Sunday

Saturday 26th May 2007

We visited Daisy Cutters pretty little ground yesterday. I lost the toss, and we were put in to bat on a very green wicket.


I am concerned that we have been over-using Tom and Vicus, asking them to open both the batting and the bowling, so I asked Richard to open the batting today.


Tom was clean bowled in the second over (obviously intending to save his energy for bowling): 1-1.


Richard was our next man out: 23-2.


Vicus and I pushed the score on a bit, before I was caught behind: 66-3.


Vicus had the bit between his teeth now, and was slogging boundaries all around the field, before being bowled: 116-4.


Mincat was in sparkling form, and she and Steg made a nice stand of 51, before Steg was caught: 167-5.


Mincat had hardly finished celebrating her first-ever half-century before Jona was given out LBW: 171-6.


Mincat was clearly a bit excited about her batting, as she set off for a quick run, causing our Vice-Captain, Frangelita, to be run-out: 171-7.


Another duck followed as Realdoc was caught in the slips: 172-8.


If we were to reach a respectable score, Mincat would have to do something sensible – so she hit a six. Ivy responded too, and stopped the flow of ducks, before being caught behind: 220-9.


Sadly, Lisa was caught off the next ball, and we finished on a disappointing 220-10, with Mincat not out on 83 (her previous best was 34).


Tea was very nice, although the cakes weren’t a patch on the ones our ladies make. Vicus said the vegetarian sausage rolls weren’t much cop either.


With such a small total to defend, I decided that each bowler would bowl short spells, of no more than four overs. With two of last week’s bowlers rested today, I paired our bowlers as follows:


Openers: Tom and Vicus.

2nd pair (spin): Realdoc and me.

3rd pair: Steg and Ivy.


Steg did not manage to impress in the field, unlike last week, dropping a catch off Tom’s first spell.


With 31 runs on the board off the first 8 overs, I moved, as planned, to our second pair, and made a breakthrough in my second over, winning an LBW appeal: 43-1.


In his first spell, Steg showed that he has an interesting slow-medium action, bamboozling the batsman, who he clean-bowled: 68-2.


Back to the openers, and Tom achieved a caught and bowled: 77-3


Vicus got an LBW: 81-4.


Our spinners did nothing in their second spell, but Steg got his second wicket for BMCC with an edge to slips (great catch, Frangelita!): 139-5.


2 overs later and Steg achieved another edge, this time to Vicus in the slips: 147-6.


Our openers looked eager to break the tail, Vicus bowling his man: 152-7.


Tom achieved a thin edge, which Richard held: 153-8.


I drew the batsman into playing at a ball moving away from him, spooned up to Ivy at third man: 173-9.


Realdoc took the final, match-winning wicket, the ball flying into my waiting hands at gulley: 177-10.


Score sheet (much neater this time!) and league table are below. We are still in second place, but are catching up with the leaders:

Saturday 19th May 2007

The first match of the resumed season saw us at home, on a lovely sunny day, to Sporting Broads CC. We haven’t played them before, as our match earlier in the season was abandoned due to rain (quite literally, for anyone who can remember back to last August – it was the match immediately following my flood, which was even reported in the Eastern Daily Press as being abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch).


The wicket was looking good (thanks to our new groundsperson), the sun was shining, and all looked set for a great day’s play. With so many people in our squad, I had to rest three players (two of them were away on holiday, and one couldn’t get a flight over from New York anyway). The rest though, turned up, pink-faced, ready and eager. ILTV had a new set of freshly-sharpened pencils, and Ziggi stood by the scoreboard looking alluring.


We lost the toss, and the opposition decided to bat. Tom opened the bowling for us, steamed in hard and aggressively – and his first ball took an edge, giving our new player, Steg, quite a shock as the ball flew to him in the slips. Fortunately he was able to hold on to it – and instantly we had them at 0-1


When we moved to our second pair of bowlers, they tried to take a quick single off my bowling, but Frangelita made a brilliant athletic stop, threw the ball in fast and got a well-deserved run-out: 45-2.


Our third pairing made another breakthrough, when Carol held a catch off Phil’s bowling: 76-3.


We returned to our openers, and Tom immediately dropped a caught and bowled chance. Two overs later, though, Richard held his catch: 103-4.


Back to our second pair, and I held a catch in my favourite position (gulley) off Medusa’s bowling: 119-5.


The next over Phil dropped a catch off my bowling. Never mind, for two overs later Frangelita showed him how to do it: 132-6


Several changes of bowling couldn’t achieve another breakthrough, and the score was now up to 197. I tried something completely different – an all-spin attack, with myself and Realdoc. I clean-bowled a batsman with my first over: 200-7.


Two overs later I got another clean-bowled: 207-8.


Realdoc cleaned up – a clean-bowled: 208-9, and a caught and bowled: 209-10.


Tea was memorable, with Cromer crab sandwiches (care of your captain), some excellent cakes proved by the ladies, and a delicious-looking vegetarian dish that Vicus brought with him.


Our innings started briskly, before Vicus was caught in the slips: 30-1.


Tom fell next, also edging to the slips: 68-2.


Jona and I had a stand of over 50, before she was caught by the keeper: 130-3.


Medusa and I enjoyed another fifty stand (which included my half-century) before she was caught and bowled; 180-4.


Richard and I saw the match to a conclusion, Richard scoring the winning runs with a magnificent 6: 211-4.


We won!!


Score card and league table are shown below.