Sport and politics shouldn’t mix, but that is not to say that they don’t share certain qualities. While F1 teams argue vigourously about who won’t be going fastest around the Bahrain circuit later this year, I can’t help but look to other sporting events and political discussions closer to home. Like watching a Coalition government play National Health System (3rd Edition Rules), anyone familiar with watching sporting events will have observed that amazing phenomenon of two teams playing the same game to seemingly different rules or intents. Barcelona and Man U in the Champions league comes to mind, or the famous clash of Grandmaster Valery Checkhov and Anti-Chess World Champion Howard Breem in 1986, or the tragic events at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer when Chinese figure skater Li Chang suffered multiple injuries after a body check from USA Ice Hockey player, Jimmy Bigstix.
Rivals Middlezoy, who have won KSCC’s division two years running to be official promotion buddies, were sent in and got off to a quick start. Tommy B fought back with a few good overs, but The Strangler couldn’t get in his rhythm and steadily leaked runs without going for too many. Snooky made the early break through to bring in Harry Roberts, who looked to continue the quick start. A double bowling change saw El Capitan wheel himself out after spending much of the week bowling poorly in the nets but insisting all the while that he would get Harry out. It took 3 overs to get a crack at him, but only 3 balls to remove the dangerous left hander who has spent much of the last 2 years pummelling runs from the KSCC spinners. Middlezoy were still making runs however, until the introduction of Tom Reid who bowled a superb 6-over spell. He and The Destroyer restricted the Middlezoy scoring in the middle overs, while Tom claimed 2 wickets. However, the opener Troman was still at the other end providing resistance. Tommy was brought off to bring on The Golden Boy in the hunt for wickets, which proved to be an interesting decision by the captain as Freddie once again disappeared for runs through the short Middlezoy straight boundaries. Suddenly, Middlezoy were scoring freely...taking runs from Spence as well. The Strangler was brought back to face Nemesis Barnard, but he also shipped runs at an alarming rate. However, like a morbidly obese cub scout with an XXL tub of bargain basement marshmallows, El Capitan kept hurling him back into the fire to seriously damage his figures. Tommy B came back for one over but was blasted as the batsman used his pace against him. Thus it was left to Your Brave Leader (TM) to bowl the 44th over and belatedly have Troman caught by an athletic Professor Jon Rowe for 89. Snooky finally got his man, bowling Nemisis for 79, but the damage had been done. The ball seemed to spend a lot of time travelling to places where the KSCC fielders weren’t, which either says a lot for the Middlezoy batting or not much about the KSCC captains field placement. KSCC would be left to chase a challenging 275/6.
Middlezoy started tactically, playing two spinners early on to try and sneak some overs in before the real chase started. However, the plan looked to back fire as Sammy G found gaps and Your Brave Leader(TM) counter punched to kick the innings off at over 5 runs an over. Barnard eventually brought himself on, but was being handled reasonably well before the captain played a drive straight over a full delivery and had his stumps disturbed after a quick opening partnership of 78. Rayzzo looked good early but also fell, bowled Barnard. The Professor struck some delightful boundaries early and it was while I was off looking for the ball after one of those shots , hoping it was not wedged deep in a giant pile of horse manure at the front of the allotments, that the game fell apart for KSCC. There were multiple appeals and congratulations heard over the hedge as wicket after KSCC wicket fell. A minor batting collapse turned into a major rout as numbers 5-11 failed to make double figures. By the time that Tom Barton was left standing on his own at the end of the innings, KSCC had succumbed to be all out for 164 in 36 overs.
A disappointing effort indeed, with the hurt multiplied by some bad blood between the two sides during the second innings. Middlezoy has been our benchmark over the last couple of years and we shall have to put in a much better effort on the return fixture to ensure that we hand them the same level of defeat later in the year.
Bowling: o m r w
T Reid 6 2 18 2
C Hansen 5 0 25 2
S Snook 11 0 85 2
Batting:
C Hansen 52
S Gillatt 41
J Rowe 27
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