Ev writes :
With Iggy away on Ange’s stag Captain Taylor took the reins for this one against our old friends Exiles. It seems Exiles are yet another team struggling to put sides out this season and for this game they had borrowed young uns from Lansdown and Stothert and Pitt CCs to make up their numbers.
The Wuns too had a bit of a reshuffle, with no Angelo, Ian or Dave T in came Steveo and Grover, and Rich O making a Wuns debut.
Despite the previous nights rain the pitch looked ok, slightly damp and rather green. On winning the toss the Landlord put Exiles in to bat. On the way out to the middle Kalu took one of the opposition youngsters, who had been assigned umpiring duties, aside for a bit of a chat. Kalu explained to the somewhat bemused lad that should he appeal for LBW it would be a mistake not to give it out, as he only appeals for deliveries that are going straight on to hit the stumps.
RT1 and Nick opened the attack and it was soon clear that their was a bit of pace in this wicket, the ball coming through quick and with decent bounce. Aussie Brian, the Exiles opener played a couple of nice square cuts early on and with a quick outfield found the boundary. At the other end a young un was finding Nicks pace difficult. It wasn’t long before Nick had him bowled, playing back to one he should’ve gone forward to.
A big appeal from Ollie and Rob had the young umpire raising the finger soon afterward, though as Brian trudged off we all agreed the noise we heard was probably ball on thighpad. Soon afterwards Rob had their number 3, who had played a few shots, plum LBW on the back leg.
Tim and Kalu took over from the openers and bowled fine economical spells, dominating the batsmen and both claiming 2 wickets apiece. Tims included a sharp catch from Ollie standing up despite the pacy wicket. And Kalu had a batsmen out Hit Wicket, had he not smashed his stumps over he could have been given out caught behind as Ollie claimed he’d also hit the ball, which ended up in Ollies gloves.
With Tim and Kalu dominating so completely nothing much was happening in the field so Nick kept himself and his teammates amused by chirping truly terrible pun laden advice to Kalu at the beginning of each over. I can’t repeat it here, but take it from me, it was bad.
At 76 for 7 Exiles seemed to be crumbling but a stubborn 8th wicket stand pushed them over the 100 mark, with the Exiles skipper playing some big shots, but when Kalu, fielding at shortish fine leg spotted him dawdling outside his crease he threw down the stumps, running him out and winning Cider Moment in the process.
Samad and Nick polished off the tail and Exiles had made 116 all out midway through the 40th over.
Tea was baguette styley owing to the dodgy looking weather but with the inclusion of tortilla, as is Evans wont. This drew praise from Grover, who seemed impressed by the addition of cumin to the recipe, though he still insisted it was “indian eggy veg which has no place in an english cricket tea”.
Evan and Ahad began the chase. Perhaps because of the low target Exiles opened with two slow bowlers. They bowled well enough but with the pitch playing well it was easy for the batsman to get in. There were enough bad balls to hit, and following a bowling change, from one particularly nervous lad lots of wides, meaning no risks were necessary and despite some much better quick bowling towards the end Cowboys knocked off the runs inside 22 overs without losing a wicket. Ahad is yet to be dismissed for the Wuns.
Tim won man of the match for his figures of 8-6-8-2 and SteveO provided us with a fruity little number before we went back to HQ and met up with the victorious Toos for more beer and shouting at the telly.
Scorecard
