Freddie has got Some Chat

After the "game" last week, I was thinking of things that amused me no end around the actual cricket itself. 

Some weeks the cricket itself is the 'thing' - quite often it is the penumbra of things around the cricket that are the 'thing'. What keeps us motivated and coming back for more varies game to game and person to person. 

We have several players who attend games more for a focus on the social, the pizza, the chatter and what not. For some I feel it serves a care in the community type function.

Some weeks, the pre-game high fives, hugs and chatter and catch up's is the most important part of it all for me. It's been a whole week, or a whole winter, and I missed this general atmosphere more in some ways than I missed the game, and the kit I own that is old and doesn't fit anymore.

Some weeks, it's a highly tense, well played game that goes to the wire and gives us all that euphoric buzz that I think only being a part of a team can give you. Other times, we find our entertainment in different ways.

It's the unpredictable nature of any team endeavour that makes this all so inherently uncertain - 11 people turning up determined to have a good time, either through sport, the hilarity that sport creates, or purely by socialising in the sunshine with friends - friendships indeed forged through a common love/hate relationship with this wonderful thing known as cricket.

One part of this is the chatter. Last week had a golden egg of a moment. 

Freddie Meldal is 18 years old, but carries himself with the gravitas of a man more like 30 - confident, fits in with semi grown men with beards and bellies, likable and capable at the same time. He has the air of that one teacher at school that all the kids liked and respected at the same time. And goodness me he has some chat, exemplified by last week. 

Threadgold was batting, and he looked a bit on the scratchy side, accumulating runs without ever looking like he was "in". Freddie was recently 'out' on the side lines, sitting languidly contemplated how he hadn't hit another 50 this week. I don't think Freddie has ever played with Threadgold when the elder man was in his pomp. So Freddie asked, innocently, of the assembled throng, having watched Threadgold swipe and miss at 3 consecutive balls, "Was Dan ever, you know, good at cricket". Cue laughter, Freddie, almost naive in tone then followed up with, "No, I'm serious, you can see he might have been once, I've just not seen it myself". Matt is creasing up, I'm dying, Fraser is finding it all a bit too much. Freddie then said, absolutely pure deadpan, "I meant no offence", and then Dan immediately got out... I mean sport creates some narratives, and Dan could not have heard this, but it was beyond perfect in terms of comedic timing.

Dan leaving the pitch, looking for Freddie

And that, for me, was the best thing about last week. For a man who is 18, lives with his parents, has no job and drives a Kia - he has got some proper moxy.

A game of cricket happened, it was in no way notable

The Jags 118-8, (Meldal 30, Threadgold 22, Douglas 3-13) lost to Barrington 151-5 (Batchelor 57, Douglas 34, Meldal 2-18) by 33 runs

MOTM - Fraser for his catch and his twirly bowling

It doesn't happen to us very often, and I honestly rather enjoyed being here on this particular occasion despite it all, but if you don't start well, it can set things off in the wrong general direction. On this occasion we threatened to start well and then lost our way.

We lost the toss, fielded, and got one of the openers second ball, Holmes getting him to push high to the mid off. O Savage did some bowling, J Holmes did some bowling, and I think we dropped a few catches. The 2 and 3 batsmen looked solid and untroubled for 5-6 overs of accumulation, with the occasional big hit. I did my absolute utmost in the field to introduce some chirp but it just had, from the end of the first over, one of those slight flat feelings that - the, oh dear, here we go. Matt dropped an edged chance behind here at one point, and possibly had his most teflon laden display behind the stumps that I can recall. 

Next week's new keeper...

Brett had a bowl, slightly injured (we're all getting old mate) off a slower pace and I cannot recall much happening of note. Phillips did some fielding, I did some fielding. Mr Baker came on for an eventful over conceding 15 runs with a huge variety of bowling in one action packed over - some of which felt as though it belonged to another sport.

F Christie did some bowling as well (the gorgeous twirly stuff) and we eventually got one caught and bowled by Brett. Their number 3 finished on 50ish, one of their other batsmen was fed some gorgeous pie related action to pile on the runs, before Meldal dismissed him bowled. Freddie then caught and bowled one at one point and I think was on a hat trick. I was still the only one chirping in the field. Towards the end, Ollie came back, and Christie did the bestest thing, catching a ball at deep wide long on with all the non-chalance he could muster, plucked from the air, relaxed as you like. There was also a run out, and Matt started to suck a little less behind the stumps than before. Christie continued to twirl his arms like a Morris Dancer on crack, which was amusing in itself.

