There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.
Just what were we thinking? Playing cross batted shots on a pitch where, the term seamer had more relevance to a coal seam - more mineralogical than aeronautical. Yet four of us, to the same bowler, played the pull shot or went back on the crease to balls which had more chance of striking oil than lifting off from Heathrow.
After missing the ANZAC Day fixture last year, the Champs were back to represent the Club in the traditional annual match up. Unfortunately it was a 2 Up battle where our "Come in Spinner" did the business but it was the batsmen's turn this week to fail to go on with it after solid starts. Disappointing to say the least and there will be a few of top and middle order batsman mentally re-playing the correct shot for some time to come.
After the skip won the toss (pause) we had the joy of watching the Wild Colonial Boy opener take 12 runs off the first three balls he faced. "Hey ho" I thought. "This could be an interesting day."
And it was. In fact, it had all the makings of a great war movie. Blitzkrieged early to put us back on the beaches. A great rearguard fight back from then on. Friendly fire to take out two of our players. An offer by one of our key men to take the commander out the back to settle it one on one. And finally, almost a triumphant victory by two unsung heroes.
It had it all. Plot and sub-plots galore. A match more representative of a curious mixture of boys-own Guns of Navarone penetration but spliced with an undercurrent of the military genius of F Troop's Corporal Agarn.
0-64 was pulled back to 6 for 91 in just 5 overs as Lord Gibby (2-33), Boom Boom Munib (3-33), Disco (2-10) and Benny Yo Yo Yeoh (1-25) all stopping them in their tracks as well as taking regular wickets. It really was a very good effort by the bowlers this week and they got us back in the game.
Unfortunately some wayward deliveries and intelligent batting as well as a couple of dropped catches saw the late order bottom 4 wickets more than double the score from that point and this despite Younger taking 2 in 2 balls to finish off the innings. Skip, he's on a hat trick next time he has the pill so in true Champs style you should retire Younger from the bowling crease.
Oh, and we halved our wides/no balls to a "mere" 22. A rounding error in Champs-speak.
We let them get away at the end but a chase of 189 at Ceylon was well within our abilities if we played sensibly and built our partnerships. well, that was the plan...
Feroze and debutant Tony opened up and open up they did. 47 runs in less than 5 overs. Feroze (33) played the angry man role and smacked them up, over and through. However both then fell in quick succession and Homi was given a tough call to see us go from 0-47 to 3-56 in two overs. "Hey ho" I had thought as I went out to bat. "This could be interesting".
A partnership of 30 consolidated things a bit before I tried to pull a ten pin bowling ball delivery. Poor effort.
Jimmy Packer Chiro did a Tiger and came and went to earn kit packing duties.
Skip and Younger then began building a partnership which looked like it was going to get us home. However Munib (22) must have been in the loo and missed Tony and my removals. Younger (13), Disco and Ben left fairly rapidly after that and like the Melbourne Storm, we were looking gone for all money.
No, not really and not quite. Cometh the hour, cometh the men. Klaus (34no) and Lord Gibb weren't going to give this caper up and worked the ball and occasionally smoked the ball to get us oh so close. It was an Ashes Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz Champs style. A partnership of 32 was only brought to an end when what looked like a sure 6 was caught by a leaping Colonial.
Not quite enough but valiant nonetheless. Ben Dunn't do the Kit Anymore was good enough to come down and cheer us on and lead a worthwhile post mortem.
Five partnerships below 10 really did us in.
A win is coming. It can't be far away.
And so to the stats.
A new cap was handed to Tony Waters who becomes the 47th Champ player. Well done Tony who also chimed in with 2 good outfield catches.
On the bowlers, Disco returns to the number one position with his 2 wickets. He now has 58 dismissals to the 57 of the absent Rev. With the paucity of wides from his bowling stats since moving from speed of light to light of speed, Disco has brought his economy rate below 6. Must have something to with his new found control and calmness.
Munib's 3-33 means he is now just one behind Disco's number of three wickets hauls.
Younger's 2 wickets moves him into 8th position, his highest ever ranking.
Munib also advances on the batting side with his good start to the season seeing him overtake Skip Slimbrick in number 3 position, his highest ever ranking.
Klaus' fine knock means he breaks back into the top 10 again and a not out boosts the average as well.
With his rapid fire 33, Feroze becomes the 9th Champ to score more than 300 runs for the team. More to come there.
