CROSSING THE SAHARA

We rolled up for the second week in a row to play Emmanuel at their Sahara desert like home ground at Scammel Reserve. Having been pipped at the post last week, we could be forgiven for asking the question “what are we going to do differently this week”. The short answer to that is that cricket is a funny game and no two games play out the exact same way.

I was sent out to open again with Ragu Prabhakaran as my opening partner. Ragu played very well the week before and is a steadying influence out in the middle. We took one look at the pitch and immediately had concerns as it looked very green from all the rainfall during the week.

From the first over the ball was seaming about all over the place and bouncing at variable heights. Usually a nice trampoline bounce, but every now and again, one would keep low or bounce wildly after hitting a divot in the pitch.

I got off the mark with a controlled cut for a single. Then repeated the stroke soon after. I played a push to leg for a single and another push to cover for another single. However, most of the times it was hard to get a handle on the pitch as the ball was moving, bouncing and generally misbehaving. Ragu who is a free scoring batsman was also stymied by the vagaries of the green pitch.

After the tenth over, the Emmanuel captain started instructing his change bowlers to warm up and I started to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that soon enough I would be facing less suffecatingly accurate bowling than what I Ragu and I had to contend with thus far.

During the eleventh over, I already started to think “if I have survived unscathed so far for ten overs – I will bat at least twenty. If I can bat twenty, I can bat longer still and get a good score and get back on track”.

I negotiated the first few balls of Tait’s last over of his opening spell, content to just block him out when a ball pitched just short of a length suddenly exploded off the pitch as I was playing forwarded and was in a mille-second heading for my face. I instinctively raised my bat in front of my face and I felt I had done well to keep the bat remotely arched to send the ball downwards. The ball flew down to the right of second slip. The slip fieldsman dived and scooped up a remarkable catch less than a centimeter off the turf in his right hand.

A simply amazing catch.

The umpire conferred with square leg to ensure that the catch had carried, but I had already tucked my bat under my arm and I was making my way off by this stage as I had a good view of the catch and it certainly seemed to me that it had carried – just – to the second slip fieldsman who was sprawled out on the turf clasping the ball. Ragu was out caught behind almost straight away and we were suddenly 2 for 16 after twelve overs and in real bother.

Richie The Dragon Halpagoda was joined by new lad Danny Rowe a Welshman who has come to Australia on a working holiday with his wife. The pitch was such that the usually belligerent Dragon was subdued and was eventually dismissed for eight, but Danny Rowe was getting into full swing playing some lusty strokes.

Strachany joined Danny “Boy” Rowe and they put on a superb partnership worth seventy two with Dan playing some stupendous strokes to all points of Scammel Reserve. Strachany started off slowly and looked rather subdued, but as he got his eye in, he started to play some big strokes too and it was exciting cricket to watch.

The score steadily mounted when disaster struck as Danny Rowe was run out from a direct hit for a swash buckling sixty seven. It was a huge innings in terms of getting us back into this match. More importantly, he had weathered the early phase where the pitch was still seaming and then made Emmanuel pay. Barring the unfortunate run out, Danny Rowe would have marked his Yarras debut with a richly deserved century.

The score was now 4 for 120 and we still needed more runs to give our bowlers something to bowl at. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, but Strachany heroically saw us through to 8 for 157 with his own score being thirty seven not out.

On that outfield, 157 was a reasonably good score. Opening our bowling were the two high schoolies Alex Harris – the hero of the game against Nationals before Christmas and James Allen a diminutive lad who would not put the fear of God into batsman with his school boy looks and lack of height.

However, both lads acquitted themselves superbly and were miserly in their opening salvos. In fact, James “Jock” Allen took four of the first wickets to fall (Alex Harris took the other) and James Allen subsequently finished the day with the superb figures of 5 for 23 while Alex “Bomber” Harris who bowled probably better finished with the tidy return of 1 for 14.

Emmanuel collapsed to be all out for 59 two overs before drinks handing us an unexpectedly easier than imagined win by ninety eight runs. Ian Chips Pringle and Johnny Scurry both picked up 2 for 10 and we had triumphed on a wicket that was playing at different heights.

A sweet victory!

I was only disappointed that having survived eleven difficult, eventful overs, I was dismissed by a freak ball and an even freakier catch. Some days luck does not smile on you in cricket.

