Written by Simon Sperring
Sunday 20 May
Venue : Southwick Oval
Game : 30 overs
Old Eastonians 180-8 beat Strokers 174-6
11 Strokers arrived to their home of cricket to the sight of Toddy sporting some alternative wheels … Gator and trailer with mower, which was desperately needed so we actually had something that resembled a square to play on. The weather was glorious and although we must confess, probably not our strongest team had turned up, we were determined to put on a good show.
It was soon obvious that our opponents were made up of an eclectic group of individuals, with a ‘special’ captain. Apart from being more of an individual contributor, he had not instilled the art of team spirit into his players … regular in-fighting and discussions were to present themselves as the game progressed.
Following the toss, it was decided that Strokers would bowl. Eastonians opening batsmen included their captain and Thompson-Raby formed the initial attack. Runs began to stack up thanks to a large selection of byes and fielding errors. Jones being nutmegged several times on the boundary. This lead to the need for some expert ball foraging (luckily the farming fraternity on the team came into their own) with the highlight being a romantic interlude by Middleton and Jones disappearing into the bushes for what seemed to be an eternity, claiming they were looking for the ball.
After switching the attack to Kisiel and Sperring, the run rate dropped and our first break through came with a clear wicket taken by Sperring ending the partnership of 79. This spelt the beginning of the loss of the remaining wickets for a further 99 runs. Unfortunately their Captain failed to adhere to the retire after 50 runs rule, only finally leaving after being bowled for 79 off Atkinson …. to the delight of his own team strangely enough! An excellent session of bowling from the Toddy and Atkinson followed, with 3 more wickets and some safe hands delivering more blows to the Eastonians. As always there was a generous splash of banter from Dog to keep the spirits high and only a few sharp words from Captain Kisiel (far fewer than had been expected) and we broke for tea.
A pint and a burger later and we returned to the field … once the Eastonians had managed to drag their remaining stragglers out of the pub. Kisiel and Middleton opened the batting getting us off to a fantastic start, with the partnership only ending after Middleton had used up his ‘9 lives’ having been dropped 3 times and having his bails tickled a number of times too.
Umpiring was questioned when Thompson was caught behind off some particularly thick arm hair, allowing Jones to erase his earlier nutmegging incident with a flourishing 32 runs. Kisiel retired and next in was Toddy and Atkinson, adding a further 51 runs, which was impressive after some early miscommunication almost leading to Toddy being run out.
Eventually, Toddy skied a drive, getting caught, but after sweating buckets thanks to his new non-breathable (but very smart!) Strokers shirt, he was probably glad to get a breather. This unfortunately was the point that turned the game and our chances of winning began to fade, having maintained the required run-rate previously. However, the tailenders did not go down without a fight and valiantly fought until the last ball, only losing with 8 runs to find off the last 2 balls … literally using the last ball, as so many us been dispersed around the fields surrounding the oval!
Overall a close game, which could have turned in our favor if it had not been for several questionable umpiring decisions and the Eastonians captain failing to be sporting and respect the retire after 50 runs rule that Kisiel so gallantly did. Congratulations to our opponents, but an excellent effort by Strokers who played like a true team and highlighted some hidden talent waiting to be taken advantage of for the rest of the summer.
Man of the match goes to Jason Atkinson who took 2 wickets, had 1 catch and was 30 not out … who needs net practice, when you can sneak 30 mins (whilst the Royal Wedding is on) in the back garden with a plastic ball and bat!