Attenborough go wild in Keyworth

With the KCC first team finding wins as rare the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat, the arrival of top three side (David) Attenborough was, on paper, about as welcome as Jay Z at the Glastonbury Festival. However, our intrepid explorers are always positive, especially when captained by local hero Bobby Baker who was standing in for holidaying Rocket Rendu.

The Field of Dreams was looking a picture with the new advertising hoardings hugging the boundary at the bottom end and the wicket looking like a green seamer. The visitors won the toss and stuck the Millers in.

With more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, Laddy kept the crowd waiting whilst looking at a new mansion ‘daan sarf’. This meant that Keyworth’s two big guns, Ian and Grant, were batting together for the first time in a month. In recent weeks the foul mouthed Aussie has thrown down the gauntlet to Bomber Graham, racking up his average and six-hits whilst Ian was on holiday. Things didn’t start well though. Grant was out cheaply (5) caught behind and although he was finding the boundary, Ian was looking in need of a good net. Emma-Dale got in and out falling LBW for 17. House Hunter Ladd eventually turned up, apparently for his last league game, and found the going tough but helped see KCC to 82-2 at drinks. This was despite being put off by a couple of 10 year olds who had seemingly mastered the art of circular breathing deep in the undergrowth, and the local youths that CSO Meek had doing community service clearing up the bottles they been smashing in the corner of the rec.

At the other end Ian, helped by Councillor Cottee’s pre-match hand rub(!), was now finding the boundary with increasing regularity and soon passed 50. Having been dropped once, his innings from this point was chanceless, although at one point his bat slipped from his grasp and flew high into the air, landing next to the stumps. We can only ponder exactly what substance Cllr Cottee rubbed into his hands pre-match.

Laddy was out for unlucky 13, but Alex Sheriston (2) and Stuart Meek (0) were unable to stick around with the Golden one. However, Wombat lover Dougie Bayford (21 in 25 balls) put on 75 runs in the last 10 overs with Bald Eagle Graham, who rapidy raced through a ton after taking a liking to the South African Gazelle’s offspin. With 6 overs to go, all 9 fielders were patrolling the boundary, but it was the final over when he eventually fell for an impressive 145, just four balls short of a red inker. With his 22x4’s & 5x6’s, the trophy engraver has been told to down tools for now…

214-7 at tea saw the Millers tuck in happily to Justine’s feast, with sausage & chutney rolls, coronation chicken baps and chocolate crispy cakes the highlights.

The Attenborough opener seemingly wanted to get on with winning the game single handed, smashing his way to 28 in 21 balls, with one six off Andy Hiller-Sister being put onto Nottingham Road & landing inches in front of a passing motorist. Fortunately the paperboy at the other end couldn’t get it off the square. Having planned to recover from his marathon innings in the slips for 20 overs before sending down some gentle off spin, Brown Bear Bobby called for IG to go that extra mile and bowl medium pace in the 6th over, with immediate success trapping the dangerman LBW.

After the breakthrough, runs still came quickly despite losing wickets at regular intervals, meaning the visitors were always ahead of the required run rate. However, with the No 6 & 7 batsman falling cheaply, the Millers sniffed victory with spin-twins Ian (4-45) and Bobby (2-69) bowling in tandem and men around the bat. However, the 8th wicket brought up 69 chanceless runs, leaving 4 required off the last over with two wickets remaining. Only one was scored off the first 4 balls, but a gloved full toss went for 4 to leave KCC on the losing side of a thriller that could have gone either way.

Performances like this one will surely see KCC pick up more wins in the second half of the season, starting with Unity at home next week.