Match Report
Tuesday 4 June –v- Fat,Drunk and Useless at Weigal Road
Following last weeks cancelled game, we opened our Parks Trophy campaign against FDU at the Weigal Dustbowl under the inspirational leadership of Slack Timms. Jim’s recent purple patch with the bat, elevated him to share openers duties with Steve L, but he found the harsh realities of competitive cricket a little too much to cope with, as FDU soon realised he’s 'only got one shot'. Tubbys influence on the game was shortened by a run out that the slow motion replay cameras would have found hard to pick up, and with Neil also failing to impress (probably cos his babe wasn’t watching) we were soon looking far from convincing. Steve as resolute as ever, and Darkie, picked up the tempo with a blustery partnership that took us through the three figure mark, before Mark sportingly "walked" to a catch behind for a rapid 26.Steve continued to time the ball superbly and was the epitome of grace and elegance between the wickets, as he notched up a fifth career half century, remaining 62 not out at the close, accompanied by the Interferer. On a humid evening, the heavy texture of German military dress seemed to sap the energy and enthusiasm of our normally nimble fielders and the lethargy transferred itself into easy runs for our opposition. Gordy made initial inroads into FDU claiming two wickets, one thanks to a splendid piece of glove work from Sumo Mprrison. Chris operating from the Quaggy end appeared a shadow of his former self (albeit a large one) as he toiled unsuccessfully through his four overs. Chuckles also came in for some fierce tap, but the worse was yet to come. Tubby who had attracted sharp turn during the mid innings break, bowling at unguarded stumps, found the presence of a fully equipped batsman a tad off putting and watched in amazement as successive deliveries disappeared to different corners of the ground. Suddenly realising that a comfortable victory on his Captaincy debut was heading down the pan, Timmo panicked and brought our former pace man into the action. Almost immediately this produced the desired effect, with FDU’s rampant batsman returned to the cluster of bags from whence he came. All of a sudden Timmo was right into it, commanding his troops to make one last effort and geeing up any of his remaining players that were not comatose from shell-shock. Despite some interesting accounting from the scorers, we remained in front following the last over from Kommandant Timms, who in reality had gone for a single, but in the world of fantasy cricket had been taken for twelve runs and very nearly cost us our unblemished record in group matches. A muted celebration followed in the Rising Sun, with our illustrious leader a notable absentee, doubtless plotting the push towards Russia.
