Versus: Elmbridge
Venue: Elmbridge
Result: OC's win comfortably
Report:
After the disappointment of the previous week, the OC's found themselves in another predicament, playing both away and on a Thursday. To add to the historical issue of the OC's not travelling well, a number of players found the travel and the fact it wasn't on a Tuesday disruptive to their pattern and dropped out leaving, for once, the selection committee with a tough deal to get an 11 together. By the end of the weekend, things weren't looking great, 7 players one of which was Collett, who despite arranging the fixture had managed to double book with a meal with wife & friends and a showing of Mama Mia at the local cinema! Thankfully, in stepped the Cunnahs, Steve, Mark and Adam and someone by the name of Corrigan who was looking for a game of cricket and found us on the internet.
After the loss of last week, the mood was black and thick as the cloudy humid sky above Despite this, OC's lost the toss and took to the field with 9 waiting for the latecomers to turn up. Dan Reuben, back from holiday in the Windies, came not with a course in Caribbean cricket, but an education in beach volleyball. Despite this, he took a wicket with his second ball which showed swing and seam beating the batsman, who appeared to take his frustration out on the pavilion soon after, on his way to a two wicket spell. Steve Cunnah at the other end displayed a masterclass in bowling outside the off stump, leaving the Elmbridge batsmen in a quandary taking a wicket and a maiden for a paltry 4 runs off his 4 overs. By now Beeksy had arrived and had taken up change duties with Adam "juggler" Cunnah, although the run rate increased, Adam managed to take two wickets while Beeks kept his trophy hunt up with another.
Elmbridge looked in trouble, so we'd like to think Skipper Bisson would give the untried debutant, Corrigan, a bowl, to make a game of it. It turned out Corrigan could bowl a bit with some more consistent line & length that left Keeper Collett wondering what happened to the usual dross that goes down the leg side that he's used to scrambling around for and letting disappear for byes. The bowling was too good for the middle order who fell like an England batting collapse as he took four wickets in two and a half overs. He was a bit fortunate however, as the stumps appeared to be half an inch proud of their usual place and one exquisite ball which took the off bail would have left Hawkeye scratching its head. Bisson, skippering from deep cover and deep mid wicket, a jumble of legs, arms and broken ligaments came on to get his rabbits but was beaten to the punch by Corrigan as Elmbridgge were all out for 82.
Despite the low target, Skipper Bisson wanted to beat both the oppo and the weather, the usual opening partnership of Tarzan and DJ opened, with Ben falling cheaply for 2 to a fielder who had 3 attempts at catching a ball before succeeding on the 4th, DJ kept plugging away briefly supported by Dan who cracked a couple of nice boundaries before losing concentration to a left arm over bowler and missing a straight one for 10. Test Match Trev came on and for a while looked like he was going to make a one man game of it. DJ survived a scare in his innings, dropped by the inappropriately named Holder while Trev, despite having contact lens problems, eventually got his eye in and started scoring runs although he was still seeking the middle of his bat. Surprisingly "strike hog" Collett ended up catching and passing DJ with 32 not out to DJ's 31 as OC's romped home with overs and wickets to spare.
The difficult thing now, at least for the selection committee, is how to keep a happy squad now numbering nearly 20 for the final few games based on performances, given, some of the cameos today, you could excuse some for being eligible for England duty.
Man of the Match : Mr Corrigan, 2 and a half overs, 4 wickets, lovely bowling outside off, and was only denied a fivefor because the oppo ran out of batsmen.
Champagne moment, either one of Steve Cunnahs or Mr Corrigan's maidens, bowling how it should be done.
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