Match Report vs Hawks
26 May 2021 @ St Mellons(Skipper Rob, report Steveo)
CC (home) to the ‘HAWKS’ (away) held at the St
Mellons Ground.
It was a sunny / cloudy/ hot/ chilly perfect evening for
cricket as I arrived early at the lovely St Mellons ground.
Our former regular haunt was looking in a terrible state,
far from the beautiful ground it once was many moons ago when
the casuals more often frequented the hallowed soil.
Only Joking Comrades, the ground at St Mellons is a picture
post card of cricketing loveliness, discovered by making your
way through the business park, courtesy of the attentive security
guard, who waves you on your way up the hill to the delightful
picket fenced ground.
As I had arrived so very early there were no casuals loitering,
so I made easy small talk with the jolly guardians of the
grounds. I had brought my daughter ( or had I left her at
home) and she amused herself with pens and paper in the club
house (or sat watching tv on the sofa eating crisps) while
I examined the wicket.
Eventually the teams gathered and the skippers tossed. R.
Owens Esq. called, won and claimed the batting rights. The
official weather is described as ‘NOT MONSOON”
which is a handy catch all. The pitch was accorded the description
“soggy/ soft” by the bard of the score book.
Onto the meat of the matter: The cast list.
Sim Buzz lightyear Clemens
Rich Ben kingsley Holliday
Will Meatloaf Wilks
Ben Hiddlestone Bailey
George Michael Phillips
Steve Gandalph O’Reilly
Tim poker face Bluff
Rob Daniel Craig Owens
Pablo Escobar Stephens
Shagger Lewis
Shaking Stephens
We all had high hopes of our kiwi opener and his shiny headed
partner Richy as they strode out to bat. Why, I have no idea.
The first tentative over elicited a single to Sim, but the
2nd claimed his wicket, after only adding a miserly 2 for
a total of 3 ( check the maths!). Our international batter
trudged back to his crestfallen team mates. Clemens, bowled
Dyer for 3.
Never mind, Jeeesus was on his way to the crease to party
with Holliday. Look out Hawkes! Will was looking for boundaries
and got a few. Correction, got a couple. 4 + 4 = 8 and although
a few wides upped the score Wilks was out in the 4th over
:- WMW caught off Dyer for 8.
Richie wondering if anyone was going to hang around with him.
Handsome young Benedict Cumberbatch strode out to the middle
in his skinny whites, you could barely see him when he flourished
the bat, which was marginally wider than he was. Every inch
the batsmen, he sadly managed only a single before quickly
succumbing to the horror of the Leg Before Wicket. Bowler
‘Pad’ trapping him as Richie raised his eyes in
wonder. Gorgeous George (look him up) strode manfully out
to the middle and was looking good, so good in fact that he
put off Richie who after a handy 4 runs found himself bowled
by the handier 2nd bowler. As things stood we had only accumulated
20 runs and things were looking bleak. Luckily this brought
O’Reilly to the matter and a calming influence descended.
With a couple of singles to see himself in followed by a well
struck middle of the bat 4, he picked his shots, a few 2’s
and then settled in to regularly running singles.
Sadly not all his batting partners were up to the pace and
George found himself run out, unable to keep up with the athletic
O’Reilly. G Phillips run out for 3.
Tim B came and went without troubling the scoreboard bowled
by Williams in the 5th change 1st over.
Skipper came and made a better fist of things pushing the
singles and a quick 2 before again failing to keep up with
the pace of young O’Reilly; R. Owens R. Out for 7.
Paul Stephens now entered the fray and shared some sage words
with the battling Steveo. Sadly time was running out for the
lad and he was eventually bowled by the fearsome Williams
for a well worked top score of 20 ( yes dear reader, top score,
this does not auger well). Paul battled well but as time was
running out and frantic measures called for he too succumbed
to the run out - for 4, due to the speediness of a desperate
Dan. The end came quickly as Lewis remained swishing and charging
whilst Mark Stephens failed to accelerate and got run out
for a duck. Lewis Not Out 4.
Runs of the bat a miserly 54, extras 18, Cardiff Casuals 72
all out.
The casual bowlers
D Lewis 0 – 14
P Stephens 2 – 26
R Owens 1-11
M Stephens 1-11
M Whilkes ( as spelt in the book) WMW 0 -12
In all honesty folks the memory of the day is hazy. We played,
we tried, we failed. O’Reilly was let down by his team
mates who could not build around his solid batting, and the
insufficient target was never in doubt for the Hawks. Notably
Shakey took a catch ( off Paul) and Sim got a stumping (off
Paul). But with the opener Williams scoring 17 and No2 Jenkins
getting 14, a solid start showed the top five scoring runs
in including S. Jones getting a 22 N/O.
HAWK’S ACHIEVED A SUFFICIENT AMOUNT NEEDED TO WIN
Post match beers may have been had, but yours truly had to
rush off, barely able to hear the words of skipper Rob intoning
“ m a t c h r e p o r t “
Worth noting that many buildings in Old St Mellons date back
to the 19th century, but sadly Foxy wasn’t present to
verify this fact.
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