Lumberjack: Bashers Leisure vs. Pudong Power

First game of the season and it was a miracle that 12 guys arrived, seemingly coherently, at The Camel @ 7:45 on a Sunday morning. Anticipation was high for the season opener, as high as the gentlemen who was exposing himself opposite our meeting point, and then proceeding to fight a bouncer at The Dragon Club [no, surprisingly it wasn’t Circus]. Things started to go sideways very quickly as the bus driver proceeded to get us lost on the way to the ground, leaving us a 2 min window to warm up [with another beer] and, as it turned out, lose the toss and get sent into bat.

Pitch conditions early on were OK lest the visibility at Dulwich, which was reminiscent of post nuclear fallout; it was bleak to say the least [a nameless Basher mistook Long Dong DeSilva for George Kappabelly, that’s how bad the visability was!].

Chan-Chan did his best to live up to his promise of not running anyone out, so he ran himself out for 1 in the 3rd over. Loose was loose and got out soon after; a collapse was imminent but in strode returnee Scoobie to settle the ship. Together with 3PO, the partnership laid the platform for a big Bashers total. After seeing out the first 10 overs, the partnership was broken with 3PO being bamboozled, followed by Scooby being bowled after cracking some truly brilliant slogs. Well done guys!

Circus fell bravely early on, so it was turned over to Long Dong & Heff Henshaw to turn it on. Dessy did wonderfully well with his one pad, teaching the Pudong boys a thing or 2 about running between the wickets. But it wasn’t to be with Heff falling after a firebrand of an innings; yet another nice innings for the returning Basher. Parrot and Latex were in there at the death, with Parrot top scoring [I think] & smashing some massive 6’s [including one into a parked vehicle]. Latex was unceremoniously cleaned up by an 8 year old making his debut for Pudong, Jaguar thought he was a ‘little person’ [P.C. for “midget”] at a distance, but alas, he was a minor and startlingly Latex seemed to derive a degree of pleasure from the little ones performance, thus his new nickname [pending Committee approval] of Gary Glitter.

Parrot went down swinging, and in-strode The Jag & The Pusher. What a partnership by this pair; wonderful stroke play from the Pusher and general clowning around by The Jag saw the Bashers ‘Leisure’ post a very respectable 159 for 9 off 25 overs [that’s 6.4 an over], a defendable total if there ever was one.

So….The opening bowling pair of Circus and Long Dong did very well considering the deteriorating conditions underfoot. After a few ‘warm up overs’ Long Dong struck twice and they were 2 for a few. Heff chimed in with a wicket and at 3 down the Power’s ‘off switch’ was about be flicked. Alas, it wasn’t to be and the cricketing Gods had other plans… Cyclone Kapabelly was lurking and with conditions now unplayable, the match was abandoned after 13 overs due to unplayable conditions [Barry, Circus’ dog looked like a drowned rat it as that wet!].

KUDOS: Thanks must be made to Tank for supporting the Leisure lads at the un-cricketing like hour on the bus, Cranky for umpiring and to the Business boys for making an appearance in the rain. Thanks again to sponsors for the Pies, Beer and Buses, xiexie!

Ultimately cricket was the winner on the day. A good time was had by all and technically the Leisure are still undefeated!

See you at the bar.

LXXXVII

• Sunday 11 April 2010 Dulwich College
  Bashers Leisure 159/9 (4.19)
  Pudong Power 91/3 (4.71)

2010 Santa Fe Social League