Fishers v PSD 5 June 2013 – Fishers win by 6 wickets
Match report by the Skipper (Mid-week 3XI )
On 4 October 1997 Watford Football Club finally, after 10 years of trying, beat their arch-rivals, Luton Town. The score that day at Kenilworth Road was 4-0, which brought chants of, “10 years but it was worth the wait” from the travelling Watford faithful.
Fast forward to 5 June 2013, on a beautiful summer’s evening in Park Street, Dave Hoskins must have felt the same sense of relief/jubilation as those Watford fans on that fateful day.
(Message to any Luton/Watford fans who may have stumbled across this match report: Please note that this posting has nothing to do with either of your great clubs. The reference to that match is purely because it is stuff of local folklore and to the members of this cricket club it felt like 10 years since Dave last scored a run for us even though he only joined us last year!).
Before Dave’s jubilation there were emotions of a different kind for one of Fishers other Daves. It all happened in the first over. Streaky bowled a lifting delivery to PSD’s opener, Tony Albon. A sound was heard and a catch behind was taken by Dawko. Fishers began to celebrate. However, the umpire’s finger did not go up and Tony stood his ground. Whether there was a nick, a glove or just a bit of bat on pad no one is saying. However, Streaky was convinced he had his man. Fired up, Streaks started to bowl faster. Tony carried on about his game in his usual calm and collected fashion. After two overs of Streaky’s bowling Tony was looking comfortable, Streaky was looking cross and Anil, looking worried, took the brave decision to replace Dave with Ross. Ross was put to the sword in his first over. Everyone looked in any direction other than Streaky’s!
PSD piled on the runs (it should be mentioned that they were assisted by four angry over-throws from Streaks trying to run Tony out, but given he still hasn’t recovered from that first over we won’t mention it, ever).
Fisher’s finally had some respite when Nairne dismissed the other opener and Bungle bowled a full-bunger to dismiss the usually dangerous Andrews.
Hazon, Nurse and Ross all took a bit of a thrashing as did Anil (from the Park Street Lane end). However, the introduction of Ranga stemmed the flow of runs. With Ranga doing his thing from one end Anil brought himself back at the Railway Embankment end. The change of ends worked wonders and Anil started to swing the ball both ways to dismiss Jeffries, Wright and skipper, Mike Barkham thanks to a lovely catch at first slip by the Caveman.
The recovery meant that Fishers had a target of 121.
Things started brightly with Nurse and Dawko both getting starts before Nurse was bowled by the young Andrews. This brought Hoskins to the crease. Desperate to get off the mark he swung and missed at the first three Andrews’ deliveries. At the other end Dawko moved up a gear and started smash the ball to all quarters. Hoskins on the other hand looked like a man out of touch. Finally, he edged one through the slip cordon for a single to get off the mark. The relief was palpable and brought about a huge cheer from the Fishers’ dressing room.
With that Dave cut loose and, before you knew it, he was cracking the ball all over the ground, including a massive six over long on. At the end of the 15th over Dave was finally stumped on 34 and Fishers were on course for victory. A quick 15 from Watson meant that Streaky and Bungle were able to see Fishers home with balls to spare. Unfortunately, for Streaky Bungle was not willing to give him the strike and let him hit Tony for the winning runs.
[box] Man of the match: Dave Hoskins[/box]
[box type=”info”] Champagne moment: On any normal day Watson’s catch at first slip. But today it has to be the four overthrows given away by Dave. It was a shocking piece of fielding. However, given his mood no-one dared say a thing. [/box]
