Cheadle CC vs Bulls

Post Mortem

And so the Bulls' campaign took them to Cheadle, ancient settlement and once a Roman outpost. And, like some of the great battles from two millennia ago, this was billed as a clash of the titans, against top of the table Cheadle CC.

The 11 centurions of Didsbury were commanded by Dan, making a welcome return to the fray.

Cheadle scored a bona fide 135 with a pair of wickets for Dan and one for Ben L. Hana was busy on the boundary, Louis and Ben R effected a neat run out of danger man Trickett (on Play-Cricket as Thickett, apparently he will not be happy!) and Will bowled a great death over.

Raheem and Seb started solidly before the traditional weekly run out was observed, Seb unluckily departing the scene, bringing the skipper to the wicket. Raheem soon followed trying to push the scoring on but going down looking for cow corner at the end of a solid innings. Noah stepped up at 4. Dan cut loose with a nice pull followed by a clubbed straight drive.

At the halfway point the Bulls were labouring at XLVI - II. Noah nobly tried to up the run rate, but exited the stage trying to pull to a straight one. The pairing now was Dan and Rehan and it was time for them to carpe diem. Rehan adopted his usual modus operandi, planting his first ball for an onside 4. They tried their best to effect another classic run out but somehow Cheadle managed to let them off the hook. Rehan's fours were met with quid pro quo boundaries from Dan. At one point, Rehan almost took a fielder’s hand off with a legside pull. However, Cheadle maintained the status quo with good spin bowling and a dragnet field.

A big dog VI saw Rehan move to XXVIII and then a fantastic XXX retirement. 91-3 off 17. Ben Lo, brother of famous model Finn, came to the crease and immediately skipped down the track to add an offside boundary to his curriculum vitae. Dan then also retired after a super knock of XXXI bringing Harry and Ben Lowe (Haribo) together.

A couple of 4 byes gave hope but Harry was well stumped going for a maximum. Ben L's alter ego Ben Ren came in to reprise the swashbuckling Ben biff fest of last week. Ben R hit a super 4 but it was not to be, the Bulls falling XIV runs short.

As the sun sank below the horizon, Matt stood gazing out over the field of battle, and proclaimed “veni, vidi, perdidi”.

Steve Morris

PS Our scribe missed the early part of the game so a couple of observations. The difference between the two teams was fielding, we fielded badly and they fielded well; its as simple as that. Poor technique executed badly! So we need to work on this and I really hope the team don't view this as a punishment because it isn't; there is nothing that endears you more to your team (and especially the bowler!) than saving runs in the field. At the risk of stating the obvious it frustrates the batsman, creates pressure which leads to wickets and (amazingly) keeps the score down. Simple!

As a team I think the target of 135 spooked them; on some tracks thats huge but at grounds like DCC and Cheadle (good wicket, short boundary, fast outfield) its only par.

More comedy running, I know boys tend to grunt a lot, but is it really too much to back up (beware new law on this) and shout 'yes', 'no', 'look for 2" etc etc?! I will do some run out stats for mid season so beware!!

Chris Ward