SCORECARD

Magnificent 7 (+ 1) Fall In Final Over Tragedy

Old Mo 191 All Out, Claverley 192-9

It is written in the book of Exodus that Moses led the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. It is to be hoped that Dave Healey will not spend the same amount of time in the wilds of Shropshire.

At the scheduled start time of 2pm only 6 Fitmen were accounted for, with Ash delayed by a morning shopping trip and Dave Healey last heard of “somewhere south of Wolverhampton”. And so it was that despite losing the toss, the Fitmen were invited to bat. It was not to be an auspicious start.

First to go was Tom Caesar, bowled “through the gate”, shortly followed by Rob Green who sliced one to gully. When Mark Tucker missed a straight one to fall LBW, the score stood at 20-3. Fortunately, a partnership of 104 for the 4th wicket between Mike Ralph and Tahir, both batting fluently to gain half-centuries, restored respect to the score card. Ash added a composed 21, before a contrived double innings for Tony Caesar and Ian Nutt allowed the “batsman” column to be filled.

Sadly Dave Healey by this time had become totally lost in the “Claverley Triangle” and with a discharged mobile phone was unable to take his place in the team.

An excellent tea was to follow whilst the team tried to work out how to set a field with 8 players and make up for the loss of a mainstay of the bowling attack. Perhaps more discussion on how to catch a ball would have been better.

When the opposition have an opening batsman who is noted for hitting centuries, it is best that he isn’t dropped 3 times, and caught of a no-ball. First to have a go was Rob Green, putting down a hard-hit drive at mid-off. Next, Tom Caesar held onto a fine catch at long-off, but for this to be ruled out for Ash’s no-ball. Third to have a go was Ian Nutt, who made a valiant attempt at a caught-and-bowled and finally Ash at cow-corner. Finally, he fell on 114 to a brilliant catch in the deep by Mike Ralph, but the damage had already been done, with the score standing on 188. What followed can only be described as tragic – but more about that later.

In between, there had been fine spells of bowling from Ralphie (perhaps the final over mauling is best forgotten), Ash and especially Tony Caesar. Ian Nutt and Tahir supported well, but owing to a miscalculation an over had to be found from either Tom or Rob.

Now for the tragedy...

With 1 over to go and after a reasonable “warm-up” over, Rob Green took the ball. The first was swung out to the deep mid-wicket boundary, where Ralphie made up 20 yards to cling on to a fine diving catch. 5 balls to go, and the opposition still needed 4 to win. Surely, victory was there for the taking. Unfortunately, the next 4 balls went wide, wide, wide, no-ball: a dose of the yips of mythical proportions – not seen since Webb’s 17 ball over of yesteryear.