It was another typical English summers day, with clouds about and a gentle sprinkling of rain in the surrounding areas. The pitch was looking OK if a little soft after mid week rains. Familiar conditions indeed. The toss was won by KSCC who elected to take the ball to start with and make use of some bowler friendly conditions.
To the great amusement of his teammates, the new ball was taken by Biffer Burles. In former times, Biffer was a formidable quick left armer and his captain fancied turning back the clock one more time. He huffed and puffed his way in for 3 solid overs, with the ball boomeranging around completely out of control. There were no wickets but it was a decent effort by the big man. From the other end, Tommy B made an amazing start. Thinking they were in a test match, he sparred with the left handed opening batsman for almost his entire first spell. The first run off the bat from his end came in his 7th over, and signalled the first runs for the batsman also in only the 11th over of the game. Snooky had resumed normal duties at the other end, but was choosing to mix his dots with a light smattering of 4s. The book also makes remarkable reading from his end, dealing exclusively in dots, boundaries and wickets throughout his 12 over spell except for a small hiccup in the 9th over where he conceded a 2 and a 1. The early going proved an arm wrestle until Snooky finally secured the first wicket, clean bowling the slow scoring left hander. He then secured a spectacular diving caught and bowled that was felt for miles around and noted in the match reports of almost all of the other games in the county. As a follow up, he clean bowled the other opener as he started to look dangerous and then disturbed the wicket of the new batsman to take a quick 4 wickets in 4 overs. Things were looking good for Snooky. He found his fifth wicket from his last ball to round off an old style 12 over spell from The Strangler. The Golden Boy provided the home side with a glimmer of hope, dishing up some juicy full tosses and watching them disappear into the surrounding crops as he gave up 27 in 2 overs. Luckily, The Destroyer and Livewire combined to wind them back a few steps. Benny kept it pitched up to the captain as he was hitting his stride and was rewarded by having him caught at long off. South Petherton counter attacked with some aggressive running to stymie KSCC’s push to close out the innings. El Capitan thought he saw something in the way the batsmen were hopping around to Benny and brought back Tommy B for Spence...but it seems he saw wrong. The batsmen survived a veritable fast yorker assault from the fearsome youngster and only succumbed in his last over. There were a couple of run out chances missed as the chase got more deperate, but Your Brave Leader (TM) finally hit the stumps from a range of about 2 meters and then clean bowled number 10 in his one over spell to put KSCC in with a chance of getting all 10 wickets. Livewire duly obliged, finishing a long 8 over spell by clattering the stumps of resistance with the last ball of the innings. It was a decent effort but still felt like we had given the opposition a few too many runs, letting them make their way to 180.
What followed showed that we probably could have given them twice as many. While Sammy G looked classy and comfortable early on, his captain decided to take matters into his own hands. Bowlers came and went out of the attack as each was clattered to the boundary (or in the case of one left arm spinner, sliced through the batsman’s own legs to the square leg boundary). It was brutal stuff as the opening partnership passed 100 just before Your Brave Leader (TM) chipped meekly to midwicket having made 81 from 64 balls. Sammy G followed soon after for 16..but that would be all the celebrating that South Petherton would get. The Anternator completely destroyed the attack with some trademark straight artillery shots that put him back into contention for the sixes trophy. One short armed jab effortlessly cleared the club house. He beat his skippers pace to 50 by four balls when his came up after just 32 deliveries. By the time he and The Professor, who also made a tidy 24 including 3 sixes, wrapped up the innings, The Anternator had 56 from 36 deliveries. In the end, KSCC had chased the total for the loss of 2 wickets in just 27 overs. A dominant batting effort against a bowling unit that lacked variation and a genuine strike bowler.
Bowling: o m r w
S Snook 12 4 48 5
B Chant 8 0 38 2
T Barton 12 3 24 1
C Hansen 4 0 13 1
Batting:
C Hansen 81
A Williams 56*
J Rowe 24*
S Gillatt 16
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