Greetings all, the F word is back once again!!! Come the turn of the year, I’m sure there were plenty of us with our brand new 2009 diaries given to us as Christmas presents (what happened to oranges and a sock I’m sure you’ll all be saying!), in this diary we would all have been putting down various dates of importance to us; the FA cup final, the first ashes test, comic relief, the release of the new Man Utd kit (there’s a new away kit out Joe!) along with the plenty of 40th birthdays that seem to have happened this year! But one date definitely in my diary anyway was this game…the Sheen vs Beechwood game!
For us locals (or yobs/rudeboys/ghetto peeps/bredrins/bludclats etc.) the Sheen Park game is a welcome one as is makes up for the long treks towards the end of the season to various grounds. Myself and Tony eagerly made our way down to the ground with plenty of time to spare to have a net, after popping in to see the Kellys and Tina enjoying a Sunday lunch. This was good although it somehow turned into me and Tony giving some of the Sheen Park boys throwdowns…we obviously wanted a closer game than the drubbing we gave them last year at Sheen!
Tony lost the toss and we found ourselves in the field with helpful conditions for the bowlers. Losing the toss certainly turned out to be a blessing in disguise as after a few overs of steady runs Hamish made the breakthrough with a peach of a delivery to Andy Coker (6-1), swinging away then just nipping back off the seam to kiss the top of off stump. Alok (or ‘the nurse’, due to his exploits of caring for a young teen in Austria!) was causing trouble throughout his spell and found the edge at regular intervals, unfortunately they didn’t quite come our way, or carry in some cases and his finished his allocated overs without due reward. Hamish also bowled through and found more success by snagging Mike Ashbery (31-2) who was well caught by Chris for 10 followed up with our old friend Sean Quinn out lbw for 13 (42-3). Hamish finished up with excellent figures of 3-23. Savory took over from Alok at the Church end and soon accounted for the in-form Pratik Patel, Freeman with the assist at slip (83-4). Rob Pogose (in a Surrey shirt…good man!) took over from Hamish at the Pavilion end and got the wicket of the danger man Mark Gibbons in his second over with McCrea taking a good catch. This left Sheen at 83-5 and potentially a collapse was on the cards here.
However, with the solid Pete Webster and Giles Brown at the crease the Sheen boys set about a much needed recovery. More steady bowling followed from Savory and Pogose (am I right in thinking that there is a bit of a Martin Bicknell lookalike here?) but there was still no breakthrough. Woody took over form Savory at the Burch end and caused both batsmen problems, in particular Webster, although it should be noted by Pete himself and the Sheen Park boys that Woody makes a lot of good, settled batsmen look like idiots when he bowls at them, so to see Pete play a very solid innings against him was a good effort, on a personal note too it was good to see a mate play very very respectably against a good bowler. Webster did succumb to Woody eventually however as he was trapped in front for 8 with the score on 122 – 6. Meanwhile, Giles was going about an innings which was much needed by Sheen and with all due respect we didn’t expect it from him, a well played 65 not out including 11 4s certainly showed that the Saturday umpire had no intention of giving up on playing. I must say though that I play badminton with Giles and a few of the Sheen Park boys including our own Alok during the winter months, and as we all do from time to time we take whatever is nearest (in this case a badminton racket) and shadow bat, I didn’t see Giles shadow batting like that during the winter!
I came on to bowl towards the end and was on the receiving end of some stroke play from both Giles and the new bat Josh, and got fairly heated up for no particular reason and I apologise not only to them team but also to Ian McCrea in particular…sorry mate!!! Hopefully a nice Guinness will take the pain form the knee away! The innings ended on 175-6 as we went to tuck into a very well made tea by Mrs.Ashbery!
Adrian and Tony set about chasing the Sheen total but soon fell to the bowling of Pete Brennan for 5 off of a great slip catch by Ashbery (32-1). Adrian was joined at the crease by Beechwood adoptee Mike Noblett whom recaptured some good form against some good bowling to put together 29 (getting out to Ashberry with the score on 135-2) personally and a partnership of 103 with Adrian, who was in superb form from the start playing delicate flicks of his legs along with the pure brutality we love him for…one shot in particular aged Tony, now umpiring by about 10 years as the ball nearly took him out! As with many innings there was the odd close scare including a difficult chance at fly slip and a ‘plumb’ lbw (so the Sheen skipper tells me!) rumour has it the ball was dead on to hit middle halfway up…but hit a cycle tire tread and sent the ball going down leg…
However, this did not deter Adrian as he duly brought up a wonderful 106 not out with a 4. I think I speak for everyone when I say well played!!! In the midst of the Adrian Warner show Hamish came into to bat looking to carry on with his good form but after scoring 12 was given out lbw by Ashbery, this left Beechwood with the score on 157-4 and Alok came in with 4 not out to see the game off with Adrian. A fairly convincing win in the end for Beechwood against our old friends Sheen Park but the game was played hard and we all retired to the Plough after wards to watch the Sheen boys bait Webster and prepare for their tour to Amsterdam this weekend.
A quick word wishing the Kelly clan a wonderful time by the seaside on Sunday and if anyone has any valium going spare for when I next bowl…that would come in very handy!!!
Beechwood:
Cooksley, Culhane, Freeman (c), McCrea(wk), McLachlan, Noblett, Pogose, Rege, Savory, Warner, Woodward
Final words from the DoC:
A fine performance in the field from Beechwood was eclipsed by a devastating innings by Ade. Well done one and all. |
