SCORECARD

All round performance does for Khalsa

A weather window of opportunity greeted a fine Fit XI who took to the field of dreams versus Leamington Khalsa (the entire team being Coventry based). With the covers removed, the wicket was tinged with green and looked like it may offer assistance to the Fit Men pace and seam attack, bolstered by the holidaying Mike “RAF” Ralph, over from Cyprus for a few days.

Captain Howarth flipped the coin and the oppo skipper duly called right and decided to have a bat first! Howarth opted to open the bowling with Healy and Ralph, the former at his parsimonious best the latter uncharacteristically profligate. With head glove man Tucker having to acrobatically dive down leg side to save byes on occasions, being fresh from the surgeons slab having had his ingrowing toenails trimmed only a couple of days earlier! (tuff as clogs them Cumbrians). With the Khalsa openers batting well enough, Sharif and Tasker came on and it was Sharif who made the initial break through getting an opener to dolly one up to Tasker at gully. Both bowlers bowled well in tandem with Sharif in particular proving to be difficult to hit. So at drinks the oppo were 70 for 2, the Fit Men however were not helping themselves as 4 catches had gone down! A change was needed and so the Feraz-Mo combo was unleashed on Khalsa. First to go was their opener on 49, bowled by a Feraz off-cutter, which was quickly followed by a second for Feraz, being a well judged catch by Healey who fielding at gully for the outgoing left handed bat, had not realised that the new bat was right handed. Therefore snaffling the catch at leg slip! Feraz was now roaring in and disposed quickly of the Khalsa WG Grace lookalike......cleaned bowled! Meanwhile Mo was keeping the batsmen quiet with a mixture of accurate slow stuff and incessant banter! Catch of the day went to Tasker who held onto a cracker at square leg one handed! Mo made a skier look easy for Feraz whilst Ralphie assisted in making it a memorable day for Feraz and finally held onto a catch (uncharacteristically dropping the previous 3 attempts).....to give Feraz a fabulous maiden 5 wicket haul.......well bowled sir! With Mo picking up a wicket at the other end and the “Crankies” Combo of Healey and Tucker coming to the fore, the innings closed at 196!.....phew......great bowling!

A wholehearted tea to cater for all dietary requirements was washed down with hot tea and orange squash (special thanx to Gavin for supplying 16 mini pork pies and a box of party sausages).

The Fit batting reply commenced with Hall and Jawad. With Hall perishing to a viscous in swinger after a watchful 5. Incoming batsman Tom Caesar fresh from a ton last match went soon after for 11. What was needed now was a solid partnership, and the Fit ship was now steadied by the partnership of Jawad and Mo. Jawad punished regularly the bad ball whilst defending resolutely the good balls. At the same time Mo bludgeoned away “Mo Stylie”. At drinks the partnership stood at 88-2. Bolstered by fluids the partnership continued to flourish with Jawad going to 50 first, having crafted a silky fine maiden 50 (well played sir.....the first of many!) Mo quickly reached his 50 soon after, with his tenth 4! The oppo were now rotating the bowlers regularly in an effort to break the Jawad/Mo axis.....with both men now throwing their hands through the ball with gay abandon.......Jawad who was now seeing the cricket ball like a beach ball smite once to often in an attempt to finish the game with a four. Perishing for a fine 72 off 85 balls with 9 silky smooth fours. The batsmen having crossed Mo took a single leaving skipper to hit the winning runs.....with the oppo skipper bringing all his fielders in , Howarth went for glory trying to cut a good length ball on the stumps.......bowled! Leaving Ralphie to stride out and cuff the 1st ball he faced for 4 through the covers......that’s the way to do it properly! Resulting in a great win for the Fit Men and a game played in true Corinthian spirit.

Both teams repaired to the bar and out onto the steps of the pavilion to banter and reflect on a cracking game Well played lads!

Note to the purveyor of pork products: 12 Lidl pork pies untouched at the end of the game!