West Midlands Police Veterans
Posted Sunday, June 12, 2005
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West Midlands Police Vets 244/5; Sunseekers 85 all out.
by Steve Nicholls
at Tally-Ho, Birmingham
Crestfallen, the captain knows the game is up. (Brian Bennett: "Just you leave it to me, skip.")
WE'VE had thrashings before, but this didn't feel like one of those non-matches where some semi-pro turns up for a bit of batting or bowling practice at our expense.
True, their opening batsman scored a century, but he wasn't a cocky show-off smashing us into the next field - he just found the gaps very impressively.
And if your author hadn't dropped him when he was on 20 (and again at 120) then the game might have been markedly different.
But, the simple truth was that we didn't bowl, field or bat well.
High points during a 40 overs in the field which saw Sunseekers become increasingly subdued included Fred's accurate spell of eight overs which yielded two wickets, John's equally accurate throw to finally remove said opening batsman and Brian's swooping catch at first slip, which climaxed in a forward dive.
We needed six an over.
At 21 for 5 after 14 overs, things weren't exactly going to plan. Robin's wicket signalled an opening collapse, which saw John, Steve, Jim and Kevin all depart without giving the scorers need to re-sharpen their pencils. Steve, sulking, sadistically drowned a spider in the shower in an attempt to cheer himself up. It didn't help.
Will Evans batted well and captain Chris joined him for a few overs to take us past what had, at one point, seemed a far off 50.
Upon Chris's demise Brian strode - or ambled - purposefully out, having previously declared that the game was still winnable.
Naturally, when BB was out for 4, our fading optimism finally died.
Fred's time at the crease was as short-lived and profitable as Steve's (0) - both having used the same bat. (Hmmm.... told you Fred. We need a new bat.)
When Evans Sr dollied a delivery back into the grateful hands of the bowler, it was all over and Dave Hiscock had another asterisk in the batting averages.
Your author hopes this fixture isn't going to be scrapped from next year's itinerary - not just for geographical reasons, you understand - because we could have given them a better game and, maybe next year we will. Also, the facilities were excellent (the absent captain missing out on a comparitively luxurious WC), they were a genuinely friendly team, mixing with us after the game (when many teams don't) and the food was top notch, even extending to a calorie-building selection of puddings afterwards.
PICS: (For captions, run mouse over image - unless you're on AppleMac, in which case it doesn't work.)
The battle to save the follow on gets off to a bad start....
... and gets worse
"Here's your box back, Fred. It's a bit itchy."
Still, you gotta laugh
Kev in solid defensive mode. (Bowled next ball)
