All-Stars Xmas Cracker. 19/12/09

It would be fair to say that enthusiasm was in short supply 5 Days from Xmas and playing bottom of the table Huntly.

Players were also in short supply - with us just making it to 10 because Gibbo managed to badger Duncan into playing (Turned out to be well worthwhile, but more on that later.)

Several players had plans for the evening and had expressed optimism to their partners that they would be home early (or at least on time.)

We comforted ourselves with the prospect of bowling Huntly out quickly and knocking off the runs.

We were further bouyed when Huntly won the toss and batted!

What followed next was a reminder of how important the mental side of cricket is. Our bowling at the start was erratic, short, wide, full and generally chaotic. The huntly openers were not elegant, but they prospered - putting on 60 odd for the first wicket. Eban picked that up for us, thanks Eb.

Yapper bowled an over of mucky medium pace and was lucky to give himself another, he bowled a wide and got the new batsman on strike, and was delighted when he got the next one on target and hit the poles. The rest of the over was terrible medium pace, and the skipper finally had to face facts and turn to tweakers.

Our bowling was starting to improve but Huntly were in now, and the middle order cashed in, in an agricultural fashion, while gleefully telling each other how easy it was! (Did nothing for the skippers mood.) We removed those pests and the runs dried up - with the last 6 overs going for less than 20 runs.

The book was hilarious - there were 36 overs recorded, Daryl and Duncan only had 6 overs (bowled 7), I had 9 recorded (Bowled 7.) What wasn't funny was that Huntly had scored an handy 176. Yap may or may not have finished with four wickets - might only have been three.

In reply we were forced to open with Duncan and Eban, as both had somewhere to be.

They went for it - as you have to do in those situations - Duncans first scoring shot was a 6 (played and missed the first two he faced).

The skippers hopes were of a couple of quick fire 20s - but the Huntly bowling and fielding was user friendly and before too long (literally) we were 100 without loss. Not long after that, Eban had 50 and departed bowled - heading directly for his car!!

Krishna joined Duncan and scored 8 runs, while Duncan went from 60 to 100 in record time - showing great inventiveness, power and timing. Near the end he started to cramp and hung tough through that too.

There were tense times at the end when we needed 15 for the win and Dunc needed 11 for the hundy. Krishna played his part by "leaving" a number of balls and playing out a maiden.

The last over went:

Wide - 2 feet outside leg.

Four - Smack!

Wide - 2 feet outside leg and 6 feet in the air.

Four - Smack.

Wide - 3 feet outside off (heroic swing and miss.)

Wide - 2 feet outside leg and 6 feet in the air. Heroic swish down leg from Duncan after which he collapsed in agony from cramps.

No Run - Hits it, but can't run due to cramps.

Six - Kapow down the ground - man love ensues.

Well done Duncan - the bowling may not have been flash - but the hitting was clean and the shots were clever! Great to watch.

So we finished on 180/1 off 22 overs. Wow!!

Duncan courageously called his wife (It's 5.30 now) and let her know that he had to go for a drink. In the circumstances we all had to go really.

So a pleasant beer to cap of the first part of the season - we are equal top of the table with Suburbs who we play first game back on the 16th of January.....

POD Points:

Duncan 3

Eban 2