Stayley (h) 30/04/17

What’s this? Sunshine again!

Some sore bodies arrived at Well-i-Hole “ready” to go again. Dave Ward and Tom Hughes provided replacements for the absent Pembertons, and Jimmy Holt returned from international lacrosse duties to replace the deservedly promoted Sam Holt. We were sad to see Sam go, but his class is clear and we can be proud of our part in his stellar development.

Sympathy toward our bowler’s aching bodies was clearly outweighed by the sniff of a little bit of dampness in the pitch as our Skipper again won the toss, but this time elected to bowl. McGrath once more raced in and set off as he had the day before. Tunnicliffe took a different path, the 3-B’s of bowling, boxing and booze took a while to wear off. Yifter’s body had aged so much overnight that he even began by bowling 8-ball overs in homage to the halcyon days of yore.
After two whole overs of looseners, accompanied by many groans, profanities but no small determination from Tunnicliffe, and much chuckling from his colleagues in the field, we were back on track. Yifter ultimately pocketed 2-10, and Ryan blasted out 4-19, all clean bowled in increasingly emphatic fashion.

A helpful breeze and a bit of grip helped Chairman Holt to twirl and spin his way to 3-22 as he followed them up. His spell also included a highlight and lowpoint for our Skipper, a boundary catch pouched with the most minimal fuss, a finger dislocated during an innocuous stop. After much deliberation over whether we should or shouldn’t try to relocate it ourselves, supervised from extremely long distance on the square-leg boundary by our very own in-house NHS administrator, Ben disappeared to seek the help of medical professionals. In his absence, KFC thundered in and took the last wicket. 56ao – nice one. Always room for improvement though – 2 dropped catches.

Jones assumed opening duties alongside Dickson and the pair chalked up the second 50 opening stand of the weekend. Jonah departed shortly afterward, attempting the match clinching glory shot, Dickson finished 27no (that’ll help the average no end), Clayton strode in and blasted a trademark on-drive to the boundary. 60-1, job done.

A bit of team-building/beer drinking followed in the dressing room and bar. A good weekend, a well-earned celebration.

The vagaries of the PCL fixtures now leave a free weekend before another double-weekender. We’ll be ready! Viva SCC!!!

Daily Lesson: If in doubt, don’t give it a clout. Ben’s finger turned out to be dislocated in two places and broken in one, so we did right to leave it alone. Ouch. Get well soon Skipper!