Stoneywood Dyce Cricket Club

Stoneywood Dyce Cricket Club - Kim Taylor Memorial Match Parents vs Juniors 2015



School was back in Session Earlier Than Planned!

On Sunday, the inaugural Parents vs Juniors cricket match took place at People’s Park in what will go down as one of the most competitive and intense matches played all year.  The rivalry and sledging started long before the match with talk from the Juniors about practicing all varieties of shots in anticipation for the game.  Indeed KP (aka Ewan Davidson) sent a message confirming how he had “been outside with my brother practicing the reverse sweep, Dilscoop and ramp ..... I'm ready for tomorrow”.  Big words to live up.

A long term SDCC stalwart in his final year as a junior, KP, who has risen through our junior ranks all the way up our senior teams, was elected the junior captain and it was fitting his father, Stuart, should be the captain for the Parents.  An agreed toss took place and the Juniors were asked/elected to bat first.  The rules were kept simple.  Each batting pair would be allowed four overs to bat regardless of whether they lost their wicket (a deduction of five runs per wicket lsot) with no LBWs in play and each team would start their innings with 200 runs.

The Parents, as the home team, took the field and never before has a home team faced such an inflammatory and intimidating atmosphere led by the Mama Lionesses who were all cheering on their cubs whilst preparing the half time teas.

Opening the innings was regular junior opener Lamb Chops Jnr (aka Jack Lambley) with Matthew Cook, fresh off destroying the visitors with the bowl in the morning’s kwik cricket festival.  Opening up was our very own Robin Taylor and Matthew’s father and mother Kevin and Elizabeth.  Lots of chirping by the fielding team though mostly aimed at the Parents’ keeper, Tariq, who continued his Grades form by generously dropping catches and missing stumpings.  So bad were some of the “attempts” that his mobile phone was checked during the match for any illicit text messages to bookies.

Lamb Chops Jnr and Matthew C were able to provide a solid platform in the opening four overs despite the intense bowling spells they received from Kevin in particular who gave no quarter in his overs. 

Juniors: 210 with no wickets lost.

Next up for the Juniors were Patrick and Edward to initially face their fathers, Brian and Quentin.  Brian greeted his son with what would have been the perfect bouncer aimed straight at Patrick’s head.  The umpire felt that the lack of the ball landing on the pitch before heading towards Patrick’s head meant the ball was called a no-ball.  However, the intention was clear.  Patrick should have cleaned his room when he was told.  His failure to have done so lead to another near perfect bouncer at head high with the slightest error in judgement by Brian with the ball once again failing to hit the pitch on the way to the batsman.  The rest of over turned out to be meticulous with just 2 runs of the bat.  The following over pit under 13s captain, Edward (who just two weeks before successfully led our U13s team to the Scottish Cup finals day) against his father Quentin.  Much like Kevin in the previous spell, no quarter was given by either player and runs began to dry up with only singles being offered to the pair. Needless to say, Tariq was due another dropped catch and he promptly delivered one from Edward off Quentin’s bowling.

Juniors: 224 with no wickets lost.

The third pair brought KP and Tasmin, our second youngest junior by one minute and our only female player for the juniors.  The brash KP, much like his namesake, talked a good pre-game but when faced with his father’s bowling, Stuart very much came off with a solid first over.  This brought on Rufus to face Tasmin and respect was shown both ways and Rufus felt too intimidated to bowl overarm to Tasmin and was promptly despatch when bowling underarm to her.  The third over saw the start of wickets about to fall very quickly for the parents.  KP with the promise of bringing out an area of “showman shots” played a glorious pull for four runs before attempting a ramp shot which promptly had him bowled.

Juniors: 233 with 1 wicket lost and KP ending on minus 3 with Tasmin on 5.

Pranav and George came out next to face John who’s action resembled many a SD player from the past and present.  John paid no heed to the 15 degree allowance and challenged the umpires to try and call him for a no ball by flexing his arms between 45 and 90 degrees depending on who was facing.  The pressure of trying hit his father out of the park was too much for Georgey as he was promptly caught.  Thamarai was brought on to bowl to Pranav and he took a leaf out of the Brian school of parenting by sending a lovely no bounce bouncer to Pranav by way of introduction to his innings.  John and Thamarai would work well together to take two more wickets each getting their sons out and the cheering from the parents could be heard as far as Huntly.

Juniors: 234 with 1 wicket lost.

The fifth pair of Euan M and Gregor brought a little bit more impetus to the Junior innings as both worked hard on picking up the singles and relying on extras that were coming in handy.  However, each of John M, Bob, Janet and Sam continued to maintain the pressure and restricted the boundary count.

