Luck was with us this week with the forecast saying that Tuesday would be the only decent night of the week. And decent it was with us arriving at the EVH ground on a splendid sunny evening. Once again we decided to allow an element of random chance into the proceedings by drawing cards for captaincy. And with only two cards drawn Tony promptly gets an ace thereby winning the booby prize !
Well he might have won the captaincy but EVH proceeded to win the toss after which they naturally decided to have a bat. But some miserly bowling from the Jollys saw us not only restrict their scoring but also saw us steadily take wickets with EVH finishing their innings with a score of 88 for 8 from 18 overs (sounds like some sort of bingo call -ed.)
This meant the Jollys took to the field feeling reasonably confident but with the knowledge that we do have a habit of losing matches we're expected to win (usally with a spectacular collapse).
However on this occasion we were definitely up to the task and some splendid batting saw Will and Tom both retire after scoring 25. Not forgetting Ian who scored 21 not out and Jol who managed a quick 13 as we managed to make it 2 out of 2 so far this season !
Well as you can see the Jollys are raring to go this week as Dave and Powelly sit about berating the current price of beer. |
As for Ogs he's so relaxed he can't quite muster the effort to put his shoes on yet ! |
As usual there were no pictures of us in the field so, following EVH's innings we rejoin the action with Tom and Will who are opening the batting. Will must have had extra shredded wheat this moring too as he's in fine fettle and is soon hitting boundary after boundary. |
At the other end Tom has also bedded himself in nicely and is scoring runs, although not at the same rate as Will. |
Now here's something you don't see on every cricket pitch... a set of rugby posts. Which means the batters have something to aim for as anything that hits the posts is deemed to be a 4 (even if bounces off and over the boundary for 6 it's still 4 - ed.) |
Well Ian's padded up ready to go in but Dave is already practising downing a couple of cold ones. |
Out on the wicket Will is postiviely surging ahead as he hits another splendid 4. |
But what's this ? Our camera man is momentarily distracted as a low flying something scoots past the outfield. But is it a UFO ? Is it a bird ? Is it a plane ? (it's a flippin' seagull you twit -ed.) |
A few balls later and in comes Will having retired on 25. So it's Ian's turn to take to the middle. Let's see if he can help Tom keep the score moving along. |
Speaking of whom Tom is still batting nicely with most of his runs coming from well taken singles. |
Ian wastes no time in getting off the mark and joins Tom by mostly scoring off well placed singles. |
Back on the boundary "Cockney" Stu and Shannon are enjoying a game of keepy up. |
Captain Tony is taking no chances after last weeks book keeping problems (hi Baz - ed.) so he's doing the job himself ! |
Tom is fast approaching the magic 25 but there's been some solid bowling. So will he make it or will EVH get a breakthrough ? |
Ian's now in full flow and both he and Tom are steadily scoring singles so, whilt the run rate has dropped, the score is still rolling along nicely. |
But what's this is it another UFO ? (er... no it's still a seagull - ed.) |
Whatever it is Ian is not happy about it buzzing the outfield so he fires a mighty 4 in the direction of the avian menace. That's get the bugger off the wicket ! |
Well it's good been bowling from EVH which has slowed the run rate back to a reasonable level but they're finding it hard to make the crucial breakthrough. |
Congratulations to Tom who scores a 4 to brings him up to the magic 25. Which means it Jol's turn to come in. |
By this point we only needed about 15 runs to match EVHs target so, with wickets in hand, Jol is determined to polish them off quickly and grab the glory for himself. |
After a quick single Jol hits a termendous 6, a 2 and a 4 but follows this by firing one directly in to the air. |
Aha ! He'd mistaken a low flying plane for the return of the feathered fiend. Sadly for Jol the ball has now come back down straight into the gloves of the grat4ful keepr so EVH have finally made a breakthrough. Sadly for them it was a little too late in the innings. |
Having finally put on his shoes Ogs has barely time to get to the crease before Ian knocks off the winning runs so in he comes having scored 21 not out. |
Once again this means it's back to the Old Town Hall for another helpng of butties. Sadly though not all the team could make it this week so there was a veritable feast for the ones who did. |
Oh dear not only has Tom got hiccoughs but he's taking Ogs' advice on how to cure them "Just hold your nose shut, do a headstand in a pint of guinness for 24 hours, and have a spoonful of vinegar. That'll shift 'em". |
They were so good that we thought we'd end this weeks episode with another shot of the buttie trays ;) |
Click a picture to see a full size image.
Innings of EVH. |
Innings of Jollyboys. |
Midge Report: Well there's still no sign of the Jollys this year. Bzzzt. However our cousins over at Cottam Hall have informed us there's a new team playing over there on a Thursday. Bzzzt. I think it's time we went and took a look. Bzzzt. Bzzzt. |
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