Monthly Archives: September 2014

Whaling disbelief

Believers CC V Whalers CC 14th Sept 2014

Believers (110ao) beat Whalers (69ao) by 41 runs

The Whalers gathered for what they hoped would be a winning end to the season. A winning season. A season which would end with over 2000 runs, 117 wickets, 57 catches, 3 centuries, 5 half centuries and an unspecified number of ducks.

Our opposition for the day were the Believers, location deepest darkest Morden. It would be a timed game so the onus would be on the bowling team to get quick wickets and put the game to bed early.

Skipper Dan won the toss and elected to bowl in what looked like perfect weather for a bit of swing.

The Whalers were not to be disappointed. Opening with Khalil and Nick the Whalers got two quick wickets within three overs. Both Khalil and Nick were extremely efficient and the run scoring was down to one or two an over.

When Lucas and Kamal were brought on the weather had improved somewhat and the believers dug in. Luckett and his heavy balls were brought in to replace Lucas. A sharp catch in the field by Osgood saw the high scoring opener leave the grounds while Luckett basked in glory. Despite the heroics he was replaced soon after by El Presidente. Al immediately had an impact when the number four looped one up in the air. Calls of ‘catch it’ brought a slumbering Gilo alive and her thundered to his right taking a very good running catch. A huge Monty Panasar style celebration ensued.

Seeing the President steal the glory must have inspired Kamal as he took the number five’s wicket after another sharp catch in the field, this time by Howes. With Nick holding onto this catch unlike his last five efforts in previous games the Whalers were having a good day in the field.

The pressure was on the Believers who were 70 for 5 of 20 over. El-Presidente was not done. Oh no. Not by a long shot. He struck again, this time bowling the batsmen clean out. Tariq replaced Kamal at the other end and was soon dancing down the wicket when the number 7 batsman was caught plumb LBW. The Believers were 90 for 7. Dickenson was up again and took a very decent caught and bowled taking his tally to 3 wickets for a mere 14 runs of 4 overs.

Enough was enough and Lucas was brought in to finish the Believers innings. He didn’t disappoint after bowling the number 10 for a duck and then dismissing the number 11, who edged a sharp catch to Channa who was at second slip.

The Believers were all out for 110 off 43 overs.

With a relatively low score to get, and almost unlimited overs to get it in, the Whalers settled down to a very good tea prepared by the Believers. It was the last game of the season and it would be good to go out on a high.

The Whalers took to the crease with El-Presidente Dickenson and Luckett opening the batting. The light was poor and staring into the glare of the waning sunlight, something truly horrific happened. In the first over, Al miss-timed the ball and gave their opening bowler (Hawkes) a simple caught and bowled. The very next ball Channa, who couldn’t see the ball due to the glare, heard the death rattle of his wicket. The sound was drowned out by the rapturous celebrations of the Believers. Tariq came to the crease and managed to dig out the remaining balls of the over. Next over, Luckett takes a mighty swing only to hear his wicket smash to pieces behind him. The Whalers were 2 for 3 of 2 overs. That’s almost the worst start in the history of cricket.

Anton, on loan from the Believers managed to hold out for a while and Tariq on the other end started chipping out the runs. In the ninth over, after an epic amount of dots to his name, Anton was bowled by Hawkes. Osgood who replaced Anton, only managed three runs before he too was bowled by Hawkes in the 12th over.

Unlucky over 13 was a repeat of over 1. Hawkes first took Gilo’s middle wicket out of action, then got Khalil to edge one to slip. A few overs later, Hawkes managed to temp Matt into driving and a good catch in the slips saw the Whalers tumble to 27 for 8.

Tariq was still at the crease and there was a slight resurgence when Nick joined him there. They stayed together for a record 5 overs, stealing the odd one or two. Eventually this partnership ended when Nick was bowled by the first change bowler. Whalers were 38 for 9.

Tariq and Kamal spent even more time together and with the ones and twos flowing well the Whalers looked like they were going to get past 50. Kamal hit two beautiful boundaries, one of which was a lovely square cut.

Eventually though, we ran out of luck. Tariq, who had made a gritty 42, was bowled while trying to late cut a straight ball.

It was all over. The Whalers were all out for 69. The Believers jubilant after only their second win of the season.

Clearly the pick of their bowlers was skipper Hawkes who took 6 wickers for 12 runs of 11 overs.

Apart from the tail end wag and Tariq’s 42, the Whalers batting had been abysmal It was mentioned by one or two of the batsmen that the glare made it difficult to see the ball but whatever the reason, it was a tough day in the field. Never mind. Cricket is a cruel and unusual mistress. No doubt we will all be back next year to suckle on the teat of victory!

Bring on 2015!

 

MoM – Tariq for a gritty 42

Champage Moment – Gilos running catch and monty’esk celebration.

Muppet Moment – Anton fielding the ball with his balls. Awarded by proxy to Geoff Judd who is back in the country and came along to catch up with the Whalers.

CK helmet confusion

Village CC vs Whalers CC

Saturday 6 September 2014; Peter May Sports Ground

Village CC (177-8) beat Whalers (118ao) by 59 runs

The Whalers convened in deepest darkest North East London for their penultimate game of the season which was against new opposition Village CC. The Whalers also fielded too CK’s for the first time with Channa being demoted to CK2 by Salix’s CK1. There had been some drizzle on the way to the game and the pitch looked quite green so captain Pip decided to bowl first. Khalil and Matt (after a shoe faff) opened and both bowled well getting some movement from the pitch to restrict Village to 20-3 from the first 10 overs (including a good catch from CK2). Batmen 1 (De Mellow) and 5 (Troja) weathered the early movement and both then started to get into their stride dispatching anything loose (included Nick’s first ball which was a head high beamer that was swatted for a huge six) so that they had moved to 70-3 at the 20 over drink point.

