As a former Aussie I played with in England used to say, Sunday was a ‘Champion Day for Cricket’!  A glorious blue sky, lush green outfield and rock hard wicket greeted the teams who assembled for the 2pm start and once the obligatory boundary markers were laid out, sight screens were moved into position and Alan ‘Turkish’ Douglas got the correct stumps from the clubhouse (not the junior ones which were used the day before) we were ready to go.  Buck got back on form and won the toss and elected to bat.  This allowed the DCC to congregate on the boundary benches exposing all their white bits (well it might be the only chance we get!).  Gregg ‘The Walnut’ Dunsire arrived looking like he had just got off his yacht complete with panama hat and PK nearly took off his jacket to give readers an indication of the temperature and conditions.

Buck and Turkish headed out to bat and saw off the opening bowlers whilst slowly building up the runs.  Turkish was the first batsman to depart being bowled by the first change bowler which brought me to the crease.  Their team was mainly made up of the younger generation of cricketer and this did lull us into a false sense of security and apart from a few double bouncers the majority of the bowling needed to be treated with respect.  Buck was next to go after a hard hitting 41, by a fantastic off break from one of the young lads.  He enticed Buck to drive a full delivery which turned off the pitch and went ‘through the gate’ taking Buck’s off peg, much to the excitement of the young bowler.  Unfortunately I couldn’t confess to being out by such a great ball.  The same bowler who got Buck bowled me a full bunger outside off stump and, having hit him for 4 the previous over, my eyes lit up as I attempted the same shot, only to in no way time the ball and it looped straight to mid off who took a simple catch.

Fraser Cristie ‘Cakes’ couldn’t repeat his quick fire scoring of the previous game and he chopped one onto his stumps for just 1 run.  Cameron Glasgow came to the wicket and once he adjusted to the slowness of the pitch began to hammer the ball to all parts of the ground scoring a quick fire 24, before being caught behind off the bowling of his arch nemesis from Carlton.  Cammie and Alan have a history of getting each other out (it’s because of these two we have a fixture against CCC) and Sunday was no exception.

After those quick fire wickets we then had the calming influence of Harold and Tom ‘The Whittler’ Hall batting together.  The Crook pair built their innings and after a steady start which Geoffrey Boycott would have been proud of (3 runs from 5 overs) they began to accelerate the run rate.  Tom and Harold put on a 5 wicket partnership of 68 but both fell late in the innings, however both batsmen hit their PBs for Dollar CC, Harold with 37 and Tom with 21.  Gregg ‘Delmonte’ Dunsire and Wee Toby Douglas finished off the innings and Dollar made a very respectable 182 for 7 off our 40 overs.

Obligatory tea was served in the pavilion and most took the time to admire the fine selection of sandwiches and cakes which had been made/bought by the team.  There was a definite improvement in the quality and presentation of the food after ‘Sandwichgate’ last week and Harold took the prize for his toasted bacon and brie brioches and ‘Walnut’ Dunsire brought along a fantastically tasting homemade victoria sponge cake to take the dessert prize, a credit to his daughter Kirsty who slaved over the hot stove baking it the night before!

After all that food unfortunately we had to take to the field and defend the score we had made.  Mr Fox and The Wizard opened the bowling and bowled extremely tight overs but apart from a chance off the Fox which was put down they couldn’t make a breakthrough, even with 3 slips, 2 gullys and men close in either side of the bat!  After 11 overs, extras were the top scorer and Carlton had moved onto 24 without loss.  Buck made a double bowling change and brought Wee Toby Douglas into the attack who bowled his first 3 overs without conceding a run, which ultimately built the required pressure for what was to happen at the other end! 

Buck unleashed Ben ‘Warney’ Leighton into the attack to replace Mr Fox.  Ben bowled magnificently and it wasn’t long before an edge was found and after a bit of juggling in the gully, Turkish held onto the chance and their opener was walking back to the pavilion.  It’s a good job the guy edged it as at the time we had 2 leg slips, 3 regulation slips and 2 gully’s and 3 outfielders!  The old age saying 1 brings 2 came true on this occasion with Ben following his first wicket maiden up with a double wicket maiden from his next over and all of a sudden Carlton were 24 for 3.  Toby should have added to his wicket tally and made his figures read even better on his debut for DCC but for a simple dropped catch by me at mid off.  ‘Cakes’ came into the bowling attack to replace ‘Warney’ who finished with figures of 3 for 9 and took 2 quick wickets, one of which a great diving catch by Mr Fox at short cover.  I replaced Toby at the Back Lane End and managed to open my wicket account for the season and I could have had a second if Cammie had been wearing his high heels! 

Tom still buzzing from his PB batting display came into the attack and immediately struck with his first delivery trapping the batsmen plumb LBW with a low bouncing skiddy delivery.  This brought Cammie’s ‘enemy’ out to the middle and of course we had to throw him the ball to see whether he could get his revenge.  Unfortunately for Cameron, Andy managed to play the over out however hard Cameron tried to throw the ball down.  The umpire tried his best to give Cameron as many balls as he could calling a wide which seemed a little harsh but not as harsh as the back foot no ball he gave, much to Cammie’s frustration.  ‘Deadly’ Dunsire came into the attack as he didn’t really get chance to fully show off his batting prowess and from his 1 over he managed to snaffle 2 wickets including, pretty ironically Cameron catching his arch enemy Andy after he smashed the ball straight towards him at square leg.  Afterwards Cammie confessed that if he hadn’t caught it, he would have needed to visit to Dollar Dental Surgery after the match!  Tom took just 2 balls from his next over to finish the match and DCC bowled out Carlton for 91.

Another great win for DCC but after working on our ground fielding over the last few weeks, which has dramatically improved, we still need to practice catching with a few chances going down during the innings, the best of which was Fox’s star jump, Strictly Come Dancing effort on the boundary, accompanied by girlie yelps, after the batsman hit the ball straight into the sun in the direction of the floundering Fox! We’re not sure whether he will turn up in whites or a Tutu next week!

Next week it’s the inaugural Dollar versus HMP Glenochil, Saturday morning indoor match so hopefully it will be another resounding victory for the DCC to extend our winning run.

Before that it’s training tonight and with the weather forecast looking excellent – get yourselves down to nets at the Academy from 6:30pm.

Fred