Big day at a big fixture, Sandiacre are undoubtedly one of the choice local teams to play, with a stunning new pavilion, (offering superb views) and a dressing room so big both Dean and Crossy’s coffin fitted in with room to spare. A mixture of the odd couple of firsts, then mainly seconds, greeted us. Jamie was late, citing something about a tram as his excuse, so Crossy ably won the toss as our pinch tosser and we batted, having a good looking batting line up on paper.
We began as we thought, tight and fairly brisk bowling limited Paul and Steve initially. Steve went mad, hitting 3 fours in one over, but was out in the 12th over for 13. That’s how tight it was. As the overs wore on though, the wickets fell quite steadily, no-one really got seriously going, but pretty much everyone chipped in. Steve Perry was run out by about 21 yards in a terrible mix up with Crossy ("cries of yes, no, yes, no, it was just one big mess all round"). Some lusty slogs at the end saw us to 174 off 40, with Crossy top scoring on 38, Birdy chipped in too with a nice 20 odd. We thought it may be a few too few. How prophetic......
Tea was simply awesome, with chips, pizza and pickled onions. A definite winner had we continued the tea of the year.
The brothers Jordison opened up for Sandiacre, and although Dean bowled quite ferociously at times, they never looked in any real trouble. At 114-0, something strange or special had to happen. Happen it did when Jordison (J) (a man who has actually played first class cricket this summer) absolutely creamed Steve Gaunt through mid off, right out of the screws, as Athers would say. Rob was there, woke up suddenly, but could not get out of the way fast enough. It looked like an awesome catch. What actually happened was the ball was travelling so quick, on contact with his hand, it temporarily melted all his skin and stuck, with a huge slapping sound, and the sound of 12 jaws hitting the floor. 114-1, cue bemused looks all round and a cartoon throbbing hand for Rob. A bizarre end to one of the best knocks we’ve seen all year. All of a sudden, we came alive a bit, and started to bowl and field well. Adam especially bowled a great little spell, Steve Gaunt picked up 3fer and we were in with a shout right up to the end, as Sandiacre hit the winning run in the drizzle and gloom.
Super day.
I forgot to mention last week that Norman had to call 2 no balls in one over for us having 3 fielders behind square leg. One of the culprits? VC Crossy. Nuff said.
DCC 174-8 in 40 overs (Lees 33)
Sandiacre 176-7 in 34 overs (Adam 2-28, Steve Gaunt 3-20 )