The old adage of drinks brings a wicket worked well as De Mellow went for another big shot only to hole out to JT on the long-off boundary. It was a real skyer so JT did very well to hold on. This bought Gupta to the crease who continued to move the score along with Troja who now looked in fine form and passed 50 but fell shortly after to a smart catch from Pip in the covers off the bowling of CK1. At the other end another debutant Tariq was bowling well and wickets started to fall regularly although the fast outfield and flattening pitch made it hard to keep the runs down. Tariq finished with 3 for 41 and then Matt and Khalil came back for the last few overs. Khalil took his third wicket to finish with 3 for 16 Village had made 177 for 8 from their 40 overs. This was more than it looked like they would get at drinks and would be a difficult chase.

After a great tea provided by Kamal, Al and CK2 went out to start the Whalers reply. The Village opening bowlers looked accurate and dangerous straight away and Al was out in the 3rd over playing on to a ball which nipped back. CK2 then shouldered arms to a ball which was hitting middle stump (cue strop) and Tariq played around an inswinger to leave the Whalers on 18-3 after 6 overs.  Pip and CK1 then started to build a partnership and took the score to 46 before CK1 was bowled. Pip was playing very nicely and after JT went for 6, Matt joined him to take the score to 80-5 at the 18th over. We were up with the rate however would the loss of wickets hurt us. The answer was yes as Pip changed his mind at the last minute to late cut a wide delivery to be caught in the slips for 37. Jack came to crease and played a lovely drive before being turned back looking for a second run and being stranded on his back as he had pulled his groin. Troja was now into the attack bowling a variety of leg-spin, off-spin and some topspinners at a good pace and very accurately (which is very rare for the Whalers to face). He bowled Nick with a peach which pitched outside leg stump and hit the top of off. He also removed Matt lbw for 16 and after a few meaty blows from Khalil ended with him top-edging another Troja delivery we were all out for 118.

The Whalers then retired to a very dodgy pub which was just starting a school disco for the post-match analysis. JT was awarded Champagne moment for his excellent catch, Channa muppet for deflecting the ball onto the helmet behind him to give away 5 runs and Khalil was man of the match for his excellent bowling.

Whalers continue winning run with classy victory over Cricketers

Whalers CC vs Cricketers CC; Kings House Sports Ground; Sunday 31 August 2014

Whalers CC (197-2) beat Cricketers CC (193-7) by 8 wickets

The Whalers gathered for their final home fixture of the year undefeated in domestic matches since June. With Cricketers having won all encounters in the last three years between the teams something had to give.

After biking out to do a preliminary pitch inspection on Pitch B (presumably a helicopter would have been chartered for Pitch D) Dan won the toss and decided despite a flat looking track to make use of a strong bowling line-up and invite the Cricketers to have first use. Bowling first seems to have become the new batting first.

Newcomer Jack and Ed K opened the bowling with Cricketers making a cautious start but once in comfortably dismissed bad balls to the boundary and it took the introduction of Nick Howes to establish the first breakthrough with a fine delivery nipped back to peg the top of off with the batsman not playing a shot. There followed a similar passage of play as the new batsman settled and then became more expansive before Kamal at the other end took the wicket of the opener confidently caught by James Gould once he realised no-one else could catch it for him and Cricketers were 72-2.

There was no let-up from the Cricketers though as their number 3 Tom looked increasingly impressive and with the pitch true Whalers did well to keep a semblance of control under increasing pressure and some tight wide calls. With wickets in hand Cricketers looked well on course for a daunting 220 plus total.

However the Whalers finally broke through after the third wicket had put on 97 with Channa pocketing a skier to give Dan a deserved wicket. Thereafter the Whalers fought back strongly – Jack’s return to the attack finally accounted for Tom as he was bowled for 70, amidst Ed and Nick also joining the action as the Cricketers lost 5 wickets for 11 runs. A brief rally at the end lifted the final total to 193-7 off 35 overs. The Whalers never let heads go down and it was a sterling performance in terms of ground fielding (taking all decent catching chances) and bowling with Nick the pick with 2-25 from his 7 overs. Overall the score looked about par, but chases of nearly 200 are rarely simple affairs with the Whalers.

Dan entrusted opening to Stu and Al, and after Al forgetting whether he was batting 1 or 2 they made a calm start to the chase with some sharp running and rotating the strike. Patience proved key and aside from some confusions regarding dead balls and no balls Whalers progress was untroubled until Stu managed to injure himself with an overly aggressive hook shot. Otherwise there were no real alarms before drinks where the Whalers sat at a serene 106 without loss after 17 overs.

However at some point during the tea break Paul Luckett moved from his lucky sitting position causing Al to be out to possibly the plumbest LBW in history for 36 in the first over after drinks, getting himself a go at number 3. It was a brief visit though after a few swings and misses he was bowled for a duck and James Gould number 4 (correction required? – Ed) ventured to the crease. By now Stu had passed 50 and James looked composed and the Whalers closed in on an ultimately comfortable victory that represented a fantastic comeback after the Cricketers early dominance with the bat. There was still plenty of time for Stu to get to his ton and he finished on 104* (using his second choice bat) clattering the winning runs for 4 with 5 overs remaining and James completed a solid all round performance with an unbeaten 27.

A very satisfying victory for the Whalers ensuring a ‘winning season’ with two games to spare, sticking to their task brilliantly when up against it in the field and a solid chase always keeping on top of the rate.

Man of the Match: Stuart Terrell 104*

Champagne moment: Nick third ball to take first Cricketer’s wicket

Muppet moment: Dan’s umpiring fiasco – ultimately proved to be correct after reference to the laws, but once it’s in the book….