SCORECARD

We came, we saw, we came second
Oak’n’Ash 96 all out; Old Mo 92 all out.........Oak’n’Ash win by 4 runs

A new venue for the Fitmen nestling in leafy Erdington urbia just 100 yards from the industrial artery that is the A38 Lichfield Road. The former ‘City Gas’ ground is now known as The Hollyfields Sports Centre and boast acres of greenery including tennis courts, football pitch, bowling green, cricket meadow and of course ‘The Function suite’.....more on that later.

The murmurings of selling one’s soul to the devil by playing a ‘Sizzling Steak’ pub team featuring nitrokeg openers was only partly allayed on arrival for an early start on the hottest day in the world. The Fitmen joined in with the protein shake pre-match ritual and all was well with the world.

At the end the losing streak lengthened to 3 – the difference between victory and defeat once again so small..................

The mercury touched 28 and guess what? Tails never fails.......much. The oppo elected to bat and the Fitmen took on fluids for what was going to be a long afternoon in the field irrespective of elapsed time.

The Old Mo had a decent bowling attack and, for the 3rd game running, were playing on a strip that made the medium trundlers look vicious. Had the strip from the abandoned 1998 encounter between England and the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica been ported through time?

Guy, having discarded the bowling bodice, was back on his full run and his fiery best. Half his balls were just too good. Jonny Youngster lobbed in a couple of pies from the Leylandii end and hey presto down tumbled the wickets.
First blood to Guy, 2nd and 3rd to Jonny Y, Sunny then joined in the fun bagging a couple. Syd began salivating at fine leg and duly grabbed some more. The catches were taken, the fielding was sharp and the prospect of joining the function early was looming. 51-7 was looking like a rout.

But..........the bleached one put in stubborn resistance for the Oak’n’Ash and threatened to spoil the party as he and Trott’s apprentice put a spanner in the works and (thank you God) slowed down proceedings with gritty determination.

Credit to Oak’n’Ash, they sold their last 3 wickets for a high price and 3 hours to get to 96 all out was some achievement.

Finally Raj got the vital last wicket and a target of 96 in 40 overs had to be on the cards.
So to the function suite for half time.

Jonny Youngster turned the charm on when enquiring as to the health of the buxom bar hippo. His concern that the heat was causing her to sweat up a little and had engendered a dislike for humanity was proved not to be the case. Turns out she had neither chewed a wasp nor had a close encounter with a bag of spanners – but thanked him for asking and slapped a 50p a pint surcharge on his round leaving him brassic but in a satisfied sort of way.

A required rate of 2.425 doesn’t sound challenging muttered a cheese sandwich.............as long as we don’t give away any early wickets. Dong. Raj first casualty, first ball... run out.

Dig in, prepare for a long early evening..........slow down the rate, tickle the ball. The 2nd wicket stand was impressive, tthough not as impressive as a certain Matty Goodwin who played for Bentleigh against Monash Gryphons in the Mercantile C-grade league in 2007/08 in Australia. He was in the middle for 114 overs to bring up his half-century, finishing an entire day's play at 56 not out- and this included two boundaries in the last over of the day. Whilst he was ‘in’ he used up 708 balls equating to about one run every two overs.

Tragically, a Matty G innings might have won the game for us, but decent bowling, made to look extraordinary on the only green top in the country (apart from the last two we played on) ultimately did for the Fitmen.

When Jack and Si eventually parted company it signalled a new approach. Chas only had attacking shots and perished 3rd ball. Jas stuck around despite his efforts to remove the cover from any ball that wasn’t on target – the breeze created by the supercharged swipes came as welcome relief to the Oak keeper. Mark got in and looked like he’d take the game apart, but was foiled on 20 and suddenly the target looked distant.

1.933 per over the first 30 meant it was still do-able with 39 required off the last 10 overs.

The tail wagged, and almost got us over the line. Guy looked to be on form and then Syd and Jonny Youngster middled it................just one more short corner strike and we could be on the cusp.

Tragically not quite!

However, the good news is that it’s pay day on Friday, so our number 11 (currently describing himself as ‘virtually unemployed’ when it comes to extended credit for match subs) should be able to pay off the mortgage at Newbold.