Quack Quack Oops

It wasn’t looking good at 11 o’clock as Laddy made a pitch inspection at the sodden Field Of Dreams. A quick phone call to the Collison household confirmed that tea preparation was already well under way, so the match had to go ahead! Fortunately by 1 o’clock the rain had eased off, and thanks to the new rain cover, the pitch was playable with a delayed start and a 39 over format.

Not for the first time this season Keyworth were without key first teamers including Iggy, Bobby, Strongy and Doug, with Big Ted and Tuckers again coming in for the match against Southwell. The Hiller sisters were back in after surviving last weekend’s stag-do in Manchester with no visible signs of damage.

New recruit Alex showed his inexperience in the pre match tasks. Unaware that the local hounds use the wire posts as latrines he carelessly carried one post under each arm. The resulting stain and stench couldn’t be removed from his whites, so he gladly accepted the offer of Laddy’s spare shirt that has been at the bottom of his bag for a number of seasons.

The Evening Post photographer then turned up to take team shots of both sides, and Meeky gladly offered to provide names to the faces for the photos… so there’s a chance of Seymour Butts, Ben Dover, Juan Kerr, Hugh Jass, Jack Hoff and Teddy Sheriston making the team sheet; get your copy on Tuesday!

Another first for Keyworth was the skipper instigating a pre match fielding drill, which to be fair inspired a pretty decent fielding display with only one sharp half-chance dropped by Meeky after he did well to get a hand on it.

Andy Hiller-sister and Skipper Rocket Rendu opened up for the Millers, both bowling a tight spell that restricted the scoring to just 20 off the first 10 overs. Andy, conceding only 19 off his 7 overs has been very unlucky not to get a hatful of wickets so far this term and things are surely set to change in the wickets column in the coming weeks.

Similarly to last week, the lack of early wickets and the missing spinners enabled the opposition’s scoring rate to escalate to nearly 6 an over for the last 20. The Millers dug deep and restricted the scoring to 160 for the loss of 5 wickets with Alex Sheriston taking 3-55 and Meeky taking one good skier. Special mention for poor Ted as the ball seemed to be following him around the pitch all day; pro-zone may have seen him rack up a few km’s in the process.

After the match Laddy said that teas were the highlight of the day, with fruit kebabs being the centrepiece. Ted also complemented Rebecca on her baps(!)

Laddy and Grant were first out of the Keyworth hutch and within 3 balls Laddy was on his long walk back, falling for the old long-hop, wide, leg stump yorker combo. Emma-Dale had thought he was batting at 4, so went back for thirds at tea only to find that Ted had similar ideas and promoted the half-aussie to No.3; the Victoria Sponge was sitting little heavy as he strode to the wicket.

The drying wicket wasn’t throwing up too many surprises, but was starting to seam, and the muggy conditions were also helping the ball do a bit in the air. Grant (9) was bowled by a useful ball that, similar to Jimmy Anderson’s display on Friday at the Test, was shaping to middle and leg only to seam back and take off. 25-2 off 10 overs.

Ted and Dale managed to occupy the crease and tick the scoreboard over, but it was hard going. Emma had just got used to the pace of the pitch, but soon after clearing the mid wicket boundary was out for 22 foxed by a slower ball and sent a leading edge high to mid off who had safe hands. Alex was in at No5 and lasted just the 5 balls for the Milers second duck of the day. Ted (10) was next out after struggling to get the ball off the square. 56-4 off 20.
Rendu (21) improved the KCC spirits with a fleeting glimpse of what might have been after getting after the slow swing bowler and sending him for 12 in one over. Southwell now had two slow bowlers in tandem and surrounded the bat, with Meeky (2) unluckily going off the 6th ball of an over that the umpire had incorrectly called ‘over’ after the 5th ball. The mistake was rectified and the bowler made the most of his bonus ball.

Things were now looking dire for the home team and for Super Scorer Shelley as she seemed to be translating War and Peace into Braille with all the dots that were being entered into the book. Trying to salvage a draw, only 10 runs were scored off the last 16 overs faced with the innings finishing dismally on 76 in 36.4 overs, with a total of 5 batsmen getting ducks.

Let’s hope for better weather and a return to form away at Balderton next week.