I Ask From Cricket What Others Ask From Their Gods – Joy and Forgetfulness
And I even get to have a pint after……..
The forgetfulness is provided because playing cricket is absorbing enough that I forget other stresses and worries in life, while I do not care enough about the result to get stressed if I lose. Don’t get me wrong, these are first world worries, I am not consumed by fear of my house being bomb or my children being killed. But hey, my stresses can get to me (as I am sure yours can you), so it is nice to spend a few hours (not really) worrying about a game of cricket, I find it relaxes me. The freude I will get to later. But first the big question. If you have a god, is she / he / it / they the type of god to get a round in after a game of cricket? And if not, why would you be worshipping them in the first place?
Winton club house 18.30 on a Saturday evening
Have not managed to play for a couple of weeks; not injured, my finely honed athletic body is in tip top condition, I have been busy doing things, with, for and to my family at the weekends, now it is the proper summer. But this weekend I managed to get a game in, at home against Lyndhurst and Ashurst 2s. I am told that they are celebrating their 250 year anniversary as a club this year, which makes them older than the USA which is kind of cool, although I believe they control less nuclear weapons.
They won the toss and put us in to bat. Initially their opening bowling was a little wayward before tightening up. After the first couple of overs it was the best opening bowling I had faced in this league. It was fast enough but most of all it was accurate, top of off or just outside, nothing that I could throw my hands through. But we were doing ok and had got to 40 for no loss of off 11 overs. OK, good game write up there, best just leave it there and walk away…….
Sod it, 45 / 4 from twelve. A bit of a collapse. Dave Baugley led a recovery scoring 55, with some support from others. Again though, we were back to one person batting well to get us to a decent score. Would be good if we had two or more do that. We managed to get to 146/8. On the plus side another game where we were not bowled out, on the down side, less than 150 is not really anywhere near enough at the Winton Oval (the home of cricket™).
Or so I thought…… First over, 1 wicket down, second over 2 down after 8 balls. Hope starts to rise, is the fight back on? Er no. Mahamed Alli came in and hit a few, 82 of 63 balls and batted very well. Got to say though, we made it easy for him. The bowling while good in parts, included far to many easy balls, too short to be pulled away, over pitched to drive through, to wide for the bat to throw their arms through. The total was chased down far to quickly. Ah well. Even then though, we did experience some joy.
Bugger me, I caught a catch!
Yeah I know, I’m just as surprised as you, and my team mates. Was not an easy one either, it was hit over me and to my left as I was fielding at mid off. I had to turn and run as it dropped down beyond me and I had to take it on the run. I was happy and celebrated, as did the rest of my team mates. Alfred the bowler though came running over and leapt several feet in the air. After a good start to his bowling he had taken a bit of a battering, which can be hard but he stuck with it and deserved his reward.
So, a bot of a lose again. The team needs to tighten up and not let heads drop if things start to go against us. This I feel is a learning curve for the youngster as they play in adult cricket, sometimes a battering will happen, need to stick through it.
How’s the rest of the league going?
Top of the league is hutting up, with four games left. I think Winton 3s is now clear, they can safely lose two of their four games and still be safe. Bournemouth 4s I think are safe, they do not have very much breathing room but their remaining four games are against weaker teams, so they should be safe. For the remaining place, Parley and Mudeford are a win ahead of Godshill and Lyndhurst. It is going to be nip and tuck though. Parley have to play Mudeford and Lyndhurst so could very well drop points. Mudeford have to play Winton 3s as well so not an easy run in. Lyndhust have to play Parley and Winton 3s, so their fate is in their own hands but it will be a challenge. Out of the 4, Godshill have by far the easiest run in nd could spin out four wins on the trot, if they do they have a good chance of the final promotion spot. It will be interesting to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment