GPD 104 – 7 off 20 overs. SJFCC 108 – 4 off 17.1 overs. Fishers won by 6 wickets.
13th May 2010 – Match reporter – Mr. Anil
Three years ago the mighty Fishers stunned Greenwood Park Dads (GPD) by bowling them out on their home ground for 15.
The weather on that day was hot and humid with low cloud cover. The pitch, as one would expect at Greenwood Park , was immaculate with the just faintest green top. It was a day made for bowling and having won the toss Fishers took full advantage. Anil opened the bowling. His first delivery pitched on middle and swung for a Harmison style wide. His second ball pitched a foot outside leg and swung passed the batsman’s off stump. The batsman took a wild swing and cut the ball to point where Andrew Cox took a remarkable one handed diving catch.
This was the catalyst which led to the most remarkable of collapses. Anil bagged another wicket then Simon (3), Dave (2) and Bungle (2) unleashed every weapon in their armoury to ensure that GPD were back in the hutch in no time at all. Unfortunately, the book was lost and it is not known who got the last wicket. However, all who were there are sure that it wasn’t Chris Williams.
Obviously, to expect this sort of result every week would be churlish but the point is that SJFCC had laid down their marker. They had defined the level of cricket expected from Fishermen.
Fast forward three years to 13 May 2010. This time SJFCC played host to GPD.
The signs were good. The core of the team Cox, Boxer, Marriott, Little, Herbert, Virji and King (M) were all still there. However, this time they had the genuine pace of James “don’t you ever f cking do that again” Nairne (all will be revealed in a later write up – Ed), the destructive batting of Andy Watson, the Randallesque fielding abilities of Ross Watson and Adam Pythian.
In similar fashion to three years ago Anil set the tone for SJFCC’s innings. With Dawko injured Anil took the keeping gloves. Things started well and after two overs he had conceded just the one leg bye. Unfortunately, in the third over he dropped a routine delivery off Dave and then watched as the ball rolled onto his batting helmet (which for the record he didn’t wear for the whole innings so why the f ck was it there? – Ed) for five penalty runs!
Matters got worse, Adam dropped a dolly, Coxie dived over the ball. Not to be outdone Watson dropped another dolly. It seemed with every passing over another Fisherman tried his hardest to take levels of incompetence in the field to new heights. Even Simon Marriott made a mistake. No one was immune. GPD’s took full advantage and gleefully started to build a total. Just when it looked like the good ship Fishers was steadying itself Anil dropped a sitter of Matt King.
Thankfully, in amongst this dross there were some high points. Nairne, Boxer and Little bowled well. Adam Pythian bagged his debut Fisher’s wicket and somehow Andy Watson claimed three wickets, all bowled! In the end GPD closed on 104.
The Fishers innings started poorly. Andy Watson was bowled for 6 in the third over. At the other end Coxie was doing his best to get fined for slow play. However, when Simon (26no) arrived at the crease things started to change and the pair put on 54 in 6 overs before Coxie was bowled on 23. Adam (8) announced his arrival with a thundering six off his second ball before running himself out. Ross Watson picked up the first golden duck of the season when he was bowled by “Rod” (to be fair to Ross, Rod could actually spin the ball – Ed). This brought Dave (19 no) and Anil (13 no) to the middle and they quickly set about knocking off the remaining runs to ensure a winning, albeit not convinving, start to the Fishers’ season.
Man of the match: Not sure that anyone really deserves it. It is tempting to give it to Bungle for keeping up his winning streak as captain, but the words Bungle and streak in the same sentence conjure up horrible images so it can’t be that. For a wicket on debut, two catches and making us laugh with his flamboyant style of batting it has to go to Adam Pythian.
Champagne moment: Well it can’t be the Stuart Nurse incident because that wasn’t funny. So it has to be Anil dropping the ball onto his helmet to give away the first five run penalty in Fishers’ history.
