15 St Fagans 29 June 08

The day did not start well, with Smitt due to take his new position as Vice Captain officially on, and be captain on the day against St Fagan’s, a freak accident 3 hours before the game was due to start on the tennis court meant the curse of the vice captaincy had hit the casuals again, ruling the new vice captain out for a approximately a month. Dan stepped in as captain and Paul filled the remaining spot on the team sheet.

Captain Dan took the toss and the casuals were put into the field. Andy and Dan opened and with Smitty being MIA, Ashley put on the gloves for the first time for the casuals this season. Both Andy and Dan opened excellently both finding a cracking line and length straight away, and with the wind blowing up and the rain trickling in– no easy task. They both contained the St Fagan’s opening batsman excellently and an inside edge in the third over was the first opening but skipped through a bit to fast on the rusty Akbari who put it down. The over’s continued to be of the utmost quality until the 5th over, when the batsman thought it would be a good idea to wander down the wicket to Andy, who took great pleasure in pitching a shorter one in which was top edged miles into the air and was luckily not dropped this time by Ashley a few yards behind. He was gone for 10. Another wicket fell soon after, Hood bowling the next batsman for 3 and then the next for 2. The casuals were happy at this point, with St Fagan’s posting 20 for 3 off 7 over’s.

The casuals continued to bowl well, with Fitzy coming on for his second and last game of the season looking to grab a few wickets and Scott coming on from the other end. In the next few over’s both the casuals and St Fagan’s were privileged to a true master class in fielding and diving stops by Shakey, who showed us all how to do it –if we were about a foot taller than he was

Scott bowled very well keeping the runs to a minimum, with Fitzy getting a little less lucky with the opening batsman finding his range and eye and using it to smack a few boundaries. Next on were the Fox and Paul. Paul got smacked a bit off the first over with 3 sixes and 2 fours but recovered excellently in his remaining over’s to contain the dangerous batsman and Foxy baffling the batsman with his range of deliveries to keep the batsman on their toes and keeping them to the minimum number of runs.

The 3rd batsman continued to knock the casual bowlers around a bit getting himself to a century and in the process hitting a six towards the clubhouse, which bounced under the roof – through the door and with a loud knock bang and a smash managed to miss the 40 people in the doorway. Of course the casual fielders who were obviously concerned for peoples safety where all heard to shout from the field “HOW IS THE TEA – IS THE TEA OK” – luckily it was just the clock on the wall which had been knocked off – therefore not a walk able offence which ruining the tea would have been and he continued

Dan came back on to finish his spell and with the 3rd batsman racking his century, a great delivery from Dan smashed the middle stump out of the ground to remove him from a good knock of 125. Steve and Tesh came in to finish the innings both getting knocked around a bit by an attacking pair.

Bowler Over’s Maidens Runs Wickets

A Hood 8 2 25 3
D Lewis 8 1 32 1
S Fitzgerald 6 0 53 0
S Hand 4 0 10 0
J Prior 5 1 23 0
P Stephens 5 0 41 0
S O’Reilly 2 0 21 0
T Hirani 2 0 24 0

Extras:

1 bye, 3 leg byes 5 wides

Batsman How Out Bowler Total
1: Caught Akbari Hood 10
2: Bowled Hood 3
3: Bowled Lewis 125
4: Bowled Hood 2
5: Not Out - 67
6: Not Out - 18

So with a good tea laid on, and St Fagan’s posting a total of 236, a reserved casual team took the field in Shakey and Tesh, with both starting extremely well to a good bowling attack. Shakey playing the true conservative opening batsman knocking away the loose balls and Tesh playing the more aggressive batsman swinging the bat and finding the gaps and the boundary.

They both continued to bat well into the 14th over, when a ball unfortunately pitched up out of no where to strike Shakey in the side of the head. After a bit of break to assess the councillor was ok – he retired hurt on 10. (Ed- The freak bouncer that felled Shakey...I only wish we had it on camera...the ball pitched and rose sharply (though not particularly quickly) Shakey reacted by trying to hook it, and all in slow motion the ball struck the side of his head, he wobbled, thought about it, then decided it was best to go down like the titanic. There was no sympathy from the side lines, in fact Steveo jumped up reached for a cherry bakewell and ran onto the pitch to give Shakey some 'cake aid'....the sympathy came later once we saw Shakey looking a little shakey.... At this point we were 44 off 13 and looking good...)

Next in was Scott who played at a few before being taken by a cracker of a delivery which just nicked the outside stump for 0. Steve was in next knocking a quick single and a 4 before being caught by an absolute jaffa of a diving catch by the captain who was as shocked as Stevo that he managed to a) get to it and b) hold onto it. Roach was in next playing defensively and trying to provide Tesh with the strike as he built his innings, before being caught for 3. Paul was in next, playing at a few before going for 3 also. Fitzy went in next backing up the on strike Tesh, but whilst trying to get down the wicket he missed the ball and was stumped by the keeper for a good knock of 39 (ed- Tesh also invented a new shot - the 'tripod cut' - when facing the leg spinner, Tesh managed to play the ball through his legs croquet style). An excellent opening bat by Tesh. Next in was Ashley who almost ran Fitzy out (according to him) off the first ball and Fitzy in turn tried to repay the favour, luckily neither were out, and they both continued to build a good little partnership before Fitzy was trapped on the back foot given LBW for 2. Andy Hood came in next and Ashley knocked a few good shots away to the boundary before being bowled through the gate for 20, which was noted by Dan after the game to take me over my 100 milestone. Dan came in last and on his second delivery was bowled for 0, with Andy not out for 1, leading the casuals to a score of 102 all out off 34 over’s.

The major turning point of the game was when Shakey had to retire hurt – with both him and Tesh batting really well up to this point, I think it would have been a different game, luckily the councillor was fine at the end of the game.

Batsman How Out Runs
M Stephens Retired Hurt 10
T Hirani Stumped 39
S Hand Bowled 0
S O’Reilly Caught 5
J Roach Caught 3
P Stephens Caught 3
S Fitzgerald LBW 2
A Akbari Bowled 20
J Prior Bowled 1
A Hood Not Out 1
D Lewis Bowled 0

An eventful game with incidents, the weather changing from rain to gusting winds to sun by the end of the day and a good tea, overall an excellent game with good atmosphere, banter on and off the field, and friendly spirit. Not a particularly good overall performace but some individual brilliance and positive team attitude throughout. Unlucky not to get closer to their total, if only their batsmen had given some chances....

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