Skipton CC 1st XI272 / All out (48.0)
Thackley CC 1st XI169 / All out (38.0)
On an unusually sunny day we made the long trip to 2nd placed Skipton – maybe with a little nerves on the back of some very average recent performances.
Dewy, as is the norm these days, lost the toss and things didn’t get much better from that point unfortunately.The opening bowlers struggled to find the right line & length to bowl to 2 decent opening batsmen and 50 was on the board after just 6 overs. A change of bowling to the experience of Robbo (another word for old!) slowed the rate down a little but it was the introduction of TC that got the breakthrough.
Now, at this point, is where the afternoon started to get slightly more intersecting! Dewy, doing his utmost as usual to hide himself in the field – was found at short 3rd man – and was presented with what most of us in the game call “a dolly” but it was no surprise at all to any of us that he made a complete meal of it and managed to split his finger open (and now we have found out it’s broken!!) but thankfully for him and TC he managed to hang on!
Then, stood at backward square leg, was what the crowd (their words not mine!) called the best catch ever to be seen on a cricket field – and it could only be one man responsible for such an accolade – yes you guessed it – it was Robbo!!
The 42 year old rolled back the years, dived low down to his right, after a full toss from TC was swept in his direction at break neck speed, and caught it an inch off the ground one handed!! Quite outstanding and a bloody miracle as all the faces on the 10 other players on his team would show!!
Anyway, back to Dewy, and his brave soldiering on!
Having stayed on the pitch, after saying he didn’t want to let his side down, he fielded in virtually every position possible to try and hide away from the ball! But true to form, the call kept on following him and he even had to take another catch – and all this with blood oozing out of his finger – what an inspiration!! What a shame the sane couldn’t be said of one Stefan Mather!! Turned up still drunk from the night before – told everybody that was interested in listening – which wasn’t very many people to be honest – that he didn’t want to be there – moaned pretty much the whole game – and then had the audacity to drop an absolute sitter off the bowling of the ever hardworking Wisey!!
Couldn’t even call it a drop as he didn’t get anywhere near it and didn’t even lay a hand on it! We thought it couldn’t get much worse for Stef but unfortunately his batting was still to come! Musky & TC picked up 4 wickets each but Skipton finished on a hefty 272!Out went Allport & Musky and back they came just as quick – the latter playing a couple of decent shots before departing. Pretty much everybody else didn’t last very long in another very disappointing batting performance.
TC batted nicely for his 25 but it was Aston who gave our score some credibility with a lovely innings of sensible cricket including some very hefty blows and deserved a 50 but fell short on 44. Great to see a junior showing off his natural and obvious talent.
So, yet another disappointing result for the first team and on we go to our last game next week against Old Mods.
Man of the match – can only be one man – Aston Dalladay for his excellent knock.
Mule of the day – again, can only be one man – Stefan Mather – it’s one thing turning up still drunk – we’ve all been there – but to bring the whole team down by saying he didn’t want to be there, moan all the way through the game, then drop a catch that a 7 year old could take and then dance down the track and have a village hack – is just something only a village cricketer would display!
Jack Holland’s report. FJ was a happy chappy all game – polite to the opposition, friendly to the umpires, encouraging to his team mates and just generally a different man to all of our other games this season. God only knows the reason for this – but long may it continue Nayls!!
