My friends, you might want to be sitting down for this. ‘Tis a crushing blow for decency and morality everywhere. Dragon Club, after hours club of myth and fable, will be closing its doors permanently at the end of this month. Apparently, the restaurant portion of that enterprise, Colabo will be asuming the space, and just like that, with a puff of sulfur smoke, Dragon Club will cease to exist.

Oh, the lovely regrets we all shared and created in that place!

End of an era, Shanghai. The beast is dead. The beast is dead…

10:30 rendezvous on a hot, sunny morning.
Bus? There on time. Well done the Leisure boys.
Kit? Ready
Esky? Being ‘looked after’ by the Leisure boys.
The Business Team? All there bar Sir Dick.
Things were looking up.

At the ground, things all started to fall into place.
New strategy at the toss worked. Called for the 1, got the 1 and decided to let the Anti-Basher and his Merry Men enjoy 40 overs in 30plus degrees.

The rejigged batting line-up, with Oscar up the order, put on a season best start as we raced to 11/0 off 2 overs. Things returned to normal as JJ took a couple of quick wickets, and it was down to Dipso and Stats to consolidate. JJ ‘Run 3′ Lim was bowling tight lines, and the decision was made to see him off, and allow the lower order to pick off the low hanging fruit later in the innings.
Both Dipso and Stats fell in the same over to some of late low hanging fruit… Time for Sir Dick and Chewie, I mean Cassius, no – Judas to reconsolidate the innings. Sir Dick did that with new found maturity mixing up the mows with the occassional forward defence, smiting all before him in a quick fire 44 of 36(ish) balls.
Filthy, smarting from his fall in the batting order, went in with just over 10 overs to go. Using his backlift to full effect he nudged and nurdled till his eye was in, and then took great pleasure in sticking two fingers up at the selectors by racing to 49 with an array of strokes not seen before…
Fortunately Leppa did us all a favour in running himself out off the last ball to make sure Filthy remained stranded. a fifty was deserved, but I am delighted he didnt quite make it…
211 all out off 40 overs.

We were half way to something historic. Could we hold our nerve? Would the bowlers rediscover their lines that have made them so potent over the last couple of years? Would the fielders be able to back them up? Would Judas throw another hissy fit?
YES!

Cranky and Dazzler opened up with strong 4 over spells, Dazzler continuing off from last game to bowl really well without too many wickets as reward, and Cranky getting up a head of steam bowled with pace and movement, and the Doggies were 3 down in no time, including the Anti-Basher out for a 15 ball duck.
Hedgehog and Filthy continued, keeping the pressure on the batsmen, and not allowing anyone to settle, before Paps and Inquisition came on for a quick session before drinks.
After 20 overs, 82/6 and we were  closing in.
Hedgehog, Leppa and Cranky continued  the mayhem after drinks with wickets tumbling, some gracefully and some not.
The field was pretty electric, singles were saved, 2 were turned into ones, and other than Filthy  all the fielders caught more than they dropped…
Bowling figures will be revealed in more detail when the scorebook reappears, but special mention to Cranky’s 6-2-8-4. Pretty special.

Hot Dogs bowled out for 110, and for the first time in Business League history, we had managed to win against the Hot Dogs, and maintain the days winning ways… 2 from 2 and it was time to head over to watch the Pleasure team…

S. Patel            27              D. Allwright  6-1-8-4
O.Austin         25              R. Turner       4-1-12-2
H. Churchill   44             J. Lepagniol  5-0-23-3
P. Mildenhall 49*

• Sunday 8 May 2011 SRFC Near
  DPR Hot Dogs 110/10 (3.10)
  Bashers Business 211/10 (8.11)

2011 Division One

As our esteemed Club Skipper is obviously taking his retro lifestyle a little too seriously. There is still no internet in his house, and as such him and Squeaky spend the evening sitting around a candle singing songs to each other and reading books.

That said – THERE IS TRAINING TOMORROW!
Same time (18:00 – 20:00)
Same place (Tennis court in San He Hua Yuan on Yanping Lu)
As usual, there will be drinks at our sponsor bar – The Camel afterwards.

We have  had confirmation from the SCC that the season will be starting on 17th April, as such we have tomorrow and next Thursday to get ourselves match-fit.

All Bashers and Basher Wannabes (those who have not yet paid their subs) are EXPECTED to be at either training or drinks (preferably both) as it is much easier to select teams having seen peoples ability.

RSVP here, and our President will decide on fines for those that neither respond or show up…
Knowing Cranky – those fines will not be pretty

JUST BEER BASHERS:

10:20 vs. Lamma Green
13:00 vs. Santa Fe
14:40 vs. Hot Dogs 1

CAMEL BASHERS:

09:00 vs. Pudong 2
10:40 vs. Leopards Wild
14:20 vs. Lamma Yellow

See all you loose cats at the Camel before the 07:30 departure!!!

Ollie

As you all know there is a monster weekend of cricket happening around the world this weekend, kicking off in Shanghai, where the SCC will be taking on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island in the Annual Breezer Trophy.

The SCC are currently looking for volunteers to help with the day in the form of two umpires, and a scorer.

Not only will you be allowing the Bashers to lead the way in contributing to the SCC, you will be doing a huge favour to the club. In addition to that you will also get free lunch at the ground and at the Bamboo that evening.

