Jolly Sailor - 10th August
Posted Monday, August 18, 2008
E-mail this page 
Printer-friendly page
Beaten by several wickets with a lot of overs to spare ...
Sunseekers 185 - 7(ish) Ashton - 60; Taylor S - 45; Woodward - 27
"The only difference between the two sides was the batting, the bowling and the fielding"
Under threatening skies and with a strong wond blowing, Jim Taylor got us off to a lively start, which gave rise to some dressing room discussion of a 400 plus score for the day at the end of the first over ... OK, back to reality! When Jim was bowled a few overs later, Carpo took on the hitting role with a nicely struck half volley and the score rolled on, that is until the 9th over when some tight fast bowling by Jolly Sailor Dan slowed things down somewhat. Howard had been collecting runs steadily at one end since the start and went a little mad in the 14th over, adding 18 to the score and leaving Gibbo at the other end to face Dan. He seemed untroubled whilst he settled in but was bowled by a cruel ball which hardly bounced. Steve Nichols then grafted for runs but fell to a superb reaction catch in the slips.
Kaleb (I think that is the right name) took over from Dan and dished up 3 consecutive maidens, however, the arrival of secret weapon Sam Taylor spoilt that, striking the ball very well right from the off. A few overs later, the Sailors managed to claim the elusive wicket of Howard - it needed another superb slip catch. Yours truly then managed to avoid the customary duck and even managed to hit a 6, nearly taking out several members of a family watching from the just outside the boundary. At the very end of the innings, Dan came back on but Robin and Will managed to keep the score ticking to achieve our final total of 185.
The bowling started well with Sam pulling a muscle as he put a bit extra into his second ball (which promptly went flying over both the batsman and keeper). The openers did not hang around and pushed the score on fairly quickly, though Sam, still struggling, delivered an absolute purler. It pitched outside off and jagged back through the gate to send the stumps cartwheeling. Sam was pretty chuffed as this particular batsman was averaging over 100! Despite the best efforts of Will, Tom and everyone else who bowled, plus a few wickets falling, the Sailors hard-hitting continued and the inevitable result was achieved leaving us with an early finish.
Strange but (possibly) true - Carpo commented that it was the first match that he could remember playing in when 8 different balls had been used. Glad someone was bored enough to count!
Champagne moment contenders - Robin winning the sweepstake about where my box would finally end up since I had neglected to wear my batting kecks, in anticipation of my usual 2 or 3 balls only at the crease! Or possibly the 43 mile run that Tom went on after the match in order to secure a packet of cigarettes!
