Pleasure vs Hot Dogs

Pleasure vs Hot Dogs, 3 July 2016
Torrential rain had dashed the hopes of the Business an agonizing three overs short of a spectacular win over the Hot Dogs on Saturday. The rain continued overnight to leave the SCSC field saturated and sloppy with mud, more fitting for a rugby game than a cricket match.

Skid Row, a.k.a. Rainman, lost the toss and the Pleasure were put into bat. More light rain delayed the start for half an hour, and the game got reduced to a 25-over fixture, with bowling from one end to minimize the effects of the sludgy bog behind the wicketkeeper.

Batting
Forget about the top order – Pussy was trapped in front, Swoop backed away and padded a leg side wide onto the stumps, Shitshoes feathered an away-swinger to the keeper, Bambi slugged a square leg six before getting caught, and Pope missed a straight one. Five wickets down for just 38 runs after 10 overs.

Enter G’rilla, to join the debutant, Lois Lane, for an emphatic counter-attacking partnership. Bristling aggression and good running, complete with superman diving, put on 48 runs over the next 7 overs. Lois then ran out G’rilla for 24 valuable runs, by calling him through for a tight run when even a quality superman dive couldn’t save G’rilla from the direct hit. Sharapova joined Lois for another good partnership, which included a well-placed edge onto the fielders cap getting the Pleasure five penalty runs, but ended in arguably the most comical dismissal ever… as Sharapova, facing a loopy spinner, let the ball bounce up above her head before head-butting the ball onto her stumps. Still, the Pleasure had got past 100 runs by that time and team morale was improving the longer Lois batted.

Small contributions from Skid Row and Mancow helped Lois push up the Pleasure total. Unfortunately, Lois wasn’t able to get on the honours board, although he had chances for a boundary in the final over (check with Swoop if you need clarification on what comprises a “boundary”), finishing just short for a quality 47*. Pleasure ended up with a creditable 130 for nine wickets at the end of the 25 overs.

Bowling
Skid Row gave us all a team talk (not catching practice) before we headed out to field. Swoop opened up with a rank long-hop smashed for four, and Spanky had a wide-mare. Things were not looking good.

Swoop’s next two overs were maidens, and Pussy was bowling well in support. Swoop picked up the Bashers first wicket: a catch by Pussy at point. It was the first, last, and only, outfield catch in the whole match.

The outfield was still slush, so fielding was difficult and special note must be made of Spanky and Pope for emulating the superman diving in the field too. Sharapova was tidy, but G’rilla’s over cost 17 as he lobbed up a series of juicy full tosses. He might have picked up a wicket off his last delivery, but Shit Shoes spilled the catch on the run at deep cover.

Skid Row traded the gloves with Bambi to bowl some of his leggies, and Shit Shoes bowled a couple of tight overs of spin too. Unfortunately, more drops in a sequence of G’rilla, G’rilla, Pussy (2 hands next time), Swoop, Lois, before Shit Shoes hit the wickets to run out the Hot Dogs opener for 72. The Hot Dogs were closing in on the total, but a brace of L.B.W.s to Mancow and Swoop, followed by a bowled by Pope made an entertaining finish. Unfortunately, the Hot Dogs got home by five wickets with just eight deliveries to spare.

Post-match
Lois Lane was named on the bus, and made numerous cricketing comments about the match and his mate, a Frenchie, who needed to get smuggled out of the country after smashing a car with a branch and putting a few policemen into hospital. We joined the triumphant Leisure at the Camel to help toast off their skipper on a positive note. Well done on the Leisure win Truffles!

Skid Row went home for a nap/shower/unsure, and Pussy disappeared entirely, so the fines were delayed until mid-afternoon when Swoop took the role of fines master and made sure that Lois had an excessive amount of fines. Bambi and G’rilla were vocal, with Sharapova also extremely pleased to have out-scored her geisha. The festivities continued well into the afternoon, and evening, and the following morning, with regular we-chat updates from Bambi and Square Root.

Positives
Lois Lane – 47*
G’rilla – 24
Swoop – 2/19 off 5 overs

Negatives
6 dropped catches
16 wides
When will it stop raining on game days???

Special thanks also to our sponsors – the Camel – for putting on the free keg for the Dirty Doggies double even though we didn’t actually win both games!