The Derby weekend, you just know the traffic is bad, but everyone had planned ahead, and we had the full team on a nice green tree lined field in the middle of southern London.
The Changing room was full of banter, and they had earmarked Alex as “the guy who had scored hundreds – and apparently you don’t do that in this league!”. Luckily they had an umpire who was going to stand the whole match.
With the toss out the way we got on with the fielding and Tyler and Prem got us started, and they both bowled well with the miserly Prem returning 2-3 off 5, and Tyler 1-11 off 6. Barry replaced Tyler but came under some hostile attacking shots so only had two overs, and Rich Simcox came on to replace him for a few overs and picked up probably their star batsman. Alex took over from Prem at the other end coming on down the hill and from the start had them stuck at the crease and with a masterful display ended up with 5-9 off his 8. At the other end after Rich had had 4 overs one of the club’s all-rounders came on to tie up that end. Henry got in an over and it was plain to see that he needed some nets, so only had his one over. But Barry came back on from the other end after Alex and picked up the last wicket. All around a tidy spell in the field with Stu picking up 2 fantastic catches and Zack doing another wonderful job behind the stumps. We were thinking they probably got 20-30 more runs than they should have especially their last pair putting on 33 runs. We had 111 to chase for the win!
Tea was fantastic and with an offer from one of their older non players to assist the standing umpire we didn’t have to do any umpiring and sat down at the edge of the field to watch as Stu and Chirag got us off to a good start, running the singles and getting a few boundaries. At 52-0 it looked rosie after 11overs. Then Stu was caught and bowled, but he had done his job. Alex joined Chirag and summarily dispatched his first ball to the boundary. The next ball clipped him on the pad and without hesitation the “stand-in” umpire triggered him. Lets leave it there for the conspiracy theorists.
So, Steve joined Chirag, who soon after skied one and departed. Next it was Tyler who went out and drove one lovely straight drive and looked confident, only to be left standing when Steve called him through for a single. Another Park hill run out! This brought Barry to the crease, and he was soon gone to be replaced by Prem. These 2 looked like they were steadying the ship until Steve was bowled, and soon after Prem hoiked for cow corner and was bowled.
Rich S was out there, and then wasn’t, and the same for Henry, and so it ended up with Zack and Dafydd out there to try and rescue the ship. Unfortunately, it got to Dafydd’s head and he tried to hit one too many and was caught and the Park Hill collapse of 10 wickets for 29 runs was complete. 3 ducks in there to get the duck cup rolling….
Many Thanks
Dafydd Jones
Park Hill Cricket Club 