Andre
does us again
So
Nasser Hussain thinks captaining England is a hard job,
he should have been at Highgate
Woods on Sunday when the Specials came up against their
longstanding rivals Black Rose.
For
the first time in about 5 years a toss at Highgate Woods
was won by the Specials but unfortunately the overnight
rain had made it a damp wicket and a difficult decision
for yours truly to make.
The
BBC forecast at lunchtime confidently predicted a couple
of heavy showers during the afternoon, and,having regard
to the notorious slow track at Highgate Woods the decision
was to bat. Reminiscent of Ian McCasgill's unfortunate error
in failing to predict the 1987 October storms, the rain
did not appear, the sun shone and we got the worst of the
batting conditions in this 40 over encounter.
After
losing our two openers Medlock and Vernon with 20 on the
board, myself and Mick McGowan
looked to rebuild the innings and slowly but surely against
some tight bowling on a very slow wicket we took the score
to 118 at around three per over before I was caught and
bowled by Andre for 38.
The
remaining 7 overs produced forty two runs thanks to Mick's
50 and some late blows by Steve and Dom. Alex Heathcote,
under the interested eye of the watching business associate,
and 1980's all rounder, Ivan Naisbitt was out for a golden
duck . Ringo running 3 leg byes to a ball that landed two
feet from his stumps provided some humour . We finished
on 160-9.
A tea
courtesy of Andre's mum,rather than the usual hike up to
Roses' pub on Archway Road was well received. One minor
complaint-no cup of tea was available.
As mentioned
above the wicket dried quickly and with a depleted attack
we needed an early breakthrough to be competitive. As well
as Dom bowled (8-0 for 10) it never happened. With the score
on 41 Tony had Latham well caught by keeper McGowan whilst
I removed Patel smartly caught by Naisbitt for 35.
This
brought Andre Mishra to the crease and with all due respect
to his teammates, the game usually turns on his performance.
I brought back Dom to bowl at Andre and his third ball saw
the ball balloon gently in the air to between cover and
mid off. Unfortunately everybody (and they know who they
are !) left the catch to another and the moment passed.
A couple
of other streaky shots followed but soon Andre was in his
stride and the ball was sailing into the trees. Tony had
Ben Thomas smartly stumped but that was the end of our joy.
Myself, Sian and Kypner took a hammering as Rose eased home
with 8 overs to spare and Andre 72 not out.
A couple
of home truths, we are not good enough in the field for
40 over games and we lacked the support bowling to defend
the total. We all retired back to Roses bar to reflect on
our third successive defeat against our old rivals.
Former
gloveman Gareth Williams was making noises about adding
something to the team but with a career average of 3 including
six successive ducks at the turn of this century it is difficult
to see what he brings to the table. No doubt we can discuss
this further at his pending BBQ
Life
is certainly a rat race and it looks like the rats are in
front.
Never
mind we are playing Highgate next week and another dose
of the legendary Dick Holly.
©
Mike Herlihy 2003
