We were nevertheless not too convincing yet, as Tartars were chalking up plenty of runs still and Osama and yours truly put down some quite "regulation" catches in the outfield while Doc ran 50 metres to glove one only to have it trickle out after a fall which measured 3 on the Richter scale. Grocer was making up for all of this however; cat-like in his movement, as always, struck on the foot, both hands calloused from overwork (now, now) and the batsmen fearful and indecisive whenever the ball went within 15 meters of him, he managed to contain the opposition to scoring in the other 359 degrees of the ground.
After a "pep-talk" at drinks (interesting captain's initiative) in which we all took a G.L.H.L.A.O (good long hard look at ourselves) we emerged a new team. Actually, we simply stopped them getting as many runs and waited for them to do what they looked like they should do... go out. Weathers had another lbw knocked back as there was some doubt about which two stumps the ball would have hit!!
The game began to swing as Leves picked up a neat caught and bowled and shortly after, their running between wickets left Azam stranded after a hefty 59. Raymondo started tidying up, clean bowling two, including their skipper and, combining with Eames and Doc for another two, he capitalized with 4 for 24 from his five overs. Meanwhile, the Jet had shown the outfielders how it should be done as he helped Leves to his second wicket, screaming in from long on to catch one around his ankles. The sort of thing I am sure the older members of CCC are accustomed to seeing...... dropped. George had obviously been missing his cricket and wanted to stay out there longer... there could be no other reason for his dropping the "pie-floater" at short midwicket before Muller put them out of their misery 2 balls later as he clean bowled Papu to take his 4th wicket and they were all out for 156 in the 29th over... 95 runs short.
Weathers' fines ensued and swelled the club coffers but even the local San Miguel and bird-flu sandwiches could not take the smiles from our faces.
If anyone remembers the game differently please let us all know.
Again...... Our best wishes to Joan Zee for a speedy recovery.
Winesy
One Jones was sorely missed that day - yes, Alice, that's you! The accuracy of Tartars' inning is certainly debatable - you should have seen their scorebook. Anyhow, some re-constructions and re-creations were applied and that's what you are reading in the above.
I would like to also thank Wino for his input with match report. And if it wasn't for his throw from the long on boundary, Azam, who was tearing my bowling apart (19 runs off my first over!) won't have finished on 59.
Lads!!
Another great win against the KCC boys and them 3rd in the league. Nice
strikes Stead (love to Les Girls)! Good support from Dad (love to the girls) and Grocer's Friend I (love to the girls). Mucho expensivo Jet - nice figures from Raymondo and Alice (I know she wasn't there, but she does have one and I miss it!). Nice to see Butani 0-60 off 6 and one, out, though a duck would have been better. It's amazing what happens when you have a top skipper leading the team - and as the only undefeated CCC skipper in history (and I don't bugger about with splitting games into "Domestic" and "International") I salute you Stead - a top class stand-in for Joan. Nice report Wino!
The HKCA are slow at keeping the table up to date, but we must be well into the top half of the table already!
Keep the victories coming - even with Joan back.