Fraser getting into it at the weekend with his Uni mates

151 - totally chasable, but the mood was just a little sombre at the turn.

Parrish and Meldal got us off to a solid start with some 4's and things. Matt was then unfortunate to play on, a ball stuck in the pitch and he inside edged it onto the base of his stumps from high and slightly wide - it felt like physics was against him today. Barker then joined the action and guided the very next ball gently into the hands of point. Phillips faced the hat trick ball, with his entirely new and not knocked in bat, and kept it out before splicing the next one high off the blade. 11-3 inside two overs. Great.

I joined what even this early felt like a lost cause, and Freddie and I tried to rebuild. We managed to put a 40 odd run partnership together to guide us into the realms of the not that embarrassing. Freddie fancied the slow bowler at the change, and got 3 boundaries to him that all should really have been fielded or caught before he perished doing the exactly same thing. I hit my best shot of the season, clipping one off my pads to backward square, and the bench was deadly silent nonetheless.

Freddie fell caught, I had Threadgold for company for a bit and eventually I perished trying to force the pace a bit against yet another slow bowler, right arm round and near the stumps, chipping into the ring.

The game was not far off lost at this point, but Holmes and Threadhold put 30 odd on to get us past 100 before Holmes fell bowled. Threadgold fell caught and then George Baker did some very very eager running at the end of run Ollie Savage out for a full on hari-kiri of a 2. George and Fraser saw things out to a 33 run loss, not embarrassing, but the scorecard doesn't tell a full story. At least we avoided complete destruction as at one point, getting to 50 runs felt a stretch.

Matt ran off leaving his Ipad to make sure we got some pizza in at the Red Lion and we talked in the pub about literally every other game of cricket that was not the one we had just played.

Cambourne Bombered

Jags 157-7 (Meldal 51, Sawyer 37, Fardell 18, Duffy 3-24) lost to Cambourne 160-6 (Mcalister 56, White 25, Gogia 2-32, O Savage 2-31)

MOTM - Gogia - (it would have been Freddie, but he dropped lots).

This game merits a longer match report and I have notes, but in the interests of keeping the content flowing, here is where I am at. 

We played away at Greater Cambourne in our first league fixture of the season in the more happy environs of The Cambridge Business House League Division 2. We've had some nice games against Cambourne 1's and 2's, most have tended to be quite close and tonight was no exception. This game saw us face Mr Bennett in deep and intense anger for the first time in his new guise as a Cambourne-ite. It's a very nice setting for cricket this place, but the strip is a bit, erm, undulating and the fences were put together in the 1860's by frontier's folk pushing out west to find gold and not get scalped. This means you lose the ball. A lot. Also, it was really windy.

The man who decided this was adequate to stop cricket balls, needs to learn what cricket is

Spoiler alert, we lost and catches do win matches... cough cough, Freddie.

Matt won the toss and batted first, opening with Kav. Matt's first shot off Tyler's bowling was classic and class, a purposeful late cut to third man off the angled blade, to leave Tyler as happy as he can be. Kav started in typical rumbunctious form, spanking one into the playground across the way and looking like he might take a shine to Tyler after some typical pre game Whats App banter.

The pitch did not help matters and live by the sword and die by the sword fell to Tyler caught on the offside in the deep. I say fell to Tyler, Tyler had very little to do with it - Kav just went big, it held up with the wind and fell nicely to the fielder. I think he would have got out the same ish sort of way if I was bowling. Kav got Kav out, basically. Nothing to do with Tyler. Kav was suitably smiley and cheery as he hopped off the pitch...

Matt was joined by Freddie, and they built briefly, Matt hitting one more 4, and Freddie looking in fluent form. Matt fell to the other tricky opener White, caught on the on side. So I joined the fray. I really struggled with the opener, ending up with 1 off 7 balls at this stage. I wasn't out though.

The bowling change helped. A lot. Freddie let loose at the looseners he was presented with and I went from 1 off 7 to 13 off 10, thanks to some shorter stuff that didn't get up too high. I got lots of well appreciated applause for some middling shots from the assembled throng. Freddie's rate and accumulation, and between overs coaching tips to me, helped us cruise along trouble free for 3-4 overs and post a rapid 50 partnership, mostly Freddie.

Then a slow bowler. Man I hate slow bowlers. Spinners are fine, but slow bowlers who just loop it can get in the bin. I should have been LBW first ball, but it was a 3 bounce no ball. I then couldn't do much with the next few and realising this was my kryptonite, I decided to charge forward (me, moving my feet, imagine!), tried to mow across the line and was easily stumped. I actually started walking back to the pavilion before the bails had been removed. 

