SCORECARD

Village Fielding Results in Village Win

Fitmen 185-8 lost to The Village 186-4 by 6 wickets

Pre-Amble

After last weekend’s torrential rain, muddy boots and Oats-so-simple on a good length, Fitmen young and ‘old’ were paying careful attention to the weekend’s weather forecast, hoping with all things crossed that play would not be affected. They needn’t have worried as they turned up to the Graveyard in glorious sunshine for what would surely be an afternoon of fine batsmanship and boundaries galore, against old opposition, The Village. Without Dr. Bowls at the helm, the Fitmen were unsure of what kind of team would turn up but with ex-Fitman The Don taking the reins, we were about to find out. Let’s commence proceedings!


Stage 1 - Batting

With a few of the oppo struggling with the concept of time, Cap’n Butch and D’Don strolled to the middle to inspect the wicket. Given some of the movement off the wicket, I’m fairly certain someone left their keys on a length - no one owned up. Tossing the coin with good technique (7/10), Butcher won and elected, unsurprisingly given the weather, to have a bat.

Geraint, promoted to opener, made a steady start with Turg the Younger, as the accurate opening bowlers were unable to move the ball in the air but did manage to move it both ways off the pitch. The bad balls did come and were sent toward the boundary, the new ball making its way through the gate, out of the ground and being lost for the local hunter-gatherers to discover. Waiting for the bad ball to come, Geraint was just off playing another cut as he edged through to the keeper.

Accurate bowling from The Village led to some unplayable balls, which could easily have resulted in wickets but most of them just moved too much. Mr. T and Mr. t made it to drinks with the score at around 80; a solid start given the bowling, with wickets in hand to speed up during the second half.

The second half brought more accurate bowling from the spin attack of off and leg varieties, eventually leading to the wicket of Tahir, caught at slip by the Don for 30. It wasn’t long after that Turg Jr’s leading edge off a leg side nurdle found its way to the Village skipper for a steady 38. Turg the Elder, this week at No. 5 struck a glorious cover drive before launching to mid off. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with Guy, Ash, Butch and Chas all striking boundaries but exiting soon after.

Step up Raj and partner, Liam Butcher. Playing shots around the ground, Raj was able to pick up runs and keep the strike as necessary, with Liam striding well between the wickets reacting to quick singles better than his old man!!! Liam played very well with his first Fitmen batting outing, picking up a couple of runs to the accurate bowlers, building up a good partnership with Raj. An eventual score of 185 looked possibly a little light but given the home side’s bowling attack, this match was definitely winnable.


Stage 2 - Tea

Now onto the main event; tea. I have to admit that this was one of the best teas of the season so far, with a fusion of the east with Chas’s wonderful chicken Biryani and a selection of pakora and sauces matching delightfully with the west, with sandwiches including egg, tuna and ham alongside a selection of cakes including Belgian Franzipans, deep filled Bramley Apple Cakes (33% extra free) and Aldi Jam tarts. A solid 9/10 achieved on the tea front, with the only way of improvement being not having to field after gorging Roman-style.


Stage 3 - Bowling / ”Fielding”

The Fitmen had no cause for concern as Ash and Guy started in excellent fashion, bowling perfect line and length, providing movement through the air and off the pitch, Ash taking the opener in the first over, caught behind off a thin edge for miniature Turg’s first catch of the season with the gloves. It took only until the third over for the next wicket with Ash and Tom combining again, with the batsman refusing to walk before being given marching orders by the umpire. The claim of the ball brushing the shirt when it was hit below the knee didn’t go down too well.

With the score at 3-2 off 3 overs, the Fitmen may have metaphorically taken their eye off the ball a bit. In a number of cases, this happened literally. The first drop of the day being in the gully by an unnamed fielder. To protect ‘his’ identity, we will refer to him as Mr T. Fortunately, this didn’t cost much as the well ‘dreaded’ batsman got frustrated by the accurate bowling and movement from both ends. The Fitmen expected a wicket every ball with the Don’s angled bat and moving back technique exposing the stumps, giving many a glimmer of hope. A wicket was almost taken with the Don flashing at a wide one before being put down in the gully, again by a certain Mr. T…

The ground fielding by the Fitmen was of very good quality, with the young Butcher sliding around with rarely seen enthusiasm, gathering and releasing the ball very quickly, saving plenty of runs all afternoon but ending up with grass stains on the knees!

The run rate was right down by the halfway mark with the Village needing around 130 off the second 20 overs. With more drops going down, it took an accurate throw from Geraint at fine leg to remove the dreaded one for 11 with a strike rate of something close to that. Unfortunately, the batsman brought to the crease next was able to strike the ball very solidly. Catches continued to go down with the Village closing in on the required 186 before Guy cleared up the Don with a return catch.

With 26 required off the last 3 overs, a solid over from Raj meant 20 off the last two. Ash stepped up with his final over with the key batsman being dropped one final time a couple of overs previously, before slamming two 6s accompanied by a wide and a single (somehow totalling 16) leaving Raj to defend 4 off the last over. Two leg side swipes from the new batsman finished the game off with a couple of balls to spare.


Stage 4 - Conclusion

A close and exciting match on a beautiful day meant that it wasn’t all so bad, however the Fitmen bowling figures show a good performance, with the old adage of ‘catches win matches’ being shown to be oh so true. The opposition played with good spirit and enjoyed the game, staying to sample the offers of the bar.


The next match is on Wednesday, again v The Village. The Fitmen will be eager to win this grudge match to get one back on our opponents.


Stage 5 - Other

The winner of this month’s Fitmen Fantasy Cricket League was Mark Butcher’s team, with a total score of 1012 points. As with previous months, 2 changes can be made and need to be done by Wednesday (before the next match starts) by texting changes to Tom or Adrian. New teams are welcome, again just text either Tom or Adrian to set up a team for July.

Stage 6 - Extras

Notes from the sidelines from our second correspondent (10 of the best):
1. Accurate(ish) early bowling, more accurate 1st change (bottom end)
2. Geraint walked like a gentleman
3. Tom spat some words of discontent when leaving field of dreams
4. T got bored and left the field - leggies both ends
5. Sunday Skipper got bowled trying to larrop to mid wicket once too often
6. Middle order Turg....hit a high full toss down deep mid off's throat
7. Chas got bowled (then lectured by batting coach/score book legend Nutt.....on the virtues of taking singles!) Chas retired to the loo to pull the plumbing off the wall!
8. Raj hit a luvvely cameo
9. Gee got excited having hit the flag pole with a maximum and got bowled
10. Ash hit a lovely cover drive - went for a quick single - acknowledged the crowd with his bat - forgot to run it in! Liam Butch scored 2 not out, with Raj rotating strike well - leaving Nutter redundant.