Dodgy Australian Scoring Methods Lead to Interesting Finish….
On Sunday, the second Kim Taylor Memorial Parents Vs Juniors cricket match took place at People’s Park in a repeat of one of the most competitive and intense matches played at the club.
The rivalry and sledging started at home between parents and juniors and easily transferred itself on to the field during the day.
This year, Euan M, as the only departing junior took on the captaincy but was able to rely on previous captain Ewan D, who had to step in for the juniors due to some last minute withdrawals.
An agreed toss took place and the Juniors were asked/elected to bat first. The rules were kept the same. Each batting pair would be allowed four overs to bat regardless of whether they lost their wicket (a deduction of five runs per wicket lost) with no LBWs in play and each team would start their innings with 200 runs.
Opening the innings was for the juniors was our youngest player, Jess F joined by George. Up stepped Quentin to opening the bowling from the Airport End and with the confidence earned from hitting the stumps in the nets on five separate occasions (in the same net he said), he promptly displayed his accuracy but dismissing Jess off the first ball of the match. Swapping ends, Quentin was soon on a hat-trick as he attempted a sweep but was unfortunately to find a panther-like Mark behind the stumps who dived full length to take the catch down the leg side (read, it lobbed in the air and he was just grateful it landed in the gloves).
John took over at the City End and having received no notification from the ICC last year about how much flexibility his elbow should bend by, proceeded to lay down the gauntlet and “bowled” with his own unique action. Each dot ball was received with a “well thrown bowled John” by the keeper and slip. However, George soon got the hang of the pitching bowling and was able to ease his way to some boundaries. Elizabeth R took over from Quentin and soon was able to trouble the batters with her deft deliveries that deceived one and all and even brought the slips into play, albeit to collect the deliveries that were not quite landing on the correct wicket. However, scoring was hard to come by. John finished the batting pairs’ innings by maintaining his art and the batting pair were able to finish on a positive score.
Juniors 221 with 2 wickets lost.
Next up were Stuart L and Tas to face Ally first up. Ally was soon in the wickets dismissing Tasmin with one that kept straight. Rufus had a tough act to follow, replacing John at the City End but was amongst the wickets straight away bowling Stuart after Tas took a quick single to get away from the bowling. Another wicket followed as Ally made good use of the old adage “bad balls gets wickets” as a short ball was promptly despatched to the boundary before Kevin, moved around like a panther to take a very good catch on the boundary. Elizabeth R returned for her final spell and continued to trouble the batsman with her deceiving run up and extra slow deliveries bowling the first maiden of the match. However, the pair were able to push the score along between their four overs.
Juniors 240 with 5 wickets lost.
Jack and Samir were in next and this allowed some consistency with the bowling pairs as Mark L and Sunil were able to bowl their overs in a continuous spell. Lots of chat to and from between Lamb Chops and Junior Lamb Chops only for both to end in stalemate. Neither obtained the wicket nor the boundary to retain some bragging rights for the game. However, at the other end, Sunil was able to deceive Samir with some artful spin to bowl Sunil. The batting pair were able to pick up ones and twos to steadily move the Juniors along.
Juniors 263 with 6 wickets lost.
Thomas and Ross followed determined to right the world by smashing everything out of the park. Thomas duly obliged with a thumping boundary second ball of his father, Sam. This brought in Mark K playing his first game since leaving primary school. From the off, it became clear that Mark has wasted his years not playing the game as he was a pure natural with the bowl with height and bounce, he bowled an excellent spell to two of our older and more accomplished juniors. However, Sam was able to gain a little revenge as he enticed Thomas down the wicket (Thomas clearly taking lessons from the Gauldy off side trap from earlier in the season) to be stumped by Mark L. Viewers at the time did not know what happened, such were the cat-like reflexes from Mark but had to take note of the missing bails and the stranded Thomas to know a wicket had fallen.
Juniors 293 with seven wickets lost.
