Charlton Down Cricket Club
Super Star Skip has Sublime Showing
(As you can tell by the title this is a completely unbiased match report by Sid the super skip.)
With bad weather during the week the game was switched to the Herrison Oval and with rain forecast and grey skies above the 2 captains agreed on a 30 over match. As it turned out this was the first of many inspired decisions by Sid as any more overs would have been a waste. 2nd Great choice was to lose the toss and be inserted. Fresh from what seems like 4 weeks of constant stat spouting Chris Coates Dale opened, joining him was the very hung over Will Lowther. Lowther hit the 1st ball for 4 but never looked sober for his 10. Skip decided what was needed was himself at the middle. From ball 1 he looked World Class as he battered the Plush attack. CCD at the other end could only look on and marvel as Sid moved serenely to 44 before letting someone else have a go with the bat (OK I was C&B playing a bad shot) Coates Dale did mention that skip seemed to playing like a rampant Ian Botham in his prime. None else really got going Lingham, Joy, Bradshaw, Rickard, Towndrow, Wormgoor and Afzal all failed to make it to double figures. Coates Dale had sneaked his way to 45 after some coaching by the skip before deciding to go it alone and being bowled. I’m sure he will learn. Pretty did hang around for a gritty 13. Charlton Down had made it to 143 all out in 28.3 overs.
Tea was had and the home (or is it away team) took to the field. As soon as they started Skip seemed to be making all the right choices again. Opening with Afzal(3-8-1) and Pretty(3-6-2) wickets started tumbling from the off. Some more amazing decision by Sid bringing on Wormgoor(3-20-1) and Rickard(3-3-3). It seemed everything he was doing was turning to gold. Towndrow(2-5-2) and Lingham(2-9-0) took up the bowling mantle. A wicket had not fallen for 9 balls and Skip felt as though his perfect game was slipping away. Only 1 thing to do. Bring himself on. Despite all knowledge to date saying this was the wrong thing to do (ie ball not often making it inside the net at training) Sid took the plunge. Sid confused the last batsman by moving the ball into tricky positions(2 wides and a no ball 6 foot over the bats head) before producing what is rapidly being called “The ball of the 21st century” . Sid had the crucial wicket of the Plush No11 caught LBW. The team all out for 57. So with Sid happy that he had won the game almost single handed, everyone went home chatting about how wonderful it was just to play on the same field as the great man.
Back to business with Ibberton at home in the league next week.
Please note this report may have a small amount of inaccurate bias in it. This is due to the Sid the Skip actually scoring a few runs at home and managing to bowl a ball vaguely on target. Please also note this was a great all round team performance particularly in the field except for a comical moment involving a very hung over Will Lowther and a fielding mishap by the boundary.