Whalers CC lost by 148
Runs
On
a gloriously sunny day the Whalers gathered at the beloved CSSC in opposition
to their well matched rivals Elthorne CC. Almost a
year to the day that the Whalers pulled off a nail biting victory against the
very same opposition, all and sundry were wondering if it could be done again.
Unfortunately
for the Whalers one of their recent imports had gone a bit soft in the head and
forgotten that the game was on SATURDAY not SUNDAY. This meant that they would
have to take to the field with a mere 10 men. At this very moment Mr English, who was on his way to a BBQ, walked up to the
huddled circle of Whalers. Before he knew what hit him
he was dressed in oversized whites and blue trainers!
After
losing the toss, Dan strode back to the huddled group and disclosed that on
this scorcher of a day, we would be fielding first. With the wind in our hair,
the new ball was taken up by Dan and Matt and the game began. Straight away the
batmen were given very little space by the bowlers (apart from the odd wide)
and decent close-in fielding saw the opening pair tightly restricted.
Unfortunately for the Whalers there were very few loose strokes and when the
ball was in the air it inevitably fell between two fielders. The opening pair
continued their relentless march but failed to cut loose and eventually both of
them fell (to the bowling of Osgood) between the 30th and 35th
over, with neither batsman making a century. It was another high score for Mr Extras as 28 extras were given to the opposition (most
being wides). Given that the Whalers only had two
late wickets and for half of the game had 10 players on the field (Pip having
disappeared at around the 25th over) Elthorne
would have been disappointed with their 199 for 2.
After
a refreshing tea break, the Whalers opening pair of Dickenson and Bayne strode
to the middle and made a start towards the magic 200 mark. Things were going smoothly
until the 8th over when Mr Bayne was
caught flashing his bat outside off-stump and was caught neatly by the fielder
at point. Ironically this was the same fielder who had dropped Mr Dickenson twice in the previous over. Before the number
3 batsman had a chance to hit a ball Mr Dickenson was
out (bowled), leaving the Whalers on 27 for 2 (9 overs).
Having been in this position (or worse) previously one would have thought that
experience would have helped us through. It was not to be! Whaler after Whaler
was brought down for single digits (or less) eventually slumping to an
embarrassing defeat, having been bowled out for 51 runs in 24 Overs.
Lets
just hope that this was our ‘blip’ for the season, and that we get back to the
decent level of cricket we are used to.
Post-game
drinks helped lighten the mood and season debutant Ben Blane
was fined for spilling beer all over the already poorly score book, Dan was
fined for giving players bogus information about ‘building works’ at Barnes
Bridge and Adam Strang was named ‘Muppet’ for his
incomprehension of the difference between Saturday and Sunday!
It
was a lovely day for cricket and while the Whalers fielded well, it was the
batting collapse (as ever) that let us down.
Elthorne: 199 for 2 (Osgood 2/38)
Whalers: 51 a.o.
Man of the match: Kamal
Champagne moment: Seems to
have been unawarded, probably for the best.
Muppet moment:
Adam Strang: wrong day mixup