Sunday Village Cricket League v Capel - by Billy Saunders

It took us to the 12th July to get our first competitive game of cricket in for the season. Thanks for that Covid.

The Sunday side started the season under the guidance of new skipper Alex "The Car Wrecker" Smith. First thing Alex had to do was clean up Jim's mess left from the morning's game. Smithy strode out to do the toss with his first hangover in 20 days. The toss was won and the South were batting, leaving Capel to field.

Alex's captaincy came into question early doors with the announcement that Big Dave Bowen was to bat at number 4. But the man did have a season strike rate of 300 so surely only good things could happen..........more on than later.

It was Matt Lewis and Kyle Campbell that were to open the batting for South. A 25 run stand to get the South going before young Kyle played round a straight one to be out for 6. This led to the Big Dog JB strolling out making sure not to break the white line on his way. 3 bends later he was in the middle.

Lewy was dispatching the bowling all over the place for a quick fire 43 before playing down the wrong line and being bowled. A steady start for the South and a healthy run rate to go with it.

This led everyone to the moment they came for. The benches were full as the fans hero BDB bounded to the middle. Surely with Jack out there with him he couldn't have a better partner to talk him through the situation. 3 balls later and Dave was bowled making the score not as comfortable as it was 4 balls previous.

Out came Smithy. The rest of the team feeling pretty comfortable seeing 2 of the clubs top batsman at the crease, surely the rest of us could just have their feet up. To the shock of the team Jack got himself out caught and now the team was worried. In to the crease at number 6 was the nicest man at the club, Sam Abellan. Some wishing it was his sister going in with the bat instead but Smithy was unlucky to not have her availability and Sam it was.

Rumours had it that Sam had a mid game massage booked which is the norm nowadays apparently because Sam weren't hanging about. He scored a quick fire 15 which included two 4s and a baseball style slap for a big 6. Spain's prime minister is apparently now looking at starting a cricket team.

This lead to Billy "Gringo" Saunders to make his way out. In his head he was saying to himself bat like Jack so he did by nicking a single off the last ball off the first 2 overs he faced and another off the 5th ball of the 3rd over. It didn't phase Smithy as he was used to this from Jack. Billy and Smithy started to build a partnership until Smithy was caught and out for 25 off 24 balls and no cars hit. In came Robin with his Dad umpiring. First ball hit the pads and Jim's hands remained firm in his pockets. 2nd ball Robin tried to flick down the leg side and got a leading edge and out to a fantastic diving catch and half pint was gone. Out came Damo "the Wizard" Hutchinson.

As Damo got to the crease the score was not looking good for south who were around 140-7 and looking to finish on around 200 to put the pressure on Capel. Damo kept Billy's head in the game from the get go and together they piled on the runs until a very tired Billy chipped one to mid on and struggled to make it to the club house having finally got his first 50 for the club and getting out on 57 off 52 balls with 9 4s. Bring him some water. Damo departed not long after for 38 having shared a 90 run partnership with Billy. Dylan ended the innings with a big 6 into the stream finishing 17 not out supported by Joe (who we will talk about later) 1 not out. South finishing on 253 after 40.

Time for teas.........oh wait, no teas! Thanks again Covid.

South took to the field reluctantly by some of the stiffer members who would of had Emma, Saz or Vicky fielding for them if they could.

First over up the hill was from Dylan "I'll fight my brother in the field" Campbell. Dylan as always bowled a good tight spell only going for 18 off of his 5 overs making the start of Capel's chase difficult. Early on Dylan was very unlucky not to have a plum lbw but the quick thinking Jack seeing the batsman out of his crease by a long way hit the stumps and off the batsman went. Capel 13-1.

The other opening bowler was the young Joe "I get the ability from my Mum" Quevedo. His first ball was just a loosener over the batsman's head to warm up lewy behind the stumps. From then on Joe was on the spot his 1st wicket coming as an lbw and putting the oppo on 24-2. Whats the old saying? One brings 2 well it wasn't long before it was 24-3 with Joe's second wicket being a clean bowled middle stump which was even nearly enough to make him smile. Capel then started to recover and got to 40 before that man again Joe "Cap Man" Quevedo got his 3rd wicket another lbw which led the batsman to stare at Jim's decision to which his fellow batsman agreed was out. Unfortunately because of Joe's age he had to come off for a blow meaning Big Dave Bowen was on.

With the change of bowling bringing Robin on at one end and Dave at the other they started to recover. Robin bowled some of his usual good line and length but looked a but tired from a full day of playing on Saturday and a game in the morning. The next chance of the game came as a difficult caught and bowled for BDB. In true Dave fashion he somehow managed to not catch the ball but land his stomach on his wrist and bend it back so next week only touch his strong hand. Dave then eventually got the break through when the ball came off the shoulder of the bat and was caught by El Mexican Billy. I would like to tell you it was a great diving catch but nope it just looped to him and was very simple. Capel 83-5.

Damo come on to bowl his magical spin for Robin and the two of them nearly combined to get a wicket when the ball was pulled to Robin at some pace. Robin got a big hand on it but wasn't able to hold on but saved 4 runs in the process. At the other end Smithy brought Joe back on for his last 2 overs for the day. Would he get another wicket? You bet he would another cleaned bowled wicket leaving Capel on 105-6 and Joe with figures of 4-27.

The fielding was kept nice and tight throughout and this showed as the next wicket came through a batsman legging it one way with a big no from his partner and a simple run out from Dylan "that's my ball Kyle" Campbell. This led Smithy to bring himself on to bowl and after bowling some nippy stuff, his, how should we call it "well disguised" slower ball to get the toe of the bat through to lewy to leave Capel on 166-8. This led the Spanish sensation to get in on the act bowling capel's last line of defence and having them 166-9. South were then left confused when Capel called it a day as their non stop talking wicket keeper just didn't fancy coming out to bat claiming an injury but could hold a bottle of beer well after the game.

South won by 87 runs
MOTM goes to Joe Quevedo
Helmet of the week to Dave Bowen for his duck and injuring himself.