Belhus CC 237 for 5 (Jez 2-20, Seagull 1-8) beat Quokkas CC 209 all out (Irfan 54, Jez 31, Josh 24, river 22)
Shit. I’m writing this match report in October and it has just dawned on me that I may have forgotten to pay the Dartford Crossing toll for the journey to Belhus. I’ve not heard anything, but no doubt the bailiffs are just waiting for my debt to reach six figures before getting in touch. If I can’t remember to do that, what chance do I have remembering who did what to who against Belhus CC five months ago? Let me try and find a scorecard and then I’ll make some stuff up.
You may recall we have played these guys before and thanks to Tugboat, Arunav and Faggie we knocked off over 250 runs with nine wickets to spare. Our opponents certainly do and there were noticeably less colts in their side than last time. The national indoor cricket champions were taking no chances against their formidable opponents. They needn’t have bothered. Although, despite Faggie pulling out because of old age and Viren doing the same due to a Yorker-induced crushed big toe we did have a full team at least. On a very decent batting track, there was no messing about by their skipper and we were asked to bowl, possibly.
What is certain, it that Jez opened the bowling with Evil Dave. There was a slight contrast in performances. Jez took two wickets for 20 from his five overs, while Evil went wicketless and conceded 47 runs from his four. To be fair to Dave, stats don’t tell you everything, that’s my job, and I can tell you he was lucky it wasn’t more runs.
Actually, it was tough going for pretty much every bowler, with Irfan, Driver and Tugboat all leaking at least 6 runs an over. Irfan did claim a wicket, with their number 3 batter out lbw for a duck, but three undefeated batters (two of which retired having reached fifty) made lightwork of passing two hundred. The retirements did create a mini collapse or sorts, with Dave getting their number 6 out for a duck with an amazing run out from miles out, Driver getting the number 7 out for a duck before Seagull clean bowled the number 8, also for a duck. Despite this late rally, the hosts had scored 237.
The much-anticipated tea was very disappointing. The promised fast food that helped add Driver to the ranks never materialised. In fact, there were no teas at all. Good luck getting us back to Essex in months’ time. As a result, conversation was sparse, and topics mostly focused on the demise of society due to ever decreasing standards.
A tea-less effected reply saw both Tugboat and Rashid out for singe figures, followed not too long after by Ali. Perhaps that lovely batting track mentioned earlier wasn’t as flat as it looked. It was. And Josh and Irfan proved it by adding a half century partnership until Josh fell lbw. Not sure who triggered him, but they must have missed the Skip memo. Umair and his mate Ali quickly followed, which left us a fair bit of work to do with just three wickets left. A few lusty blows from Driver got us back on track and then Jez joined the party. In truth, we were a long way behind the run rate, but they and Evil Dave provided some great entertainment and got us past 200. A wicket from the first ball of the penultimate over meant we ended 28 runs short. A pretty solid display from the Quokkas. Chuck a KFC bucket into the mix and who knows what the outcome would have been.
Seagull.