SCORECARD

Its been a long time coming...

So it came round again the fixture that skipper Frost has played in for at least 10 years and probably more, without so much as a sniff of a win. The call went out as usual for all lusty Fitmen to make themselves available for this crucial fixture. Typically, there was a fear of facing quality batting and hostile bowling with several lame excuses like holidays, weddings and dancing lessons (you know who you are).

Jim Frost worked tirelessly to pull together a dream 11 finally securing those vital 10th and 11th men on Saturday night and Sunday morning. A big thanks to Curtly Jewitt and Ronald McDonald Chiz for stepping into the breach at the last minute.

The team duly gathered and what a side; has there ever been a stronger Mo batting line up, all 11 batsmen would not be out of place in a top 6. The line up sounded like a Wisden Team of the Decade (Baker, Caesar T, Butcher, Caesar J, Bice, Chisolm, Frost, Sidheva, Singh, and the estate agents Jewitt & Jowett)

So to the toss, as usual this was lost (Jim Frost has still only won a toss once in two years) and the Fitmen were set for an afternoon of toil in the field.

The first 20 overs saw a magnificent bowling performance (only 62 runs conceded) from the Fitmen quartet of Jewitt & Jowett (the estate agents), Sunny and Chaz. The only success falling to Sunny bowling the Claverley opener and master blaster in the 2nd over of the game. The 2nd 20 overs were not quite so tight, with the opposition failing to appreciate the skill and guile of Butcher and Frost; having the nerve to chance their arms for a number of extremely lucky boundaries although the skipper did pick up a wicket with a well executed slower ball... or was that a mistimed shot off a rank long hop?

There were notable fielding performances from Richard Bice who leapt around in the covers like a baby hippo, Jack Caesar like a gazelle saved many a boundary and Tom Caesar patrolled the square leg boundary like a caged tiger (that reminds me I must book that Kenyan Safari). Sunny took two fine catches with Chiz pouching a truly magnificent catch standing up to the firey Jowett.

Ben Jowett came back for his second spell like a man possesed taking three wickets before becoming flustered by the sight of the 12 year old oppositon batsman advancing down the wicket to him and responding with a series of wides and beamers. Sunny returning to finish off the innings took a wicket with his final ball. The Claverly innings finished with them some how clawing their way to 181 off their 40 overs despite all this Fitmen excellence.

The tea served by the Claverly ladies was wonderful, Mr Kipling had done a roaring trade, although Sunny Singh was heard to coment on the lack of barbecued chicken wings.

The game resumed with Don Baker and Tom Caesar opening for the Fitmen. Don (Bradman) Baker got off to a rapid fire start making 15 in 16 balls before offering up catching practice to point. This brought the normally assured Butcher to the crease who seemed strangley out of sorts against the Claverly youngster brought on to stem the flow of runs, finally being dismissed caught square leg, bowled small boy!

No worries the free scoring Jack Caesar was next in. Unfortunately for Jack and the Fitmen he proceeded to take the part of Mike Gatting facing Shane Warne being bowled round his legs without scoring. His frustration was later heard through the changing room windows sounding something like 'I came back from a **** up in Dartmouth for this ***** game'.

This brought Richard Bice to the crease who set about the Claverly bowling like the aforementioned Gatting tucking into a Lord's lunch. This was a truley brutal innings of 65 off 40 balls and took the game away from Claverly.

Meanwhile Tom Caesar had played the perfect anchor role contributing a steady 27 off 60 balls and certainly showed his brother how to play the turning ball outside leg stump.

The fall of Tom, and soon after the tiring Bice, brought Chiz and the skipper to the crease both of whom continued to score at more than a run a ball (Chiz 35 off 31 and Frost 19 off 15). With two runs required the skipper went for glory trying to finish the innings in style, only to be bowled off the inside edge leaving Chaz to tie the score with a streaky single before Chiz applied the coup des gras with a sumptuous drive through mid on for four.

The crowd went wild, time stood still, Land of Hope and Glory boomed out over the public address system, the bails were burnt, Hussain and Agnew conducted the presentations or something like that. At last an Old Mo victory in deepest Shropshire.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss come on Fitmen!!!!!!!!!!!!