There is some symmetry in writing this review on ANZAC Day. Not quite there with a victory but enough élan in a gallant defeat to bring us hope of a better campaign on other fields of endeavour.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Anza Fourths are in winning mode...
The Anza 5th Grade took a trip to Fernvale to take on ITT Alumni early in the morning. After heavy overnight rainfull the ground was pretty much saturated and we were pretty luck to play. Unfortunately Anza only had 10 men and among them a few new faces with varying degrees of rustiness.
Spainy ambled out to the middle to toss and promptly lost, maintaining a 100% record in that area this year. Impressive stuff. So predictably we were put in to bat on a sopping wet pitch and a swamp like out field.
The top three batsman came and went for under par scores, as extras raced into the top scorer role. It was looking a little ominous and there were concern's that we might get rolled out for an indefensible total. However our middle order stuck around and got us out of a spot of bother.
Phil McNicholas played very sensibly for his 33 picking up the ones and twos well as boundaries were very difficult to come by unless you the aerial route. He formed a couple of good partnerships with Jodi Watcher 19 and Koushik Muthury 15. This gave the score a degree of respectability as it reached three figures.
Phil did had two batsman come and go with not much added to the score, in the end joined by newly promoted number 10 Peter Clarke. Just as this final partnership was starting to blossom Phil decided that was enough batting for the day and missed a straight one.
It would be fair to say that all the batsmen got themselves out rather than being bowled out. One person who may be exempt from this is Mark Cordiner who got a bit of a harsh LBW decision. Seeing as he hit it and it didn't touch his pads he may have some grounds for feeling aggrieved.
So all out for 139 off about 24 overs, we once again committed the cardinal sin of not batting the over's out. One big mention should go to our top scorer on the day, Extra's made a marvellous effort topping the runs charts with 41. Extras is having a great year for Anza 5th's currently topping the runs scored table and average, keep it going!
After a few sandwich's and samosa's we entered the quagmire for our turn in the field. Things started very well with James Dickinson and new guy Laurence Heavey opening up very nicely and decimating there top order with 3 wickets in the first 6 over's for not a lot of runs. This included a passage of proper cricket, a good ball from James just outside of got a little bounce found the edge and was safely snaffled by Koushik behind the stumps.
After are opening spell the tight bowling continued with Phil having a good all round day with a controlled spell and a wicket. However the screw's were really turned once the spin twins came on and bowled good lines on off stump. Peter Clarke used all his experience to pick up an excellent 4 wickets in his marathon 6 over spell. This including a fine juggling caught and bowled which was eventually caught on the 13th attempt somewhere near the cover boundary. He was well backed up by the skipper the other end who bagged a couple for himself.
IIT were bowled out for under a ton, which was a very good bowling effort which was backed up by a solid effort in the field where nearly all the chances were taken.
So the 5th's march towards the summit of the league with a 100% league record, as long as you discount last week. Things bode well for the next game against the British Club as they were beaten by IIT. Until next time chaps. . .
By Tom Woods
Spainy ambled out to the middle to toss and promptly lost, maintaining a 100% record in that area this year. Impressive stuff. So predictably we were put in to bat on a sopping wet pitch and a swamp like out field.
The top three batsman came and went for under par scores, as extras raced into the top scorer role. It was looking a little ominous and there were concern's that we might get rolled out for an indefensible total. However our middle order stuck around and got us out of a spot of bother.
Phil McNicholas played very sensibly for his 33 picking up the ones and twos well as boundaries were very difficult to come by unless you the aerial route. He formed a couple of good partnerships with Jodi Watcher 19 and Koushik Muthury 15. This gave the score a degree of respectability as it reached three figures.
Phil did had two batsman come and go with not much added to the score, in the end joined by newly promoted number 10 Peter Clarke. Just as this final partnership was starting to blossom Phil decided that was enough batting for the day and missed a straight one.
It would be fair to say that all the batsmen got themselves out rather than being bowled out. One person who may be exempt from this is Mark Cordiner who got a bit of a harsh LBW decision. Seeing as he hit it and it didn't touch his pads he may have some grounds for feeling aggrieved.
So all out for 139 off about 24 overs, we once again committed the cardinal sin of not batting the over's out. One big mention should go to our top scorer on the day, Extra's made a marvellous effort topping the runs charts with 41. Extras is having a great year for Anza 5th's currently topping the runs scored table and average, keep it going!