Any interested parties either post below – or ping me an email – oliver.austin@futurestep.com

The team rallied bright and early (hats of to the Pleasure and Leisure teams who have had to do this throughout the season) – and it was good to see a distinct lack of bleary eyes, maybe the lessons from the week before had been learned.

As has become traditional – the driver took an ‘interesting’ route to the ground, whilst the players, unaccustomed to such early starts started carb-loading on our sponsors offerings (Woodstock – those beef and mushroom ones are fantastic).

Despite the rain – the pitch was in better condition than many had feared, and whilst soggy, it was clear that the game would be on.

Continuing his season long form, Stats lost the toss and Jon ‘Nike’ Newton decided to put us into the field. Opening with Paps and Leppa seemed to work as we made early inroads in the Devils line-up. Former Basher, Northern Monkey Cassius came and went, obviously not relishing the fight, and it was left to Messrs. Anugula and Newton to consolidate the innings. The Bashers plight was not aided by Paps popping his shoulder and needing to leave the field – we wish him a speedy recovery – but it did allow us to unleash Tank into the field.

A partnership of 100 odd between the two Devils stalwarts was broken during a fiery spell of bowling from the Hedgehog – no doubt inspired and wanting to perform in front of Roller Girl who had braved the weather to come and support the team – as he bounced out Newton. Once Sanjay reached his ton, and departed, the Bashers demonstrated the ‘never say die’ attitude as we applied the breaks to the run scoring, applied a bit of mental disintegration onto some of the Devils, and 170 odd after 30 overs was turned into 200 all out.

Game on.

Needing 5 an over, Dipso and Filthy set off steadily with Filthy cracking a couple of big singles and twos as he raced past his previous weeks efforts. Unfortunately Dipso yorked himself, and Filthy ran out of steam, Dazzler joined Campo in the middle and looked solid till departing, allowing Sir Dick to come and go as well.

40 odd for 4 after 12 overs meant Campo and Stats had to remove risk, consolidate whilst keeping the scoreboard ticking over.

80 odd for 4 at the half way stage, it was still all to play for, with 6 an over needed.

Unfortunately the run rate kept creeping upwards, and then Campo disappeared for a well crafted 38. With 7.5 runs needed an over, it was time for increased risk taking, and unfortunately Stats started a mini collapse as he was caught at mid wicket. The last few batsmen lived up to their reputations – Hedgehog tried to blast a few, before forgetting to get back in his crease, Oscar nudged and nurdled, Cranky proved that he is a bowler, whilst Leppa ensured that the injured Paps had enough time to score the required runs.

Ultimately it proved a mountain too high, and we ended up all out for 150. Whilst on paper losing by 50 runs seems quite comprehensive, in reality it really was anyone’s game till the 35^th over.

So the Bashers Business season is over, and whilst we were unable to retain the trophy we secured last year, it has been a solid season. Games have been played in the right spirit, and there have been strong performances from us all – bowlers stepping up when needed, and our long batting all contributing during the season, and whilst our fielding might not have lived up to previous highs, it is still the standard that the other teams aspire to.

The season ended with a monster fines session, and I am sure I am not the only one at work today with a sore head…

Special mention to  Tank who stepped up as 12^th man, umpired, square leg umpired, fielded and relieved Filthy of kit bitch responsibilities.

Now the question is – do we support the Camels second cricket club, or the Devils in the final? Answers on a postcard…

Pointy end of the season time – and we have a re-run of last years semi final – Bashers vs Devils.
It almost doesn’t get any bigger than this.

Due to potential light and rain issues – the game will now take place at 09:00, Sunday, venue remains Dulwich College

The squad is as follows:

1. Sheyan ‘Dipso’ Patel
2. Phil ‘Filthy’ Mildenhall
3. Nigel ‘Campo’ Shroff
4. Darren ‘The Dazzler’ Manning
5. Hadleigh ‘Sir Dick’ Churchill
6. Ollie ‘Stats’ Austin*
7. Rowan ‘Hedgehog’ Turner
8. Dave ‘Oscar’ Rosenthal
9. Sameer ‘Paps’ Jolly
10. Denz ‘Cranky’ Allwright
11. John ‘Inquisition’ Lepagniol
12. 12th Man: Andy ‘Tank’ Scott

Obviously I don’t need to tell you all about the importance of this game. It is a must win.
The squad we have, combined with a lack of pub crawl the night before means we should all be fresh, focused and pumped.

Rendezvous at the Camel. Early start – 07:00 meet for a 07:15 departure.
Those going direct, please be at Dulwich College by 08:00. This will give us time to stretch, warm up and get our eyes and minds focused.

Any questions – call me (1376 137 0255)

Stats.

The game will be taking place on Sunday, 12:00 at Dulwich College.

Obviously this is a must win game and support in any guise would be phenomenal.
The forecast is for 23 degrees and depending on your outlook on life – there is either a 60% chance of rain, or a 40% chance of it remaining dry.

Look forward to seeing many of you down there, and hopefully putting on a strong display.

Cheers,

Stats.

Before we rant and rave – this was not the SCC’s fault – and therefore Nike Newton and Anti-Basher Tsesmelis are not to blame (there’s a first…)

Info will be circulated once the fixture list has been amended.

All complaints to president@basherscc.org – please title the email: ‘We Love You Cranky’