Dollar CC v Falkland CC
16th June 2013
As only one old biddy uses public transport in Dollar, we joined her and met at 11:45 in the bus stop outside the Kings Seat for the trip to Falkland. Well all of us except Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith did, whose excuse for being late was he’d travelled down from Aberdeen that morning. On arrival at the ground we were greeted to about 200 kids playing kwik cricket all over the field. After ascertaining that we were at the right ground and they were due to finish any minute we headed for the changing rooms to prepare for the game. Buck won the toss and elected to bat on what was an overcast and humid June day. The Falkland team was made up of a mixture of their three senior and junior teams and it looked as though it was going to be a fiercely contested game which started in the worst possible way for Dollar when ‘Buck’ who opened the batting with ‘Turkish’ was bowled on the 3rd ball of the game adding just 4 to the total before his departure. That brought me out to the middle and after a shaky start and a couple of dropped chances (phew!) I settled down.
Turkish didn’t trouble the scorers much before departing after being caught behind and this brought Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith out to the crease. As we were still less than 5 overs into the game and already 2 down it was time to try and build an innings and partnership and see off the new ball. Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith soon got into his stride and quickly built up his run tally taking a particular liking to Falkland’s first change off spinner who he smashed to all corners of the ground. At drinks after 20 overs both Craig Smith and I were on 42 when Buck and Turkish took over the umpiring duties from Fox and Greg ‘Usain’ Dimello.
Unfortunately in the next over Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith went for another big shot off the spinner and got caught just inside the boundary rope not adding to his total at drinks. I meanwhile chipped away and got hold of the spinner to hit him, (in the words of Harold) for a ‘majestic’ 6 straight over the sight screen into the adjacent cow field to bring up my 50! ‘Cakes’ had joined me in the middle after Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith’s departure then it was me who was next to leave, getting out pretty similar to Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith launching the spinner to the long off boundary but this time with not enough strength / timing and I was also caught just inside the boundary.
‘Gorgeous’ George was next out to join Cakes and proceeded to continue where Craig ‘Craig Smith’ Smith left off belting the ball to all corners of the pitch. PK believes that George now hits the ball harder than Buck and the way some of the shots smashed into both the boundary boards and my car’s rear bumper I have to agree! Cakes fell soon after me getting stumped trying to just dabble a quick single. I think he needs to go back to his all out attack mode which brought him 17 off 1 over a few games ago! This brought Harold to the middle and he quickly raced up to his PB of 37 (33 of which were on the leg side). George fell just 2 shy of his half century in an explosive innings of powerful hitting (was this a tactic not to buy a round in the clubhouse for the team???) which allowed the crook pair of Harold and Tom to reunite their partnership which was so successful in the last game. Harold tried his best to end the partnership early on calling for a quick single which took Tom by surprise. Fortunately for Tom the fielder shied at the stumps and missed, as if he had of hit Tom wouldn’t have even been in the frame on the 3rd umpire’s instant replay, not that you would have needed one as we could have given it out from the boundary!
The Crook partnership didn’t deliver the same results as the previous game as Tom was bowled in the next over for just 3 runs. Greg ‘Usain’ Dimello then came to the crease with his Gray Nichols bat which is older than half of the Dollar team. It’s still got a good middle and after some good defensive blocks from Greg he wound up and swung the 20 year old bat to register his first boundary for the CC. Harold was bowled shortly afterwards and is still stuck on his PB of 37 and Fox and Greg saw out the innings. Fox improving his average greatly with a fine 21 not out and Greg finishing with 8 as Dollar managed 270 for 9 from our 40 overs. A great batting display!
Fox and Keshae eagerly opened the bowling after seeing what the opposition could do on a pitch which was used the day before by Falklands first eleven. Fox bowled his usual tight overs but unfortunately couldn’t breakthrough with the new ball. Keshae however was bowling a spell of left arm bowing which was worthy of an international call up and but for a dropped catch by me in the slips could have added to his tally of two wickets from his seven overs. Cakes and Darth Douglas came on to replace Fox and Keshae and Cakes bowled a great spell only conceding 13 runs from his 6 overs and taking 2 more Falkland wickets and by this point there was the sense that the game was won as we had Falkland at 74 for 4 from 21 overs. The rest of the wickets taken were shared one a piece between the Buchanan-Smith ‘brothers’, myself and Greg Dimello, taking his first wicket for the CC with his leg spin. In the end Falkland reached 154 for 9 wickets off their 40 overs so the DCC go marching on with a 116 run win! It’s worth noting that we still need to do more work on our ground fielding and catching with us conceding a few extra runs and putting down a couple of chances which in another match could have cost us the game!
Anyways onward and upward for DCC and we are still unbeaten this season!
Fred