After the reception I settled down to watch Heroes on Sky+. It's BBC2's smash hit of the summer; a drama about a dozen or so regular joe's who, after a solar eclipse, find they have supa-dupa powers. Like being able to stop time, flying, being indestructible, that sort of thing. Not like the Spideman movies you understand, more like Dr Who meets 24.
Something similar happened on Saturday. With the sun shining (no eclipse exactly) the 11 Canfield Saturday players started to play like super cricketing heroes and ended up winning the perfect game. What are the ingredients for a perfect game? I have ten ingredients - can you add to the following list...?
1. Lovely cricketing weather (warm sunshine) - tick
2. Winning the toss - tick
3. Batting first on a good track and scoring our highest total of the season - tick
4. A maiden century for our opening bat - tick
5. Putting on 150 for the first wicket - tick
6. Our main strike bowler getting a hat-trick - tick
7. Three out-of-this-world catches - tick
8. A great cameo from our guest player who gets injured in the process - tick
9. A bit of controversy at the wicket - tick
10. A thumping win over a rival team - tickety boo
We could dedicate a whole blog to any one of these themes - it was that kind of game. A perfect game. And against our (friendly) rivals, Sampfords, who we beat at their place only a month ago? Very good, very good indeed.
Sampfords tipped up with a noticeably different side from last month. Steve their skipper said it had been a struggle for them to field a full strength side, but don't believe it. They looked up for it to me. Okay, so Alex their South African bowler was absent but their batters looked as keen as ever. Thing is, they (claimed) only to have 4 bowlers, so could we have unlimited bowling please Jon? Sure they could. In that heat? Speaking from personal experience bowlers are never the best judges of when to "take a breather" ("taking a breather" is what Captains say, but which usually means "get off now before I beat you to death with a cricket stump") and, after 8 overs or so, the Sampford's attack were going to get very ragged. And that's exactly what happened as our openers picked them off. Be careful what you wish for.
When the pound coin came down heads I just smiled at Steve who bowed his head. He knew it was going to be a struggle on that track, with a lightening outfield (thanks Bretty) and 30- degree heat. Thing is, we started at a snails pace, scoring 37 off 11 overs. Then Bomber and Ali got their game faces on just...... as their bowlers started to tire. But did they change the bowlers? No sir...
Bomber scored 119 to earn his first ever century of any kind. Well done mate - you looked as fresh at the end of the innings as when you started. Well almost. Ali got 70-odd, another good score. Andy Davies, obviously suffering from the shock of marriage, got a duck, and was followed to the crease by his brother Ben, who hadn't played for 10 years. Ben of course, could play, as his quick fire 50 showed. 278 for 4 off 40 overs. Chase that Sampfords.
And to be fair they gave it a damn good go, and were ahead of the required rate after 10 overs before I asked Charley and Paul Lucas to "take a breather". We needed to get their openers out and, not for the first time this season, I sacrificed my own personal economy rate in order to get a break-through wicket, which resulted in two fabulous catches, one low down from Ben at deep square leg, the other a juggled piece of heroe-ship from Panther at deep mid-wicket. Jamie was the next hero; wicket one was an edge. Gregg, the Sampford's deputy capt. didn't walk. The umpire half-raised his finger. "I'm not walking" insisted Gregg - perhaps a throwback to a borderline decision in Bomber's favour earlier in our innings. "I thought you hit it" said the umpire. "So is he out" we enquired?, "err, yes he is" said their umpire. Gregg tramped off. This was followed next over by Jamie's hat-trick. Bloody marvelous mate, esp as Ryan Webster (the Sampfords' 'keeper who had a SHOCKER behind the stumps) was out first ball, but to a no ball. So Jamie bowled him out again, first ball proper this time. From 100-0 they were now 7-down, including a run out (again courtesy of Jamie). I got two more wickets, leaving us 16 overs to get the last wicket with Sampfords nowhere in sight.
Just like the big mummy T-Rex in Jurassic Park (3) - who encourages her offspring to tear apart a victim for the first time as she looks on approvingly - so I bought Paul and JW on to finish them off, JW eventually taking a good sized bite out of the batsman, thanks to Bomber's diving catch at cover. Seeing the last two batsman struggle in vein to hold on... well. you shouldn't laugh but hey, why not?
At around the 5th wicket mark Ben, Andy's brother broke his collar bone diving on the square to stop a certain boundary. He just walked off, went to A&E, came back an hour later with his arm in a sling and a pint of Fosters (what else) in the other hand saying how much he'd enjoyed it and can he play next season please? What a top man! Another Canfield hero.
So let's re-cap: A sunny day, a thumping win, a centurion, a hat-trick, a bit of argie-bargie, a great cameo from a very welcome guest, and a broken bone or two. And thanks to Panther and Tina for providing a great tea (the egg sandwiches were, as Ali would say, spot on).
But don't let this go to your heads. I'm now on hols and will miss the next 2 games (home to Lyndsell and then home to Stebbing). I expect you to keep up the momentum. Angus will be in charge - so don't take any liberties with his kind nature! And I am relying on Paul Lucas to email me the results and a match report (thanks for the photo by the way Paul). So no Captain's blog for a couple of weeks.
Thanks everyone for a truly great game.
Men of the match: Bomber and Jamie and Ben
Champagne moment: Jamie's hat-trick ball
Tough guy moment: Ben's cracked collar bone
We are Canfield. See you in a fortnight.
Preecher
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