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Match report vs Caerleon CC 17 August08@ Caerleon (Skipper Dan, report Smitts)

On a cloudy but dry day The Casuals made their way to the old Roman Town of Isca for a game of cri.. cric…. Cricke……. CRICKET that’s it cricket! While driving down Bannister was in a fine mood, and why not? He had a nice new car and two superb friends to enjoy the journey with. One of whom had inside knowledge of the Caerleon one way system and so, for a change, the chances of the Casuals young guns getting lost were minimal. Then something ruined Bannister’s mood, “ Look at this chump, what the fucks he doing? Get out the way. F*ckin hell…..and so on and so forth” As we drove past the car that had caused such offence to Bannister, he turned to look at the driver only to be met by the smiling face of Dave Thomas.

I realise this has little to do with cricket but it made me laugh.

Anyway on to the game.

The Caerleon CC looked like a mix of old heads and strapping youngsters. A 35 over game on the artificial pitch was agreed upon and despite the previous weeks rainfall, the outfield was good. I think Captain Dan won the toss and decided to bat. The Casuals opening pair were the ever reliable Mark Stephens and Jamie “The Rain man” Pike.

The pair began constructing a firm base for The Casuals innings with Pikey in particular timing the ball well off the bat. With around 15 overs gone and 35 on the scoreboard disaster struck. The in form Mark Stephens bowled For 11. This brought young Smitty to the crease. After a few nervous prods with his famous bat, “The Boundary Maker” he managed to get himself off the mark. Unfortunately The Smith – Rainman partnership was not to be. With the artificial quite bouncy Smith showed his inexperience by lashing out at the first short ball top edging it high over the slips where the fielder took a difficult catch from over his shoulder, which he made look easy.

Dewberry was next man in. Now, I have heard many different accounts of what followed and I watched it myself. I am tempted to take the easy road like many a match report and ask the people involved to explain it themselves. However, seeing as all parties involved emerged from the incident in relatively good humour, I will “man up” and tell my tale. The short version is that Dewbs was run out without facing a ball. Here’s the other version. As I remember Pikey played the ball quite fine behind him off the back foot. Dewbs called YES and it was his call. Now although Pikey didn’t hesitate and Called NO straight away to send him back, Dewbs was already half way down the wicket due to some excellent backing up and him being twice as fast as the average Casual. You’d think the story would end here but it doesn’t. The fielder throws to the non strikers end and the bowler catches it and takes the bails off as Dewbs thunders back up the pitch and past the wickets. A loud confident appeal follows and DT’s finger is raised at once. Dewbs on his way. On the boundry opinions were split. Some Casuals thinking it looked like he was home, and others saying that his bat was in the air so he was short. Dewbs assures me that he ran his bat in so who knows? In terms of calling. Some think it was Dewbs’ call others thought it was Pikey’s but I think the majority of people thought it was Dewbs’ call but that Pikey wouldn’t have made it. So there you go. (Ed- from standing at square leg it was Dewbs call, but I don't think the call was loud enough, Dewbs was running to the danger end, but Pikey not being the quickest.. may have struggled to get to the other in time...however, Dewbs looked in by about a foot and a half, and bat was run in....but given my recent umpiring decisions what do I know!).

Back to the action. Goughy joined the party and The Crows brought on their quicky who was bowling quite short. This coupled with the fact that Goughy is quite short meant that he had to jump for some deliveries and try a tennis smash in order to reach the ball. Pikey was the next to fall with the score on 57 caught. This brought Kim to the crease and the two started to build a decent partnership before Goughy fended off a quick short ball at the body to the nearest fielder. Roger came and went. Then Kim lost his wicket, again caught. A useful 20 runs were added at the end of the innings thanks to Andy F, DT and Dan. The Casuals finished their Innings 92 all out off 34.

Tea was great- pasties, pies and cake (esp as the tea person was called away the morning of the game).

The Casuals decided that although the task in front of them was difficult, the game was not lost yet. The pitch although artificial was a difficult one.

The opening pair for the Crows looked like they knew what they were doing and kept the scoreboard ticking along. Dan and Paul both bowled well and created a few difficult chances that went down. With the score on 27, Chunder Dan made the break through with Smitty taking a simple catch close in. Chunder then followed this up clean bowling the new batsmen. Double wicket maiden and The Casuals still in it. Dan and Paul continued and Dan again struck having the batsman caught behind. I didn’t hear it and the umpire didn’t hear it but the batsman walked so jolly good show there. With The Crows needing about 30 more runs to win DT and Roger took over bowling duties. Both bowled excellently. DT having the next batsman caught behind and then forcing a prod past Smitty who was fielding close in but couldn’t reach it despite the slow motion dive. Pikey with a good stop and excellent throw engineered a run out and Roger had one caught by Dan. In the end The Crows Made it to the total comfortably 93 – 6.

We just didn’t give the bowlers enough to defend. I think we were guilty of trying to up the strike rate when we should of dug in and put another 20 runs on our total.

Live and Learn.

Bowling Figures

Lewis 7-2-22-3
Paul 7-0-39-0
Roger 5-2-12-1
DT 4-0-19-1

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