Presidents XI vs Chairmans XI 9th July 2006

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Report by Fingers

With the threat of rain having been ever-present during the youth match in the morning fortunately the skies cleared for the senior match in the afternoon. The Chairman won the toss and after a full assessment of the conditions elected to put the President’s XI in to bat.

Looking at the sides there was a theory that the President’s XI had a deeper batting line-up but the Chairman’s XI had more front line bowling options. As Lemmy and the Colt worked their way through the President’s XI top order in quick time this theory was soon put to the test. Lemmy had picked up the wickets of the President, Micky and danger man Jamil with the Colt having dismissed Raj and Mike to leave them at 18-5. However, this still left Rags and Os at the crease and they were able to put together a partnership that started to get the President’s XI back in to the game; it seems though that one of the President’s XI didn’t have much confidence in the lower middle order pairing as they had ‘phoned ahead to the pub and told them they could start the barbeque and get the burgers on.

With the score having progressed to 87 Arsalan finally made the breakthrough with Os going caught behind and once he had reached a fine fifty Rags top edged a pull shot to be the second of two well taken catches by Stephens Senior (not embarrassing his son at all by fielding in a fine pair of blue trousers having established at the start of the game that his whites were no longer in full working order).

Hamad and Paul were able to use the last overs to get the score up to 151-7 which represented an excellent recovery from 18-5 but a total that seemed to be well short of what would be needed.

After an excellent tea from Mrs Stephens both teams returned to the field albeit a little more slowly than normal. Os opened up the attack for the President’s XI and accounted for James when he found his outside edge with Micky taking the catch at second slip in an excellent first over. The returning AJ and I started to get the innings going before Os showed a ruthless streak following up a full toss that AJ had top edged in to his throat with a short ball that he top edged to the ‘keeper.

When the score had reached 85-5 the game was wide open but while Cat was at the crease the Chairman’s XI remained favourites. Cat formed a good partnership with the Colt (incidentally I noticed the Colt was batting without a helmet, I hope we’ve got a note from his mum saying he’s allowed to do this) which in the end carried us to a comfortable victory. The Chairman’s XI was helped by the inexperienced nature of the President’s XI which was illustrated by the two no-balls conceded for having three fielders behind square on the leg side.

Lemmy was named as man of the match which must have been a narrow call from the Colt, perhaps with the prize being a bottle of champagne the President didn’t feel that he could present it to a junior.

With the game over things were packed away and people were getting changed when it suddenly became apparent why AJ had turned up already in his whites and why he is unable to play regularly this year; it seems that his professional wrestling engagements are getting in the way and he must have come straight from a match to the cricket. That’s the only reason people could think of anyway for the leotard it transpired he was wearing under his whites for the duration of the match; his perfect re-enactment of the Soccer AM wrestlers providing further evidence of his chosen new career.