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[SOULMAN1012]

It was a glorious ball..

In steams Ian for his 23 step run up, puts down yet another 'gas' ball around 85mph.. Full ish length, pitching middle and then it seams.. Takes top off off.. Batsmen playing down the baker loo line instead of being on Waterloo and the off stump cart wheels back to the boundary..

I must if missed that one I remember one Ian bowled about 23 mph from a 5.8 step run up that hit a lump of turf dislodged by rain and squirmed between bat and bad and just knocked the bail off though lol 

In honesty mate was probably wicket of the day was a bit of a nut of a ball.

[iand123]

I must if missed that one I remember one Ian bowled about 23 mph from a 5.8 step run up that hit a lump of turf dislodged by rain and squirmed between bat and bad and just knocked the bail off though lol 

In honesty mate was probably wicket of the day was a bit of a nut of a ball.

I think you'll find the speed gun had my clocked at 23.4mph with the wind behind me

[M77]

I trundled in with my sore hamstring, bowled it and it nipped back and hit the top of off, batsman was pretty decent and bemused. Everyone was asking "was that a cutter" "did you mean that" and unfortunately i don't know how it happened, i just bowled it! You bowlers just over complicate things and try too hard

Was happy with my two wickets from a sharp stumping from Chris first ball of my spell and the bowled.

Having been at the non strikers end and loved the honest response of "I've no idea how i did that" can say it really was a cracker of a delivery. Regardless of whether you knew much about, it really was one of the best balls of the day... a proper jaffa. Good lad.

[iand123]

Having been at the non strikers end and loved the honest response of "I've no idea how i did that" can say it really was a cracker of a delivery. Regardless of whether you knew much about, it really was one of the best balls of the day... a proper jaffa. Good lad.

Cheers mate, i would love to know what i did to be able to replicate it!

[trypewriter]

Sounds like it has all the hallmarks of every delivery that I face 

[ProCricketer1982]

I trundled in with my sore hamstring, bowled it and it nipped back and hit the top of off, batsman was pretty decent and bemused. Everyone was asking "was that a cutter" "did you mean that" and unfortunately i don't know how it happened, i just bowled it! You bowlers just over complicate things and try too hard

Was happy with my two wickets from a sharp stumping from Chris first ball of my spell and the bowled.

Oh well, the illusion is shattered

[iand123]

Oh well, the illusion is shattered

ha thanks for the big up though, i'm off to a beer festival later and will certainly tell your version to my mates

[uknsaunders]

Well, where to start...some names:-

Soulman - "Superstar" Chris
Procricketer - Adi
Pistol101- Pistol (Workhorse)
uknsaunders - me
Vitas - Jake
Manormanic - Iain
Iand123 - Ian
Byo - Simon
Ayrtek - Tom
Tim2000s - Tim
             - David "Dave" Hillier
Hell4Leather - Matt

Most of the team met at Matt's workshop to stroke some wood. Chris naturally reserved half the stock and went about selecting the two finest bats he could find. I will leave the bat reviews to Chris but we all had a good chat and then departed for the game at Stone CC. On arrival we soon discovered we were 2 short. It appears I gave Pistol the wrong postcode and he was doing the scenic tour of Stone. Using this to my advantage I blagged the toss and we batted first, before ringing Pistol and telling him the correct postcode. With 11 men present we sent in the big guns of "Superstar" Chris and Adi. After missing out on 2 long hops Chris smashed the half volley down mid-off's throat. It was like Sachin getting out, absolute silence, dogs howled, Women  cried, Kids ran around asking "why is Chris not batting". Yes, shaken to the foundations we were. Iain next in, then got one that stopped and he was gone. Jake, visibly shaken by the departure of Chris, nicked off to slip. 10-3 wasn't great. Fortunately for us the 13 year old who wrecked our batting was pulled out of the attack after 2 overs and Marcus (yes from Affinity) came on to feed us some runs. With Tomtek at the crease and fastereddie straying somewhat we eased to the relatively calm waters of 40 odd for 3. Tomtek then fell to a badly disguised slower ball from Marcus. I swear his arm went backwards at one point, but Tom couldn't untangle his legs and walked before was given LBW. Ian came in and played a decent hand for 30, including a big 6 and things were starting to motor along as we passed the 100 mark in 14 overs. Ian soon departed and Simon kept things ticking over until Adi fell for a fine 68 with the score around 140 off 25 overs. With the much hyped Marlow Power Hitting Mafia of Hillier and Pistol to come, a total of 220 looked possible. It wasn't to be as firstly Dave ran Simon out with the score on 174 in the 32nd and then in a fit of guilt did the same to himself (off a wide). Pistol proved last seasons slogfest was a fluke and pulled one back to the bowler, leaving myself and Tim to bat the last 2 overs out. I proved yet again why I am averaging 4.4 in the league this season, never looking remotely like scoring a run in the 6 balls I faced. Tim's dismissal in the last over summed up our innings, he toed a shoulder high full toss to first slip. 182 all out, could be better could be worse.

