Date: Sunday, February 2, 2025
Location: Fairfield Oval , Fairfield, VIC
Time: 1.45pm start
Captain: Sizzle
Conditions
It was hot, faaaaarkin hot. Our usual start time was moved from 12:30 to 47 degrees AEST.
Details
During the week we had more than a full squad. Come game day, we just scraped an XI together. Ice Man knows how to leave the ball but apparently not a 23rd beer the night before a match. Other withdrawals were more understandable but questionable nonetheless. Hair appointment anyone?
It was agreed to split the innings to prevent players going down like the proverbial in the heat. This unusual match scenario led to an unwanted record for the Quokkas - first pub cricket team to lose by an innings! The captain should be proud (or subject to an internal review).
Standard won the bat flip and sent us in. Ed and F1 got us off to a flyer - 16 runs from the first over. After that the run rate dropped as fast as the temperature lifted.
5/70 at drinks/innings break and we thought we had enough runs to bowl at. Enter dubious captaining stage right.
Quokkas were valiant and vocal in the field - especially with “Blenheim Ed” roving the deep square boundary - but the heat was starting to take its toll. When everyone was wondering when the drinks break is after the first over, it was gonna be a slog. The Standard obliged, slogging their way to 5/117 by drinks/innings break.
Gathered under Fairfield’s perspex hothouse awning, teams rehydrated in various ways. Notable inclusions being zooper doopers and post war depression era cooling techniques. Ice was the order of the day, and not the glass bbq variety.
Coming out to bat for our second innings, Ed “joked” about not scoring enough runs to make The Standard bat again. Turns out it was a tactical stroke of genius.
Dusty’s 13 off 20 (high score?!) including a glorious 6 (his first!) wasn’t enough to reel in the total and The Quokkas were all out for 109. A strike rate of 0.41 runs for every degree of soul sapping heat.
The Quokkas lost by an innings but didn’t lose any more pride (was there any left?!) by going back out to bowl again.
As always, cricket (and the heat) was the real winner on the day.