Jerry Dolke! Sacha Distel! Rene & friends! Napoleon Bonaparte! Hong Kong Phoey!
Jules Rimet! You are not gleaming! Your boys took one hell of a beating!
Joking and gloating aside at the expense of our old rivals, Hayes Lane Ultras, the Bromley Supporters' team, this was a most unexpected victory. Even with a full side we lose, after 'giving a damn good show' to Bromley, in our now annual 20/20 cricket match against them. This is the third year of the fixture, one for which we turn up, have a bit of fun, and go home second best.
But it's still enjoyable, and we had no great expectations this year either, even less so when not one, not two, not three, but FOUR players cried off on the day, last Thursday evening! Now in football, with a squad that carries a few substitutes on a good day, you can just get away with that.
But in cricket? when you have a set team of eleven, with no subs? You've got to be joking!
So it was that we were sent into bat, with only seven players. Who not only managed to survive for almost the full twenty overs (we were all out midway through the last one, Bromley sportingly allowing Martin to go back in to complete our innings for the last few balls) but we only finished with one run less than last year. Nothing spectacular, with our top scorer being 'Mr. Wides & Extras'! We finished on 68.
And so Bromley took to the wicket, having sportingly lent us two spare fielders. Despite taking a very early wicket they slowly took control, and at one stage they had amassed about half of our total with just over a quarter of their overs gone. It was looking to be another comfortable victory for them. But that was without Demon Dooley, as Shaun took five wickets, with the others being claimed by Danny King & Dave Penny. Their last batsman was run out still four runs short of The Rabblers' total, for an historic Hamlet victory, which I doubt will be achieved against them again for a good few years! And Shaun Dooley even had an assist on that four run winning margin. For Mishi Morath wasn't playing, but was taking the photos for this blog. And Shaun told him to stand inside the boundary, and act as another fielder. Which he did, and stopped three boundaries, saving five certain runs from the Bromley total!
No doubt Bromley will wonder how they lost to us. A bit of excellent bowling from Shaun, and a mix of luck, determination & team spirit in adversity. Thanks to them for arranging the game once again, it really does help bridge the gap between the last First Team match of the season, and the early pre season friendlies!
Back row (left to right): Danny King; Larry Marsh; Lucas Green.
Front row (l.to r.): Martin Tibbles; Dave Penny; Shaun Dooley
and Phil Baker.
The 'action' snaps are not very good quality, my 'digital
box brownie' is not a very good one, but hopefully they
are still just about clear enough to work out who's who!
Old habits die hard!
Who exactly is advising who?
With his five wicket haul Guinness really IS good for you!
Half time....respectable by our standards!
'You bowl first.'....'No, after you, I insist!'
Blimey! A wicket!
It's not very exciting. well he does support 'boring Arsenal!'
Bloody hell! Quick team meeting...we can actually win this!
And another one bites the dust!
The scoreboard doesn't lie!
I had heard rumours of this result but nobody had actually confirmed a thing.... as one of those that cried off I can't say that I'm surprised. Results this season have shown a remarkable improvement in the games where I've been absent.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to all, even Penny with his cat like fielding