Sunday 12th June 2022
At 9:24am Gutsy pulled out of the game and Skipper Rob called in 12th man Amal. At 9:28am Gutsy was back in the game and Wick were up to twelve players. Yes it was time to physically, and metaphorically, put on the tin hat as Mr Uncaptainable, the Police House Express, was back in the Wick fold. The Dixon count up was up to four and the skippers heart rate up to one forty.
It was classic Wick June conditions, the Sun battling the wind and the wind was winning.
Rob won the toss and elected to put Penarth into bat. Paul struck early and then the inevitable happened, the Penarth batsmen lobbed a shot over Kenny’s shoulder who quickly turned and plucked it from the Wick sky. Three catches in three games. It was soon Kenny’s turn to bowl but the wind was playing havoc with his line and the volume of wides in his first over made his scorecard look like a burial site. But this is Kenny and this is Wick, he adjusted and went around the wicket and took a Penarth scalp in his next over. Neal joined the bowling attack and despite his pessimism (natural as an Arsenal fan), he took a wicket leaving Penarth on 85-4 at the 20 over mark. The drinks break must of refreshed the Penarth batters and they upped the rate, this search for runs allowed Wick to display some deft fielding and get two run outs. The Penarth No4 had reached 71 by this point even surviving Gutsy’s spell from the swing end (only two beamers was his proud assessment) before Tubsy stepped up in the 34th over. He bowled a full pitched delivery that the batsmen drove back at him fast and flat, still in his follow through Tubsy dove to his left and snatched the ball in one hand only centimetres from the ground. It was an epic catch and was celebrated like the war in Ukraine was over. Tubs put it as his career best catch and we all agreed it was excellent, apart from Kenny who didn’t think it was even the best catch of the day. Penarth ended on 208 runs.
At the Tea Break Dickie got out his sandwiches from what he described as a thermally insulated food container and what Kenny described as a Make-up bag.
What looked like a gettable target for Wick soon looked like a long shot as Tubsy, Rob and Iestyn were bowled by Penarth’s young bowling attack who impressed throughout leaving Wick 20-3 after 10 overs. In fact Rob continued his remarkable run of not getting out to a bad ball: by the time we’d got back to the Lamb the ball that got him out had swung to the Chapel and back before pitching a foot outside leg stump and hitting the top of off stump. #unplayable
Steve (21) had held firm but him and Dickie (13) fell soon after and despite some middle order resistance from Colin (28) and Paul (14) and then Andy (25) and Amal (11) the last wicket to fall was Neal leaving Kenny stranded at the other end without facing a ball.
Congratulations to Penarth, they have unearthed some talent for the future which is great. Onwards and upwards for Wick who are heading to Ross-on-wye for a mini tour in a fortnight.
-Rob Dixon
