IG Gets Double Century

The Millers made the journey north of the river to Mapperley to face table-topping Gedling Colliery. It was a welcome return for club captain Geoff Tindsley following his shoulder operation, but both Rob Baker and Steve Rendu were absent.

Tinno made a good start by winning the toss and electing to bat on a straw coloured track that looked like a batsman’s paradise. Strongy had misjudged what the weather would be like at the highest point in Nottingham, and put in an SOS call to wife Michelle to purchase some cozy knitwear for him while she was in town.

Marc Bailey and Ian Graham opened up, putting on 30 runs for the first wicket before Bails got caught off a leading edge. What followed was the best partnership seen since Grant ‘Mr Angry’ Parker and Ian set the new record for the first wicket a few years ago. IG (133) and Ben Elliott (52) were dominant, scoring a chanceless 170 in 33 overs, sending the ball to all parts. Ian’s century was his 10th for the club and sets a new record for statistician Barry Baker to note down in the annals of KCC. A great effort.

At 204-2 off 40 overs, a score in excess of 250 was on the cards, but with Tinno going for a 2nd ball duck and Gedling managing to stop the boundaries in the last 6 overs the innings closed on 250-4 with Jamie Vickers (28) and Dave Strong (14) both not out. Still, a great batting performance.

Tea highlights were vegetable samosas, scones with jam and cream and retro favourite pink wafer biscuits. Salad and fruit were notable omissions.

Strongy and Kitcho opened up, with Dave being miserly with his return of 1-13 off 9 before his body gave up. At 56 for 1 off the first 20, Gedling were making steady progress whilst protecting themselves against a defeat. The bowling change saw the now non-hazardous ‘Dangerous’ Dave Hiller and Ian ’10 centuries’ Graham pair up with a view to them bowling out the remaining 30 overs as the Millers were short of a 5th bowler. Dave took 2 wickets in his 3rd over to make in-roads in to the Gedling top order, and at 99-3 off 30 the Millers were in the box seat.

However, the turning point of the match occurred in the 34th over when 19 runs were scored and Gedling suddenly started believing they could chase down the target. At 185-4 off 40, 9 runs an over were being scored consistently, with the only dropped chances being skiers coming directly out of the sun that had replaced the dark clouds.

With wickets in hand, Gedling’s middle order held their nerve and chanced their arm with a few lusty blows left them needing just 3 off the last over. The winning runs were scored with 3 balls to spare with 3 wickets remaining, leaving the Millers dejected after being on top for much of the match.

Dave Hiller and Ian Graham finished up with figures of 4-80 off 15 and 2-116 off 14.3 (his 2nd century of the game). Ian’s stats included 22 leg-side wides that resulted in the umpire coming into the dressing room after the match to give him some advice about altering his line of attack. Ian was very diplomatic and thanked the gentleman for his observations... So another close finish for the Millers that on another day would have resulted in at least a winning draw.