We arrived at a sunny Duthie Park knowing that nothing less than a win against Kemnay Kintore would keep our promotion hopes alive. On losing the toss (again) and being asked to bat (again), Jawad and Eddie made their way out to start our innings. Eddie didn’t last long and Mark joined Jawad to put together what turned out to be the match winning partnership.
Jawad did ride his luck, being given not out after the wicketkeeper caught one that hit his pad, then surviving “the most out LBW ever – quote – J Thom” simply by virtue of being hit outside the line of the stumps while playing a shot. Both batsmen picked off a number of loose deliveries and the score rose to 83 before Jawad was bowled for 32. This brought a Stoneywood Dyce legend to the crease – David Lamb playing his first game in 7 years and his first ever at the Duthie Park.
The score rose to 100 before the captain made the mistake of returning to his car to swap the bag with the club financial stuff with the bag with sandwiches and milk in it. He returned to see his brother at the crease, batting number 8, four wickets having fallen for 5 runs, one of whom being Mark Lambley who (I think) has now pulled back ahead of Jack in the Lambley runs league with a fine 57.
Farhad hit a couple of nice shots but otherwise, could only stand and watch as the rest of the team succumbed to the slow spin of G Satyamurthy who took 7-11, assisted it has to be said by some not very clever batting.
We took tea with Kemnay Kintore needing 120 to secure their promotion slot. The question was – could they handle the pressure.
That was answered fairly quickly as Satya emulated some of our efforts by skying one straight back to the bowler, Rory, who took the catch. Jordan Thom came in at 3 and hit Rory for a couple of 4s but Rory then bowled the KK captain, Frank Summers, before Liam Thom played the worst shot of the day (he had some competition) first ball. His dad (umpire) and brother (non-striker) were rather less than impressed at his efforts.
Rory then took a fourth wicket, caught by Jon at midwicket. Jon then got in on the act by taking 2 wickets clean bowled. Ross, after a rather wayward first ball settled into a nice rhythm and, after realising that appealing for LBW was a waste of time, bowled Jordan Thom for 32. Ross got his 2nd wicket when Mark made good ground to take a another skier and Farhad wrapped things up by getting Andrew Petrie caught by Jon on the cow corner boundary and then, next ball, getting dad Thom caught by Ian at slip.
An enormously satisfying result, even if it does not ultimately make a difference in the promotion stakes.
SDCC MoM: Joint award – Mark for his runs and Rory for his wickets.
Highlight of the Match:
A close call between:
1) The moment, when we were about 75-1, when the chatter stopped and you could almost hear the opposition thinking “We’re not going to win this”. They didn’t.
2) KKCC’s mocking laughter at half time after the SDCC collapse, followed by the silence during their innings and the #NotLaughingNow tweet at the end.