After a fine lunch, Pistol was handed the cherry. With his golden arm in action he first long hopped the opening batsman for a caught behind and then did the same to a wild swing from Marcus.Good catches taken by Jake keeping and Chris at slip. Things returned to normality after that. Tim was steady and only really got punished when pitching short. His inswing posing some interesting fields with leg slips etc. Pistol was back to pie mode and started getting some stick. Skipper reeled out the Chris and after a an expensive first over he tickled the stumps to finally live up to the hype.However, Stone had some decent batsman in and after Chris pulled up with a phantom hamstring injury, Adi received some tap. Adi did knock over the opener but at 102 for 4 in the 17th they seemed set for a big first innings lead. Thankfully the (heroic/useless - delete to taste) skipper was now keeping it tight and in partnership with Simon's off spinning darts, the oppo slowed down. Firstly Skipper, took the oppo captain out, Box before wicket as he tried to reverse sweep me (fool). Then Matt was put into a state of confusion about whether to hit me for 4 or 6, so he decided to chip me straight to Tim at long off. I finished if a fine spell of 7-0-22-2 - average 11, ER 3.14, BSR 21 - yes it was that good. Not sure how Chris missed it from his match report. I was helped by Tomtek saving 40 runs at extra cover though, breaking most of the fingers in the process. Simon did the rest of the cleaning up, 2-34 off 6 overs bowling to short boundary. He bowled the only maiden and cleaned out the key man Puddlington for 61. Pistol cleaned out a little kid to pick up a scarcely believable 3-37 off 7. Chris would of bowled more overs but when offered, he said "let the workhorse bowl" pointing at Pistol - superstars what can you do? The last over or two we were treated to fastereddie masterclass. His innings started with a lovely drive through cover first ball, swung himself off his feet playing early on 7 slower balls from Pistol, hit one out of the ground off simon and then was stumped by 10 yards. He did the job though and Stone took a 2 run lead into the t20 game.

2nd Innings to follow.

[uknsaunders]

With a two run deficit and plenty of batting, skipper implemented the lowest scores bat first rule (excluding himself for obvious reasons). This meant Chris still opened the batting and team pinch hitting expert Pistol moved up to open. Pistol proved marginally more successful in getting 5. Jake came in and went for 3. Playing over a yorker to be stumped. Meanwhile Chris was having an Alistair Cook crisis of confidence. His first innings duck had made him reassess his batting and racked with self doubt he decided to follow the skippers advice and play himself in. According to Tomtek, who only told me a dozen times, it took Chris 17 balls to get off the mark. 17-1 off 7 wasn't the ideal start. Fortunately the lad with the dodgy knee finished his spell of 4-2-3-0 and Chris overcame his confidence crisis. Things got going when Dave played an entertaining knock of 21 in 3 overs including a 6 into the house. We progressed to a far more reasonable score of 50-2 off 10. Dave went and Iain replaced him and helped steer the innings int he last 10. Just as Chris was in full flow he was out for 48 in the 18th over and Tomtek smashed a big 6 before departing. 148-5 off 20 we would of taken. We are long format specialists after all.

We started the bowling effort with Simon ( now equipped with a massive legside boundary) and golden arm pistol. Stone were steady and it took a while to take a wicket. Simon teased a spooned cover drive and Jake took the first of two excellent catches. Ian was the star performer, trapping the skipper thanks to lightening stumping by chris. He then bowled the ball of the century. From my excellent viewing spot at point (don't ask me why I was there), he bowled it and it hit the stumps. Chris said it did everything, it was that good. Facing defeat, skipper kept tweaking the bowling and eventually Dave managed two wickets in an over. To say his 11 balls had something for everyone is an understatement, 2 lots of 5 wides, 2 wickets. Anyway stone knocked it off with an over to spare. Man of the man was tomtek for doing long on to long on for 20 overs and only complaining in the 18th.

Despite our efforts, cricket was the winner and it was a great day. Thanks to all my team for being good sports and getting stuck in.

[Giraffe208]

Thanks for the write up, seemed like a great day was had by all.

[tim2000s]

A brief photo of the CBF side batting.  Sorry Nick,  forgot to leave you the memory card in my rushed departure.  More pics will go up in a couple of weeks time when I'm back from vacation...



Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

[trypewriter]

Nice pic Tim 

[SOULMAN1012]

Pic doesn't do the ground justice and indeed the pavilion which is a lovely pavilion to have.

Thanks for taking the time to do a decent write up mate glad as skip you can get that part right at least and notice to fail to mention your drop or failure to move for a simple catch to gully Saunders  .

Tim took quite a few pics so shouldn't take long to get some of the action shits from the day. Must thank the Stone bowlers for getting me into some kind of form for the weekend managed 110 today shame was in a losing cause but haho.

[tim2000s]

In the first innings, I think I had all three shots from the top three that were wickets...

[Manormanic]

In the first innings, I think I had all three shots from the top three that were wickets...

you can delete them then!