Argh, slow bowling, it burns!

Sawyer then joined the fray, and the fireworks began. Sawyer has looked in fine touch and was straight into it from the get go, reverse pulling, and clubbing and running like a younger, fitter man. Inspired by age being nothing but a number, Freddie got his 50 by pulling into the car park almost hitting the, now sadly closed, kebab van.

Freddie fell next ball, the wind was a factor in a catch at longish on, and Phillips joined Sawyer for a bit, but was bowled in relatively short order. Barker then joined (nice to see you back, Mr Cambourne) and there was a ruckus over the digital scoring and all of us being technology illiterate. Barker fell LBW, Sawyer continued at pace, and the slow bowler carried on tying people down. He had that incredibly annoying habit of bowling at the stumps.

Baines and Sawyer saw things out, getting us to a good total. Sawyer fell last ball for a well deserved and rapid 37 off 20.

The change of innings saw the very pleasant Mr Mcalister (normally of the Cambourne 1's) and Durrani junior open the batting. The latter's parents are on Hajj at the moment, so a massive party at his house was expected post game. Baines and Savage opened the bowling and Ryan started with aplomb, testing the fence at many an opportunity. We had to hunt for the ball a lot in neighbouring fields and the cars were constantly under threat.

Ryan should have been caught legside deep by My Meldal early on, but he wasn't. Ryan took this as his sign to tee off. Good job Freddie. Kav rotated into the attack and we had the debutante Gogia join us, with his twirly armed stuff breaking the partnership at last, first ball, stumped by Mr Parrish with some slick glovework. Fielding was generally pretty good, although I do remember Freddie dropping another at some point in the ring (or he just didn't fancy it). Phillips did some great fielding in the ring that I can recall, putting his body on the line to stop some runs. Chirp was ok, but when it's mostly me, it can be not the most ideal. 

Phillips after all his injuries, more machine now than man

Gogia got the 1-2 with the 3rd batsman falling bowled. He then took a ridiculous catch in the deep at some point from O Savage, running and clutching on the go at the same time. The game was in the balance here, not least as Cooper bowled the opener (for 56), and things were looking pretty tight.

We then had a fielding fuck up for the ages where several players, you know who you are, managed to give the oppo 4 runs throwing it everywhere but the stumps. The pleasingly named Willow White, opening bowler, steadied the ship, inspired by our crap fielding, and there was time for some minor controversy, when the square leg umpire didn't give a stumping, even though the batsman walked. I was told later they are related. Neutral as Switzerland he was.

We got a cheeky run out, but at this point Cambourne were on the rate. Then we had to lose Kav as he had a shift at Nando's, Churrasco ahoy and we were pretty short of bowlers. Cooper bowled incredibly well, and the 14th of 15 was Phillips's. He did his utmost, with some good balls, but it left them needing 8 or so from the last over. 

They got there comfortably, finishing with a 4 from our newly acquired lovable Scot, Baines. We also lost a new Dukes pink ball and Freddie probably dropped it again. Details details. Good game mind, I'd rather lose a tight one than win a walkover, but maybe that's why I'm not captain material.

We retired to the pavilion had ten minutes to grab beers before the bar turned into a prayer room, and then sat out on the grass king of the hill style drinking a local brewed ale called The Third Man, which was pretty solid.

I've missed some details, but it was a good total, some good bowling and batting, and just a few slips in the field made the difference I feel. Barrington next week.

Something I forgot from the Sharks Game

Something I neglected to mention from the Sharks game merits it's own little postscript (I wrote the report in haste, so no doubt missed other ditties), but Benjamin "Soy Sauce" Sawyer took it upon himself to be the keeper for the first time in his life. 

I would describe it as a steep learning curve. It looked a bit like one of those graphs of investment returns, hockey stick shaped starting at 0 and within a short period of time we're all millionaires, Rodney.

To begin, he was rubbish, byes and screams and generally he had no idea what he was doing. He squealed like a baby at least once I can recall, and it felt like an act of extreme generosity on our part to hand so many extras to the opposition.

Then Matt at slip had a quiet word in his ear and possibly deserves some sort of coach of the year award as things started to uptick, rapidly. Sawyer started taking cleanly, conventionally to start. He then edged further forwards to the bowlers, still taking it cleanly. Then, by the end he was snatching balls down the legside one handed as though he had been doing it his whole life, and was smiling and laughing whilst he did it.

