Historical Note: On the previous day, Mike Hussey hit 3 sixes in the final over to bring Australia back from a hopeless situation against Pakistan in the World Twenty20.
KSCC 1’s arrived at the Knapp Cricket Ground to be confronted with a North Curry team working its way through an intimidating fielding drill designed to overwhelm their opposition with abject fear. Though this Somerset version of the Haka had a distinct lack of stamping and tongue-pokerer-outering, it was certainly well oiled and executed with the sort of precision not seen at Kilmington and Stourton for over 100 years. In fact, the last act to match it in known history was in 1851, when the 7th Earl of Cardigan arrived on the field outside Stourhead House with his regiment of eager cavalrymen. They duly set about a series of complex and awe inspiring military manoeuvres with the intent of outflanking a flock of bewildered sheep and, after surviving a vicious counterattack, were eventually successful, claiming what is now the KSCC Net area in the name of his good friend, Sir Hugh Richard Hoare. While pointing out to a nonplussed Lord Cardigan that he already owned the land, Sir Hoare also remarked to the King (who was visiting to secret some ill-begotten short selling funds in the family bank) on what a splendid display it was. The King was so impressed, Lord Cardigan and his merry horsemen soon found themselves on the boat to Balaklava and the rest, they say, is history. Immediately after the event, leading local batsman and KSCC captain, Richard Handlebury-Farquarson, was heard to comment that the resulting wicket looked a little ‘tricky’ and, upon winning the toss, elected to play golf. In this fine tradition, a revved up KSCC unit responded to the North Curry display by mooching around on the square and enjoying the sunshine that deemed to present itself. As the ground had been secured at the last minute and with not a small amount of anxiety between the clubs in the pre-season about rearranging the fixture, the junior members were duly sent out into the outfield to hunt out errant land mines, pit traps and wives demanding we go shoe shopping. The ground was declared safe without any substantial casualties and so the two captains headed out to perform the toss.
With the wicket looking fine but rumours abounding that the wicket might be a little bit mysterious, KSCC won the toss and elected to bowl. Tommy B duly kicked off proceedings with pace and movement. The ball, it turns out, was a mover. The Professor Jon Rowe once again took the new ball and forced the umpire to crowbar it out of his hands at the end of each over. Both were doing a great job at keeping runs down and taking the odd wicket. Jonny was even seen at one point standing at slip, muttering away to himself…perhaps channelling the spirit of Snooky (which also might explain the awful euro-techno that could be heard faintly on the breeze)? The persistent Tommy B was replaced by the wandering spirit of Ben Chant, who duly got the ball to swing away and take a wicket in his first over! After getting beaten about a bit, he then made way for Spence to crank up the old Destroy-o-matic™ on what was also a turning surface. Meanwhile, The Professor completed his 12 over spell and, in a mildly hallucinatory state, accepted the applause of the mustered cricket loving crowd. In fact, this applause came from the thousands of Big D groupies who flocked to the ground to cheer on every time our inspirational Number 11 touched the ball in the field. While Spence gained massive traction on the Knapp wicket, the burly Midgely from North Curry fancied a serious crack at him and it was a curious contest that saw bat and ball in a Rocky Balboa style slug fest. One ball Spence beat the bat or squared the batsman up…the next he was clouted into the distant field. The Big Biffer eventually threw in the towel on 60 when he skied a slower ball from the Skipper high into the cloudless heavens and a catch was well held by Ant who called loud enough to knock over some nearby cows. Tommy B returned to smash the stumps a couple of times, but the North Curry tail hurled the bat with abandon and some of his deliveries fairly raced to the boundary. When all was said and done, North Curry had set a pretty challenging target of 202 for victory. They would have a new ball with which to use the conditions and the full array of fielding drills would be on display for all to see.
Tea comprised of some lovely scones with jam and cream, complimented with a hot cup of tea laced with diesel. Immediately upon resumption, the North Curry bowlers had the new ball moving about all over the place. As per the previous week, the Kilmington top order made promising starts but decided that the best course of action for the day was to chuck their wickets away. Ant decided to leave one that was a little too close to the stumps (a fairly significant rounding error meant that his mental calculations allowed for only 1 stump) and Ray dangled his bat out to an away swinger. Having survived being battered and cut to ribbons a couple of times by the young quick, El Capitan then succumbed to the slow bowler attempting to heave across the line in a shot so ugly it would shame a Long Nosed Monkey. Duncan popped one up and then Jonny fed a regulation outfield practice catch to long on to have the entire top order in the hutch without a major score between them. Once again, enter the standard heroes of the day, those chiefs of the rear guard action, Messrs Gillatt and Barton (F). Both settled into a groove and played an impressive brand of watchful and then counter-attacking cricket. Sammy Gs work through midwicket and square leg completely silenced a very chatty the opposition, while Freddies lofted drives had them gnawing at their fingernails as the required total shrunk at a decent clip. Freddie eventually holed out looking for another 6 over mid-off, which only worsened the situation for the North Curry rabble. Ben Chant’s arrival at the crease saw the already solid run chase gather irrepressible momentum with some well struck fours to compliment Sammy Gs growing innings. With scores tied, Ben Chant went all Mike Hussey and whopped the ball for 6 over mid-wicket to close out another tremendous victory against quality opposition.
Once again, both sides came out happy with the day (if not the result) as both sides played good cricket at times and each had a chance to take the result. KSCC certainly benefitted from plenty of extras…but with our top order at the moment we will take them where we can get them! We still ride high at the top of the division thanks to a game in hand, but with winning 3 out of 4 it is definitely a great start to the season and a trend we hope to continue this week against Huish and Langport.
Bowling: o m r w
T Barton 12 1 42 3
J Rowe 12 4 25 2
B Chant 3 0 21 1
C Hansen 6 0 23 1
S Churchill 12 0 76 1
Batting:
S Gillatt 42*
C Hansen 35
F Barton 28
B Chant 20*
So, happy hunting all and I will see you next week on the field of battle,
Skip
No comments:
Post a Comment