Bears,
Sunday’s clash with King Brown 2 had a bit of everything, so to quote one of our own ‘apologies in advance’ if I miss anything out in this report!
The Bears turned up at Watson and were greeted by a range of pre-match entertainment, a juniors match, a school concert in a circus tent and a brief appearance by skippy dashing across the field all contributed to setting the scene for the day ahead. Spooner lost the toss and have much deliberation i.e. all bar one of his team wanted to bowl, the opposition VC elected to bat.
Boom and Reppo started proceedings off and the early signs indicated that the infamous Watson climb was still there – plenty of bounce on offer! The opposition VC got his eye in early and seemed to be enjoying the climb. Drady and Azz came on early and after initial signs that the opposition VC wasn’t as comfortable against slower bowling, Radic was told to warm up. Those plans were immediately shelved when Azz removed the VC with a handy caught and bowled and had the #3 stumped 2 balls later, although the square leg umpire was looking towards mid-off, so not sure how he decided it was out!
It was also around this time that Bazza went down with a leg injury. A big thank you to Buttsey who had turned up to watch, but then came out and fielded for the best part of 30 overs.
With the new batter looking like he could cause some serious damage, the Radic plan was instigated the final over before drinks. 30 runs later, drinks were taken and Radic volunteered to keep. 2/132 at drinks. The drinks break was spent working out who should team up with Magneto straight after drinks and Boom put his hand up to have a crack at the other end. In the 2nd over back from drinks, Boom struck – removing the danger man. Yep, 2nd over after drinks – otherwise known as the 22nd over….
After that dismissal, there was a steady fall of wickets for the remainder with Boom picking up a 2nd, Magneto and Ohms 2 each and Spooner one as well. It was also a good day in the field for the Bears with catches to Radic, Azz, JJ, Drady and Spooner, with Ohms getting a handy run out off his own bowling too.
Other highlights of the second half of their innings were:
An umpire having a go at Magneto for short-pitched bowling, apparently sending balls down knee to waist height is dangerous and Magneto was the only bowler not to get extra bounce out of the Watson climb.
That same umpire clearly possessing zero ability with the bat as he was shielded from the strike for the 3 overs he was at the crease – a shame really, Magneto was ready to have a go at him too
The opposition VC’s quote ‘This is why we should never bat first, we get too cut and can’t field…’ Interesting quote given his entire team (bar one) wanted him to field first…
Radic trying to be a good sportsman and throw the batter his hat that had fallen off… Only for the hat to end up further away from the batter than when it started.
In the end, we dismissed them for 200. We’d need our 5th consecutive score of 200+ if we were to win…
Channelling Radic’s strategy from the week before using Gribbs at the top, Spooner sent JJ out to open alongside Azz. The move had immediate success with JJ dispatching Magneto’s mate for a couple of sixes in a whirlwind knock of 20 before falling to a pretty handy catch.
Radic joined Azz and they kept the score ticking along, before they both fell victim to good deliveries. When Boom walked out to join Magneto at the crease the match was evenly poised with the score at 3/69 (cue laughter from Chook) after 12 overs.
It was around this time that the opposition VC’s premonition came to fruition. The ‘cutness’ of his players meant that a number of catches were being put down in the outfield – with a lot of them coming of his bowling too. By the time drinks rolled around, Magneto had taken full control of the match having brought up his 50 on one of the dropped catches and the score had ballooned to 3/143 with the opposition VC chalking up a half century off 4 overs. Don’t think I’ve seen so many mistakes since Trim’s effort a couple of years ago!
Post-drinks, the talk on the sideline turned to whether or not Magneto could manufacture a 100 or would he run out of time. It seemed every chance until Boom greedily took 14 off the 23rd over meaning that Magneto would need to score the next 14 runs and then finish the game with a 6. A single off the first ball put an end to that hope, but it did allow Boom to get his 50, before Magneto got to hit the winning runs to finish on 85* and cap a 132 run partnership that went at 11 runs per over.
In addition to Buttsey, it was great to see a number of Bears come out and support with DB, Marty and even his holiness, the Pope turned up. You don’t see that level of support on the southside… just saying J