After much
email debate during the week, the Whalers gathered for the first match of the
2007 season in sunny Chiswick. At first sight it looked that Duncs’ preparations for his full debut as captain had been
as thorough as painting white arrows on the path to make sure that no team
members got lost on the way from
Duncs
maintained his 100% record as a tosser and the
Whalers were batting. The start was steady, with most of our runs coming from
Mr Extras, until Oz was fired LBW by Dan, and Pip (on Whalers debut) departed
for 15. This brought together Ollie and Al, and after a bit of early wafting
they decided that attack was the best form of defence and a century partnership
took the score onto 170 before Al was bowled for 36. By now Ollie was middling
the ball beautifully, and he accelerated on to reach his second Whalers ton (at
better than a run a ball) before finally falling for 104. At this point we
looked set for a huge total, but with the exception of Khalil
(27 not out) things fell away slightly and we eventually finished on a still
impressive 257 for 7 from our 40 overs.
Much of the
pre-match email debate had focused on the bowlers’ (in)ability
to bowl straight, with dire warnings of “one-over spells” if it all went wrong.
Whether the Saracens openers were aware of this and had been lulled into a
false sense of security we do not know, but Khalil’s
first ball cannoned into off-stump, the second ball into middle, and the
Saracens were 0 for 2 after 2 balls. With the Whalers on the attack, we even
saw a catch at second slip with Gouldy producing an
offspring-saving catch off Dan. The bowling continued to be very tight and more
wickets followed including catches from Ollie and Pip, and after 10 overs the Saracens had reached 17 for 7 – with 3 wickets
for Khalil and 4 for Dan.
With one
jug for Ollie’s ton already waiting in the bar, Duncs
decided that he’d seen enough from his opening bowlers, and so turned to Clippy and James to finish things off. However, the tail
wagged a bit (aided by the usual contribution/contributor of overthrows) until Clippy roughed them up before bowling a couple of them. The
only remaining question then was whether James could get in on the act and take
the last wicket. Despite vocal encouragement from his housemates (for the
batsmen), the answer was “no” – with the loudest celebration of the day coming
from Rich after bowling the No11. With the Whalers winning by 197 runs, we
retreated to the bar to dole out all the new kit fines and teach James not to
bring the Gould family testicle-coloured box to matches in future.
Match
stats:
Whalers CC
257 for 7 – Ollie 104, Mr Extras 47, Al 36, Khalil
27*
Saracen
Riffs 60 all out – Dan 4 for 6, Khalil 3 for 5 (both
from 5 overs); Clippy 2 for
17, James 0 for 16
Man of the match: Ollie
Champagne moment: Gouldy’s catch
Muppet moment: Phil
having to wear someone else’s sweaty jockstrap