Grantham, Lincs 29th July 2001
Weather - tropical to say the least
Toss thankfully won by Paul who elected to bat (nice one)
Untypical stinking hot day in Grantham at what must be one of the nicest grounds you could wish to play on, especially on a day like Sunday. I tell you, Dean was going through lollies like Crossy goes through bats. A good following turned out to watch the action, a figure swelled by Hibbo who decided to bring the kids and not forgetting mad dog Monty.
Anyway, Jamie and young Ben opened up against a reasonable looking Grantham side and found the going rather tough on what looked a decent wicket. Jamie perished for a big fat zero while Ben found run scoring difficult although he did not look in any danger of losing his wicket. Crossy entered the fray and creamed about the only loose ball bowled for four before being caught going for the big swish to a half volley outside off stump. In came Hibbo, back in the team after an injury lay off of about 15 years but he too was soon following Ben back to the pavilion and at 28 for 4, we were in a bit of bother.
Enter Dean and Paul and with the opening bowlers off batting became a little easier and the score progressed to 71 before Dean was out for a useful 23. This brought Birdy to the crease and he suddenly made batting look like a piece of the proverbial sending the ball to all parts. His knock was only interrupted halfway through when he had to turn a quick single down when the old knee popped out again. There really should have been some spread betting on the number of times this was going to happen at the beginning of the season. Birdy eventually departed for a super 39 and with Paul sticking around until the end and a bit of a red codpiece type cameo from Alec, a final score of 161 for 9 was posted.
After a pretty good tea, Andy and Alec opened the bowling and did a super job for the first 16 overs, each taking a wicket and keeping the score in check. One of those wickets did, however, bring some young South African to the crease and to be honest, he never looked like getting out and carried Grantham home with an excellent 93 not out. All possible bowling permutations were tried by Paul but to no avail as the South African played shots all over the ground with the minimum of fuss. They finished on 162 for 4 off 37.3 overs with Paul and Deano, who bowled a good lively spell, getting the other wickets. (That was Deano who bowled the good, lively spell in case you were wondering.)
Post match blues didn't last too long, however, with another top fixture to look forward to at Belper next week.
By the way Crossy, I think Monty could do with going on a bit of a diet.
DCC 161-9 off 40 overs (P Taylor 49*, Birdy
39)
Belper Meadows 162-4 off 37.3 overs