23rdMay 2012
Venue St Fagan’svs. Cardiff Casuals
On the heelsof victory against the hurricanes (they only had 8 men!) the mighty Eclipseneeded a win to really get the league campaign underway.
The casualsare always a difficult challenge and by mid afternoon there was a call to armsas Venus Williams made a very late withdrawal … illness or something…
Anyhow Imissed the toss but am guessing we won and elected to bat as at the time wedidn’t have a full team to field!
The atmospherewas indeed tense as Storky and Si Elliott, recovering from his immense inningsthe previous evening, walked out to take guard.
The casualsbowling attack was given respect and the run rate slowly gained momentum withboth our guys stroking the “pink” ball well.
Storky swungat a hanging ball… missed and was called LBW which brought Mr Eratne (is that Punjabifor erratic??/) to the middle.
Whilst Nilustruggled to find his rhythm – using all parts of the bat to fend off thebowlers, Si powered on and clearly in the same groove as yesterday. EventuallyNilu found the handle on the bat and opened his shoulders belting the pinkwonder all over the park.
Theswashbuckling (four 6s) eventually came to an end but not before he’d clatteredthe horse in the next field – Brian “horse whisperer” Condon bravely approachedthe beast to retrieve”pinky” - animpressive 38 for Nilu that crucially pushed along the run rate as at 10 overswe had just 49 on the board.
General Leetook aim and promptly bashed a four – however quickly vacated the crease as heattempted the same swing …
Enter Steve“peter” parker to keep Si Elliott company who was closing in on his previousnight’s total of 68 – the scoreboard was now motoring and looked verydefendable ; Optimism seeped into the mighty eclipse shirts..
Si bows outon 69 – Anchor Man! Tremendous performance to the usual derision from teammates!
Dogger wasnext and dispatches a 6 over the bowlers head – innings finished with peterparker and dogger not out on 7 a piece.
159 thetarget – yes 159 (100+ of that off the last 10 overs!).
Thetemperature dropped and the shadows lengthened as eclipse now with 11 players(ta Graham) took to the field but it didn’t start well……
Jimbo –swinging it both ways – bowled an 11 ball over (but as he pointed out later awide only counts for 1 run) and promptly retired to the boundary!
The Daddyserved up 3 pies in the opening over and pinky got a good spanking – now Ishould point out that RDJ was specifically positioned on the boundary to take acatch – as the ball went up all went silent- he had it covered.. He thoughtabout the shout ... “come to da…..sh...It’sa bit high” – stretch those hands, then miraculously the ball managed to avoidboth hands or it changed shape or something ….
The daddypersevered and took 2 wickets in the next over – the 2nd was pureclass the change of pace and 2nd bounce putting the batsmen off asit clipped his pad and flicked from leg side to off stump!
It was nowgame on with the casuals relishing our loose bowling and getting the runsneeded…
Captain Storkmused – who’ve I got that isn’t old or fat – then signalled a change in bowlers – bringing peter parkerinto the fray(with immediate results) and RDJ (neither old or fat)
The run rateslowed – RDJ was not his usual athletic self and a particularly poor “bodyslam” saw the return off one ball trickle through his legs and no attempt toscramble back to retrieve!
Anotherchange and Dogger (according to his daughter “he runs like a ponce”) mastered “pinky”sending her into the block hole many times – with positive results! 4 overs, 1fair maiden (Pinky) and 4 wickets for 9 including a very controversial LBW thatsignalled the Casuals’ demise!
Peter parkermopped up the tail rounding off a solid performance with 3 for 16
The “old& fat” brigade somehow managed a respectable victory – well done guys
C’monEclipse!!
The Daddy