SCORECARD

Fitmen in Dominant Form

It’s been a few years since we have crossed sabres with our Bromsgrove based advisories, The Old Doms. A 5 year hiatus, brought on by us getting spanked on a regular basis and finally having had enough. Fixture secretary Howarth (unavailable) decided enough was enough and let battle commence again.

Skipper for the day, Sam Moore, has history with the Old Doms having played for them along with Dave for a few seasons. Indeed (now folklore), there is history with a certain 19 year old Sammy boy smashing your reporter into an adjacent field on numerous occasions.
http://fitmen.org.uk/reports/381
“A fine display of controlled hitting by their young maestro took apart some (a small ‘some’) decent bowling.
A word of sympathy as Aid spectacularly tumbled off the economy rate leader board as he felt the full force of the host’s in form bat. His bowling at the death wasn’t actually bad (others bowled way more wayward stuff down the leg side) but he was dispatched with aplomb.
Self-flagellation was the order of the day and retreat to the sanctuary of the hairdressing salon………..the water pistol fight seemed to divert his dark mood for a while”

4-0-48-1 are figures which still burn to this day, however having now got to know our now Fit-legend, all is forgiven.
Back to 2022 and with toss lost, Fitmen were invited to have a bat. What a difference a week makes. With plenty of midweek rain and more Springlike conditions, this was never going to be a repeat of last weeks batting heroics at Harbourne. Had Moore and Bice inserted the stumps into the correct track, rather than the 1st XI pitch (FFS – sorry Ollie), things may have been different.

As it was against a pacey and accurate bowling attack, Harry and Mo played and missed (?) on numerous occasions. The key to the day’s victory came down to the fact these 2 were in a really aggressive mood, punishing anything overpitched or too short hitting 15 4’s between them and racing into the 70’s before Mo was out bowled. Harry “2 Pints” Eames fresh from his Friday night drinkathon at Timmsy’s 50th birthday bash, played the innings of the day. No other batter on either side was so fluid nor timed the ball so well.
The fact that only 12 further boundaries were struck by the remaining 9 Fit batsmen and that the opposition only managed 8 boundaries in their entire innings, makes the case. Harry’s 48 off just 44 was simply superb. His inability to drink Tequila will not be mentioned henceforth….

The ball was swinging and seaming alarmingly. The average Fitman can manage 6 inches (of movement) and only a few members can stand up to anything more. Big boys Sam, Bice and Billal were the only ones to reach double figures, as 6 edged and mis-timed good balls to be out caught with good all-round fielding. Waseem and Bal heaved and missed to be out bowled to bring the innings to a close, at what was felt at the time an under par 172 All Out.

Shout out here to Chris Jones, for putting his hand up at the 11th hour to represent the Old Doms who were a player short. Jonesy was committed in the field as always. Top man. Never wanting to be out of the Limelight, Jonesy made sure this fixture would also go down in folklore with his heroic batting performance to try and keep the Oppo’ in with a shout.

Waseem and Martin opened up and used the vagaries of the pitch to the maximum. Waseem 6-2-6-0 contained 5 wides and allowed only a single off the bat. Had Mo held onto a sharp slip catch his figures would have been even better. Martin 6-2-11-2 parsimoniously trundled in and grabbed 2 top order wickets.One of which was an absolute world class one handed catch by Sam. Stunning!

Mould and Billy brought on first change continued the great work, ably supported by some superb fielding including body on the line stops by Stevie Nicks and Nutter. Stu was wild in line but swinging it a mile bamboozled 2 more key wickets. Billal took a bit of tap but again bowled with cunning and guile to himself garner another 2 wickets to his already heaving season tally.
Amongst the continuous clatter of wickets, Jonesy had come in @ 5 and gone about his business with un-characteristic caution. SR stats not counting may have had some impact on this, but more like he just didn’t want to get out to either of these pair. Top scoring with 24 off 80 odd (?) was a decent effort, but once he saw Bal and Ian Nutt warming up, you could see the fight seep out of every pore of this gentle giant.

Bal took glee bowling 5 overs aimed at Jonesy’s leg stump just tempting him to sweep and top edge but he wouldn’t take the bait. 2 other Old Dom’s batsmen did though and yet another 2 fer ensued.
Cometh the hour cometh the Nutterrrrrr!!! Flippers, floppers, Arm balls, wrong un’s and very wrong un’s, our resident Nutt has claimed the scalp of many a fine batsman. Jonesy was to be his 130th (since stats began 2010). Having waited patiently for the bad ball, he chose one of Nutter’s very best to heave across the line and to his incredulity somehow missed it (it drifted and turned a mile off a good length apparently). Much hilarity ensued as this was the 2nd time in a month Nutter had deceived this new Father.

Next over and Nutter grabbed his 2nd with a fine piece of stumping by Bice. Old Doms 115 All out and a win by 57 runs. A good game on a tough pitch. Hopefully not another 5 years till we do battle again.