Juniors: 251 with 4wickets lost.

Thomas and Matthew L brought back the return of Brian fresh from the “smell da leather” spell he had bowled to his youngest son.  Matthew also bore the brunt of the hostility of Brian’s bowling with back to back no bounce bouncers aimed at his head. The intimidation worked as Brian reaped the rewards by claiming another wicket for the parents.  This was followed up by yet another wicket by the ever deceptive Sam with his grenade launching leg spin that his son Thomas was unable to pick.

Juniors: 259 with 6 wickets lost.

The final pair of Ross and Little Rev (aka Ruben Gandhi) emerged with the weight of all expectations (of juniors) the likes of which have not been seen since Shaun Pollock came out to bat in the 2003 world cup in Durban.  Like Matthew C earlier in the day, Little Rev tore into the opposition with the bat in the morning’s kwik cricket festival with a guest coach requesting a change in the teams after the first game due to the heavy hitting their bowlers faced.  Ross and Little Rev took the weight of expectation in their stride as they saw of their respective parents, Janet and Rev (Rufus) before Thamarai came back to sneak one more wicket for the parents.

FINAL JUNIORS TOTAL: 271 for the loss of 7 wickets.

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 coconut balls made by Robin) before the Parents started their reply.

The Juniors came out brimming with confidence as KP set a field of four slips and gully to the waiting pair of Quentin and Brian.  Edward started the proceedings and quickly took a wicket with his third ball and the celebrations by the Juniors was simply immense.  All fourteen of them ran in together from all directions to celebrate the wicket.  Patrick opened up from the other end and once again the Juniors were back in business with a superb run out by Pranav to see Quentin just a fraction short of the crease.  Again, all fourteen tore in from their fielding positions to celebrate.

Two wickets became three then four as Matthew L got in the act with one and Edward with another.  An excellent start by the Juniors.

Parents: 212 with 4wickets lost.

The second pair saw the husband and wife team of Kevin and Elizabeth go out.  As with his bowling, Kevin was in no mood to mess around and promptly set about the bowling with a quick succession of fours.  The loss of one wicket brought yet another wild celebration by the Juniors as Thomas picked one up towards the end of their innings.

Parents: 228 with 5wickets lost.

Robin and Thamarai strolled out to face the next set of bowlers of Jack, Pranav and Georgey.  Pranav was able to exact revenge on his father with a wicket off his first ball and Jack continued the trend with yet another wicket.  A rare boundary just about made things even with for the Parents.

Parents: 229 with 7 wickets lost.  

At this stage the Juniors were ahead and talk began on the side lines about whether this game is really about having fun and maybe the scores should not be counted any more.

However, this did not allow for the next pairing of John M and Bob who tore into the bowling with some explosive hitting particularly from John.  Despite losing one more wicket to Gregor, the boundary count moved swiftly on and both were able to see off their sons, Euan and Gregor.

Parents: 252 with 8 wickets lost.

Stuart and Sam were next up for the Parents and these two were also in no mood to mess around with Sam in particular launching some heavy blows to the boundary.  KP, Thomas and Tasmin tried their best to keep the scoring down and after a high scoring first two overs were able to restrict the Parents total in the last two overs.

Parents: 282 with 8 wickets lost.

Tariq Akmal and Janet were in confident mood as the Parents now only needed to play out the remaining sets of overs without losing wickets.  Taz was not going to let anyone get into his head with any type of mental disintegration and went out with his ear defenders on.  However, this did not stop the noise levels as the Juniors continued to plug away and restrict the scoring with Little Rev bowling the first maiden of the day.  This was swiftly followed by two quick wickets by Ross and Patrick with yet another fourteen strong team celebration and rendered the noise defenders meaningless.  The Mama Lionesses also had placards up just in case Taz was unable to hear the banter.  The Juniors were back in contention.

Parents: 289 with 10 wickets lost.

The final pair of John and Rev came out to with plenty of chat from Lamb Chops Jnr and KP in particular.  The highlight of their overs was not the glorious cover drive that John played off Georgey’s bowling but the look of horror on John’s face when he thought he had upset George with the shot.  Little Rev returned and was played out before Tasmin came on to bowl the second maiden of the day.  Some girl that Tas.  Matthew L came back to bowl the final over which was also seen off by the pair despite the Juniors continued to heckling!

FINAL PARENTS' TOTAL: 306 for 10 wickets lost.

This was an excellent game played in great spirits and each player came off the field with smiles all around.  Almost immediately, everyone was keen to make sure this match became an annual event.

Thank you to everyone that was able to come along to either play, support the players and/or provide generous home bakes. 

We look forward to next year’s event with the Parents looking to defend their title!