On Saturday 27 August 2016, the 2nds entertained Forthill at The Peoples Park. The team selected was a mixture of youth and experience (4 under 15 players).
Mark ‘Sumo’ Lambley was captaining the side for the first time and started off winning the toss and electing to field first. The instructions provided to the bowlers were to bowl on and around off stump, keep the ball pitched up, encourage the batsman to drive and we would set the field to this.
Michael ‘Jabba’ Louw had to go behind the stumps as Tariq had been held up in traffic. He performed well prior to Tariq arriving, managing to stop the ball with various parts of his body.
Forthill started off with left hand/right hand combination which initially caused the opening bowlers some issues with their lines. David ‘Kiddo’ Kidd opted to bowl with the wind from the road end, leaving Ross Kennard to bowl from the airport end. Both bowled tight spells but one bad ball an over was dispatched to the boundary. The run rate was around 5 an over but wickets had begun to fall on a regular basis.
The fielding was good, the team encouraged each other and the regular fall of wickets kept everyone’s spirits up. George ‘The Cat’ Ninan came on to replace ‘Kiddo’ and slowed the run rate down. He bowled a very tidy spell and had at least a couple of decisions that could only be described as ‘Interesting’ Conner had replaced Ross at the Airport end and was bowling extremely well, sticking to the plan. Edward managed an over before ‘Kiddo’ finished off their innings.
Forthill were bowled out in 25 overs scoring only 107. All the wickets, apart from two catches taken by the skipper, were bowled or LBW, showing the importance of pitching the ball up and bowling in the right place. The fielding was good throughout and ensured Forthill had to really work for their runs. Kiddo had taken 5 wickets, Conner 3 and George 2. Ross deserved a wicket and Ed should have bowled more but ran out of batsman to bowl at.
It was now around 3pm and the Freeman family (Quentin and Jackie) had not finished making the tea. It was to arrive at 4pm. A decision was made for a quick turnaround and the skipper and George opened up the batting.
The pair started off rapidly, putting the bad ball away before the skipper went trying to pull one too many and was dismissed LBW for 15 with the score on 19. This brought Eddie ‘Pugwash’ Steinson to the crease. George and Eddie made good progress, batting sensibly, dispatching the bad ball and rotating the strike. George edged a ‘skier’ to point but had made 30 and the game was almost safe. This brought Conner to the crease and the game was finished off with ’Pugwash ending on 43 not out and Conner making 5 not out.
The players left the field with big smiles on their faces to rapturous applause from the regular occupants of the ‘Goudie Stand’ who made several comments about it had taken a whole season for them to see a win at home!!!
A lovely tea was provided by the Freemans with Jackie’s home-made shortbread, cream and strawberry cakes stealing the show.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and just shows the difference a win can make.
SDCC MoM: Although Eddie batted very well, for the second week in a row, David’ bowled really well. His chest was expanding with pride but shows what he can do.