. Jason won the toss and put the opposition into bat. Superstars scored
a decent total through many flukey shots. The important wicket of Will Walker being taken off Kenny Barry's bowling
with a catch from sleepy fieldsman Marchant. Simon Gundry as usual scored freely, although hitting "sleepy Marchant"
for runs doesn't really count as it was in the "candy from a baby" zone. While Vijay struggled to make his usual huge
batting impression at the other end Kenny Barry unleashed his rage at not getting a bat in the previous match with
some huge hits then scored the winning runs with a "guided" 4 down to fine third man. Kenny Barry took a real liking
to Mike Taylor's bowling as that over went for a pile of runs. Soups celebrated with a well earned drink and
then winning Captain Marchant slept a well earned deep deep sleep having been awake for a total of around 38 hours. |
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Chris M and skipper Will W opened up the batting for the A team
and progressed nicely until Chris (8) was run out hitting the ball straight back to bowler and running. Jez joined Will at the
crease and the scoreboard ticked along nicely with a combination of smart running and strong hitting until Will got underneath
one from Kenny, which went out to the cover boundary where shouts of 'catch' temporarily awoke Jason from his slumbers to take the catch.
Pumped up from removing Will (18), Kenny was brought down to earth as Simon crashed his first (and Kenny's last) ball powerfully through
point for four and received an incomprehensible death stare in response. The runs continued to flow freely, though clearly the pre-match
bribes to the umpires were paying off as astonishingly a wide wasn't given as Harish delivered a ball on the neighbouring strip. Not put
off Simon dispatched the next two legitimate balls to the boundary. With Jason bowling the last over, Jez and Simon looked for a good finish
and duly delivered as some sharp running between the wickets brought 11 off the first 5 balls before Simon smashed Jason's tired final
delivery for a soaring 6 over mid on leaving Simon on 24 not out & Jez on 11 not out, and take the innings score to 67 -
a more than competitive total. So with runs on the board the B team had it all to do as Vijay and Kenny opened up the batting against Jez.
Jez started well before a no ball (costing 4) and a 6 off the final ball dented his figures slightly but his over still only going for 13.
Chris' over was better still as his accurate left armers went for 10 and when - with Vijay, in particular, really struggling to make an impression
- the openers could only manage 8 off Simon's pacy over they were really up against it with 37 needed off the last 2 overs. However,
Mike T's over proved the turning point as a single off the first ball brought Kenny on strike; the following mixture of liquorice allsorts
were edged all round the ground with some even clearing the ropes. But the damage was done as Mike conceded 24 runs off the last 5 balls.
With 12 needed off the last over, there was a glimmer of hope when Ben's searing pace & bounce accounted for Vijay (14), as he was finally
put out of his misery as he skied one to deep mid wicket where Simon took a good catch. But a clean, powerful 6 from Kenny followed by
another streaky edge through to third man saw the B team home with just one ball to spare. |
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