Sunday XI
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Sun 02 Sep 2018
South Nutfield Cricket Club
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223/9
224/7
Caterham Sunday XI
A game too far - Sunday XI v Caterham (by Kyle & John Campbell)

A game too far - Sunday XI v Caterham (by Kyle & John Campbell)

Courtenay Mills3 Sep 2018 - 12:12
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2nd September 2018

After an exhausting cricket week a very tired looking Sunday XI assembled at South Nutfield for a game against Caterham. Half the team tired from playing in a good portion of the cricket week fixtures and the other half looking tired in sympathy with their team mates – or from a late one on Saturday night – it was hard to tell the difference.

After being told that Billy ‘el Capitano’ Saunders was going to be 10 minutes late (which turned into half an hour after being parked in at football), Matt Lewis met the opposition Captain in the middle to decide the order of play. After being told we were batting first a relieved South Nutfield side collapsed around the clubhouse and cheered on Matt and Fazzy who were off to open the innings – apart from Merril and Dylan who were thrust out into the middle to open the umpiring duties.

After a steady start, with Caterham’s bowlers adopting an ‘attack the throat’ style of bowling – hard to believe that they only conceded 5 no balls in the entire innings for it – Lewy finally succumbed after top edging a high ball to the slip for 19.

Fazzy was joined in the middle by Rob ‘Superior’ Wigley who both continued to steadily increase the scoring rate until Rob was caught and bowled for 25, after smashing one to the bowler who stuck out his hand and took a great catch.

Fazzy continued to accumulate the runs briefly supported by Leighton who was eventually bowled – scoring a steady 4.

Courtenay joined Fazzy in the middle and made it very clear he was not in the mood to run by dealing mainly in boundaries, until he was eventually bowled for 31 off 18 balls, giving the run rate a much-needed boost.

Billy ‘Yareeva’ Saunders brief visit to the creased added on a much needed 1 to the score before Dylan ‘for goodness sake I want to bat’ Campbell joined Fazzy – who was by now putting on a yet another respectable score. Dylan ‘I’m never walking again’ Campbell cautiously set about gathering some runs and survived 2 caught behind appeals, the opposition wicket keeper claimed that he ‘practically middle one of them’, but the umpire and player were un-moved and it seemed his new approach was working.

Muhammad ‘Boom-Boom’ Fayyaz eventually caught for 77 and a nervous South Nutfield were thinking that they would not see out their allotted overs.

Dylan was joined in the middle briefly by the ‘1s’ club with Merril (caught after practicing a 9-iron chip to the fielder), Glenn (bowled after his perfectly executed straight drive missed the ball) and William (bowled by a turning delivery through the gate) - all scoring 1.

Kyle ‘Smiler’ Campbell then joined his big brother at the crease and after exchanging pleasantries took guard. Dylan found some rhythm and started scoring runs while Kyle, bemused by the fact that all of Caterham’s fielders wanted to get really close to him, decided to take them on and smashed a few over their heads for 4. The two Campbell brothers decided to see out the overs and not give Caterham their wickets to both finish not out at the end of the allotted overs, Dylan 22 off 40 and Kyle 18 off 14 - South Nutfield’s score on 223/9. A more than respectable total – or so we thought………

After some tea and a brief rest South Nutfield took to the field and the Caterham batsmen set about scoring at a rapid rate. Kyle ‘Don’t feel like smiling anymore’ Campbell and Merril ‘Waiting for a call’ Mathias picking up nothing in their 4 overs, with the fielders starting to show signs of wear and tear after a hectic week.

William ‘let me at them’ Jones and Dylan ‘look at my new run-up’ Campbell replaced the opening bowlers in the hope of making the break through which eventually came with a superb run out by Fazzy after swooping in and executing a perfect one handed pick-up and throw, the direct hit assuring that the batsman was well short of the crease. Spurred on by this William clean bowled the opener who was starting to get going and really hurt South Nutfield.

With the other Caterham batsmen continuing to score freely and keeping well ahead of the rate, Billy ‘don’t fancy bowling against this lot’ Saunders then made the important decision and threw the ball to Glenn ‘ #@&%$# ‘ Pearson to try and get the all-important break-through…. Oh, and Matt replaced William at the other end……

This tactic really paid dividends as Glenn put so much pressure on the batsmen that Lewy started ripping through them from the other end and managed to bag 4 much needed wickets.

With Caterham 6 down, hardly any runs to get and plenty of overs left to play, Fazzy replaced Glenn and managed to pick up one final wicket before – what turned out to be the final ball of the game - saw Glenn mis-field trying to stop the single, Merril come charging in to support, lose his footing and pull off a diving porpoise impression, Glenn run after the ball and eventually pick it up after numerous attempts but alas not before Caterham managed to run the 3 required to win the game… 224/7 off 29.4 overs.

After shaking hands, limping off the field, collapsing in a heap and quaffing down a much-needed pint South Nutfield Sunday XI were pretty pleased it was over.

The men of the match were without doubt – Fazzy for his 77 runs and Lewy for his 4 wickets, with so many candidates for ‘Helmet of the week’ Billy decided to give it to Glenn who this week ‘took one for the team’…. Cheers Glenn..

Time for a week’s rest and then re-assemble for the friendly against Old Dorkinians on 9th September, and hopefully back to winning ways…….

Match details

Match date

Sun 02 Sep 2018

Kickoff

13:30
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