Post date: Jul 10, 2017 7:12:38 PM
A sunny day by the Sea.
So off we trot to Shaldon the last team that we have yet to play in the league. Where has the Summer gone? Halfway through the season already !!
All meet at the Kwicky Mart at 12.30 ‘Where we playing? …….Shaldon….Where’s that to? ‘I dunno somewhere near Teignmouth’ ….got a post code for the sat nav….Yeah its XX## #XX…Nah that’s not it….yeah tis ….well that’s what it says in the book….Nope books wrong! Ok so what is it then? I don’t know …..but I know where it might be!....Best we get moving then. Where to ? ….I guess somewhere near Teignmouth.’
So we end up at the end of little lane at a ground called the ‘Oval’, except its not actually an Oval it’s a rectangle surrounded by a Marquee ( sounds posh but it wasn’t) and a load of portacabins that had perhaps seen better days (more of which later). Two squares on the ground. ‘Hmmm that boundary looks short between the two squares!.....oh I see they peg a net down between them ….interesting!!’
To be honest lovely little ground with cracking view out over Teignmouth and the Sea (Shaldon is near Teignmouth if you recall from earlier).
Pitch inspection presented a properly wet through track. ‘what you reckon LJ?’ ‘Win the toss and stick em in!’ ….Ideal only LJ seems to have forgotten that the past 5 weeks aside he hasn’t won a toss in two years. Would you believe it, it’s now 6 on the bounce!! Shaldon you can have a bat, and best you live up to your name. Shaldon Optimists!
LJ (9.2.24.1)opens the bowling on something that is obviously going to assist the bowling side. 4 balls into the first over and Shaldon loose one of their openers. Corey Holiday (9.0.49.2) is LJs new opening partner and gets a nick off his second ball, only for the old man at slip to palm it over the bar. Shaldons #3 then gets all slappy and appears to play every ball as a potential boundary before Holiday snares him caught by ‘old Teflon’ behind the stumps.
Joppers (9.2.50.0) comes into the attack early as Shaldon, quite frankly were dotting a lot of balls. Bomber Harris (9.0.46.1) replaced Holiday and the score was meandering. 60 off 20 overs wasn’t looking that threatening. Then the breakthrough. Two quick wickets in the 26th and 27th over and the score only just starting to move. Shaldons #6 walks to the crease. ( we shall refer to him as ‘Twos’ henceforth) it transpires he was late for their 2’s game so got bumped down to face us. He started to tuck into our bowling with gusto. Marco Butler (9.1.31.1) bowled with some good pace but Two’s was up to most of what we threw at him and the score moved on quickly to 205 for 5 at the interval.
Briddy returned to the changing room only to find the outside of said changing room looking like a fly tipping site. The roof had caved in on Shaldons changing room….was this a sign of what was to come?!?
With no Tim Shaw to bolster the early order batting for a few weeks we were wondering. Would we have enough of an armoury to face down over 200 on what was still a pretty wet but drying track. Well lets find out….
Our opening pair of Batstone 72* ( I was drunk last night so expect nothing of me) and Neilo Griffiths 49 really got stuck into some buffet bowling. Neil getting bowled from one he probably should have just patted back. Buzz Brimmacombe (39) came in with the score at 77 and only departed after catching a leading edge with the score at 169 in the 31st over.
By now Batstone had patently shut up shop and was batting for his average, with 17 of his last 18 scoring shots being 1’s. Marco Butler as umpire turned into a human calculator ‘ Guys you only need 2.66 an over to win’…how did you do that calc in your head ?!? …the score divided by the overs….easy! yeah but 13 overs to be bowled and to two decimal places (reader, you try it!!)
Ian Jutson (28) finished the game off as Steve ‘I might actually be sober now!’ Batstone had stopped playing other than a 1 off the first ball of every over.
So there we are final score 209 for 3 off 37.5 overs, to win a game on a lovely sunny day somewhere near Teignmouth. Where abouts who knows ….still don’t know the post code !! and quite frankly who cares!
The Briddy machine rolls on and we now face Bovey Tracy 3rds next week at home. Hopefully we can avenge the defeat at their place earlier in the year. Maybe if we dream a little we might smash them for 360 with a father and son both getting 100’s and then skittle them out for under 100. Nahhhhh that’s never gonna happen…………………..is it?????
Scoresheet here https://bridestowe.play-cricket.com/website/results/2910975