Old Paulines v Peckers 14t June 2015 –By cousin D, POB in italics
A rather tired POB (from a 3 day 3 night session of all sorts- triggered by his good friend - the chief organiser of the Oval’s best hospitality suite) led half the peckers to somewhere near Heathrow. A brace of emergency ubers shortly arrived at Feltham train station to take us the 8 miles to where we were meant to have got the train to - Thames Ditton - the 'collets sports centre' home ground of girdles beloved Old Pauline’s. oh dear sorry lads A 70 something year old man in budgy smugglers exiting the leisure pool on arrival...
A change of scene for the peckers this Sunday - no lush green village with chocolate box pubs, no miss marple peering over a picket fence - but a suburban building site, smelling strongly of league and ‘result’ cricket, plastic cups as opposed to ceramic tankards - windy didn't mind though... We were used to the plastic goblets used to polish off two delicious bottles of 'vina sol' on the train (a fav of the miller/cousin households) to POB's shock and disappointment.
After the records of the previous week I wanted to set a new one –heaviest ever Peckers opening combination looking resplendent in Pecker Green and weighing in excess of 220kg.. Also this was El Girdle’s homecoming as he is an Old Pauline and used to play for them
The game kicked off to a steady start with our most classically defensive looking players 'El Girdle' and Imran solidly hitting a partnership of 72, which involved some impressive lifesaving pulls/swipes to the fine leg boundary by El girdle(Poor old Girdle took a really feisty bouncer to the head, but being a true stoic gent, insisted on carrying on with a helmet before being caught for 20 Or maybe not –myself umpiring and Imraan next to me didn’t hear or see anything and I didn’t give it but the Girdle walked andthink him seeing the young strokers padded up took adive for an early bath- a wonderful knock .El Girdle has played two games this year and has 100% strike rate on ‘copping a ball on the noggin’ Pugnaciously Pulling at Paulines and bravely b(earing) the ballat Brook (silly mid off)– It is this kind of putting your body on the line we Peckers love to see
And Immers had a tough day otherwise but managed 24 in an over, 5 4s off his blade and 4 byes thrown in. Some glorious strokes from Imraan the Immense Irish Indian –
Imran cantered to a half century before dropping out at his feet and calling Colin for a suicidal single. It was impossible for poor Colleen to get past the bowler, onrushing fielder and Immers Charging in the oppositre direction.
What follows is becoming synonymous for the peckers - a mini collapse...dear pukey joe getting off the mark before being bowled (1). A roll of the dice decided the middle order of all rounders. TOB giving Lyons another catch for a duck. Taters bowled for 1. Toby caught in his favourite one handed style and Taters had his off bail shaved off by the looping offie Evans,
Alex Jay I arrived at no 8 he greeted me thoroughly warmly, and we decided 250 would be our target. We managed a partnership of 117 got the team north of 200 and in contention again. Great 70 by cousin resplendent in Panama and striking a dozen classy boundaries Myself being the victim of the well oiled left arm of Mooney - and sticky gloves Lyons. A-jay would go on to get another 'not out', scoring 37. He hasn’t been out all season so has no average!
With 10 balls to go POB had a cameo – golden quack. Followed by windy - quack. Baron and A-jay saw out the last couple of balls with the peckers finishing the limited to 38 overs innings 230-9. The Paulines skipper remarked with a smile ‘your batsmen certainly found interesting ways of getting out’-here is Windy with the executive scoreboard and Palines scorer Ruth _--
A decent tea with excellent coronation chicken sandwiches - but let down by the plastic cup DIY tea station. Then the peckers were warmed up for the field with some deep catch practice, before A-jay opened with some swinging but controlled balls to make a maiden. Windy perhaps also swinging couldn't control the line for a lot of his 2 over spell... Or the length for that matter.. A case of the 'vina sol revenge' - 2 overs was enough, and POB signalled to TOB to warm up.
TOB continued where windy left with a series of wides before getting it together and bowling with better control in each over.. he put down a sharp caught and bowled, but AJ showed him out to do it with his own sharp one hander off his own bowling.
A Bangladeshi Moroccan man, Mr Muzi came and continued to put runs on the board, which made the skip and others start to worry about the game running away from us – Their excellent Opener Sures’s 50 was unclapped as scorer Ruth may not have mentioned it to anyone –He was a Indian Kiwi batsman who olayed for NZ universities and was delighted about hisnational team going 2-1 up in the series at the Rose Bowl|They were still adding runs to the board and not looking sometimes unrtroubled at 154-4, POB would almost certainly have offered you 20-1 for a pecker victory, all things considered. Well maybe 3-1 we were in trouble as they were working the spinners well
Beeearon had bowled tidily and he finally tempted tempted Sures to loft 7 meters to the right of the swaying newlywed… In classic Windy style - determination and focus combined in a flash, to hold a tricky catch running to his right .
Tatey bowled nicely on a familiar league style’ wicket to dismiss Mr Muzi who was caught safely by Toby also at Mid On before a calm and collected Colin took extra time to ensure accuracy when underarming to Taters for a textbook team runout -
A ball on the leg peg gave Taters his second wicket - Mr Cooper.
After a dropped catch from Windoss off the Beearon, was followed an interesting moment.. He charged towards another ariel shot at long on, instead he pulled out of the attempt at the last minute and managed to volley the ball with both shins to the sight screen for 4… the peckers were in stitches for a good 40 seconds .
Not long after this, Windy made amends with a second catch which put the Old Paulines at 191-8.
I was ashamed to steal a run out opportunity off Pukey Joe, which I threw well wide for 4 overthrows(one of 3 5s conceded). After which Pukey made a delightful boundary saver,
POB finished off proceedings with a catch by taters at point, which confirmed a pecker victory - meaning this season we could be on track for the most successful in pecker history … A-Jay, led us off to strong hot showers and complimentary minty shower gel.
After one Guinness, the peckers were keen to ensure they caught the correct train back home - and nobody got stabbed… hoozah!
Peckers 230 for 9 defeated Old Paulines 210 all out by 20 runs Well done lads we got there in the end, 6 out of 7 and keep it coming!