On to the Farnborough fixture and more team-assembling problems as Keith withdrew after sustaining a finger injury the day before allowing The DoC to step off the bench to take his place in the final X1, thus relegating me to the old man of the side!! I mention that as I'm afraid I've no other stats to aid me with this report, (hurry on back Ron!!) suffice to say that Adrian starred with the bat, falling just four short of a deserved century, ably backed up by Tony's solid 60 and a quickfire knock from Brad, and Beechwood posted a seemingly daunting 204 in their alloted time, losing just three wickets along the way.
Daunting my foot, as 'Boro showed no inclination to settle for a quiet afternoon and blazed away in a heroic attempt to overhaul our total and came up just nine short as their overs wound down; all this in spite of Keith's triggering of what looked like their best player!! A shame we don't get to play Farnboro' more often as I'd have no bitterness in losing to a team who play the game in the spirit that these guys do. After our own heroics in the field last week we were back to our ragged worst this week despite having a full quota of fielders, and the bowling wasn't on the money either with Woody struggling to pitch the ball and yours truly struggling to get it to land in the batsman's half and returning some truly shocking figures of which my old mate on the opposition was quick to show me after the game. (Thanks for that...I won't be repeating them here!!)
A few of us were getting a bit hot under the collar out there from time to time and I think its time we all took a deep breath as another long season is about to draw to a close and calmed ourselves down a little. As you've probably gathered Keith was fit and able to umpire this afternoon and he was able to fulfill his tea-duty role as well, although this merely meant nominating Tina to prepare some sandwiches and pizza and stopping at the petrol station himself to buy some cakes, spring onions and celery(!!??!!) Still, at least we had about six varieties of tea (loose-leaf of course!) to choose from! Very quirky Mr Makin, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't toy with my stomach too often, and one suspects I'm not alone on that front. Adrian was obviously man of the match today but most of the plaudits must go to Colin and Tina Robinson, of whom I say without exaggeration we would have been totally lost without today. Well done guys. Oh, and great game as well!!! See you all in a few hours...
Beechwood:
Cooksley, Culhane, Freeman (c), Hill, McCrea, McLachlan, Morton (wk), Pogose, Savory, Warner, Woodward
Final words from the DoC:
It's always good to wake up Sunday morning knowing Farnborough are your opponents for the day. Never a bad game against them, and good value in the bar afterwards. Cheers lads. |