After a few sandwich's and samosa's we entered the quagmire for our turn in the field. Things started very well with James Dickinson and new guy Laurence Heavey opening up very nicely and decimating there top order with 3 wickets in the first 6 over's for not a lot of runs. This included a passage of proper cricket, a good ball from James just outside of got a little bounce found the edge and was safely snaffled by Koushik behind the stumps.
After are opening spell the tight bowling continued with Phil having a good all round day with a controlled spell and a wicket. However the screw's were really turned once the spin twins came on and bowled good lines on off stump. Peter Clarke used all his experience to pick up an excellent 4 wickets in his marathon 6 over spell. This including a fine juggling caught and bowled which was eventually caught on the 13th attempt somewhere near the cover boundary. He was well backed up by the skipper the other end who bagged a couple for himself.
IIT were bowled out for under a ton, which was a very good bowling effort which was backed up by a solid effort in the field where nearly all the chances were taken.
So the 5th's march towards the summit of the league with a 100% league record, as long as you discount last week. Things bode well for the next game against the British Club as they were beaten by IIT. Until next time chaps. . .
By Tom Woods
Monday, April 12, 2010
Anza Champs vs Island CC Fusion CC Match Report
So there I was lolling about in the outfield. I’d say lurking but in that heat, I was all lurked out just walking from mid-wicket to deep mid-wicket.
Suddenly this song crept into my head and it was all I could do to stop from humming it aloud. Those wonderful troubadours, KC and the Sunshine Band had ruined my concentration yet again. The lyrics?
You're sweet as a honey bee
But like a honey bee stings
You've gone and left my heart in pain
All you left is our favorite song
The one we danced to all night long
It used to bring sweet memories
Of a tender love that used to be
Now it's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone
It's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone
Now I mention this because my memory drifted back to those vainglorious early years of the Champs where as the first up skipper I looked on with, initially, open-mouthed silent horror and then, by the end of my tenure, a decent amount of less-silent amusement as we struggled to bowl the ball within 2 feet of the stumps (port and starboard).
Plus ca change and all that.
Fast forward to April 2010 and if I closed my eyes I thought I could once again hear the dulcet tones of Feroze Sukh, yelling encouragement to his team mates that “it’s coming mate. It’s coming.” I opened my eyes and what do you know. There was the Freezer!
But that when everything just went bizzaro world. Our body armour piercing weapon of mass destruction bowled two overs which bore no resemblance whatsoever to the big fellow’s consistent line of at least hitting the carpet. Then, just to prove that everything I had clung to as providing consistency in my life was now self-destructing in front of my eyes, the former King of the Wings, Disco, bowls 6 very tight overs for hardly any wides. Truth be told though that since Disco had moved from Jive Talking pace to More Than a Woman ballad tweaking, he’s hardly widened up at all.
But form is temporary and class is permanent so we know the Freezer will be back to his best soon. Once he adapts to the topics again we should be right to go.
Still, that accounted for just 25% of the 40 wides and no balls we gave up. Now that Bubbles has left our shores, we really should move to ban all left handed batsmen from the game.
The cruel facts are these. We were chasing 205 and we ended just 14 runs shy. They bowled 11 wides and no balls and we 40 so there you have it. No real catches dropped. Fielders all ran hard in the heat and we almost got home.
That said, the fact that we got so close was largely due to new skip Munib who struck a truly violent late-innings 60 runs to almost see us through. Munib’s first ever 50 for the Champs and Club and all of this off just 32 balls. Boom Boom may just be the right name for the Bomber. Good support from quite a few with new chum Ashwin knocking up 20 and Freezer, Ben Dunn the Kit, Klaus and Disco all getting a few a few. Disco once again played for the red ink and maintains his record of remaining not out in almost every second innings. His average is climbing as quickly as he gets to the other end of the final over.
On the bowling side, decent debuts for Majid, Ashwin and Homi and we welcome them as new Champs caps 44, 45 and 46 respectively. Just think lads. 6 billion people on the planet and only 46 have been accorded this privilege. More players play for England in a home Ashes series than have worn the Champs cap.
Without doubt the star of the bowling effort was Ben the Stealth Yeoh. His first 4 for and well supported by Chiro, Majid and Feroze to claim those wickets. Well done and well deserved.
Early in the season but the signs are there that we can be competitive if we tweak a few of the problem areas.
And so to the stats.
With Ben Yeoh taking 4 wickets, he moves up the table on strike rates and averages.
Munib similarly does the same on the batting side of things moving up two places to 4th, his highest ever ranking. He becomes just the 5th Champ to score half a kilo of runs and at a cracking pace as well.
