Park Hill Sunday Team win a game!!!
The Sunday XI have finally got their season up and running with a win over local rivals Deando played at Ruxley lane.
The scorecard for the game can be found here
It was a lovely day for cricket and D.Ransom won yet another toss! With recent batting attempts he played it safe and chose to bowl first much to the disgust of his brother E.Ransom who was hanging massively.
The new ball was shared between Prem and Barry “The drought” Smith who both bowled exceptionally well without any wickets. Hardly a run was scored off them and I would of bowled Prem for longer if he didn’t look so knackered after 4 overs! With them scoring at 1 an over after 8(!) the pressure was off the returning Daffyd to get up to full pace and it was him who got our first wicket caught behind by Elliot after a few attempts of trying to gather it. Who knew that these 2 would play such a big part later in the game…
This brought in Kumar or as we know him as, Malik’s son. He looked to up the run rate quickly but couldn’t get Daffyd or the left arm wobble of Mike Worrell away. He did leave an impression of the captain though as he drilled one straight into his foot while at short(ish) cover leaving him in pain and embarrassment. Mike had bowled 4 overs without much luck as the opener kept playing a missing so as a pair we decided to keep him back for the end and D.Ransom came on to bowl.
His first over was pretty disgraceful as he was trying a new off spin action which was just short and rank leaving Kumar to hit it where he wanted. With drinks approaching and the skipper why on earth he put himself on, Daffyd struck in the last over of his spell clean bowling Kumar to leave us all a little relieved.
After drinks D.Ransom went back to his tried and testing technique of bowling pies which led to a first. The skip bowled one with so much f and g that it dropped right into the batsman’s pad and he was given out lbw. Not only was that bad enough but he then had to pick the ball out of his pad and throw it back to the umpire. Next man in was a young man who perhaps hasn’t faced many pies in his time and was clean bowled for 8. He tried to hit it so hard he span round in a circle and fell over. I’m sure he will learn from that in the future.
Nick Blake had a short and swift 2 over spell which had a few good balls in between a lot of wides but he done his job by preparing the batsman to face speed demon and self appointed death bowler KP. He picked up the danger man Wyatt and Hales mainly due to 2 great catches by Barry and Stu. This left Worrell singing D.Ransom’s(favourite cricket song) but he came back on to bowl the last of his 4 overs picking up 2 wickets down the order before Malik smashed him for 6 over the leg side. To be fair to Worrell he was creaking worse than the door Phil Nacmanson put up in his house on Monday and was just looking forward to tea.
After 40 overs they were 142-8 which was a great effort in the field. Everyone kept chat up which boosted moral and gave the bowlers the extra lift they needed. It’s hard to pick a star bowler as Prem, Barry, Mike and Daffyd all bowled well. Fielder of the day went to Stu who won it for the first time. Congrats mate.
In reply our start could only be described as horrendous. Reluctant opener Rich was out for just 1 getting caught off the canny bowling of Malik, if only he was the only victim! We somehow made the wiley old veteran look like Glenn McGrath in his pomp. In quick succession Prem (0) was caught playing a lofty shot to nowhere while Stu (2) was given out lbw by Umpire Davie to leave us 11-3. Elliot was up the other end trying to steady the ship and thought his anchor had arrived when Ade came to the crease.
That ship quickly sailed as Ade was caught behind for 2 to Malik and Nick Blake came and went in a blink of an eye picking up one run once again to Malik to give him 5 wickets out of 5. Next man in was Worrell who was determined to change the game which he did. Instead of getting out to Malik he got caught trying to whack his old nemesis Beaksy into hook road area!
This left us 18-6 and staring at the lowest total in Park Hill history. If there was a time for the captain of a team to step up and be counted this was it, D.Ransom went out there with the weight of the team’s pride on his shoulders but he could do it. Unfortunately he was too busy worrying about the total he actually forgot to play any type of shot and got bowled by Malik for a golden quacker. As he walked back to the changing room already writing his resignation letter Daffyd went in with us at 18-7
What happened next was one of the most unlikely scenes ever witnessed at the home of cricket. Instead of worrying about Malik, Daffyd took him head on and boofed him for 2 sixes after a few balls getting his eye in. This allowed Elliot to finally bat with someone and build a partnership with. In 20 overs we went from 18-7 to 128-7 with some great batting which killed any momentum Deando may of had and meant the game was on!!! As you can probably work out both got to their 50’s in quick time which left the fans dreaming of what might be but then disaster. Daffyd (57) went for one shot too many getting caught on the boundary off the bowling of Beeks leaving us with just 14 runs to win.
We were still confident though as Barry went in. Could he be the hero….No, unfortunately he got out for a duck in a partnership of 1. This sent genuine number 11 KP in to see us home. Elliot realised he was probably going to have to do this by himself which he did in superb style using his leg side hitting to full effect. He knocked two singles at the end of two overs to keep the strike and then knocked off the remaining runs with a 6, a single (end of another over) then a 4 to win us the game by 1 wicket.
The trials and tribulations of that game were nothing like I’ve experienced playing for the Hill before. We’ve lost really badly before and we’ve defended a really low batting score before but we felt all these emotions in one innings. Everyone played their part and in the win but obviously some more than others. Daffyd’s innings was full of confidence and his 57 really changed the tide of the game but I have to say Elliot’s innings was one of the best I’ve seen for the club. His 62* was full of strokes without giving any chances away while his calmness at the end saw us through. I won’t say any more about it because as a Ransom his head doesn’t need to get any bigger!!
It was also nice that everyone stayed around after the game and shared a jug bought by Daffyd (Yet to receive Elliot’s…)
So there we have it. A win for the Sunday side. I’m really happy for those who have experienced their first Park Hill win and hope you treasure it because it may be a while before it happens again!
Up the Hill!!
match scorecard here
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