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Match report vs Frampton
24 September @ Frampton (skipper Richie, report Smitts)
I believe it was Bob Willis who once said, "I guess
some guys are just naturally built for comfort rather than
cricket."
Sunday 24th September and a very comfortable looking Casuals
team arrived at the typically English setting of "The
Green" in Frampton for the final game of the season.
Would the Casz be able to avoid a sixth straight defeat? If
not, they would equal the record for consecutive defeats set
back in 1993 when the club was still in its infancy. The pressure
was on.
To say the ground was a little on the small side would be
like saying Goughy was a little vertically challenged. It
was small. It was so small in fact that the nearest boundary
was about 15 yards away and because of this, there were special
club rules for that boundary meaning 4's were 2's and 6's
were 4's. Following? Good.
To the game. Richy lost the toss (Ed - this must be a new
record) and the Casz were batting. John "JF" Furnham
back after a nasty finger injury and Matt "The Spank"
Smith opened for The Casz. In recent weeks The Casz had struggled
without JF and hopes were high now the big man was back. JF
wasted no time getting off the mark with a cheeky single off
the first ball. Spanky how ever was having difficulty getting
the ball away on a soggy slow and low pitch. The first wicket
fell in the 2nd over. JF frustrated at missing out on a half
volley the ball before played around a straight one and was
bowled for 1 by Hancy. Out strode Tesh "The Tickle"
Hinrani. Would these two young, highly tuned, cricketing athletes
show up the older members of the team, spanking the ball to
all areas of the field, running hard fought three's and quick
singles? Err No. Spanky fell first for 6, caught by Cleaver
off Evans after a leading edge trying to work the ball down
leg. Tesh fell soon after, caught by Nickleson on the Boundary
for 1 after slicing the ball high in the air to point off
Evans as well.
With the score 10-3 after 5 overs and The Casz in a bit of
bother, Paul "Pablo" Stephens and Mark "Bagpuss"
Stephens looked to repair the damage and rebuild the innings.
This they did superbly with some excellent dabbing from the
councillor and some big hitting from Pablo. One big hit from
Pablo nailed a small child in the face whilst cycling along
the boundary. It was a nasty incident but luckily the child
was ok and other than a couple of stitches and probably a
bit of a scar no serious damage was done. The blame here has
to fall solely with the parent, as it was obvious a game of
cricket was taking place and more care should have been taken.
In fact through out the entire afternoon small children and
in some cases babies in prams passed by dangerously close
to the game without a care in the world. This kept many of
The Casz on edge and the game was stopped a number of times
in order to let the young ones by safely.
Back to the cricket. Pablo was next to fall bowled for a
very respectable 20 by Whittle. At this point a child cycled
passed with a Mohican and Paul commented that he wouldn't
have minded so much if he had hit that child in the face because
he had a stupid haircut. 51-4 off 15. The ever so popular
Simon "The Stump" Gough strode out to join the fray
at this point, and the crowd went wild. I feel obliged to
mention at this point that Goughy had brought a large number
of his family with him to the game in order to cheer us on.
Mark was next to fall, bowled by Whittle for 18. Unfortunately
he got a shooter that just didn't bounce, very unlucky and
nothing he could do about it. Steven "Funny Man"
O'Riley strode out next. Now Steve-o hasn't been in the best
of form lately and so speculation was rife in the club house
as to how many balls he would last. 3 was the answer but I
don't want to do him discredit here as he played a good straight
drive which came off the middle of the bat unfortunately directed
back at the bowler Collins, who took a good catch. Steve-o
out for 0. Richard "Ghandi" Holiday also went for
0 bowled Collins.
