SCORECARD

MAYbe starting at 6 wasn’t a great idea
Old Mo 128-5 beat Bournville Mis-Shapes 113-8 by 15 runs

On This Day...

Interesting but irrelevant facts:
1328 – Kingdom of Scotland becomes an independent state
1707 – Kingdom of Scotland rejoins England
1751 – The first cricket match is played in America
1948 – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is established
1731 – Johann Ludwig Bach dies (not the good one)


However, what is relevant (to a certain extent – which is an horrendous segue into what is going to be an awful match report) is that it is (or was) 1st May, which in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures was the first day of Summer. Thank you Wikipedia for saving the day once again.

The pre-Christian European pagan culture first day of Summer was marked with a beautiful day; bright blue skies, whispy clouds, a slight breeze and temperatures in the high teens according to the Peugeot. A strong Fitmen batting line up made it to the Graveyard to hopefully carry on from the many runs scored on Sunday, with a solid track and a slightly shorter boundary to the car park. Without any practice beforehand, the skipper, Turg Junior, strode to the middle and lost the toss, with Bournville Mis-shapes opting to bowl first in a decision they may have regretted.

FitOpeners Lords Bice and Howarth smote the first ball of their innings (1st and 3rd overs respectively) through the covers for 4s leading many to expect a huge Gayle-esque final score. However, Howarth departed early after a good in-swinging yorker took out his stumps but left him with a strike rate he could be proud of. Chas was unable to carry on from where he left off on Sunday before Butcher came in to join Richard.

What happened next was a marked (with a huge, thick nibbed permanent marker) slow down in run rate with some steady and accurate bowling from the Bournville openers. With 42 on the board after 11 overs, the spectating Fitmen were shivering with both the appearance of cloud cover and the sheer panic of posting less than 80 on a batter’s track. However, with some erratic and rapid (NOTE: not from The Chairman) bowling, clean strikes and lost balls, the score jumped to 97 off 15.

On 49, Bice sent a simple catch to mid-wicket who kindly dropped it before receiving a thank-you curtsey from the FitOpener. Wickets then fell from Bice (51) and Butcher (32) with others adding here and there for a competitive final total of 128.


It was all change at the break with the Fitmen knowing that some accurate bowling and good fielding could win them the game. Sunny and Ash opened the bowling with the Bournville openers looking to chase down the score with great speed. Ash took the two openers in successive balls with one catch straight up to keeper Caesar and the next low down to the came catcher. With the hard hitting openers gone, the slower bowlers came into play and the screw was turned.

Adrian and Butcher bowled accurately and very economically (4-0-20-3 and 4-0-16-1) slowing the run rate right down. However, the game was far from over with a required run rate of 7 per over. However, with the rapidly diminishing light (floodlights not working), accurate bowling, moving pitch, solid fielding (catches from Jim and Sunny) and good advice from various players for Cap’n Turg Jr, Chas and Sunny finished the game off with Bournville scoring 113-8 from 20 overs.

Another great performance from the Fitmen taking the unbeaten run to 8 games (having won the last 4 games of last season).


A special mention to Ade’s broken knees, ankles and mind after playing 4 games in 10 days, performing many dives/bellyflops* (*delete as applicable) and almost chasing the after the last ball of the game which stopped on the boundary)