Brave Firsts go down fighting
And so it came to pass that the wheels finally came off last season’s promotion bus as the firsts suffered their 11th defeat of the season away at Balderton and are now relegated to Div B. As with so many other results, the game would have gone either way, with the Millers still dreaming of a dramatic win right until the winning runs were scored.
With yet more selection headaches, Simon Tuckwell was drafted in to the side to ensure we had 11. However, when the skipper tossed up the visiting side consisted of only 5 players, so Rocket had to bat on a good-looking wicket.
By kick off the stragglers had navigated their way to the overcast and windy NG24 – Bobby’s sat nav seemingly reluctant to go anywhere north of the river.
IG and Emma Dale opened up and faced the hostile Sri Lankan Pro. The pair scratched around ducking the frequent bouncers before Dale was back in the hutch for 5 bowled by a Yorker length ball he was late on. Benji was next in and looked relatively comfortable before being the antithesis of the foul mouthed Aussie, by walking when caught behind prior to any appeal being made… it seems he was brought up not dragged up!
FKC elect Geoff Tindsley was next in and out, seemingly triggered LBW. IG was not finding top form, but unlike his colleagues was able to find the boundary on the odd occasion before he was caught behind for 26 trying to guide a short ball over the slips.
Sherro stayed around for a little while with Rocket before he was caught around the corner to one he didn’t think carried. Meeky was then cleaned bowled as the Millers were in disarray and looking to be all out for less than a ton. Bobby was unluckily trigged after inside edging the ball onto his pads. This was made worse as the umpire apologised to him as he walked off! But Rocket (27) and Dave Strong (32) saved the day, with Strongy and Andy Hiller putting on 43 for the 8th wicket. Balderton brought back their pace man, and peppered the pair with a number of short balls which saw Strongy take a couple for the team including one to the side of the helmet. It was a great effort though, and saw the Millers to 138 all out off the last ball of the 48. Not a great total, but far better than it could have been.
All eyes were on the football scores at halftime as the sides tucked into a nice spread.
The Balderton opening pair had a ying and yang approach; one would try and hit anything that was up, and the other seemed to be growing roots. The plan seemed to be working though as they got off to a quick start. This saw IG brought on early doors, and he bowled 4 straight maidens to stop the rot. Andy Hiller switched ends to bowl with the wind, and this soon brought dividends as he bowled two great balls to the more aggressive opener. The first caught a thickish edge and landed well short of the slips, but the next ball was a carbon copy but with a thinner edge and Benji happily snapped him up.
Dave Strong (2-20) produced his best bowling performance of the season and took a sharp return catch to remove their No3. At 72-2 after 23 the writing was on the wall, but 4 wickets on 6 overs changed things dramatically. Strongy got his second wicket in the same over, caught at slip, or was it LBW… who cares?! Iggy bamboozled their No5 by bowling a rank bad ball after 6 overs of dropping it on a sixpence. The half tracker was spooned up off the toe of the bat gladly poached by Meeky at short midwicket. Andy Hiller didn’t crack under the pressure of a dolly that skied towards him, again off IG (16-37-3). With ample overs left Balderton then tried to commit hare Kari in two successive run outs. Meeky kept his cool as their Pro lost his, and then Strongy sealed his man of the match performance by launching a throw over the top of stumps from somewhere in NG23 – Benji kept his cool to do the honours as the attempted third run was cut short by half a yard.
But as happened too many times this year it was a case of so near but yet so far, and the elusive 9th & 10th wickets were not forthcoming. Sherro was brought in from spending 35 overs in the Polars to bowl really well without any fortune. At the other end, Bobby Baker, taking over from Chris Ladd on the misery stakes, saw two sharp chances not quite go to hand at slip. The final throw of the dice was to bring back Rocket in the 8pm darkness to try to create some magic to save the day. Not even the “Eddie Tour” headband he had been sporting all afternoon could save the Millers as the winning runs were scored in the 45th over.
Despite the certainty of relegation, the KCC side walked off with their heads held high knowing that they fought all the way in a season that has been dogged by injury and availability.
