SCORECARD

Some wings never change…


The summer solstice is a great time of celebration and contemplation, of long days with people joyously basking in the sunshine accompanied by the sound of laughter, clinking glasses and in many places leather on willow. It is also a time of great communal rituals, ancient pagan folk dances performed at dawn in stone circles akin to those found in many other North European countries. Not wanting to miss out and once the replacement opposition had been confirmed after the late(ish) withdrawal of Stoneleigh CC on Thursday afternoon, the good men of the OMAFCC made their very own contribution to the celebrations of the season by partaking in a mind-boggling three-day version of the hokey cokey!

Once all the fun and frolics were mercifully over, the tea contributions had been allocated and confirmed (yes, you heard that right – TEA!?) and the Moseley Ashfield youth game was done and dusted, at 1.30 pm exactly the final, fantastic XI were ready to play (incredibly) the 1st Sunday home game of the season at the Graveyard. The Leamington Khalsa development team skipper made the toss much easier to call than usual by politely asking if we wanted to bat first, as they were happy to field first…. Job done!? On first viewing the wicket looked particularly green, but maybe that was in part because the rest of the outfield is currently so brown and parched by comparison?! Although the new ball zipped around a bit, the first few overs were navigated easily enough, before the skipper was clean bowled by one that moved away in the air and Ade coming in at number 3 joined Mo at the crease for what would prove to be the crucial partnership of the day. Having seen off the useful opening pair, both batsmen proceeded to cut, pull and drive supremely well on their way to fully deserved centuries. The lightning quick outfield certainly played its part, particularly on the car park side of the ground, but they didn’t play a rash or hurried stroke between them, and sensible calling meant that there was not even a hint of a run out chance for the fielding side. Ade reaching 3 figures with a mighty blow over deep square leg into the car park for six! Once they had both retired, there was a flurry of runs with wickets also falling regularly and decent contributions from Sunny (21 from 13 deliveries) and Prasad a last-minute call-up from the Misfits. The Old Mo had set LK a challenging target of 283 runs to win, but first came the serious business of the Tea break…

With a full Tea on offer to both teams for the 1st time since the 2019 season (?), and as a key part of Sunny’s contractual agreement to come out of Sunday retirement, he provided everyone with a chance to ‘experience’ his home-made chicken wings. Out of courtesy we encouraged our guests with a knowing smile to tuck in to said firey wings first, accompanied by an array of Samosas from Mo, Egg + Mayo sandwiches from Nutter, Crisps courtesy of Timmsy , x 2 delicious cakes from Bicey and Scones with clotted cream and jam from the Skipper….Both teams appetites duly satiated, we eventually rolled ourselves down the pavilion steps and on to the field to defend our very defendable total. Sunny opened the bowling from the golf course end and in spite of or indeed perhaps because of his prodigious intake of wings, he veritably flew into the attack and bowled his allocated overs in one swoop ending with figures of 8-2-21-2. At the other end, Timmsy was effective and economical as he hopped, skipped and jumped his way to equally impressive figures of 6-1-25-2.
A great start to proceedings was followed by an utterly lethal first change combination of Nokia at the golf course end with his naggingly accurate flight and guile, and Nutter at the other end with his looping left arm box of tricks. Between them they ultimately nagged and teased three LK batsmen into submission, and crucially didn’t allow the run rate to increase too dramatically aided by some excellent Fit fielding, notably the direct hit run out from mid-wicket by Nutter. Fantastic stuff!! The Khalsa skipper was proving to be the hardest batsman by far to dislodge, playing an array of crisp shots to the boundary, however he was fast running out of partners with Tony T now in the attack keeping it tight at one end. It ultimately fell to the fizzing leg-spin of Prasad to take the key wicket and give the Fitmen a convincing 117 run victory. Players from both sides stopped afterwards to chat and indulge in a few post-match beers courtesy of Ade + Mandy’s mini bar, and all agreed that a fine mid-summers day cricket match had been enjoyed by all.