It's sunday morning, it's 01:05am and we're all receiving texts from you-know-who about god knows what... so, not many byes today then...
It's Old Pilotonians at North West Kent College time, the scene of high drama on the field of play last year and high farce off of it...would Beechwood provide the farce this year? To be on the safe side I had a hearty breakfast in the morning and shame on all of you who think that's probably the norm...the omens weren't good though when you see the home skipper has brought his own sandwiches...still, the stumps have arrived on time so tick one.
When you saw that their square was in fact circular you had to wonder if Oscar has found himself in new employment already... most observers reckoned that the green drying wicket would not take spin so fantastic news then for a team with one fit seamer! Beechwood won toss and elected to bowl first but didn't you just know that with the stumps arriving on time we'd have no wicket-keeping gear in time for the start. Eventually KHM arrived though, to take his place behind the timbers having spent the previous hour circumnavigating Dartford. These days Keith has ditched the Mothercare buggy-helmet for a piece of headgear that you might imagine Jed Clampett and Huckleberry Finn squabbling over in the january sales...still, not many byes today then...
Pogose and McCrea opened the bowling then, but with the dangerous Farid looking his usual assertive self, anything off line or length was being clubbed to the short boundary. Macca was struggling to grip the cherry he'd been presented with and was replaced by Savory as early as the sixth over. Rob was coping a little better and was able to reply to the brutal Farid with the occasional Jaffa. On 33 Beechwood broke through when Morton, diving forward, took a smart catch off Pogose to remove opener Van de Linde and soon after trapped the next batsman lbw. 44-2 then and the equally dangerous Doughty joined Farid. A feast of boundaries and jaffas followed until 102 was on the scoreboard and Boss replaced Pogose. Farid took a liking to him and his first two balls were spanked over the short boundary for maximums...the next however was caught by Robinson inside the same boundary but Bobby's celebrations took him over the line for six more. Three out of three then and a typical "Robinsonism" was muttered..."could be a bit of history being made here!" Stu held his nerve though and a better length ball was miscued by Farid to Hill who clung on at mid-on, and with the batsmen crossing, Stu cleaned up Doughty with the final ball of the over. No history made after all then but a good comeback from the bowler. 120-4.
New bat Richards played well after this and was ably supported by the remaining batsmen but Beechwood chipped away with wickets at regular intervals with Cooksley, replacing Boss, getting a welcome few overs under his belt and a couple of wickets too, one of which was the result of some fine work by the diving Pogose. Rob unfortunately finished the game in some pain, injuring his back after giving chase to the ball, he suddenly started running in hi-motion...we await the doctor's report. Pilots were bowled out eventually for 215 and although this was a competitive score it did look like we could have been chasing another 35 or so at one point. Savory could be reasonably pleased to have wheeled away for 17 overs and only going for 34 runs...he'd have been less pleased when his right arm dropped off on the train home!!
Tea, and everything is taken back as Pilotonians put on a feast worthy of royalty..they really pulled out all the stops for us and well done to all concerned...the return fixture should be interesting though...hope they like Happy Shopper cakes! A gloomy day had earlier been brightened by the first appearance of Larry this year which was great to see. The appearance of Woody jr. didn't quite stir the same emotions but it certainly caused the birds to stop singing and had various rodents scurrying back into the undergrowth. Not seen a field cleared of it's wildlife so quickly since DDT was in use or Hugh Fearnley-Whatshiname was on Countryfile.
To the Beechwood reply then with Makin partnering Freeman to fill Deano's role. Dean and Karen also graced us with their presence later on...the wildlife didn't seem to mind on this occasion. Keith was looking okay until he got too far across his stumps and was bowled behind his pads with the score on 18. Warner was next in and had a torrid time out there initially, but fair play to Adrian, after what seemed like an eternity getting off the mark he toughed it out and started to execute some brutal strokes over the top. Tony was going along steadily, playing some neat pulls and on-drives and was using his feet well to the off-spinner until obviously inspired by the efforts of Goughie and Ramps, decided it was time to "strictly come dancing" to the spinner and only succeeded in yorking himself, the ball agonisingly donking the bails off. Hill was next in, this being the scene of plenty of Brad's heroics in the past but sadly, with the run-rate creeping up and up he perished in the deep early this time. McCrea was next in and gave Adrian some good support but the overs were starting to disappear and Adrian was eventually out with the score on 100. He had scored 41 of these, a lot more than it looked like he may do at one stage but hopefully this was some useful time at the wicket for Ade. Survival was the name of the game now but wickets started to fall at all too regular intervals with Ian, Colin and Boris providing some steel before their dismissals, Cookie and Savory perhaps less so. It was left to Stuart and Rob (with runner) to see out the last four overs which they managed in spite of the odd lbw shout and Keith signalling wides in the final over. Some of us it seems have had enough of these nail-biting finishes and indulged ourselves in a trivial pursuit type tv quiz, so fair play to those who were still tuned in to the match upon it's finish. For the record Beechwood finished up 128-9 and were never really in the hunt for victory at any stage. An enjoyable game though and as ever Pilotonians proved to be a good bunch as well as a handy side. Oh, and not too many byes (8) after all. Aloney Marvellous!!
Beechwood:
Boss, Cooksley, Freeman, Hill (c), Makin (wk), McCrea, Morton, Pogose, Robinson, Savory, Warner
Final word from the DoC:
Is it me or are bats getting thinner and stumps getting wider? |
