22 August Headstone St George (Away) Draw

Just in case you're interested, yes - we did lose the toss again.

Iver were out into bat on a real pudding of a pitch. We should be grateful that we got a game, that's for sure. Wherever the ball pitched it took a gauge out of the top surface and, in real terms, we were playing on a flattened mud track but this certainly didn't stop a thoroughly absorbing contest. Skippy and Fat Bloke found the conditions tough to get used to and Skippy departed playing a shot about a week early....Frank Skinner also found life tough but led a charmed life with catches spilled and chances falling short of the fielders. He also played some cracking cricket shots and most of the watching crowd would have enjoyed watching him bat - certainly the find of the season. Fat Bloke and Alien fell quickly at the other end before Mr Skinner found himself bowled by the jubilant Fletcher for his second fifty in only his 5th innings for the club.

Stanners fell with the score on 79-5 and we were looking down the barrel before Roll On came out and earnt himself a new nickname from the opposition - Paddy. There's probably never been an innings quite like it before as Paddy struggled to hit the ball. There was no problem with the ball hitting him, however, as the Headstone air was filled with the sound of leather on durable wipe clean PU facing (with 2" calf and ankle straps).....A relatively slow 16 (took him 10 minutes) from DHB was followed by a rapid fire 27 from the Prodigal Animal including one of the highest sixes for many a moon.....in fact it almost hit the bleeding moon.

Many thought that 150 was going to be a tough target to defend but superb bowling from Mr V and Stanners put us into contention along with some brave and inspired fielding by all the Iver fielders. It was always going ti be a tight game that went right to the wire and so it proved. DHB came into the attack and bowled supremely well in conditions that wouldn't normally suit his play and from looking down 'n' out we clawed ourselves into a position to win the game after Frank Skinner took a superb reflex catch to dismiss the stubborn White.

Victory was taken from us by a stubborn old goat by the name of Hugh Mitchell who was guesting for the opposition and he came in as last man with almost 4 overs to go and played one of those innings that he's done for us on many occassions in the past (except without his windmill whack over mid off). On reflection a draw was probably the right result from a thoroughly entertaining game of cricket where the balance of power swung from one side to the other throughout the entire match.

Man of the Match : Paul Taylor (Frank Skinner) - 85 points