V Village CC (06/08/17)

Walsall Health CC 237-6 (40 overs) beat ‘Village CC’ 175-6 (40 overs) by 62 runs

Well, well, well. Village by name and village by nature. Not only did the opposition turn up at five to two for a 2pm start this week, one of their lads got clean bowled by Elf Legend Chris Hall and REFUSED TO WALK OFF THE PITCH. Just let that sink in………
It spoiled the game quite frankly but on the other side of the coin I’d rather talk about how the Elf continued their record breaking season with their TWELFTH win of the campaign and how Ian Chuck and Alex Nunns dispatched some very regular bowling to the boundary in a club record 164 partnership for the 2nd wicket. BIG HANDS/DANGLES EVERYWHERE.

Skipper Hewlitt did the first village thing of the day when he won the toss and asked the opposition skipper what he’d like to do LOL. Obviously Rob chose to bat and on an overcast day in Rushall, the Elf boys cashed in.

Gort was out first for three with the score on 13, unfortunately for the ‘Village’ lads another wicket would not come until the score was on 177, how unfortunate. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of lads and all that jazz.
Alex Nunns hit his top score for the Elf with a sublime 81 in good time too, the man from Wednesbury dispatched the bowling to all parts of the ground including a couple of BIG sixes which sent the Elf lads scrambling around for spare balls. The ton was on but it was not to be on this occasion. It’s only a matter of time before ‘Nunnsy’ gets a ton in Elf colours.
Chuck. What can we say? He scored a bit slower than Al (but not as slow as Dan Armstrong’s over rate) to a well made 78 before he was bowled by the young spinner who was the bright spark in the ‘Village’ side. Chuck is only 16 runs away from notching EIGHT HUNDRED runs for the season…is the 1,000 on? We shall wait and see but the Kolpak player certainly is staking his claim for greatest ever batsman in Elf colours smashing records left, right and centre (along with a few kennels) over the back of Rushall.

Anyway, after the carnage a mini collapse ensued which saw the Elf go from 177-1 for 237-6 in the final 10 overs.
Fitzy was out next after finally using his new bat to make his way to 10 before he wasn’t ran out by Chuckie.
Rob Hewlitt was in at five and steadied the ship by reaching 19 not out by the end of the innings whilst other batsman fell around him, quite literally when Rich went for 3 and Dan Dunn was in and out for 6.
Dan Armstrong came in at 8 and must’ve recently signed up to popular dating app ‘Tinder’ as he was ‘swiping at everything’ on his way to 13 not out to see the Elf equal their highest total of the season.

After the lads had smashed a monster Rach tea (big hand by the way) they began the defence of their total.

It wasn’t long until the first wicket fell when Dan Armstrong bowled Hyatt and the batsman surprisingly walked off after his bails had been removed.
No such luck for Dan Dunn who toiled up the travelator this week and saw his eight over go for 35 runs. The ‘monkey’ was definitely swinging between the trees but couldn’t quite show his head this time around.
Tom Davies got a wicket with his second ball when Nawaz spooned a catch to Armstrong who caught it downhill. Davies also picked up the very good ‘Khan’ who played nicely before he got one that bounced about as much as pot of compost and fair play, he accepted that he had been bowled and walked off.

With the run rate climbing, it called for only one man: Chris Hall. Chall has been in the gym all week training hard due to getting a few ‘non-fers’ recently and in his second over Ferwaz left a straight one and obviously wasn’t out when it clattered into his off stump. How foolish the boys were to start celebrating and think they’d picked up their fourth of the day?
Longfield didn’t last long when Dan Dunn kept his head and caught him for pittance for Chall’s 20th of the season.
Fortunately, Ferwaz tickled his way in singles to about another five off about thirty balls before Chall got him for the second and he walked off, probably out of shame.

The number 6 batsman ‘Baker’ hit a few lusty blows to the boundary in very well made score of over fifty not out to see his side post a respectable score although nothing they did could be called ‘respectable’ after the out/not out incident.
Dan Armstrong then cleaned up Shahid who instead of arguing when the ball hit his stumps, walked off. Fair play.

In the end the Elf ran out much deserved winners in a game spoilt by a selfish incident in a game of Sunday cricket, move on, get over it and if there’s anything to learned it’s to play the game the right way.

Also, don’t ever call Gort a cheat. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever! (end of discussion).

The boys travel to Himley to face Highwood Park next week for the second in the three match series after the first finished in a tie in May.

Drinks review

Great drinks this week, the lads were kept suitably refreshed with the help of 12th, 13th, 14th & 15th players this week. Rach, Wrighty, Phoebe and Molly (who also did a grand job with the scoreboard by the way). 8/10

Tea review

Another wonderful R.Gorton spread. Lots of sandwiches on both white and brown bread. FOUR different types of pizzas, SAMOSAS and even a cheeky bit of chicken pakora. Brilliant. Gort even managed a special cake which Trig loved. No Olives though which means 9.99/10.

Shower club update

You know what you’re going to get at Rushall, warm showers. Slightly cosy but warm nevertheless. 7/10.

Tales from the travelator

I think when Chally writes his cricket memoirs, this episode today will certainly fill a full chapter. Not walking after being cleaned up is the most SCANDALOUS thing I’ve ever seen in 17 years of playing cricket. Anyway, we won so…HA.

Don’t call Gort a cheat. Thanks.

Written by Tom Davies

Batting		Runs
Gorton, A	c ? b Longford	3
Chuck, I	c ? B Khan	78
Nunns, A	c ? Akmal	81
Fitzpatrick, G	run out	19
Hewlitt, R	not out	19
Fell, R	b Fell	3
Dunn, D	b Akmal	6
Armstrong, D	not out	13
Phillpott, G	dnb
Hall, C	dnb
Davies, T	dnb
Extras		11
Walsall Health		188