London Transport
Thursday June 27 at Barn Elms Strollers won by seven wickets London Transport 109-8
(20 overs; Pittams 2-10, Travis 2-10, Gregor Findlay 2-20, Oliver 1-2, Bayles-Allen 1-18)
Strollers 110-3
(16.2 overs; Love 25no, Travis 25no, Broster-Turley 17, Oliver 15, Robertson 11no) Lateness is an undesirable trait at the best of times, but
with a 6pm start time looming and an overrunning meeting in Brighton making any
chance of your correspondent’s prompt arrival a mere pipe dream, it fell to
Glen Oliver to fill us in on the first nine or so overs of this midweek
duel.
"Interesting stuff from before you got there. We were
supposed to be batting, but when we realised that we had no kit, we agreed with
the opposition to change around and bowl first.
“Aidan was roundly abused. Richie saved us after an
emergency call from Alastair and brought the kit down. Freddie bowled well for
his short spell. Will bowled a decidedly un-Thursday length which probably led
to George nearly getting killed later in the match.
“Stair bamboozled the opposition with a complete lack of
pace that they couldn’t work out what to do with. Scott, the skipper, nearly
got killed at extra cover after being pinned with a tracer bullet that he had
absolutely no chance of getting out of the way of. Gregor, son of Scott,
appears a proper cricketer and bowled tight lines with a couple of edges going
to vacant areas, then took a good catch off Will."
In short, a shambles. Nine then 10 players before the match
reporter’s arrival, no kit, a reversal of the toss and the captain surviving a
near death experience. Just the usual Strollers Thursday then!
Upon my arrival I was immediately invited to bowl two overs
of very stiff bowling (first overs in at least a year!), but runs were heavily
restricted with some tight bowling by Oliver (1-2) and Blair Travis
(2-10).
The surprise call, however, was the skipper throwing the
ball to one Michael Pittams for a spell of who knows what will come out. Oliver
openly told the batsman to watch his teeth and toes simultaneously, but it was
the batman's edge and the stumps themselves which needed to watch out - Pittams
bowled superbly and finished with 2-10.
Chasing 109, Freddie Broster-Turley (17), George Love (25no),
Travis (25no) and Oliver (15) made light work of what was some aggressive, fast
and difficult bowling - a reply it seems to the similar stuff dished out at the
top of the match by Will Baylis-Allen.
With just a few runs to get, Pete Robertson joined John Low
at the crease with the rousing words of "finish this quickly, I'm
thirsty" from his captain still ringing in his ears. There followed 11no
from seven and it was job done with the target reached with four overs to
spare.
Refreshments followed at the Red Lion as the Juggernaut
rolls on.
Capt: Scott Findlay. Wkt: George Love.
Match fees: Aidan Selby. Match report: Pete Robertson.
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