Monthly Archives: June 2014

Whalers play Lemmings and bat like…..you know the rest

Sunday 22 June 2014.

Whalers vs Lemmings at King’s House Sports Ground

Lemmings – 98 all out

Whalers – 59 all out

 

A warm summers day, familiar & friendly foe, the closest pitch to the pavilion. The omens were good and the scene was set for a crushing Whalers victory. Of course, it was somewhat of an experimental line up, with four debutants, including one that had never previously picked up a cricket bat, and another that last swung a bat in anger a little over 20 years previously and was only 12 hours back from his honeymoon. Still with eleven enthusiastic Whalers present, Skipper Pete was so confident he didn’t even need to look at the pitch before offering the Lemmings to bat without even a cursory toss.

 

The confidence was for a reason. Khalil and debutant Bernard were opening the bowling. Khalil bowled beautifully on the line of off stump or just outside, and reward for his first four overs was one wicket for a measly 6 runs. Bernard, borrowed at the last minute from Energy Exiles, was a little less consistent with line and length, but more than made up for it with the hand of God. Twice, Lemmings hammered drives destined for the boundary, leaving the umpire diving for cover, but Bernard snuck out a hand and the catches were held. Behind the stumps, Channa got in the act to give Bernard a third wicket. Once removed from the act, Bernard refused to be left out and secured a tidy run out, while Sandy bowled out the number 7. The odd catch was missed (mostly by Pete), including James stabbing himself in his left thigh with his right boot in a desperate forlorn attempt to take a stunner. Kamal, and debutant Frank joined in the bowling fun, and the runs remained tight. The Lemmings were in tatters – 6 down with less than 50 on the board, and the debate was about whether we should permit the lowest scorer to come back in again. A late order flurry helped Lemmings to a respectable 98, with James (yet another blinding catch from Bernard), Pip and Kamal each taking a wicket.

 

Quite what was in the tea was never fully established, but it worked for the Lemmings and against the Whalers. A promising shot first ball from Channa secured two runs, but that was about as good as it got. He was LBW 2nd Ball to Baker. Pete was bowled in the second over for 0. Newly married Guy successfully jumped out of the way of a nice juicy full toss to be 3rd out in the 3rd over, and second duck of the innings. Pip was bowled on the 7th ball of the 4th over for 0 (better counting required from the on field umpires). After 7 overs, the Whalers had scored 6 runs for the loss of 6 wickets, and Channa’s score of 2 was second only to wides. Sandy chose to make the rest of the Whalers look foolish by casually driving Baker who by now had 5 wickets, playing him off his hips, and through 3rd man. A partnership of 20 odd with James (a workman like 2 runs) took the score up to 30, before Khalil joined Sandy at the crease to rise the score past our record low score (36ish), and once Sandy finally perished for 25 (after “hitting it too well”), Kamal helped Khalil (13*) lift the score to 59, before becoming the 7th duck of the innings. A catastrophe, although perhaps a more positive way of looking at it was that we only lost by 39 runs!

 

The good news for the end of season bash is that fines were understandably heavy. Bernard was awarded champagne moment for his incredible ‘hand of God catch’, and man of the match for the 3 wickets, 3 catches (including 2 caught & bowled) and one run out, while Guy was awarded muppet for his Chris Read moment.

Energy Exiles overcome Whalers

Energy Exiles 190/7 (35) beat Whalers 150 a.o. by 40 runs

Dundonald Recreation Ground 15 June 2014

The Whalers were a bit low on numbers this week, only 10 on the list and then Kev (skipper) had to hand over the reins to Al because of injury. Luckily the Exiles were over-subscribed and they kindly lent us Martin, so we had 10.

It was a cloudy day with an easterly breeze (in fact a bit chilly). Al won the toss and put us into the field for 35 overs.

Khalil opened the bowling with Sandy. Both did well but finding that first wicket wasn’t easy and the Exiles were scoring swiftly. The breakthrough came when Dario took a low catch in the covers off Khalil. Although the score board was moving along the batsmen were not afraid to play their shots and chances were coming. Khalil had a nick dropped behind and plenty of mis-hit balls were dropping into space rather than to a fielder.

Pip was the first change bowler to replace Sandy and made an impact straight away. After a couple of looseners he got his flight going and made the batsmen work until finally a mis-hit drive was taken well by Al at Mid-On. After that Kamal kept one end tight and Pip was replaced by Stu who grafted at the other end but the Exiles were working the runs and we were really missing that extra man in the field..the next wicket was becoming more and more urgent.

Khalil returned to the attack with extra vigour and immediately made an impact by tearing the No4 batsman’s off-stump out of the ground. It was an all-important wicket and we were back in the game. Stu then joined the party by taking a hat-trick of wickets but the Exiles’ No2 batsman was staying stubbornly at the crease, and although he was living life precariously by giving a chance here and there, we could not take that crucial catch or get an LBW decision to send him back to the pavilion. As the scoreboard was ticking past the 150 mark and the run-rate heading toward 5 an over we were starting to get concerned.

