Quokkas CC 181-9 (Rashid 53, Sohail 44, Josh 27) lost to Whalers CC 227 all out (Harry 3-26, Sohail 2-42, Evil 2-50, Rashid 1-8)
I’m almost 50 years of age. Reaching 50 FFS. How on earth did that happen?
It seems like five minutes ago I was watching athletes three times my age competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and now, out of know where, I’m three times the age of the athletes that I will be watching in Paris 2024. Having enjoyed cheering on the Iranian Roman Grecko wrestlers during London 2012, we’re doing the same in Paris, with the added fun of archery, handball, basketball, table tennis, badminton and swimming. I, like most of you, have almost no interest in these sports normally, but the Olympics somehow manages to draw you in. I draw the line at breakdancing though. If watching those guys doesn’t make you feel old, nothing will.
Mrs Seagull says: “There is no point in complaining about getting old, just enjoy the time you have.”
“OK, good thinking. I will therefore be playing cricket on both Saturday and Sunday next weekend luv.”
“Hmmm.”
I suspect hearing about my forthcoming holiday and me moaning about getting old is about as interesting as listening to people recount what they dreamt about last night. So, let’s get to the cricket.
And what a cracking game it was. We took four wickets for seven runs from the first four overs. Some start and one, you’d think, that would see us to victory. It didn’t, but more of that later. On a lovely sunny afternoon in Barnes Elms, Harry the Great came of age, taking the new ball and tearing our opponents’ top order to shreds. It was a fast, ferocious and quite frankly terrifying spell of bowling (Ed: Despite wicketkeeping gloves, my sore hands can testify to that). With the pitch offering both pace and bounce, the batsman had no chance. Faggie bowled OK too. Well, at least for three overs. The less said about the fourth the better. I’m being harsh here…and that feels good, because when we batted, he triggered me despite me earlier turning down a LBW appeal when he was absolutely plumb. I digress.
Despite the great start, sadly, we didn’t get both openers out, and the other one went on to get 105 thanks partly to Seagull dropping a rudimentary chance behind the stumps when he had scored about 10. After 12 overs, somehow those seven runs conceded had become 103 runs. The moon ball, the snowball, the tunnel ball, and the `almost got to the other end’ ball didn’t seem to cause much concern, except to the gaggle of Quokkettes and children beyond the boundary dodging sixes.
Just as things looked like they were getting out of hand, debutant Umair took a solid catch at cover when Evil Dave finally bowled one outside off stump. He grabbed a second wicket, with the next ball, this time clean bowling the number eight. Five slips, a leg slip and a very silly mid-on waited in much anticipation for the hattrick ball only for Evil to chuck down something you are more likely to attribute to the medium-paced Egg. Needless to say, the third wicket wasn’t forthcoming.
Sohail got in on the act too, dislodging off stump and then getting a second wicket. I am not sure how though as the relevant information seems to have been redacted from the scorebook. Unfortunately, our opponents only had nine players, which meant their number three returned for a second go and he had more success second time around. We eventually ran him out to close the innings, but by then a large total of 227 had been set.
Despite `dropping the Ashes’, Seagull had a reasonable day behind the stumps, just about avoiding having his head taken off by Harry’s bouncers and claiming two catches, much to his own surprise. That wasn’t the case for Rashid, who saw his life flash before him as an edge, moving at Mach 2, grazed his head on its way to the boundary. For once, Radio John didn’t injure himself, despite chucking himself around in the field, all be it in slow motion. Josh, identified by Skip as the new Binman, due to his enthusiasm in the field and smart bowling. [Ed: I struggle to see the connection with Binman] managed to slow the runs down and we look forward to seeing much more of him in a Quokkas shirt.
During tea there was much horse trading of sandwiches, discussion about the chances of Iran medalling in the Roman Grecko wrestling, Seagull admitted to stalking Mrs Egg on Facebook and there was an intrinsic look at Southampton’s transfer policy with the Wally Downes signing coming under much scrutiny. As much fun as that was, we had a few runs to knock off, and out to the middle strode Radio John and Rashid.
After two balls things were going really well. And then Radio picked out the gully fielder. Thanks for making that 2.5 hour drive mate. With Faggie and Umair both struggling to trouble the scorer, you could perhaps say the bowling was challenging. Thankfully, Rashid stood firm, rode his luck a little, before then taking on the bowlers whenever given the opportunity. With a mixture of dots and boundaries he somehow `slowly and surely raced’ to a half century.
When he was out, Sohail and Josh carried on the good work, hitting some lovely shots and running well between the wickets. At 146 for 4 after 25 overs, we were well in the game. When both men were out soon after things looked a little different. There was batting still to come, but despite the best efforts of Harry, Evil Dave and Seagull, the run rate started to climb, dramatically. With last men standing Egg and Skip came to the crease they needed to score about 60 off the last 4 overs. Unsurprisingly, they fell a few runs short. Time wasn’t on their side either. Such is life.
Seagull (Yeah I know, I look much younger)