Match Report vs Cavaliers
10 July 2014 @ Cathedral School (Skipper and report
Shakey)
Another glorious evening but not if you were a driver. With
the Council out on strike and the Butetown tunnel shut, the
traffic in Cardiff was a mess and it was no surprise that
we started 10 minutes late at he cathedral School ground.
After being asked to bowl we were missing just one player
- Dan. So skipper shakes took the honour of the first over
on what seemed the normal good batting wicket against a capable
cavaliers line-up. The first over delivered 15 runs, including
a first ball six for McVeigh. Stu did a tidy job and in the
third over shakes bowled McVeigh for 16 but the Cavs kept
on coming and at the end of the fourth they had reached 37-1.
With no sign of Dan the cazh resorted to slowing the game
down as much as they could. New bowlers Richie and The Don
had a few chats with the skipper, never about cricket and
mostly about what pub we should try after the game. Richie
claimed a wicket with a stumping from Goff but still no Dan
and at the end of the ninth we were in a spot of bother as
the Cavs had moved to 90-2.
The tenth over marked the introduction of Dan to the fray
so at least we had a full complement of fielders and he bowled
his four overs on the bounce conceding just 26 runs (in the
context of the match a considerable achievement) but without
the wicket he deserved. Tesh enjoyed a decent spell but it
was shakes who picked up two wickets at the end (3-29) with
Graveson well caught by winkie at deep cow, closely followed
by a much easier one for Tesh at midwicket courtesy of a leading
edge. The cavaliers closed on 182-5 with Steaders batting
through for 52 and Stu also picking up a late wicket bowled.
The 25 extras hadn't helped our cause.
Our reply never really got going against an accurate attack
until Tesh biffed a few in the fourth over. Winkie was soon
out but tesh and trev started to pick up the scoring which
included a very pleasant smash for 6 from trev during the
course of his first innings for the cazh this year. But then
in the 11th over it all went horribly wrong. Tesh was caught
for 27, trev was bowled next ball for 15 and we were 51-3.
The rest of the innings then fell away as we limped to 77-7
at the end of the 16th. There were some good shots on the
way, not least from debutant Gareth who slapped some pleasant
drives through the covers, but the wickets they kept on falling.
Goff and Dan stemmed the tide and upped the scoring but we
only posted 106-8. To the pub!
The choice of pub was an item for discussion as soon as we
had arrived. Traditionally we had always had a pint in the
Butchers on the High Street as it was next to a car park,
the beer was good, buffet was plentiful and varied and, perhaps
most tellingly, the staff were of an extremely high quality.
However, the Black Lion was much improved after a refit and
there were murmurings of lower quality Butchers staff being
on offer during recent weeks - a serious matter. Tradition
won out so off we trooped to the Butchers and fair play it
was back to its best with a comely bevvy of staff, Brains
craft beer and a buffet to die for. A pint or two was had
by all and the evening finished better than we may have imagined.
But not for everyone. By now we all know there are two pubs
called the Butchers Arms in Cardiff. The other one is in Canton
and specialises in pickled eggs, karaoke and Tupperware parties
- a good ol' fashioned Brains boozer. Alas some of our team
only knew the one in Canton and their brief stay must have
been a disappointment. Shame.
Worse still one of our team lost his trousers and pink shirt.
I'm sure there is some easy and logical reason why - but how?
(No it wasn't stevo)
The cricket may have been poor but at least we had an eventful
night.
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