SCORECARD

Jonesy’s hockey hero’s bully off Fitmen

A new fixture for the Fit Calendar delivered a keenly contested, one-sided T20 at HQ. Losing Waseem, Raja and Juma in the run up to the game didn’t help, along with the talented Rowland brothers and the big lad playing for the oppo’, it was a heavily cobbled Fitmen XI who lost the toss and were given the privilege of fielding first.

2 overs each and retire at 25 was agreed along with no extra ball for wides which would come back to haunt us later in the evening. The comedy random batting line up was not adhered to by the Jolly lot and so it was that a Rowland and a league cricketer opening up with some beefy biffing from the off. Bowling was set to “Good” from all Fitmen, with most going at around the 6 an over mark.

Lovely to see the talented Will Caesar back in the fold getting “Sailor” out. Indeed we had Tom C, the illustrious “off shore” club treasurer also making an appearance. No chance of ever playing again? Seemingly trying to give his kit away to any takers. Legend. Rob Nutt, always re-inventing himself, tonight Mathew, I’m going to be a very handy seam bowler 2 fer 13 accounting for 2 quality bats. Brother Ian unlucky, feasted upon by hungry hockey hoikers. Apart from Jonesy, there wasn’t really any need for extra cover or mid-off.

Rana sharp conceded only 8. Lockyer did what Lockyer does. Harry Rowland left face down begging for the ground to swallow him, stumped by (so good to see him back) Tuckerr behind the stumps. Hilarious. Jonesy didn’t dare face our Samuel and ran himself out to the disappointment of all assembled. New Fitmen Jamieson Tucker and Dan both grabbed a couple of nice tail end wickets each, but 158 for 9 was a huge target set. The fact that the Fitmen only bowled 3 wides, so the Hoikers got to face 117 legitimate balls had zero impact on the end result. Well played.

Chasing 159 to win, the “Pick your favourite Chinese Dish” batting order game was invoked. Bang bang Chicken and Crispy Seaweed saw Rabbie and Will open up. There were International standard sportsmen splattered throughout Jonesy’s xi, Seeing a missile thrown in from the bench down by the golf course (normally a 3 man relay event for the Fitmen) got the old hairs standing up. Talent indeed. Will C an excellent run a ball 22 got us off to a good start, but perhaps “Foo Yung” Lockyer and “Kung-Po” Nutter at 3 and 4 sent the match on a different trajectory.

Sam 2 off 7 and Nutter 5 off 20, pushed the already unachievable run rate even higher, but Rana 28 retired delivered a nice innings. With 18 wides and 5 no-balls, only 97 “fair” deliveries were allowed to be shared out amongst the remaining batsmen. Post op Tucker and Sunny garnered 20 off 20 and cousin Jamieson Tucker weighed in with 3. The damp squib was well and truly served up and a superb victory by 33 runs well deserved by the Hockey lads