It was mental. Like the before and after montage in an 80's film, let's say Rocky or maybe Team America: World Police - start shit, get good, short span of time (20 overs apparently). Yet we all got to watch it in real time.

He also got hit in the neck by the bails at least once.

I guess if you're good at sport, you can improve in the course of an hour. 

It was delightful to watch.

Sawyer at the Start

Sawyer at the End

It's all about the Vibes

Jags 166-7, (Kav 52*, Meldal 26*, Sawyer 25, Mailes 17, S Sahaai 4-18) beat Sharks 121-8, (Smith 26*, Sahai 16*, Holmes 3-7) by 45 runs

Man of the Match - Kav

We've played the Sharks a lot over the years and had some good old fixtures. Things have flipped, they used to beat us, annihilate us in fact, for the first 5/6 seasons of Jags crickets, then it got close for a few seasons, and lately it has flipped where we tend to be the stronger side. I used to contribute quite a lot in heroic defeats back in the early days, and now I contribute very little in scorching wins for the Jags. We have history, it goes back a full 15 years at this stage, which is longer than most professional sports careers last.

Also, I'd characterise the Jags as a "Vibes" team, we're a strong side. We're friends (mostly) and we like playing together, win (preferably) or lose, we are there to enjoy the absolute madness that is cricket. We clap batsmen in, we offer condolences on people getting out unfortunately, we apologise for lucky dismissals and we have a bit of a lark around in the field and spend more time sledging each other than the opposition. I think the spirit or friendliness of the entire endeavour is a big part of why we do it. It's certainly a big part of why I organise and attend. That and the pub.

Tonight the vibe felt a bit off. I can't put my finger on it. We had an insanely strong side (lads, save your availability for the league fixtures) and raced away out the gate, put a big total on, and it was clear at the turn there was only going to be one winning team. This happens, it's cricket, it's a core part of what happens with two innings.

We won the toss and batted, Kav and Meldal were absolutely on it early, Kav absolutely creaming everything he faced with never a forward defensive in sight. Freddie was an able deputy, and we hit about 40 runs off the first 3 8 ball overs. It was absolute carnage from the first ball, 4 6 sixes in this period, one outrageous slap down the ground from Kav sticks in the mind, as does an upwards drive from Freddie, back in fluent form. Katy Perry sang a song about this; it was called fireworks (although Kissed a Girl is also a cracking track).

Even this early on in the innings, and bearing in mind we had an hour and a half to play, heads visibly slumped in the field, as ball after ball was collected from hedges, trees and tennis courts. Kav retired on 25* (old school game) and you would think his swagger/stroll off the field deserved its own soundtrack by white snake or someone. Cooper joined found a few singles before holing out to cow finding the only spot with a fielder in that area. Holmes then did exactly the same as Paul a few balls later. Neither could have picked out the fielder better, and neither fielder had to move an inch.

I strolled out and was given a bit of a 'greeting' to the crease (which is fine), I missed my first ball, there was a very big appeal and I was given out LBW by the judicious but fair Liam, and then was given a bit of a send off (which is also fine). Rammers did politely enquire if I'd hit it - which was nice of him, but I categorically hadn't and off I went to general mirth. I was comfortably out, it's a little bit annoying but that's cricket and what not, it just felt a bit, erm, off. It reminded me a bit of one of those wildlife shows where the lions get outfoxed by the wily wilderbeast herd (Kav, Freddie), but they manage to corner a three legged little one at the end and rip the poor bugger to shreds, and this was somehow a cause for celebration.

The innings picked up again a bit at this point. Mailes (welcome back) was fluent and Parrish was not at all fluent, but still scored, mainly off the edge of his bat, and entirely in singles it would seem. Mailes was bowled. Parrish struggled for every single one of his 15 runs this week. Purton joined for a bit before being caught to their bowler of the night Sumit. Sawyer then strolled out, had a lot of fun, including a reverse pull, and then Kav returned and hammered the last few balls for 50. 

Other things I recall at the end, Parrish got caught, I also didn't given him LBW just before then (which might have been a mercy at this point) mainly as he wasn't LBW, but also because the bowler forced me to stand a good 20 feet from the stumps. Brett briefly was in and bowled. Phillips kept Kav company at the end and allowed him to farm the strike to get his 50 (good man), and Sawyer laughed whilst he was batting, including during actual shots (not in a twatty way, I promise). Some of the bowling was very generous, apart from that on offer by Sumit.

166-7 Boom. 

