Fishers went into the match against Sad Dads with a certain amount of trepidation. An unavoidable trip to Germany had robbed them of leading wicket taker Stuart Nurse – yes you read that correctly. That sentence did include the words leading, wicket, taker and Nurse. And no, before you check the previous scorecards, Fishers had not been playing primary school kids for the last month. Stuart really was our leading 20/20 wicket taker at the start of this game.
Thankfully for Fishers, Sad Dads were also without their leading players. Alcohol, injury, work, other commitments, incarceration (delete as appropriate) meant that Noden and Button were absent.
Having won the toss Cook decided to have a bat. Despite Boxer’s parsimonious opening spell matters started well for the Sad Dads and it wasn’t long before both Church (14) and Winford (27no) had reached double figures.
With Sad Dads going along at a comfortable rate of 6 an over Anil decided to bring Bob (3 overs 0 for 9) and Bungle (3 for 14) on.
At this point one member of the opposition remembered that not only had they forgotten to exchange club pennants, but they had also forgotten to bring theirs with them. Luckily, he realised that he did have some handbags with him and tried to exchange the female fashion accessories with Bob, who politely declined the offer of a new Hermes Birkin for Mrs. Little on the basis that he had nowhere to put it and wrapping it over his left shoulder would only hamper his arm ball. A similar offer was made to Anil, this time a nice black sequined clutch, but he too chose not to accept.
Whilst all this was going on Bungle was taking wickets at the other end. First he bowled Church. In his second over he bowled Phil with an absolute jaffa, which pitched outside off and clipped the top of leg stump; such was the quality of the delivery that all those who saw it agreed it was as good as anything Nursey had delivered all season.
The next ball which dismissed Franklin was just as good and meant that the first ball of his final over would be a hat-trick ball. Having bowled 2 in-swingers to take the last two wickets Bungle chose to bowl the perfect leg-cutter, which Campbell chipped to Ramsey (Bambi) at cover. Being a pre-adolescent cartoon deer he failed to get his hooves round the ball and dropped it.
With the match finely poised Ramsey and the Man with the Golden Arm, Vale, took up the Fishers’ mantle. Despite bowling a decent line Chris finished wicketless. However, fine catches from Boxer and Dawkins (behind the stumps) ensured that Robert picked up another two wickets.
With overs running out Cook pushed on to his 25 but a couple of sharp runouts by Anil and Dave meant that Sad Dads finished with only 105.
Any ideas Fishers had of knocking the runs off in double quick time were dealt a massive blow with five wickets falling for under 50 runs! Marriot was trapped lbw for a golden duck – the first duck of his illustrious Fishers’ career! Dawkins fell the very next ball hooking Franklin to square leg. When Watson was bowled by Franklin for 8 the game looked well and truly over. Sad Dads were flying. By the 10th over Fishers were 29 for 4.
Boxer strolled imperiously to the middle and smashed two fours before Holmes sent him packing with a fine away swinger. 13 overs gone, 6 wickets down!
In came Bungle and curiously, given he had bowled one over for two runs and a wicket, off went Holmes. With Malcolm (12no) offering excellent support Bungle took Fishers to 93, a mere 12 runs short and with two overs to get them in.
Having had his bowling put to the sword Ross was in the mood for revenge and within 7 balls he had seen Fishers over the line for the most improbable of victories!
Man of the match: Bungle.