Poplars Felled
A gloriously warm April day welcomed in the new season at the newly refurbished Field of Dreams. The opening fixture a 40 over friendly between the Stiffs and Poplars.
Leggy as usual had shunned modern technology and communicated team selection by semaphore and telepathy. So it was no surprise at the alotted start time we had nine players and no opposition. Fortunately Duncan Disorderly and the Poplars side arrived in the nick of time.
Cowlard lost the toss and Drurs and Ernie were soon opening up on a pitch lusher than the Crucible green baize. The bumper April crowd tucked into all manner of chores as both openers took a dozen balls to get off the mark. Slowly the ball found the middle of the bat. And Ernie on his 59th birthday was soon waltzing down the pitch like Ramps on Strictly Come Dancing. While Drurs broke his own rules cutting before July.
Cowlard was soon fretting. With 50 on the board for no loss, he was pacing, worried about not getting a bat at no.7. Soon after, Drurs top edged a full toss onto his helmet and went temporarily bonkers with 10 consecutive scoring shots. The 100 came up in the 18th over and Drurs and Ern promptly retired on 61 and 30 for a well earned drink. Top Man Burton had clearly peaked in nets in March, out for a duck second ball! Beakey then found the April pitch was too slow for his fine selection of cuts and dabbed around for half an hour for 2. Garland had no intent of hanging around and a horrid swipe saw him out for a quick 6.
Paul Lay and skipper AC ensured we reached a decent total with a fine partnership. Cowlard played gun-barrel straight before running himself out for 20, while Paul played some glorious back foot cover drives to reach 47 before retiring himself, which was noted by the fines committee. Duncan and Liam soon perished leaving Paul to return to accompany Boss Hogg for the final over. Leggy lost bragging rights, stumped by his work mate. 194 off 40 overs was a good return.
Tea by the Legge's was a treat. Tuna pasta was a returning favourite, but an unusually moist swiss roll was the surprise highlight.
If 5 ball overs were the norm, our attack would have been deadly, however the 6th ball was a little rusty. Cowlard got the first breakthrough, Top Man pouching a sharp catch at slip.
Then a miracle. The Poplars no.3 set off for a single off Leggy, confident of an easy run, despite the ball not rolling off the pitch. Amazingly, Leggy tumbled in his follow through and threw down the stumps underarm for a run out. Normal service was resumed next ball with a six, Liam being a helpful soul, feeling the need to signal a six that cleared the trees, and almost the houses!
Liam then took over from Cowlard down the hill and bowled a promising spell, hitting off stump twice to remove both of Poplars' danger men. Spin twins Murali and Garland made mincemeat of the middle order, flighting up some filth, before each getting a clean bowled.
The highlight of the reply though came off the field, with the sight of HMS Collison being rolled into dry dock in readiness for her launch next week. The main sail had been hoisted, heavily darned after the winter winds, though not before Jean had to be hoisted herself, her back having locked after a long spell of needlework!
Cowlard put the final nail in the coffin, saving Leggy the embarassment of bowling at his winter coaching protege. 82 all out and all bowlers in the wickets, Electric the pick with 3 for 10 off 8 overs.
A proper friendly and a great start to the season. We retired to our new after match drinking partner, the Salutation (any chance taken for a quick sponsor plug), for a well earned drink
posted by kccblogger @ Sunday, April 27, 2008
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