Sharks never really got going at the start, I think mostly because of the imposing total, but also this was mainly/entirely down to Jake Holmes starting at a weekend Onyx level pace. 1, 2 and 3 were sent back to the hutch, one caught and bowled, one just bowled (the incomparable Matt Biss) and another bowled in the first 4 overs. We took him out of the attack with an over to spare in his locker as he as just bowling too well and then rotated ten players into bowl. Cooper had a spell that got tapped about a bit, Brett did some bowling (slightly lower than his full pace) that was wicketless, and Toby, Kav and Mailes all had a go.

Rob Smith (opposition captain) put up the stoutest resistance with a fluent and well constructed 26*, Brown briefly threatened to put up a fight, but perished to a borderline no ball pulled straight down deep square leg's throat. No one but Rob hung around for too long, Rammers played nicely, but Purton took his leg stump with one that turned miles, Marc struggled on a pitch that seemed to get worse and was bowled by Mailes. Sumit hung around with Smith for a decent spell, and was joined by another player and his son at spells. Scoring slowed and the game was out of sight. 

There was time for me to bowl (pull pin, throw high, duck and cover), Parrish and Meldal. Meldal almost got a career first and only hattrick with the last three balls of the innings, but in truth the game was more or less over a couple of overs after the innings break.

We went to the Red  Lion, ate Pizza and the pub vibes were great.

We Love the Leys

Jags 154-6 (Murray 46, Kav 27, Meldal 27, Oliver 2-20) beat the Leys School 152-6 (Oliver 31, Shipp 29, Baines 2-17) by 4 wickets

MOTM - Baines

This is one of my favourite fixtures of this or any season, no matter what befalls me or the team. They're a lovely bunch, the Latham Road fields and some pints at the Panton afterwards, a personal favourite of mine. 

I fell short last year in reporting on matches, so this will be more of a cliff notes of things I remembered from the evening, rather than a full blooded match report.

Leys "won" the toss and opted to bat, and were still scraping together players after the game had started. One turned up on one of those rented scooters whilst vaping - and he turned out to be a nice chap - but his entrance visually screamed, "not a nice chap" to those of certain vintage.

Matt had a brief pre match chat with Tyler about how he needed to keep his temper in check, and Tyler responded, "I've addressed my anger issues". Righty ho, matey.

The only book Tyler was allowed to read at school

The pitch was, unusually, a bit of a mess. Toby Purton and Ollie Savage opened the bowling. Ollie got a wicket to mid on (me), I caught it and fractured my finger in the process as confirmed by those lovely people at Addenbrookes. I caught it though, and it probably won't make much difference to my batting.

Tyler managed to turn an easy caught into a six by tipping it over the rope and, admirably, kept his cool to all the abuse he received. When he let a 4 through pretty much next ball, he took some more abuse than then, old Mr Angry was back in play - effing and jeffing and generally shouting abuse.

Parrish had a bowl and got one caught, Baines took it at the second attempt with an outrageously choreographed grab in the ring somewhere. It looked like he had fucked it, but in fact he was just putting his marker down early for his MOTM award.

Fielders were proper casual (we sensed this was one of those friendly sort of games) so runs weren't hard to pick up. 

Baines took the ball and bowled one, I think it was good, but I didn't take any notes so let's just all agree it was really good, a ripper no less. Off stump cartwheeling, children coohing, that sort of thing.

The vaper came on and his partner had brought his wife and 4 year old son to watch. They were treated to a partnership with dad doing a nice job of rolling back the years, and the other guy looking mental - hitting a crazy 6 first up. Kav bowled, very generously re-setting the field after the 6 to, "let him have some fun". 

Phillips did some very good fielding in the ring - and was rewarded with an over or two. He bowled one, Baines bowled one and Jake Holmes saw off the big hitting scooting vaping man - who is a young teacher at the school so has to address all his colleague as sir, and pretend he is still sitting his GCSEs. Ah, the japes of private school life - no knife crime or teenage pregnancy to be seen here.

I should mention that Tyler caught the last wicket, Baines fielded very well, and the Leys posted a respectable 152.

I should add that Oz Christie kindly offered to score the game - and was wearing some sort of polar explorer gear on a bench in the freezing cold as it is early in the season and he is old so gets cold easily.

I opened the batting with Murray Christie - which in and of itself feels like a future pub quiz question - "Who is the worst batsman Ashes winning England Captain Sir Murray Christie has ever opened the batting with...". 

Perhaps mindful of his elated status I tried to run him out early, tipping one to backward point and then setting off hardly calling, probably as it wasn't my call. He made it safely home, I would have been about 10 yards short.

