|
AUTOLEC (AWAY) - Tuesday, August 12, 2003
A brief glance at the scorecard for this game, and your Autolec supporter might feel well justified in remarking to the Loafers, "You're sh*t, and you know you are" followed by an invitation to play them every week, and possibly an observation that they were not singing anymore. However, in all fairness to the Loafers, it should be pointed out that the key inscription in the scorecard is that which reads "Toss: Autolec". With darkness eating into the evening with the speed of Shane Warne scoffing a pie, any team batting second would have the dubious pleasure of peering through the twilight in the vain hope of locating whatever high-speed deliveries the opposition chose to send down. With Keith Budd busy adjusting his jockstrap in the changing room, Steve King wandered across to deputise at the toss, only to find the opposition in want of a coin: in a moment of inspiration, one of the Autolecians invited Steve to "guess which hand I'm holding the match ball in" as an alternative. Steve guessed wrongly, and so "Autolec won daft ball guessing game and decided to bat".
In a while, anyway. As the Loafers stretched their legs in the outfield, the Autolec opening bats were conspicuous by their absence. Various Loafers, noting that the longer the opposition took to buckle on their pads, the greater the proportion of their own overs would be delivered in a murky twilight, grew restless and demanded the immediate appearance of the openers. Eventually the openers ambled out, took guard, and proceeded to lamp each and every bowler all round the ground, with Turner blazing his way to 53. At the end of the carnage, Autolec had clocked up 139 for two. And it was getting dark.
The Loafers innings was not, it has to be said, very pretty. As the Autolec bowlers swung the ball at pace, Dave Burford failed to keep his recent run of high scores going and fell for 3; Windsor Holden swung at a full toss and was bowled for the same score; Neil Holmes dropped sheet anchor for several overs before departing for 2; Gary McDougall returned to the pavilion with a duck's egg against his name; as I've said, not very pretty. Only three Loafers made in into double figures, with Alec Wallsgrove top scoring with 17. When Henry Rawlings had cautiously played out the last over (much to the delight of Nick Pennicott, who was due in next and who - not unreasonably - didn't fancy facing in pitch darkness), stumps were drawn with the Loafers placed precariously on 64 for seven.
Not the best of ends to the season, then.
Autolec won by 75 runs
|
