Finally the sun shone and we managed to get a game of cricket in yesterday. However the joy was tempered early on by the fact that today's game had been cancelled already, giving our title rivals Thornton more cause to celebrate since we only take 4 points from the No Result and is why I'm sat here typing instead of warming up to play again!
Anyway back to yesterday's match, the Wareing Trophy Quarter Final versus Fleetwood IV. We found Cottam in amazingly good condition considering all the rain. The outfield was very soggy with puddles everywhere, but with the sun shining and the breeze blowing, the sqaure was drying very quickly, leaving a crusty surface and a soft interior. An easy call to make on winning the toss with Captain Rawcliffe electing to field. With a short run up I got through my 8 over spell very tightly and should have had a couple of wickets had it not been for errant catching, especially from my younger brother Andrew on debut (filling in for our severely depleted team)! Another amusing incident in the first over with an easy run out chance being missed. A suicide single meant an easy opportunity, but Andy had knicked the wickets with his pad before receiving the ball, so I had to scream "pull it out, pull it out" to remove the stump and complete the run out. Our celebrations were short lived as it transpired that while he had pulled the stump out, he had forgotten to touch it with the ball in his other hand, disaster! We managed to field well in tough conditions and bowled Fleetwood out for 81 with a few overs of their alloted 40 left.
Amos and Hindle went about the task of chasing down the small target knowing conditions were far from easy. Fleetwood had only managed 1 boundary in their total. Amos was instructed to nurdle it around by the Captain, so promptly saw off the first few overs before charging around and smashing the ball to all parts! A quickfire 24 got us on our way but a small collapse left us needing 40 with myself and the Captain at the crease. The bowlers were being changed constantly to keep us on our toes and with the pitch taking spin it was imperitive to get ourselves in before taking on the bowling, especially with our potentially weak tail end. Even though a few more wickets fell (Kenny most amusingly, succumbing to the sledging from the slips with only 4 runs required!), I managed to stick around ending on 16* with Scott and finish off the chase, getting us to 82/5. So into the Semi Finals next Sunday after our crunch league game against Thornton IV on Saturday at Cottam. With our No Results putting us on the back foot this is now a massive game, and even if we win we will still not be able to overtake them in the league unless other teams do some damage to them. It could be a tight finish to the season...
Sunday 29 July 2007
Saturday 28 July 2007
Long awaited update
Apologies for the long abscence dear reader, my keyboard broke and I have only just replaced it with a Swiss version which my Uncle has given me. The occasional letter is in the wrong place so please excuse any amusing typos!
We last left off with the extraordinary tie in the Twenty20 league and not much has happened since due to the English summer coming to town and flooding out most of the country... The 1st team have only played one match since that defeat to Fleetwood, which was the Stuart Cup Final against Thornton. Unfortunately we lost in a highly competitive and amusing game. Full match report by Thornton here.
From a personal point of view, I was happy to help the Captain rebuild our first innings, going in at 30/6 and getting the team past Thornton's first innings total with a 40 odd partnership. In that was a highly amusing over from Dobbie who, no doubt upset after I bowled him out, set to bowling one of the most hysterical overs I have ever witnessed. Beamers at my head, hilarious schoolboy sledging after a no ball was given "why are you crying like a girl" responded by me "feel free to bowl at the stumps" a few wides, more no balls, his own team turning on him, genius. We decided on a groundhog day 2nd innings and this time I helped Rob to rebuild, with him running me into the ground with his excessive fitness! However after two top order misfires (unheard of!) it was always a tough task to win and Thornton managed to chase down their target with ease. Still it was nice to play a competitive match and at Blackpool CC, an international ground this season no less.
In the Fylde Twenty20 League we have kept our 100% up, managing to lose to Jolly Boys on a very soggy Cottam Hall pitch and also to Rushale at Rossall School. It was nice to go back and play there for the first time since 1998 when I managed to hit the winning runs in my last match for the school 2nd XI! I'm starting to get very frustrated with the 2020 this season, with our batting failing every week I'm running out of ideas to motivate the squad. Next week we play back to back matches on Wednesday and Thursday against our bottom of the league rivals, Warbreck and Henry's Marauders. If we can somehow get 2 wins we will sneak into Finals Day and can prepare for a comeback greater than Lazarus!
Anyway as I write this the sun is shining and we have 2 matches this weekend. Playing Fleetwood in the Wareing Trophy, a 40 over cup competition with my little brother Andrew answering the call to fill our depleted team and away to St Annes in the league tomorrow. Bring it on!
We last left off with the extraordinary tie in the Twenty20 league and not much has happened since due to the English summer coming to town and flooding out most of the country... The 1st team have only played one match since that defeat to Fleetwood, which was the Stuart Cup Final against Thornton. Unfortunately we lost in a highly competitive and amusing game. Full match report by Thornton here.
From a personal point of view, I was happy to help the Captain rebuild our first innings, going in at 30/6 and getting the team past Thornton's first innings total with a 40 odd partnership. In that was a highly amusing over from Dobbie who, no doubt upset after I bowled him out, set to bowling one of the most hysterical overs I have ever witnessed. Beamers at my head, hilarious schoolboy sledging after a no ball was given "why are you crying like a girl" responded by me "feel free to bowl at the stumps" a few wides, more no balls, his own team turning on him, genius. We decided on a groundhog day 2nd innings and this time I helped Rob to rebuild, with him running me into the ground with his excessive fitness! However after two top order misfires (unheard of!) it was always a tough task to win and Thornton managed to chase down their target with ease. Still it was nice to play a competitive match and at Blackpool CC, an international ground this season no less.
In the Fylde Twenty20 League we have kept our 100% up, managing to lose to Jolly Boys on a very soggy Cottam Hall pitch and also to Rushale at Rossall School. It was nice to go back and play there for the first time since 1998 when I managed to hit the winning runs in my last match for the school 2nd XI! I'm starting to get very frustrated with the 2020 this season, with our batting failing every week I'm running out of ideas to motivate the squad. Next week we play back to back matches on Wednesday and Thursday against our bottom of the league rivals, Warbreck and Henry's Marauders. If we can somehow get 2 wins we will sneak into Finals Day and can prepare for a comeback greater than Lazarus!
Anyway as I write this the sun is shining and we have 2 matches this weekend. Playing Fleetwood in the Wareing Trophy, a 40 over cup competition with my little brother Andrew answering the call to fill our depleted team and away to St Annes in the league tomorrow. Bring it on!
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