He played some lovely shots, a late cut and a tickled 4 to the legside stuck in the mind, as well as a square pull of some class. I managed to get the ball and my bat to occasionally connect with each other, and then ran myself out going back for 2. I turned my back on the ball, called "go 2" when there wasn't a run and could have actually got back, if I didn't have the turning circle of a whale barge or indeed if I had grounded my bat. Murray wisely grounded his bat, watched me not make it back and then apologised when he had no reason to apologise. I really rather enjoyed it all to be honest.

Kav came in and hit some ridiculous shots - the ball sounding like a shotgun off his bat. There were no retirement rules agreed pre game, so after he had hit 27 off 12, Matt decided to call him back in just because. 

Poor Jake Holmes then faced the most bizarre 3 ball spell I've seen. The first was a no ball, full toss, murder ball. The second was a genuine bouncer... The third was a full length in-ducker that sent him packing. It was a genuinely curate's egg of a spell from the bowler.

Freddie and Muzzah had a good. Muzz looked fluent and composed, Meldal looked a little more skittish - perhaps by comparison or because the pitch was a bit unreliable. Still, Meldal on an average day was still worth 27 before being caught. The game was out of sight here, O Savage hit some runs before being bowled. Tyler played for a bit, hitting a gorgeous 4 before perishing hitting the ball straight up.  

Muzzah was then told, on 47* that Matt had decided this was his last ball for some reason, he tried to manufacture the 4 he needed for 50 and was stumped. 

Toby hit an absolutely lovely tickle for 1, late off the pads a beautiful cricket shot. The Baines won it at the death with a 4 to legside, confirming with his wonder catch, two great wickets, and hitting the winning runs that he was the undoubted MOTM for me. I suspect Muzzah will receive a few plaudits in his life.

We finished, hands were shaken and the atmosphere was convivial, and pleasant. Oz handed back the book and moaned about a lack of patio heaters around the edge of the ground and we retired to the Panton for some sweet amber nectar, my "bantz" attempts to get down with the kids and some chat about how ending up at Vinyl in Cambridge is a thing that can happen to people young and old in the wrong circumstances.

It was a throwback game, friendly and good natured, fun and pleasant all in equal measure.

Jags Succumb to the Full Press

Jags 93-8 (Meldal 35*, Mann 8, Hill 2-9) lost to Cambridge University Press (Day 30*, Xavier 29*, Brett 1-25) by 5 Wickets

MOTM - Meldal

This was one of those early season games where the light is bad, the pitch is bad, and we're generally just becoming re-acquainted with our gear and what the rules are. I wasn't there, so all I can do is share the text messages I got of note from the live chat What's App conversation of the fixture, which tells a story more than any prose of mine ever could.

It's a shield, but they put us to the sword

Sawyer: 18:05     We're 5-2 off 2 - the ball doesn't bounce

Parrish: 18:07     3 down so far, 2 pee rollers, all bowled. CASS pitch a disaster

Parrish: 18:35     62-4 from 8. Freddie saving the innings. 

Sawyer: 18:52    Got about 90ish

                          Was lovely to watch

                          Philips Graceful

                          Sabin Mr Late Cut

                          Mann, Stunning Cricketing Shots

                          Freddie up to his old tricks

                                    

Sawyer: 19:02    Cos, what do we say about the man, the myth, the legend

                         Started off with a wicket

                         Stirling's finest with a beautiful action

                         Anderson esque

Sawyer: 19:13    Liam next over starts with a full toss

                         Cossie saves by throwing over the boundary

                         Liam then bowls a ball that is so good the umpire laughs

                         before it gets to short leg

Sawyer: 19:20    Great catch over the shoulder from Dan

Sawyer: 19:30    A no ball so high it was served for 4, class bowling Phillips

Sawyer: 19:40    FREDDIE WICKET

                         LBW

                         LOVELY

Sawyer: 19:42   Batsman nails it to short cover.

                        Neville Southall dive from Strachan

                        Pushes it back to Freddie

                        Who handbags it to the right of sleight of hands Parrish

And there you have it - mainly from the mind and phone of Sawyer. 

What I took from this was: 

- CASS Pitch is Rubbish

- Freddie retains class in difficult conditions

- Banter is alive and well

- I can literally visualise the Phillips over head height no ball without needing to be there.

- Dan made a good catch.

- Everyone had a fun evening.

Also the scorebook has Coslett on 2 from 17 balls. Steve Mann also got run out, probably by Freddie.