Match Report vs Cavaliers
16 June 2015 @ Cathedral School (Skipper Kim, report
Shakey)
A momentary pause of silence interrupted the constant Casuals
chatter on the Cathedral School boundary edge as all eyes
were somehow drawn to the game for a rare moment. The Cavaliers
seamer muscled his way to the wicket and bowled as quick as
he could - but a little too short, and angling a little towards
leg. In an instant the ball was picked up gracefully and perfectly
over the longest boundary at deepest, furthest midwicket with
the lone outfielder dutifully raising both arms as he began
his canter towards Western Avenue.
"Great shot" and "shot of the season"
cried the Casuals on the sidelines.
The batsman was Paul Andrews, a recent Casual and an accomplished
exponent of the 'seaside stance'. I grant you its not a common
term but we have young Dewbs to thank for it. As he nervously
waited to bat on tour at Staplegrove Dewbs royally entertained
us with his full backyard batting repertoire, the most striking
of which was his two-eyed stance - "you know, like Chanderpaul,
that Barry Chanderpaul" Dewbs explained. An amused Casual
replied, "you mean Barry Chanderpaul from Barry?"
and after some hilarity the 'seaside stance' was born, with
its origins resolutely confirmed by Dewbs as being in the
seaside nirvana that is Barry's Island.
At the end of the third over we had powered on to 27-1 in
our reply.
Earlier in the evening there was also a glorious reminder
that on occasion we can field too. In the last over the Cavaliers
batsman smeared KP towards long-on where Goff was patrolling
the boundary. He moved quickly to his right and stopped the
ball reaching the boundary, carefully making sure he had the
ball in his hands given the problems we had experienced from
a quick and rutted outfield. Goff looked up and threw in the
direction of the stumps. The non-striking batsman had already
turned and was scampering for home but the throw was that
most surprising of things - fast and direct. The ball pinged
in to the wickets with the batter four yards from home and
the Casuals were all smiles. All part of Goff's plan!
But the smiles were of muted relief as the score was already
171 and just a few balls later the Cavaliers posted an imposing
175-6 in this Cup semi-final. Wickets for Goff, Shakes and
Rob were helped by two run outs but three retired batsman
were testament to the pressure a hard-hitting Cavaliers line-up
had put on our bowlers and fielders.
Kim was out early in reply but Paul and cheese batted confidently
in taking the score to 40-1 off 5. The retirement of Paul
and then cheese calmed our scoring and wickets were lost at
regular intervals. Only Winks supplied any meaningful resistance
with 21 before he was run out, one of a number of late suicidal
run out victims. Cheese was stranded on 27 as we were all
out for 116 in the 17th over.
"True is it that we have seen better days" (As
You Like It)
So it was off to the Butcher's for a varied and plentiful
buffet and a game of blonde or brunette.
back
|
