North Walls, 13th July 2023
With Mike F unable to play, skippering duties fell on the shoulders of Head of Salmon. He won the toss and chose to bat first. There had been rain in the afternoon, and the green wicket looked as if it might dry out – but by 6pm we were still a player short so the choice was rather forced upon us.
Guy opened the batting, posting a fluent 20 before being bowled. The Bard (1) and Nathan (1) having fallen quickly to a run out and LBW decision, Guy was paired chiefly by Charlie Talks (13) and Aussie Stu (25 not out) – the latter playing with his usual punchy Antipodean grace. As our other wickets tumbled, it was Ollie (26 not out) who helped us over the 100 mark, though honourable mention must be made of Jolly’s 3 and Farmer Chris’s good-looking 10 not out. Still, by the end of our 20 overs we had only reached 113 for 6, which did not feel like an easily defensible target.
It was not. The Arbour XI are a new team, but they have managed to find some decent batsmen in the hostelries of Oram’s Arbour. We managed to run out their opener early, with some sharp wicket-keeping from Head of Salmon, but their batsmen scored almost 7 an over off our bowling, meaning they needed just 17 overs to pass our total, and that for the loss of only 3 wickets. Our bowling possibly deserved better. Prav recorded a creditable 2 for 8, and both Nathan and Guy took a wicket each – Nathan’s being an indisputable LBW (avenging himself for the earlier loss of his own wicket?) and Guy’s being a good catch taken by Charlie Talks at mid on.
It was not a close second, then – but it was an excellent game, and a good-spirited one.
Result: Racqueteers loss by 7 wickets