As the end of the innings drew closer the Exiles were pushing the runs a bit harder and run-outs started to come our way. Pip swooped onto one chance with a wonderful balletic action to demolish the stumps but his graceful demeanour turned to a proper strop and harrumph as the umpire didn’t give it out. At the close their No2 remained unbeaten and he was warmly clapped back to the pavilion for an excellent, gritty innings.

Khalil 7overs 16 for 2

Kamal 7overs 23 for 0

Terrell 6overs 42 for 3

English 4overs 24 for 1

So our target for the win was 191. By the time we’d finished tea it was 4.30pm. Pip had to leave at 5pm so he faced the first ball and as he and Dario strode out to the middle Al gave some wise words “take your time, 30mins is longer than you think”. As it happens Pip had nothing to worry about because he was walking back 2mins later after nicking the first ball to the keeper. Dario didn’t last much longer as he swished one to point and the hard task the whalers had in front of them looked an awful lot harder. What we needed now was a stand to steady this rocking ship and with Stu and Jimmy G at the crease that’s exactly what we got. Because of the required run-rate they both took a few risks and it was paying off as they both scored frequently and Stu quickly reached the 40s, mostly scored in boundaries (including a 6). Ironically Stu was clean bowled attempting an orthodox forward defence but after a stand of 72 the Whalers were in much better shape than 13 overs ago. Al spent a few overs at the crease facing the Exile medium pace before realising that he’d forgotten a piece of crucial kit, a quick dash back to the boundary to retrieve his box and we were on our way again.

Although we were not quite achieving the required run-rate, we were in touch, and there was still hope that a late flurry of runs could get us to the finish line. But after Al, Jimmy and Sandy went in quick succession the target was starting to look very far away indeed. Martin (helping us out from the Exiles) played well but we weren’t getting the boundaries we needed to stay in touch. So when Roland was bowled and Khalil was out for a duck that was that and the Exiles eventually won by 40 runs.

Terrell 44

Gould 49

It was a tight match as usual against the Energy Exiles but we really missed the 11th man which made a few dropped catches and losing some early wickets even more damaging than they otherwise would have been. The Exiles were worthy winners this time but we’ll have a chance to equal the score in a few weeks’ time when we host them at Kings House.

 

MOM                    James Gould 49runs and bowling well in the final overs
Champagne        Khalil’s off stump out of ground to dismiss key batsmen at start of second spell
Muppet               Al for forgetting box

 

Cricketers edge out Whalers

Whalers lose to Cricketers by 3 wickets

The Whalers’ annual pilgrimage to Richmond Green didn’t start well, with news that for some unknown reason JT had decided that it was more important to go to his own engagement do rather than play cricket for the mighty Whale. One man down, with some of the team still stuck in “rugby traffic”, and with the pitch looking like a cross between a dustbowl and the park we played at in Brussels on Al’s stag, it was a good toss to lose. We won it, and were batting.

The Cricketers openers were very accurate and within a few overs both Pip and Al were back with the picnickers on the boundary. There then followed what Geoff Boycott would describe as “proper creeckit”, as Stu and Dario got to grips with a pitch where it would either keep low or pop up but whatever it did, it would do it very slowly. After 15 overs we had scored a massive 27 runs, and Dario still hadn’t got off the mark. But at least we hadn’t lost any more wickets, and gradually the scoring rate picked up. Stu top-scored with 33, Dario (slowly) and Ed (quickly) both got 21, and with everyone else chipping in and Nick top-edging one into his forehead, we eventually closed on 127 for 7.

In reply, the Cricketers openers were clearly more used to playing on this pitch and batted sensibly. Although Dan and Nick kept things tight, by halfway they were 63 for 0 and it had all gone a bit quiet. However, Rob Eberstein accounted for both openers and we were back in the game. A flurry of wickets followed for Kamal, Pip and Ed, who bowled excellently to finish with 3-21. With 12 runs still needed from the last 4 overs, another unlikely Whalers victory seemed possible. Sadly it was not to be, as the Cricketers number 9 knocked off the remaining runs, leaving the Whalers to reflect on what might have been had we scored another 10-20 runs or taken our catches – with at least four clear chances going down.

So for the second week in a row the Whalers narrowly failed to defend 127 despite a great bowling + fielding effort. Man of the match was Ed for his all-round contribution, champagne moment was a great diving catch from Roland, and muppet moment was Al’s dropped skier. Roll on the tour!

Whalers 127 for 7 from 35 overs (Stu 33)
Cricketers 128 for 7 from 33.4 overs (Ed 3-21)