Mad Dogs Vs Pearls CC
Second Game of the MDCC Grenada Tour
The Mad Dogs C.C. continued their tour of Grenada with another game in St Andrew's Parish. We took another long drive over the mountains to Grenville, where we met the ever friendly and helpful Mr Evelyn Fredericks. who took us on to the beautifully appointed Grenville ground where the West Indies have been practicing. Only one problem, we weren't playing there. So it was off a few more miles to the disused Pearls Airport and to the decrepit but charmingly rural surroundings of Pearls Park. The Dogs team was depleted by the lack of Thorndogg and Geoff (on a fishing trip - but more on that later) and Kimbo and Jonas (romancing, but not each other), but a young man called Boyke was filling in alongside the usual Aussie suspects.
Neil Harrison skippered the team and was unfortunate to lose the toss, and then he didn't do much good after that either. Pearls CC decided to bat and so Tony Boyke opened the bowling with Eric Harrison and both bowled with skill and control, Eric bowling Lewis for 1 and then a great catch by Keith Lawrence at slip off Eric removing James for 8, after which Tony bowled N.Charles for 11 to leave the hosts in a spot of bother. Steve McCracken came on for Eric and continued where he left off on Wednesday, but for Liam Gallagher the day was to be less a case of Wonderwall and more a case of Don't Look Back in Anger. Possibly destabilized by his night of drinking and barfing with the Abbott, Liam let loose a string of wides, NBs and four balls that had his watching Dad swearing in Afrikaans on the boundary. But Liam had company. Luckily Steve picked up two wickets, Chitan caught by Neil Harrison for 16 and John bowled for 2.
Unfortunately this brought Allard and Michael together, and Allard proceeded to bash the bowling for 41 until he fell to a fine catch by Jared Shaw off Steve. Michael and M. Charles then set about the bowling of Neil, Lincoln and Evan with gusto before Michael was out to a fine catch by Boyke off Eric Harrison, but danger man M Charles continued the biff, retiring at 63, and the innings ended at 195 for 7 off 30 overs. Overall, it was a nasty hot day in the broling sun on a really nasty outfield and some of us bowled like drains. Eric and Steve were excellent with the ball, and the standard of fielding was competent given the conditions.
Bowling: Tony Boyke 6-0-32-1; Eric Harrison 6-0-27-3;
Liam Gallagher 2-0-22-0; Steve McCracken 6-0-29-3;
Lincoln Harrison
3-0-28-0; Neil Harrison 4-0-27-0; Evan Swingler
3-0-26-0
Lawrence and Gallagher opened again and began patiently against accurate bowling from Paul and Abraham, but then Liam was unlucky enought to get a shooter and was LBW for 1. Ed Palmer joined Keith at the wicket and the pair started to accumulate steadily to take the score to 63 in 15 overs before Ed mistimed a drive and was caught for 26. Tony Boyke came to the wicket and he and Keith began a splendid partnership with great power shots sprinkled in between the singles. The two old masters brought the score along to 143 before first Keith (65) and then Tony (30) were bowled with 5 overs remaining and about 50 runs required. A collapse ensued as Steve McCracken, Evan Swingler, Eric Harrison and Chris Wright all departed without troublng the scorers.
144 for 8 was nurdled to 157 by Neil Harrison and Jared Shaw before Jared was caught for 4 and Neil bowled for 9 as the innings perished for a creditable 158 in the final over. All in all, this was a day where it was not a good toss to lose as the sun beat down on a bunch of old Dogs and young boys chasing leather in the lovely Grenadan countryside, and we were schooled in the art of big hitting by the country team, who batted with great skill and even more violence than their Grenville town counterparts....
Curry and beer followed, and the usual long drive back to the villa in L'Anse Aux Epines in the dark which is somehow less fun when you lose. But when we got there, Thorndogg and Geoff had tall tales of fighting a 400 lb marlin with their rod and tackle, and even better, they had hooked a 15 lb fish for our dinner, which was
a lot more than the rest of the Dogs had caught that day.............