So with two remaining games against fellow strugglers Newstead and table toppers Attenborough who’s to say KCC can’t finish with a bang and avoid the wooden spoon?
With yet more selection headaches, Simon Tuckwell was drafted in to the side to ensure we had 11. However, when the skipper tossed up the visiting side consisted of only 5 players, so Rocket had to bat on a good-looking wicket.
By kick off the stragglers had navigated their way to the overcast and windy NG24 – Bobby’s sat nav seemingly reluctant to go anywhere north of the river.
IG and Emma Dale opened up and faced the hostile Sri Lankan Pro. The pair scratched around ducking the frequent bouncers before Dale was back in the hutch for 5 bowled by a Yorker length ball he was late on. Benji was next in and looked relatively comfortable before being the antithesis of the foul mouthed Aussie, by walking when caught behind prior to any appeal being made… it seems he was brought up not dragged up!
FKC elect Geoff Tindsley was next in and out, seemingly triggered LBW. IG was not finding top form, but unlike his colleagues was able to find the boundary on the odd occasion before he was caught behind for 26 trying to guide a short ball over the slips.
Sherro stayed around for a little while with Rocket before he was caught around the corner to one he didn’t think carried. Meeky was then cleaned bowled as the Millers were in disarray and looking to be all out for less than a ton. Bobby was unluckily trigged after inside edging the ball onto his pads. This was made worse as the umpire apologised to him as he walked off! But Rocket (27) and Dave Strong (32) saved the day, with Strongy and Andy Hiller putting on 43 for the 8th wicket. Balderton brought back their pace man, and peppered the pair with a number of short balls which saw Strongy take a couple for the team including one to the side of the helmet. It was a great effort though, and saw the Millers to 138 all out off the last ball of the 48. Not a great total, but far better than it could have been.
All eyes were on the football scores at halftime as the sides tucked into a nice spread.
The Balderton opening pair had a ying and yang approach; one would try and hit anything that was up, and the other seemed to be growing roots. The plan seemed to be working though as they got off to a quick start. This saw IG brought on early doors, and he bowled 4 straight maidens to stop the rot. Andy Hiller switched ends to bowl with the wind, and this soon brought dividends as he bowled two great balls to the more aggressive opener. The first caught a thickish edge and landed well short of the slips, but the next ball was a carbon copy but with a thinner edge and Benji happily snapped him up.
Dave Strong (2-20) produced his best bowling performance of the season and took a sharp return catch to remove their No3. At 72-2 after 23 the writing was on the wall, but 4 wickets on 6 overs changed things dramatically. Strongy got his second wicket in the same over, caught at slip, or was it LBW… who cares?! Iggy bamboozled their No5 by bowling a rank bad ball after 6 overs of dropping it on a sixpence. The half tracker was spooned up off the toe of the bat gladly poached by Meeky at short midwicket. Andy Hiller didn’t crack under the pressure of a dolly that skied towards him, again off IG (16-37-3). With ample overs left Balderton then tried to commit hare Kari in two successive run outs. Meeky kept his cool as their Pro lost his, and then Strongy sealed his man of the match performance by launching a throw over the top of stumps from somewhere in NG23 – Benji kept his cool to do the honours as the attempted third run was cut short by half a yard.
But as happened too many times this year it was a case of so near but yet so far, and the elusive 9th & 10th wickets were not forthcoming. Sherro was brought in from spending 35 overs in the Polars to bowl really well without any fortune. At the other end, Bobby Baker, taking over from Chris Ladd on the misery stakes, saw two sharp chances not quite go to hand at slip. The final throw of the dice was to bring back Rocket in the 8pm darkness to try to create some magic to save the day. Not even the “Eddie Tour” headband he had been sporting all afternoon could save the Millers as the winning runs were scored in the 45th over.
Despite the certainty of relegation, the KCC side walked off with their heads held high knowing that they fought all the way in a season that has been dogged by injury and availability.
So with two remaining games against fellow strugglers Newstead and table toppers Attenborough who’s to say KCC can’t finish with a bang and avoid the wooden spoon?
posted by kccblogger @ Monday, August 18, 2008
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