What a glorious day! Yesterday wasn't bad, but today really was perfect. Pitched against Phil's Watsonians we managed another good victory, even if the team didn't quite reach the dizzy heights of yesterday's near-flawless performance.
The match began with most of us lounging 'round the pavilion drinking Andy Owen's beers while he (17 off 20 balls), along with Andrew Lea (11 off 10 balls) and John Richer (a very elegant 28 off 21 balls), set about keeping the scoreboard ticking over at more than a run a ball. After they took us to 60/3 in the 8th (eight-ball) over the youngsters took over, Chris McNeill (19* off 34 balls after a slow start) providing ideal support to the eternally destructive John Gull. Somehow contriving to play full-blooded cut shots to almost every delivery he faced, John finished up up with 55 not out off just 39 balls, his third half-century of the season. Together, Chris and John added 80 runs off about 60 balls -- our second big partnership of the week -- and took us to the healthy total of 140/3.
Healthy, but not impregnable, especially with Tony Thornton, the Watsonians' potential match-winner, opening the batting in a typically pugnacious mood. We began our defense with Jordans Tom and Paul (0/20 and 0/10, respectively) steaming in off their long runs but, as has so often been the case this season, medium pace just wasn't the way forward. Once again the breakthrough came from spin -- today it was Robin Woolley (1/17) who repeatedly befuddled the batsmen before getting his just reward.
The next nail in the Watsonians' coffin was Daniel Mortlock's comedy maiden over which saw the new batsman play and miss seven times out of eight. As a result the required run rate went from high to implausible, although we still needed to get rid of Tony -- now 40-odd and motoring -- to be safe. Certainly the signs were ominous when he came down the track to smack a glorious straight boundary off new bowler Chris McNeill; but when he tried to repeat the trick Chris cleverly bowled the ball wide outside off stump -- indeed it was called as such -- and Andy Owen whipped the bails off with Tony still heading in the wrong direction.
Andy managed two more stumpings for the innings (although not the fourth he needed to equal Ev's recent record) and also completed three run outs when good throws from John Richer, Andrew Lea and Daniel Mortlock came his way. Key to all three run outs was that the fielders in question kept their compsure rather than simply hurling the ball in the vague direction of the stumps, an alternative approach that was also employed several times this evening. We did have a total (if brief) fielding meltdown about the time Les Collings (1/33) came onto bowl, and he had to endure three dropped catches (not to mention an extrememely good LBW appeal against Phil Watson being turned down) before realising that he was going to have to bowl the batsmen out if he wanted to avoid a ``none-for''. In general, though, the fielding was pretty good: Andrew Lea and John Richer tirelessly alternated between the ring and the boundary as the different batsmen were on strike; Mike Sneyd was similarly energetic at long-on (and also took a diving catch at point); and Tom Jordan was brilliant in the gully, pulling off several spectacular stops.
With The Watsonians needing 26 to win off the final over it was captain vs. captain, the furball Watson facing the only slightly less furball Mortlock. It was shaping up to be an epic battle of wills as Daniel ran in to deliver an attempted yorker . . . which Phil managed to hit into his foot before uttering a few theatrical whimpers and hobbling an easy single (and dropping his bat mid-pitch). That should have been the end of it, except that Geoff called ``leg bye'', which resulted in the edifying sight of two of our most experienced cricketers arguing over the status of the run. After this demonstration of maturity we had the other end of the spectrum, a nine year-old by the name of Zach now on strike and faced with the task of preventing The Watsonians from becoming the second team to be bowled out by Remnants this week. When he got the full face off the bat to the final ball it seemed he'd succeeded, but the connection was a bit too good and John Gull took the simplest of catches to mid-on, resulting in a chorus of pantomime boos from all concerned (well, excepting the bowler, who suddenly had the season's second-best figures, 4/10).
Given the very public assertion after last night's Remnants exhibition that ``three wickets is every bit as good as a half-century'' when it comes to jug-buying, there was nothing for it but to buy one tonight to go with John's for his half-century. Add in Les's successful attempts to induce most of us to have at least one more pint than we'd intended to, and I think it was Dave Norman's bar, rather than cricket, that was the winner tonight.