The fifth pair saw Edward and Matthew come to the crease with the returning Quentin. The pair provided the necessary impetus to the juniors running twos at will and taking on the fielders. Neither Elizabeth C nor Kevin could stem the flow as runs came off nearly every ball to score the highest partnership of the innings with 33 runs. More importantly the pair did not lose any wickets.
Juniors 325 with 7 wickets lost.
Ruben was joined by the returning Ewan who graciously stepped in to play for the juniors at the last minute. Kevin was able to strike early but once again runs flowed, albeit with some lucky shots including one straight drive that none of the fielders fancied stopping and a six by Ewan that was a top edge for all intents and purpose. The pair put on the second highest partnership of the innings with 29 runs.
Juniors 354 with 8 wickets lost.
The final pair brought Euan M in, playing in his last year as a junior. He was joined by Jess for two overs and Tasmin for two overs during his four over allocation. Steady runs were made by all three players without the loss of any further wickets.
FINAL JUNIORS TOTAL: 371 WITH EIGHT WICKETS LOST.
Following the deduction of 40 runs for the wickets lost, the Juniors set a very challenging 331.
The teams went off to enjoy a well-deserved break with plenty of food and excellent home bakes (the author’s favourite being the chocolate Guinness cake made by Janet) before the Parents started their reply.
Mark K set out with Robin to open up against Ross and Tasmin initially. The batting pair eased the innings to steady start helped by byes that moved the scoring along at a good rate. Ross was able to extract some revenge by dismissing Mark but that was the only wicket lost in four overs.
Parents 237 for the loss of 1 wicket.
As they did last year, the second pair saw the husband and wife team of Kevin and Elizabeth go out. Kevin once again showed he was up for the challenge by punishing every ball possible to move the scoring rate along rapidly. The pair were also only dismissed once by Edward but the parents continued to progress with the scoring rate.
Parents 263 for the loss of 2 wickets.
The third pair was another husband and wife team, with John and Elizabeth R going out to face George, Ruben and Edward. George opened his spell with a wicket and that set the tone for the batting pair’s innings. The bowling changes saw runs dry up which included the only wicket maiden of the match for Ruben as he dismissed Elizabeth.
Parents 285 for the loss of 4 wickets.
The heavy hitters were sent in with Mark L and Moira sent out to get some much needed runs. However, Euan and Jack had other idea. Euan in particularly bowled one of the spells of the day to twice dismiss Mark during their quota. However, the pair were able to move the scores along.
Parents 313 for the loss of 7 wickets.
Next up Sam and Ally to face Thomas and Stuart. Although the pair were dismissed once, both were able to get bat on ball regularly and score runs at will. The juniors did not help their cause with some wayward overthrows during these overs as one run became five.
Parents 353 for the loss of 8 wickets.
Quentin and Sunil took over the batting and runs were not coming easily to the parents. However, in the last over, the highlight of the match took place as Jess, the youngest person on the field cleaned bowled Quentin (possibly the oldest person on the field…) to earn the loudest cheer of the day. Quentin’s response? A massive six into the log cabin – literally into the kitchen.
Parents 402 runs for the loss of 10 wickets
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The final pair of Robin and Rufus with victory in the balance due to the scorer’s mis-calculations. From the off the pair went on the attack taking on Ruben, Tasmin, Ewan and Euan, as they eased their way to the target score. In the final over, Brayden thought he would have a hit and looked to the airport for his shots. However, Euan cannily kept it full and was unlucky not to have Brayden caught twice during the extended over that he bowled.
FINAL PARENTS TOTAL: 438 RUNS FOR THE LOSS OF 11 WICKETS.
PARENTS WIN!
Another highly charged emotional game finished with the parents coming out victors in a much closer game than last year with many parents commenting that our juniors are getting better and better. Fortunately, once they do surpass their parents, they will be too old to play!
The day was finished off by a lovely speech by Mark L who was able to talk a little about Kim, Robin’s late wife who was a much loved and respected person at the club. She would tirelessly follow Robin around to watch his games and was heavily involved in the club in different capacities. Mark said Kim loved nothing more than coming down on a Friday and seeing our juniors train and all players and especially our juniors did her memory proud in this annual event.