Sunday 14th August 2022
A long-awaited invite to play on the Vale Cricket Club Oval was surely motivation enough to brave the sweltering 36 degree Welsh heatwave on Sunday when Wick Village CC met a strong Vale team for a midday start to their 40 over dual.
In the midday mirage across the scorched field all were reluctant to what lay ahead and with Kenny “half hammy” Thomas, Steve “1 Calf” Collins and Iestyn “I can’t remember how I got home last night” Jones in the line-up, it was clear that Wick were indeed the underdogs.
Captain Rob conveniently lost this important toss and so Wick were put in to field in the Kalahari desert temperatures.
The Opening Bowlers, Paul and Tubsy were excellent in their first few overs keeping it tight, however with the sweat pouring off them and the heat seeming to take its toll, both bowled some loose deliveries which were confidently despatched by the Vale batsmen not only to the boundary but beyond it into the deep vegetation around the field which began a slow and familiar occurrence that lasted 80 overs. Without Kenny, we would all still be there looking, as time after time “Sweet like a chicken” was heard each time he found the ball, or a ball, in the deep rough, before anyone else. If only he could find that line and length as easy.
Perseverance paid off eventually with Paul taking 2 important wickets in his 5 over spell, one of which required Steve “1 Calf” Collins to do a juggling act to remove ex-team mate and Vale’s very own Kevin Peterson, Rob Toutt with a blinder of a catch above his head in the covers that would have killed most humans.
With Vale starting to develop a great partnership and scoring with relative ease, on came Kenny “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life” Thomas and Amal “The survivor of last week” Chandrasena to try slow the onslaught.
After lots of chatter and some healthy inter-team banter it was the man-of-the-moment Kenny who Bamboozled Callum Swinford to break the 100 run partnership, much to the delight of both teams it seemed.
With Westy’s usual quiet and efficient glove work behind the stumps and change of bowlers, captain Rob and Steve “I bowl better with one calf” Collins slowed the run rate nicely in their respective 4 over spells.
Amal and Colin tried their best to continue the good work done but the heat had pretty much singed all hope for them and Vale moved on swiftly towards the 200 mark with their Gareth Kelland reaching his maiden ton in an outstanding knock, only to be caught on 118 by Iestyn “a hangover is always better in 36 degrees” Jones, in the covers off Colin “ I only get the best batsman out” Dixon’s bowling.
Iestyn “ three quarter pants” Jones then managed to remove the dangerous Tim Stephenson on 16 with Russ and Rob closing up the 40 overs with some good tight bowling and with the youth of Vale cricket showing their future talent with what would end up being some very valuable boundaries to close their innings on 236 off their allotted 40 overs.
Like a troop of soldiers returning from the front line, the Wick men, hot, bothered, thirsty, hungry and stinky took a well deserved 30 min break between innings’s to ponder what was ahead. Some positive comments and some negative were heard but there was no turning back now, it was time to fight.
With Kenny leading us in song, to Sweet Caroline and with his beautiful un-tanned large pom-pom on show to all who dared to look, Captain Rob and Steve “What Calf?” Collins went back to the front line.
With a rather subdued first few overs both batsmen were looking confident but some testing bowling by the 2 young talented Vale Openers made run scoring pretty hard with only Rob managing tickle a few down to square and fine leg to keep the total moving on. Steve then seemed to play a sandwedge out from a St Andrews bunker to one of their fielders and we had lost a soldier.
In came Russ, straight off his good knock last week to join captain Rob in battle and with the thoughts of “you’re only as good as your next ball” in his head, Russ started slow to make sure that last week was not a fluke. Slowly but surely the runs began come with both Rob and Russ taking advantage of the bad balls and the deep rough to get a much-needed break while Kenny helped to look for “the Vale mens balls”.
On the way to big one, Rob unfortunately popped one back straight to the bowler for a good 31 runs to get Colin to the wicket. Together Russ and Colin moved the innings on in no rush but with solid defence and some good calling got us to 137 with a really important 71 run partnership with Colin perishing to ball of the day and an absolute peach by McCauley Svenson. This opened up the door for Amal “Mr Consistent” Chandrasena to show his stylish talent with the bat and to solidify his position as the teams leading allrounder, but that was sadly short lived as he too fell fowl to a deep greenside St Andrews bunker like his fellow compandre Steve “Stricker” Collins and was well caught by young Morgan Hammett at midwicket.
In walked the in-form Tom “I’m the best looking of the 4” Dixon to repeat what Russ and him did the week before. All looked like the same as Tom and Russ swiftly continued the good work done until his favourite shot, the sweep off the legs got him into trouble and Paul “The Governor” Gilbert swooping in like a bomb squad legend to remove the danger.
All the while Russ, slowly trying to face as many balls as possible and to reach his life-long dream reached his 100 in spectacular style by hitting a full toss the boundary for 4 through a vacant cow corner. Elated but not finished, it was now time to focus and get his troops to safety and with Paul “I promise I’m a middle order batsman” Aberdeen falling to a Shane Warne type spin ball for 6 runs, Russ was left with Westy, Kenny and Iestyn to bring it home.
Needing 24 to win off the last 12 balls, Russ and Westy managed to risk some outstanding balls by the experienced campaigners to get numerous boundaries off the penultimate over to leave 10 runs for victory off the last over.
The match had turned on it’s head and it was a real humdinger to see what the final chapter would read in this Epic Battle. Russ managed to completely hash the first ball of the over and nearly got stumped, then tried a double wammy (hockey jargon) for backstick shot which only allowed a single to a short 3rd man and Westy on face. Valiantly Westy tried to get Russ back on face but only managed to chip a catch to mid-wicket, so no run, but Russ back on face as they crossed before the catch.
In comes Kenny in to help win it for Wick and with 3 Balls left and 9 to win, Russ gently touches one down fine leg and 2 runs are run, leaving 7 off 2 balls. With not much left in the tank and a bat weighing more and more each shot, Russ gently touches one to deep fine leg and tries to run 2 but only one run is run, until the fielder accidentally hits the wickets directly which allows Kenny and Russ to scamper through for 2 leaving Rus to face and 5 off the last ball to win. In an innings never to be repeated again, Wick regrettably came short by 5 runs with Russ being caught on the boundary, only a few meters short.
An amazing day was had by all who braved the sun and the heat and an exciting end to a match played in great spirit between 2 clubs growing together.
Thanks to Paul and Bob and the Vale team for being great hosts. Wick looks forward to the re-match.
-Russ Milne
