Calverton, Notts, 24th June 2001
Calverton won the toss and batted.
Weather : Stinking hot day, lots of sun.
After last year you could be forgiven for thinking
that we could do well to turn out a good side against Calverton and give them a
sound thrashing. (Warning:- This is the bit where reality and fantasy diverge.)
For a number of reasons, we didn't have the greatest of sides out. Alec, Benno
and Dean were missing from the bowling, Steve Gaunt from the batting, and only
having 10 up to Saturday night. However, this was compounded by Calverton having
4 first teamers and 5 second teamers in their XI. A wise choice to bat from
Calverton, Smith and Gaunt (A) opened for DCC, but the openers, aged 32 between
them, stroked us beautifully for 90 odd opening stand. Its never a good sign
when Rob gets given the ball after only 5 overs. Strangely, both openers
capitulated just before 50, both to last minute stand in Mick Stewardson, and we
were looking in with a shout at 120 odd for 4. But the brutality of it all was
to come, as the batting just got plain savage, Calverton ending up with 280 odd
off 40 overs, with 2 half centuries and some spectacularly bad catching and
ground fielding, Rob being the worst culprit. We chased a hell of a lot of
leather in the last 15 overs.....
Tea was good, plenty cake, and out strode Paul and Jamie to try and put 300 on the board. Paul, it looked like, was still down on the beach in Lanzarote and played on for 7, and the war of attrition began. Jamie, however, was playing very nicely indeed, and the other batsmen generally hung around a bit, to make life difficult for Calverton. Eventually Kiwi got to 89 and we in general got to 170 odd, thus making a creditable, if ultimately doomed, go of it.
Beautiful day, but, in the end, we were a few players short to play a team of that calibre.
Calverton 283-8 in 40 overs (Mick
Stewardson 4-30)
DCC 167-7 in 40 overs (Jamie 76)