Quokkas CC 237-4 (Saleem 51 not out, Seagull 47 not out, Faggie 43) beat Wantage & Grove CC 172-5 (Hamza 1-20, Sohail 1-11, Dave 1-24)
I’m a `Clarkson’s Farm’ fan. OK, the guy is a proper wazzock, but I like how the series shed a light on the reality of farming and provided some insight into just how bloody hard it is. My Dad worked on a farm in his younger years, and consequently we were regularly forced to visit the Teesdales at their farm in Sykehouse whenever we ventured back up to Yorkshire. Helping to deliver, what turned out to be a dead calf, was a particularly haunting childhood memory, but it wasn’t all bad. Getting to ride in the cab of a cattlebox, drive a tractor and load hay bales in the glorious summer sunshine created a lasting affinity to farming.
The relationship between the general public and farmers is a strange one. These people are performing a public service by basically keeping us alive, but while they flog themselves to death for buttons, we just moan about slow driving tractors and the stink of silage. You have to laugh at the townies who move to the country and then complain about the noise made by the animals. I found myself behind a tractor for about ten miles on the way to the game at Wantage. Bloody farmers. Don’t they know I have a cricket match to get to? Actually, I couldn’t keep up, I think his Massy Ferguson must have been tuned by a Yak family member.
To be honest, it’s such a nice part of the world, I was more than happy to make my way slowly to the ground through the beautiful countryside. Once at the game, it was a different story. England were due to face Slovakia in Euro 2024, so if we wanted to catch some of the match, we needed to get a wriggle on. An early start and 30 overs each meant we would only miss the first half, but nevertheless the Quokkas batsman seemed very keen to move things along. And for once, I don’t mean by getting out quickly. Well, some of them anyway.
Sohail and Ali, not known for hanging around, opened the batting and the first three overs went for 25 runs, with a nice mix of orthodox and agricultural shots. Sohail was then out, no prizes for guessing how (Ed: you reap what you sow) and Ali followed him two overs later. It says “bowled” in the book, but that must be a mistake. Faggie and debutant Saleem (Ed: the Birmingham Quokkas franchise looks to be taking shape nicely) took up the `reins’ and they added 98 runs (Ed: I am disappointed you didn’t take the opportunity to mention the nice rotation of strike, cultivation of singles and harvesting of runs) before Faggie fell just short of his half century.
Saleem then retired, having made 51, paving the way for Skip and Seagull to plough us on towards 200. When Skip was out for 24, Evil scythed the ball to all parts, making a quick twenty from 8 balls, which helped set our hosts a very tough target of 238. Could this be the Quokkas first victory of the season? Tea was taken swiftly. There was no time for grazing in the good field or idle chit chat as we had a football game to watch. Having said that, I do recall there being several exceedingly good cakes consumed and a slight disagreement as to the likelihood that Southgate would get a knighthood. Skip seemed pretty positive about it though.
With pace being very much the order of the day, Jeremy and Hamza opened the bowling. Once he found his range and the strip we were playing on, the latter broke the deadlock with a lovely delivery that had his man trapped in front. After which we struggled to make another breakthrough, but kept it pretty tight. New batsman did come to the crease though, as illness and injury forced not one, but two retirements. Skip then winkled out batsman number four and Evil grabbed a wicket soon after. A mix up between batters enabled a simple run out and then Sohail got the fifth wicket with the very next ball – a beauty that removed the off stump [Ed: Really? Probably not].
At 155-5 the game was ours, but despite overs from Faggie, Radio, Seagull and Ali we failed to take another wicket and our hosts finished on 172-5. Lovely. A first win of the season for the Quokkas and thankfully England were only a goal behind.
Seagull Miss you Dad.