Saturday 28th July ~ Leeds Police (Home)

Eight and Two Halves Just Fail

A day when temperatures are in the mid 80's and there is little, if any breeze, is not a day to be struggling in the field, and yet, in Reg's absence ("gone fishing"), Huddy won the toss and elected to field.

Now under normal circumstances we are definitely better chasing (and as it turned out we had the chance to win anyway), but today the regular bowling attack consisted of two - Huddy himself and Joleen. Besides missing Reg (who says he's a bowler?) we were also without the services of Smiler (another wedding!) and Pat (family commitment). The result of this - bring on Neil and Leaf!

It's also getting a little sickening that the opposition keep turning up and take an instant liking to our wicket ("I told you that was a 600 track" - Bob) and the short boundaries.

"What a game to have to bowl in!"

After retrieving the first of many balls from the (thankfully cut) field, yours truly spent the next 10 minutes enlarging the gap in the thorn hedge - those scratches will take some explaining! With quickly tiring bowlers and ball retrievers, first Neil and then big Chris were brought into the attack, though little damage was done -except to the ball, or rather balls as it was by now.

One six into the car park bounced nicely off the back of a shiny Merc, which was then rapidly removed by it's owner to avoid further indentations. To be honest though, the houses on the far side of the road were in as much danger.

Pencil back behind the sticks

The return of Huddy and Steve to the attack did produce further wickets though the scoring rate was hardly effected and the Leeds opener Raffique quickly went first to his hundred and then to 150, eventually carrying his bat through the innings.

"Joleen" (Steve Taylor) in action

By this time we were down to 9 and a half batsmen, having lost one before the start when a certain 'new' member failed to arrive. This prompted Kirsty's fella (Richard) to be roped in to field - stopped him drinking anyway - and the other half consisted of a collapsed Darren who had twisted a fetlock in the field

"Twelve Shirts" strikes a pose

Tea, excellent job Bobby, came with the Police total standing at an impressive 322 for 6. First job after tea get as many batting bonus points as possible.

Kirsty and her men!

The injury to Darren promoted Buttocks to opener, and hopes were high that he could carry over his Tongan form from the previous week. He and Neil were quickly into the swing of things, and for the next 30 overs, despite the fall of a couple of wickets we were actually ahead in the run chase.

The Police bowlers were finding it as difficult as had our own, and once again the ball was despatched to various parts of the village, never to be seen again. Gareth fell to the catch of the season to the youngest player on the field, taken one handed diving to his right in the covers. He was soon back out in the middle though as 'runner' when we lost our other half a player, the result of Neil "pulling some fat". After the departure of Pencil the pace quickened even further as Huddy powered his way to a very rapid 50, obviously Neil's strain was slowing him down somewhat.

Neil having a runner did help one area of the game though - there were far more quick singles!

Buttocks returns

At the two-thirds stage we were infact becoming favourites to win, having 8 wickets left and only 150 needed. As it was the wheels fell off somewhat, as first Huddy holed out on the boundary edge, and then Neil went run out in an unfortunate mix-up. Chris Leathley then went first ball, and despite some cameo displays from the lower order, including 35 from the one-legged Darren, we eventually ended up some 40 runs short.

A remarkable display all round, but one that begs the question "What would we have done with a full team?"

The evening ended in the blur of the BBQ and for some the prospect of another game of cricket the next day - they must be mad!