Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Friends XI

16th May 2010

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Bright, beautiful sunshine, sun hats, nice cool drinks to keep us cool under the hot weather and a great track to bat. These were the things you would expect as a team playing on a Sunday game in May. It turned out to be exactly the opposite except the last point about the track. Inspite of horrible weather conditions for cricket the track was played well and kept the game ticking along. More about it later in the report. Having arrived late at the ground after picking Hamad (and his new shiny handmade, Black Cat Shadow bat) at his home, I was pleasantly surprised to find the team putting a great display of team spirit by preparing the ground ready for a quick start. Hats off to all !! Friends XI were also tuning up in batches as they were also late due to the same reason we were. No, not Hamad but the slow traffic on A4. As I was trying to see who was where in our team and speaking around with a few opposition players, Dicko asked me "sunny, who is making tea ?" Having not even entered the kitchen I safely assumed that I had cocked up by not arranging tea for the game. To my delight, Brian already had made the tea ready in the fridge. Hats off to this man's dedication towards the club I have to say !!

After we cleared the tea "issue" it was time for me to go out in the middle with the opposition captain and do the toss. I lost it and surprisingly Friends XI wanted to field first. I was a surprised at their decision esp. after Rowan (Opp Skip) mentioned, "Yes, I did see the weather forecast, and it would be pi**ing down later this afternoon"

As you could imagine we were quite happy with the prospect that we would atleast get a bat before the rain comes down.

Ian and Hamad opened the innings and played some beautiful shots. Both showed lot of skill and patience against their young quick bowler, White, who bowled at some good pace. After seeing him off both batsman settled and played some glorious cut shots, drives, pull, not to mention the best being Hamad's straight drive for 4 and Ian's lovely cover drive.

As they were batting it started to rain a bit heavily and Friends XI were very friendly, pun intended and they carried on with the game. Wish they could make helmets with wipers and water proof cricket balls but inspite of these minor setbacks both the teams carried on
with their business. A very special mention here about all the Friends XI players who were extremely supportive and continued with the game inspite of the bad weather and few of their players slipping around like polished granite stones in the sport of curling.

Ian was the first to go after trying to clear the mid on with an expansive drive but found Rowan, their best fielder who took a very good catch.
Ian's innings had 3 crisp boundaries and some good running between the wickets. Chels, something you can be proud of too.

Harry joined Hamad who was looking in good touch. Harry played his traditional backfoot punch shots and took quite a few singles with Hamad.
Hamad and Harry were carrying on with great ease at both ends with both punishing the bowlers whenever they erred in their line and lenght.

Hamad was the next to go after trying to steer a leg side very low full toss and missing it, that uprooted his leg stump. It was a great knock Hamad and you should be proud of it mate. Hamad scored 70 valuable runs that contained 11 boundaries.

As the guys were busy in the middle scoring runs, Alec was trying to solve the math puzzle I gave him. He was close to the answer, so good try Alec.

I then joined Harry in the middle and we tried to run a few singles when we could, special mention to Harry who has really impressed me with his running between the wickets.

As the batting was going smoothly in the middle, the weather was not looking too great. We could see the dark clouds coming our way from  Englefield and we decided to score some quick runs but we had to give up once the rain got heavier.

As we were looking at the dark skies above us, we decided to have our tea, (thanks again Brian!) and shared our thoughts around the England V Aussie World T 20 game which was commencing in a few minutes.

The clouds were threatening to stop our game so we had a quick tea and inspite of the light drizzle we decided to end our innings at 34 overs and let the opposition bat with a revised target of 180 in 34 overs.

As we took the field and completed the first over heavy rain ensured that we run back to the pavillion and after a few more conversations, we decided to call the game off.

I really appreciate the friendliness, enthusiasm and team spirit demonstrated by Friends XI and I think we all agree that their team name fits them to perfection. Thanks again lads for a good game of cricket.

At the same time I have to thank our team, as inspite of the rain, it didnt dampen our spirits, all team members ensured that the sightscreens were back, square was protected, flags were off, room cleaned, dishes washed and tea money paid.

In no specific order,
Mikey - Great job on scoring through the game fella !  
Oz - Thank you for spending a lot of time on the field umpiring, ensuring that tea was served, also made tea for his Mrs, some brownie points scored there eh !
Bob - As usual was really helpful, cleaned the club house after the mess we had made with the boots, cleaned the dishes and dropped people home
Alec - Very helpful throughout the day and keen cricketer with good math skills.
Tim - Very keen to play a lot more cricket with us and also ensured that I knew he was keen to bowl. Sure fella, next game you will have a chance
Matt - Who braved the cold and wet weather conditions and umpired for us.
Alsan - Sorry mate, I knew you were very keen to bat but I guess batting in a water drenched pitch would not do you any favours.

End of the day it was a good game of cricket, nice tea, good chat at the ground and another Sunday well spent at the club.

I hope the Weather guys get it wrong the next time and I hope we have a full game of 40/40 cricket.

Your proud skip, Sunny....