St Lukes V Sheen Park Saturday 22 July 2006

St Lukes 1^st XI

Ed Hardwicke

Matthew Cobb

Charlie Hillman

Michael Krishna

Andy Mcarthur

Karl Quinn

Richard Bent

Des Haynes

James Somers

Robin Ford

Tim Blatt

After the loss to John Fisher in our previous game it was important to bounce back with a win. Sheen Park have been tricky opponents for us in the past and the skipper was looking for his players to step up to the mark. Hemant and Adeel were both unavailable again. Adeel suffering from a particularly nasty broken finger nail and presumably Hemant was off to another Girls Aloud concert. Andy and Dessie came in as replacements.

As usual, Ed lost the toss and St Lukes were put in to bat. Mathew went early and Charlie steadied the nervous skipper through a stand of 41. Ed was dropped once and refused to walk off what Sheen thought was an edge, the Snickometer was broken and Mr Chairman kept his hands in his pockets. Charlie was then caught down the leg side, Michael followed and Carl didn’t trouble the scorers. Andy helped the score along with a nice 30 odd and Ed finally went on 47. The early aerosol bowling (they sprayed it around) from Sheen meant that the scoring rate had been good and we had overs in hand so we could take our time and try and build a defendable total. There were nice cameos from Richard (after the skipper had made him put on a proper shirt and tuck it in) and James with scores in the teens. Dessie was then bowled by an 8 year old and Robin and Tim B tried to play out the overs but we finished several overs short and posted a target of 168.

Ed wanted a quick turnaround at the break which upset Robin as he only had time for one cup of tea. A team huddle and everyone was reminded to play and win as a team. Richard B was reminded to tuck his shirt in.

Carl and Dessie opened the attack but initially couldn’t find a way through. Dessie then bowled an average ball and the batsman’s eyes lit up as he drove to mid on. Michael leapt like a salmon and clutched it one handed. A great effort and on such things are games won and lost. St Lukes were off and running and Tim B came on and bowled a tight spell which made a change from his last over of buffet bowling at John Fisher when the batsmen just helped themselves to runs. Sheen were dropping behind the run rate and the pressure was on. Michael came on to bowl and showed that if you bowl at the stumps they will eventually miss. Wickets started to fall and Michael with 3 in four balls was on a mission. Not willing to settle for a “Michelle” (5 for!) he went one better and ended up with 6 for 26, a match winning performance. Carl saved the usual 20 runs minimum in the field.

The final Sheen partnership rallied but eventually fell with them on 108 all out.

Lessons learnt

If we look like getting a lowish score, try and squeeze out every run as whatever score we get, we should always be confident of defending it.

Michael – whatever you were drinking on Friday night, make sure you have the same each Friday.

Dessie – don’t underestimate 8 year old bowlers.

Tim Hazlehurst – get another dog minder.

Player of match:

Michael, 6 wickets and a great catch.

Catch of the match;

Michael again for his one handed effort.

Shot of the Match:

Ed might have played the odd good shot.

FINALLY.... will we ever hear what Ed got up to on that Saturday Night.....