For four of the
Strollers, the day started with a fight for the three seats left in Sir Glen’s
car once they had arrived at Amersham station. However, after five minutes of
deliberation, a plan was drawn up of which a police officer doesn’t need to
hear about. The game had been set up with the season’s very first co-captain
operation as match manager Mike Pittams looked to test the relationship of Aidan
Selby and Glen Oliver.
In true layback Kiwi
style, we had already annoyed the local English as Freddie Broster-Turley tried
to tamper with the pitch during the pre-match inspection (throwing a ball into
the wicket).
The game started off
with a hiss and a roar, as Jake Helsby took the first wicket for the Strollers by hitting the
top of the bails. Stuart Broad (aka Broster-Turley wearing a white bandana)
bowled pressure from the pavilion end, giving the wicket-keeper (Hamiltonian Selby)
and fielder (Hollywood film celebrity Ben Mangham) new undies to change into at
the drinks break.
After the first few
spells of pace bowling, Mangham came in to take control of things, taking his
first wicket of the match on his third ball, an lbw. Mangham would strike again
in his third over taking a caught and bowled, which looked like the re-enactment
of Gus Atkinson against Devon Conway.
At the break, tensions
between the two captains had not boiled over.
As the bowling attack
started to tire, the ball was thrown to the guest star of the team, Paige
Copsey. The opposing batter was so star-struck he chopped
the ball on to his own stumps.
Wickets continued to
fall with Steve Rogers taking the catch of the match, running back to take the
ball out of the air over his shoulder from the great Alastair Macaulay.
However, the cursed catching hands from Jordans Taverners were still present,
with Glen dropping an absolute screamer right on the boundary (definitely an
acceptable drop).
Brad Trebilcock succumbed
to peer pressure from the Strollers to make his bowling debut, causing so much
confusion with his ball placement that neither the wicket-keeper nor the
batsman knew where to stand. The less said about that, the better.
The Strollers finished
their fielding innings with 200 to chase down.
Blair Travis and Oliver
were the opening batsmen. Glen must have not spent enough time in front of his
indoor bowling machine this week as he departed for well under his average for
the current season, caught behind for 21.
Blair continued to
knock the ball around the park, playing like Kane Williamson to keep the ship
steady. Trebilcock was the next Stroller to the middle, where he continued his
fashion of getting out in any many different ways possible. This week was a
stumping as he took off down the pitch to send the spinner over the fence but
failed – and departed for three runs.
Selby was eager to get
out to the crease after his disaster of a campaign last year (two ducks). He
and Travis held their ground to take the Strollers to an eight-wicket victory.
In doing so, Travis brought up his first ton of the season, finishing on a
well-deserved 106 runs off 122 balls, an exceptional strike rate. On to
Roehampton…
Capt and wkt: Aidan Selby. Match report: Brad Trebilcock.
Match fees: Alastair Macaulay.