Not much more stats to add apart from that. Oh yes there was one. Younger continues to rack up his average of boyfriend/girlfriend faux pas at a very decent strike rate. Not playing with your mates because your girlfriend arrives home after 3 weeks? So much to discover. So little time.
Till the next game.
Regards,
Geoffrey Forday
Suddenly this song crept into my head and it was all I could do to stop from humming it aloud. Those wonderful troubadours, KC and the Sunshine Band had ruined my concentration yet again. The lyrics?
You're sweet as a honey bee
But like a honey bee stings
You've gone and left my heart in pain
All you left is our favorite song
The one we danced to all night long
It used to bring sweet memories
Of a tender love that used to be
Now it's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone
It's the same old song
But with a different meaning
Since you been gone
Now I mention this because my memory drifted back to those vainglorious early years of the Champs where as the first up skipper I looked on with, initially, open-mouthed silent horror and then, by the end of my tenure, a decent amount of less-silent amusement as we struggled to bowl the ball within 2 feet of the stumps (port and starboard).
Plus ca change and all that.
Fast forward to April 2010 and if I closed my eyes I thought I could once again hear the dulcet tones of Feroze Sukh, yelling encouragement to his team mates that “it’s coming mate. It’s coming.” I opened my eyes and what do you know. There was the Freezer!
But that when everything just went bizzaro world. Our body armour piercing weapon of mass destruction bowled two overs which bore no resemblance whatsoever to the big fellow’s consistent line of at least hitting the carpet. Then, just to prove that everything I had clung to as providing consistency in my life was now self-destructing in front of my eyes, the former King of the Wings, Disco, bowls 6 very tight overs for hardly any wides. Truth be told though that since Disco had moved from Jive Talking pace to More Than a Woman ballad tweaking, he’s hardly widened up at all.
But form is temporary and class is permanent so we know the Freezer will be back to his best soon. Once he adapts to the topics again we should be right to go.
Still, that accounted for just 25% of the 40 wides and no balls we gave up. Now that Bubbles has left our shores, we really should move to ban all left handed batsmen from the game.
The cruel facts are these. We were chasing 205 and we ended just 14 runs shy. They bowled 11 wides and no balls and we 40 so there you have it. No real catches dropped. Fielders all ran hard in the heat and we almost got home.
That said, the fact that we got so close was largely due to new skip Munib who struck a truly violent late-innings 60 runs to almost see us through. Munib’s first ever 50 for the Champs and Club and all of this off just 32 balls. Boom Boom may just be the right name for the Bomber. Good support from quite a few with new chum Ashwin knocking up 20 and Freezer, Ben Dunn the Kit, Klaus and Disco all getting a few a few. Disco once again played for the red ink and maintains his record of remaining not out in almost every second innings. His average is climbing as quickly as he gets to the other end of the final over.
On the bowling side, decent debuts for Majid, Ashwin and Homi and we welcome them as new Champs caps 44, 45 and 46 respectively. Just think lads. 6 billion people on the planet and only 46 have been accorded this privilege. More players play for England in a home Ashes series than have worn the Champs cap.
Without doubt the star of the bowling effort was Ben the Stealth Yeoh. His first 4 for and well supported by Chiro, Majid and Feroze to claim those wickets. Well done and well deserved.
Early in the season but the signs are there that we can be competitive if we tweak a few of the problem areas.
And so to the stats.
With Ben Yeoh taking 4 wickets, he moves up the table on strike rates and averages.
Munib similarly does the same on the batting side of things moving up two places to 4th, his highest ever ranking. He becomes just the 5th Champ to score half a kilo of runs and at a cracking pace as well.
Not much more stats to add apart from that. Oh yes there was one. Younger continues to rack up his average of boyfriend/girlfriend faux pas at a very decent strike rate. Not playing with your mates because your girlfriend arrives home after 3 weeks? So much to discover. So little time.
Till the next game.
Regards,
Geoffrey Forday
ANZA IV (5th Grade) vs Golden CC 2 Match Report
On one of the smallest and non picturesque pitches in Singapore ANZA4 took on Golden CC in the battle of the school ground. The ground was sopping wet with yesterdays rainfall but the opposition captain was confident that the ground would dry out in an hour. After returning from McDs for a morning brew we found a small gathering of kids looking like they wanted to play for ANZA (maybe they knew we needed some help). Actually the ground was double booked with the little league so rather than picking teams from a school yard line up and against some of the well wishes of the not so happy parents we decided to go out and play on their ground in a show of defiance
This is where things turned a little pear shaped and something tells me asking the kids to sod-off wasn't good karma as we proceeded to loose the toss with a double headed rupee and asked to bat (im bringing me own coin next toss).
