Turn up with my ten year old son Josh, who because of a late arriving team mate (cheers Hooky) gets to take the field for the first six overs with us. A great experience for him and me both.
He even gets to watch his father open the bowling, something I thought skipper Tom Murray was joking about pre-match when he said it to me, up until the time no one took the new ball out of my hands after the end of the first over.
Shook hands with new team mate Jade Skaife before the game. Jade bowled the first over, and third ball took the edge which flew comfortably to gully… where I shelled the sitter cold. Guessing he won’t be shaking my hand again any time soon.
I’m playing cricket once again with my great cricket friends Murphy and Brockman – it’s just that it’s their sons I’m playing with. They kindly don’t mention the age difference and the fact that their fathers are sensibly doing something that doesn’t involve playing cricket.
Bowled ok for an old bloke, until the new Sommers ball slipped and the full toss was deposited by the young left hand opening batsman well into the creek. A substitute ball is required, and the ‘only one available’ was a used Kookaburra ball. You beauty! A ball with a seam! Best six I’ve ever been hit for.
Bowled nine overs, about eight of them at left handers. It still hasn’t changed that they should be outlawed from the game. Still manage to out think one kid with five straight leggies outside off stump and then the top spinner straight, which he charged and missed and was well stumped by Brocky. It’s nice to still be able to think a batsman out. Finished with 1/38, would have liked better. Managed to be given catching practice as well to even up my catching to one caught, one dropped. Having been 2/96 we did well to bowl Lake out for 169.
Skipper shows admirable confidence in my batting to slot me in at number 10. Hopefully I won’t have to bat, but this is Kiama and I know that won’t be the case.
Plenty of starts but no big score hurts the Cavs. Brockman, Murray, Mackrell, Murphy and Skaife all bat well but get out after making a start. At ten to five I am asked to go to the crease, thus missing the Cox Plate and Winx’s fourth victory. Murphy Junior has timed his dismissal perfectly, a touch of his father there. We need 39 for victory. I tell myself that means I only need 20. Surely I can scrape that many together. Steve Piper picks his ball and finds the gaps, and takes most of the strike which is also convenient. I get 9 of the 20 runs I need off one over, and Steve and I get us within six runs of victory. Surely we can’t lose now.
Steve loses his battle with Biracovski, and birthday boy Michael Hook arrives at the crease. Pad on ball first delivery and we scamper a single. Lake are blowing up at each other. I tell myself all I have to do is get forward to these last three balls of the over, sneak a single off the last, and we still have 8 overs to get four runs. I’m on 11, I can finish with 16 and red inks and be a hero on my return to the cricket field…
Get forward… get forward…. Get forward…
Trapped on the crease as the ball cuts in from outside off and crashes into my back pad. I’ve never felt plumber. I take my time looking up. Matt Brockman is umpiring, and it’s obvious that he would like me to walk so he doesn’t have to make the decision. Finally his finger is raised, and once again I have failed to come through in the clutch moment to bring victory to the team.
As Blackadder would say, “I think the phrase rhymes with Clucking Bell”.
I apologise to my teammates, slam the car door, expel some expletives all in the hearing range of my ten year old son, and move on. Sort of.
Despite it all, I love cricket, and the whole day, from junior cricket in the morning to senior cricket in the afternoon, has been just fantastic. It’s days like today that remind me how much I have missed playing, and that no matter how much cricket you watch it is nothing compared to being out there with good people playing this great game.
Aaaaaaaaaaand now I can’t move….
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