Match Report vs St Fagans
23 June 2013 @ St Fagans (Skipper Cheese, report Tesh)
Just two days after the summer solstice the Casuals arrived
at St Fagans expecting to be bathed in sunshine. Mother Nature,
it would appear, had other plans and the ground was encircled
by ominous clouds.
Somebody won the toss and the Casuals batted first. Tesh
and Steveo opened, Tesh was first to play his part in the
bodyline series re-enactment. First ball was pitched well
within the bowlers half of the pitch, Tesh pulled it at head
height whilst on its way back down, it trickled to the straight
boundary after being lofted high into the air. The second
ball was an almost identical delivery; Tesh played it in much
the same way but managed to keep it down to score one. A helmet-less
Steve faced several similarly short deliveries, even having
to duck one which would have passed at chest height. The bowling
at the other end was better, a decent pace and length with
some swing from the start. Steveo struggled initially with
the predominantly leg-side deliveries – one hitting
him square the left buttock giving rise to the now familiar
barrage of obscenities from the bearded Casual. Tesh scored
only one more in the 3rd over before playing yet another half-tracker
into the outstretched hand of a diving first slip.
Richie’s innings was short-lived, falling for 0 to
another short delivery and being caught. Lovers didn’t
fare much better top-edging a pull shot to another short delivery
and having to return to the side-lines for 0.
With the ship very much in need of steadying Roachy stepped
out and all hope was on his naturally defensive style curtailing
the imminent collapse. JR played a few deliveries from the
second bowler without much trouble and managing to take a
single from the last ball. He then faced the opening bowler
who immediately welcomed him with a half-tracker played at
chest height off the splice of the bat. JR, quite rightly,
protested at the unnecessarily aggressive bowling. Their captain
took little notice, choosing to smile off the comment and
allowed his bowler to continue. The second ball was identical,
JR took a stride forward and ended up having to play the ball
in front of his face, this time with the handle. In frustration
at the hostile bowling JR walked off the square, threw his
bat and directed some choice words at the St Fagans captain
who again dealt with the protest with a smile and shrug of
the shoulders. Captain Cheese, umpiring at square leg, stepped
in at this point. Fearing that the SF captain’s understanding
of a Sunday friendly was somewhat different to the rest of
ours he reiterated JR’s concerns about having his face
broken for the sake of a friendly game of cricket. SF’s
captain could only defend the bowling by informing Ed that
the bowler hadn’t played for 3 years yet he made no
attempt to ask him to pitch the ball up.
The ‘rusty’ bowler took it upon himself to pitch
the next few deliveries up. Roachy eventually fell for 3 caught.
Maria came in to bat next and he and Steve began to build
a partnership together. Rusty, now bowling at a revised length,
found himself at the mercy of Stevo’s aggressive style
who began scoring more freely including a massive straight
6 which landed in the middle of the adjacent field. Maria
provided support with a range of good looking shots eventually
being bowled for 12.
Steve and Cheese continued the innings proving that the
bowling could be dealt with. Steveo’s innings eventually
came to an end when he was bowled by the dreaded straight
one but not before he had amassed 36 putting the Casuals back
in the game.
Captain Cheese, entirely untroubled by the bowling, put
his repertoire of shots to good use and began scoring all
around the ground. Pete O provided much needed support at
the other end and Cheese soon passed the 50 mark. Not content
with the half ton, Cheesy continued to go after every ball.
Pete O departed on 1 to be replaced by Shakey who continued
the supporting role. He and Ed upped the score by another
40-odd until Shakes’ fine knock ended on 13 when he
gifted SF another catch trying to up the run rate.
Pete T finished with 3 not out and did enough to give Cheese
an opportunity to get his century, he did so in style with
a 6 in the last over to take him to 101 not out and the Casuals
to a respectable 202.
The rain eventually came in around the 38th over and before
tea the pitch was covered.
Tea was taken in the club house and while it was a decent
spread some Casuals felt there wasn’t quite enough of
it. Perhaps it was due to the rain lashing down at this point
that the Casz had turned their attention to eating but despite
this after a lengthy tea break there was a break in the rain
and even some glimpses of blue sky in the distance.
The covers were removed, the sun came out and play continued.
Their opening pair looked in good form and they put on about
80 before the Casuals got their first break through, Paul
with the wicket. The lack of detail here is due to the score
book not being completed. The wicket of the other opener was
taken by Shakes and was the beginning of a catastrophic collapse
for St Fagans. The next 7 batsmen managed to score only 27
due to a combination of excellent bowling, tight fielding
and in the lower order sheer lack of talent. Maria and Pete
T were unlucky not to pick up any wickets but both were extremely
economical going for just 10 and 17 from 8 overs respectively.
Roachy eventually got his own back by picking up 2 in 2 overs.
Pete O also took 2 wickets from his 6 overs as did Paul from
4. Shakes and Gaz claimed 1 each. And Tesh picked up 1 at
the end when the batsmen tried to play at one which and been
slung down leg side only to take out all three of his stumps
with the bat.
St Fagans managed to limp to a score of 106 all out.
A victory snatched from the jaws of defeat made possible
only because Ed played one of the best captains innings in
recent Casuals history.
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