The Casz were in trouble. Could Dan "Shagger" Lewis
propel them to a defendable total? His first balled he played
well with a nice high elbow. His reward a nod of approval
from Goughy at the other end. Then next ball he swung at with
all his might bludgeoning it right off the middle of the bat
for a monster six on to the road, narrowly missing three passing
cars. After that Dan really found his timing hitting another
boundary before launching another monster six on to the same
road. Goughy played well at the other end but was out when
he dragged on from outside of leg stump with the aid of his
glove. Bowled by Nickleson for 5. He stood there for a moment
in disbelief before trudging back. John "The Fox"
Prior came and went without troubling the scorers bowled by
Collins leaving only Dave "Tin Top" Thomas to try
and stay with Dan.
Dave Batted very well and other than taking a single off
the last ball of the over to steal the strike off Dan made
no mistakes. Dave and Shagger put on 17 for the last wicket
until Dave was run out for 3 trying to get Dan back on strike.
Dan finished 32 not out leaving The Casz 105 all out. Would
that be enough?
Tea was an excellent spread with plenty of sandwiches, home
grown chillies, scones with cream, strawberry Jam, donuts,
crisps and of course tomatoes.
With such a low target to defend, The Casz knew they would
have to keep it tight. With this in mind, Dan and Dave opened
the bowling. Dan bowled expertly keeping the batsman tied
down, but it was Dave who drew first blood clean bowling their
opener. How would the home team respond? How would they ensure
a collapse was avoided? With a masterstroke. They sent in,
"The Small Boy" This caused Dan a few problems as
he had to shorten his run up in order to take a little pace
off his deliveries, but to his credit still managed to maintain
a good line. Dave had no such problems to worry about and
went from strength to strength as his confidence grew first
taking "The Small Childs" wicket, caught at point
by Spanky and then clean bowling their Number 4. It's worth
mentioning here that JF, still not up to 100% fitness pulled
off one of the best pieces of fielding I've seen in a Casz
shirt. With the ball racing away to the small boundary John
leapt, extended himself to his full reach, managed to palm
the ball in to play before it crossed the boundary and finished
off with some rather spectacular rolls on the concrete path.
He has the cuts and bruises to prove it.
Goughy took over from Shag and his adoring fans went wild.
He bowled fantastically taking three wickets and most importantly
getting rid of the oppositions Danger Man. Who looked like
a bit of a cow banger but to his credit played some nice shots.
Steve-o also had an interesting day. Behind the stumps he
was flawless stopping almost everything even those wayward
balls down the leg side. However, he did have some interesting
moments. One where the ball was spooned high in to the air
over his head and he didn't see where it had gone and so it
landed safely about 5 yards from him and another incident
where the batsman dollied it up in the air in front of him
and Steve-o was so intently watching the ball that he ran
straight in to the batsman and started hugging him. Both incidents
really were just a bit of bad luck and I'm sure on another
day he'd have pouched them comfortably. Dan also had a moment
of interesting fielding when he tried his best to kick a ball
over the boundary instead of picking it up. Unwilling to let
his team mates down he rocketed after it hurling himself in
to the road, damaging his ankle but saving the four runs.
With the score on 49-6 The Casz were in the driving seat
and Foxy came on to replace Dave. He struggled a bit with
his length to start with but soon found his rhythm and picked
up the wicket of their number 7, clean bowled. Bagpuss was
brought in to the attack at the other end and made an immediate
impact clean bowling the opposition's number 9 and luring
the number 10 in to an ill advised shot which Dan caught well.
64-9 off 26.
Victory was in sight but with the two batsmen at the crease
looking like big hitting cow bangers nothing was being taken
for granted. With foxy bowling, Spanky and Pablo patrolled
the boundary. Pablo in a moment of inspired wisdom moved Spanky
5 yards to his left and low and behold very next ball the
batsman hit it straight to him. Spanky took the easy catch
and The Casz had won. That should have been the end of the
excitement but Spanky overcome with joy threw the ball high
in the air over his head and straight in to the middle of
the road where it narrowly missed a car. Phew! Frampton all
out for 65
Bowling Figures
Lewis 5-2-7-0
Thomas 8-1-24-3
Gough 8-5-5-3
Prior 5.2 -0-24-2
M.Stephens 1-0-3-2
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