Normally you would relish the chance to bat first in the cool morning breeze, but on a rain sodden ground with a pitch that produced lifting balls behind a good length, and balls hugging the pitch just off a length you wish you had won the toss
The first wicket was..well.. you could call it lots of things
Silly, Stupid, Batsmans Brain Fart, Suicidal run to nowhere, pilot error
And there were a number of comments after the batsman (who shall not be named for fear of ridicule) walked back to his mates looking for solace
What the hell you were you thinking?
The last time I saw something like that when I was playing under 12's
Lets just say it involved a few practice swings, a stumping and the rest of 5th grade can fill in the gaps over a pint. The batsman has found his true calling in 5th grade
Back to the game...
To the oppositions credit that were bowling good lines and the swinging ball sent the stumps tumbling on numerous occasions. Geoff "the ever reliable" Forday stabilized the innings with a handy 11runs then James Dickinson and Koushik Muruthy piled on some handy runs until Koushik decided to end his innings ala IPL style by sweeping the ball into the stumps. James was top score a tantalizing 48 not out and Anza ended with a respectable 140 off 24 overs.
Afternoon tea wasn't worth the wait or the words im writing so on to the bowling.....
It was as if we were playing on a different pitch than the early morning, no venomous spitting balls off a length we new the going was tough. Both Vankat and James Howlett bowled well under the conditions, however some dropped catches off Vankat took toll on his figures. In fact most players looked like a roadrunner on a treadmill so the wet conditions didn't make for many catches. The batsmans had full intention on making little of our score. Two lost balls in the opposing school ground and 11 guys resembling more like a chocolate easter bunny later the opposition managed the score with 8 overs to spare.
Our goal was to get more than 5 points and get a game in the process. Well we got a game and at least we had fun in the process of losing. Points will have to wait till next game
Notable bashers
James Dickinson 48 not out
Koushik Muruthy 19
Sundries 44
Notable chuckers
James Dickinson 2- 20 off 3
James Howlett 1 for 24 off 5
Written by
Andrew Spain (Captain)
This is where things turned a little pear shaped and something tells me asking the kids to sod-off wasn't good karma as we proceeded to loose the toss with a double headed rupee and asked to bat (im bringing me own coin next toss).
Normally you would relish the chance to bat first in the cool morning breeze, but on a rain sodden ground with a pitch that produced lifting balls behind a good length, and balls hugging the pitch just off a length you wish you had won the toss
The first wicket was..well.. you could call it lots of things
Silly, Stupid, Batsmans Brain Fart, Suicidal run to nowhere, pilot error
And there were a number of comments after the batsman (who shall not be named for fear of ridicule) walked back to his mates looking for solace
What the hell you were you thinking?
The last time I saw something like that when I was playing under 12's
Lets just say it involved a few practice swings, a stumping and the rest of 5th grade can fill in the gaps over a pint. The batsman has found his true calling in 5th grade
Back to the game...
To the oppositions credit that were bowling good lines and the swinging ball sent the stumps tumbling on numerous occasions. Geoff "the ever reliable" Forday stabilized the innings with a handy 11runs then James Dickinson and Koushik Muruthy piled on some handy runs until Koushik decided to end his innings ala IPL style by sweeping the ball into the stumps. James was top score a tantalizing 48 not out and Anza ended with a respectable 140 off 24 overs.
Afternoon tea wasn't worth the wait or the words im writing so on to the bowling.....
It was as if we were playing on a different pitch than the early morning, no venomous spitting balls off a length we new the going was tough. Both Vankat and James Howlett bowled well under the conditions, however some dropped catches off Vankat took toll on his figures. In fact most players looked like a roadrunner on a treadmill so the wet conditions didn't make for many catches. The batsmans had full intention on making little of our score. Two lost balls in the opposing school ground and 11 guys resembling more like a chocolate easter bunny later the opposition managed the score with 8 overs to spare.
Our goal was to get more than 5 points and get a game in the process. Well we got a game and at least we had fun in the process of losing. Points will have to wait till next game
Notable bashers
James Dickinson 48 not out
Koushik Muruthy 19
Sundries 44
Notable chuckers
James Dickinson 2- 20 off 3
James Howlett 1 for 24 off 5
Written by
Andrew Spain (Captain)
