…And Hermione said to Harry with much excitement and a twinkle in her eye ‘My gosh Harry, that wand of yours is a wonderful specimen. Can you do any spells with it?’ To which Harry replied ‘Yes, in fact I’ve been perfecting one over the years, it makes me irresistible’….
Oh sorry, Chris is being hounded by the internet gremlins this week so I’ve taken a break from writing my own ending to Harry Potter to give you a brief account of proceedings. Please note before reading this that I spent most of the day in the farm next door after showing Joe Boss my David Beckham penalty taking impression numerous times!
So it’s April the 26th, the day we had all been waiting for, the start of another season! The end of another 6 months, in which we would usually spend our weekends scratching our backsides watching Jeff Stelling struggling for breath as he pulls out the most obscure facts about players and teams we’ve never heard of. I mean who is Charlton Athletic? Do Bobby and Jack have a team of offspring or something? Anyway, that wasn’t quite the case this year as with various 40th birthdays meant the Beechwood clan kept an otherwise dwindling beer economy busy. So busy in fact that Colin ran into some difficulties getting served at Dean’s 40th! The feeling coming into this season had felt different to all of the others. The wonderful weather which so often vanished into thin air the second we would don the whites hung around, the sound bites were no longer full of gaffes from an idiot for a US president, they were instead from our own PM! The adverts on TV were no longer full of consolidating loans or Jade Goody dance videos and Liverpool still had a chance of winning the title! (To be fair to the Brookside clan, Fulham weren’t in a relegation scrap for once either!)
After some disruptions caused by a St.George’s day march in Richmond (who said it isn’t celebrated eh!!!!!!!), the London gang including me, Chris and Tony turned up slightly late but in good time to catch up with everyone. It must be said however, that Tony doesn’t half do a good impression of me (One wonders why it was triggered by future heartbreaking brothers ‘Boss’ and there attire though…). Ian, Adrian, Brad, and Steve were all in good spirits along with the globetrotting Scott and the ever helpful Martin. Bossy was putting in some hard graft in the nets whilst Keith had been in the wars during the off season…The Wags were out in majority too and as ever putting a smile on our faces. With Ron raring and ready to write…the 2009 season was Go Go Go!
Badgers won the toss and elected to make first use of the new ball, which was certainly the right choice, as there wasn’t much good about it when we came to bowl. The deck was fairly flat for this time of year albeit a tad slow and low. However the opening bowlers Gregg and Butt bent their backs and got what little movement and bounce there was in the pitch, the former being rewarded with the wicket of Tony with 10 runs on the board. Fellow opener Adrian followed on from his good form in this makeshift position on from last season and set about a 51 run partnership with Keith., whom rotated the strike to allow Adrian to strike the ball cleanly own the ground as well as making the most of the occasional loose ball before being bowled by Byrne for a well earned 44 with the score on 61. Keith followed 6 runs later and it was Brad, whom had replaced Ade at the crease, which gave the innings enough impetus to keep it from stagnating with me at the crease, putting away some tight bowling from Gordon and Valentine to score a much needed 47 before Valentine got the better of his stroke play to give the death rattle after another 50 run partnership with the score on 120. Martin was in at 6 and from ball one was looking to work the ball on the leg side and rotate the strike, it was unfortunate for him that Badgers’ skipper, bowler and Jonty Rhodes impressionist Gordon was the target of seemingly every shot. He departed at 131 and Steve came in and gave the innings a quick and much needed burst of adrenalin before being bowled for 13 (150 on the board) shortly after I had been caught a run earlier. Ian and Scott then dashed a quick 14 bringing the total up to 164-7 at tea.
After over indulging in a scrumptious tea I set off to fine leg getting ready for an opening stint and witnessed a wonderful spell of bowling from Scott, often getting movement with a difficult ball and repeatedly getting the better of the batsmen. The good form carried on from last season for Scott, unfortunately the bad fortune did too as he somehow went without a wicket, some consolation must surely come from figures of 8-3-13-0 however. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep up the pressure Scott had so tightly applied and was replaced by the evergreen Chris whom picked up the wicket of Pitts with the score on 43, it should be noted that Brad took an excellent catch as the ball was right in the sun and despite all the gadgets and gizmos in his cricket bag, he had no sunnies on! Any chance of running through the middle order disappeared with come patient and concise batting from the Wards. Scott was replaced several overs later by Martin whom from ball one continued the tight bowling and often causing indecision from the batsmen but was unable to make the crucial breakthrough we needed to have a change of winning. Stuart came on to bowl with the score on 102 and immediately making the breakthrough to remove Graham Ward, holding on to a return ball which was smashed right back at him but that should not detract from a very good catch indeed. Stuarts short but sweet spell was followed by the first outing of the season for Ian, whom was in the wrong place at the wrong time as the Badgers juggernaut batting outfit took hold of the innings, good balls were followed by the odd bad one which unfortunately for Ian were convincingly dispatched of. Chris meanwhile gained a second wicket thanks to Ade who took a steepler of a catch at deepish mid off to dispose of Richard Ward for a well played 67. Redding finished of the game for Badgers as Steve came on to bowl rather late in the innings when all was lost. Badgers finished on 165-3 and won the game at a fairly casual rate.
We left the field pondering many questions, what could have been had it not been for those dropped catches? How did Scott not get a wicket? Was Keith’s reasoning for his injuries all they seemed to be? And why was Ron using a Wiff Waff bat to signal to the umpires when he knew full well about my terrible Table Tennis exploits in Austria?!?!?!
In all a decent performance from the team considering it was the first game of the season. IN particular great performances from Brad, Ade and Scott gave us a good chance of competing, thanks again to Martin to helping us put a side out. Was I naïve to think we wouldn’t have to beg him to bail us out this early in the season??? Well done also to the Badgers whom put in a good and concise performance which is impressive considering the early stages of the season. On a final note…it feels like a f*@!%$g long season already!
…And as Harry and Hermione shared breakfast the next morning, Harry quipped as he tucked into his Frosties ‘that spell really did work, Ron wanted it all night long!’
Beechwood:
Bashford, Boss, Cooksley, Culhane, Freeman (c), Garnett, Hill, Makin (w), McCrea, Savory, Warner
Final words from the DoC:
Good performance really, and thank you Larry for stepping in to do the match report. I have no idea what you are on about with this Harry bloke, but thank you anyway! |