See you all next week!
Vic Nicholas
MELBOURNE

EMMANUEL OAKLIEGH - LOST IN THE SAHARA

“If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.”
~ Elbert Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher.

The day dawned brightly last Sunday as I drove out to Oakleigh to take on Emmanuel Oakleigh who sit third on the ladder and had just toppled top of the table Nationals. These were going to be tough hombres to crack on their home turf. Speaking of turf, I nearly died of shock when I took one look out at the playing arena.

How can I best describe it?

It looked like desert sand with the odd tuft of weeds here and there. It was pretty much devoid of any grass anywhere. While the wicket itself was a nice green colour and looked like it would play truly, the outfield was horrible. It was with some irony that on a sign hanging off the fence, it proudly read that “Drought Resistant Grass has been planted on this oval”. The only problem was, this drought resistant grass had died off long ago.

Anyways, we lost the toss and had been put in to bat. I was slated to open this week and I made my way out to the middle with the unflappable Nat “Mr Natural” Williams. The plan was to get to the ten over mark and then start pushing it on from there. Nat offered to take first strike which I was appreciative of, as I am always an extremely nervous opener. From the first balls Nat faced, I could see that the pitch was offering swing to the young Emmanuel bowler Michael Tate. At the end of the over Nat informed me that Tate was not only getting the ball to move away from the batsman off the deck, but also through the air.

I faced up to Emanuel captain Ralph who off a short run up generated a bit more pace and bounce than Tate and also swung the ball away. This was seriously tough going and the bowling was very tight.

I was lucky enough to get off the mark fairly early on in unorthodox fashion when I got a single down to fine leg when I French Cut a delivery from Ralph who glared at me in disgust at my apparent luck.

Nat was handling the bowling intelligently by leaving well alone anything outside his off stump and only playing at anything that simply had to be played. I figured that this was a good strategy that I also was going to adopt so we could get to our first objective, which was to survive until the tenth over.

The Emmanuel boys are pretty vocal out on the field which is all good and perfectly acceptable to me in how cricket should be played. However, Emmanuel Captain Ralph was a bit more personal in his biting remarks. Perhaps because he was fielding at silly mid off and was the closest of all their fielders. All the same, he fired off some sly sledges at me and I made a mental note that when Ralph came out to bat, I was going to give him a warm welcome and remind him that two can play the sledging game.

I soon played a very sweet cut shot off an infuriated Ralph which flew off the middle of my bat and promptly brought up puffs of sand when it bounced past the diving Point fieldsmen and raced away to the long, long square boundary. It tantalizingly stopped up less than a foot short of the boundary and would easily have been a four on any other ground in the MCA, but not on this huge ground. As Nat and I scampered through for three runs, I didn’t notice that the fieldsman had grabbed the fence with one hand when he picked up the ball with his other hand. It was my teammates that informed me about this later – so it should have been a four!

In any case, after some considerable struggle, we had reached the half way mark of our first objective by having safely navigated the fifth over of the innings. I told Nat at the mid pitch conference “another five overs mate and then we will see where we go next”.

During the seventh over, I played and missed a delivery by Tate that beat the keeper who was standing up to the stumps to keep me in my crease. Taking up my usual stance nearly a meter outside my crease to nullify any LBWs, I was no forced to sit back in the crease, but I was not undually worried, though Tate was causing me some problems with his swing through the air rather than off the pitch.

Then a full delivery from Tate drew me forward with my left foot planted down the pitch almost as far as I could stretch when in my anxiety, I missed the full swinging delivery which hit my toe on the full and a loud appeal went up. I was not duly concerned as I felt that I had taken a very long stride down the pitch and moreover, I also thought that it hit me marginally outside offstump and was swinging towards slip anyway.

Surely, the umpire would have to give me the benefit of the doubt? Not on your life. He fired me out pretty quickly and I was forced to troop off in great disappointment at having failed to see through to the first goal of surviving at least until the tenth over.

Dave “Doc” Neal strode in at number three and also had trouble adjusting to the swinging ball and capitulated soon enough, LBW for five. Now we were in some bother and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Nat who had survived at the other end and was starting to look comfortable, was also out for four. Three top order wickets down and we didn’t even total fifteen between us. That was not the start we needed.

Ragu and Richie The Dragon then settled things down with a very sensible partnership that was to advance the total to forty seven before Richie fell for a well made twenty to continue his recent run of good form. Ragu was next to go for nineteen with the score on sixty two before Strachany was also dismissed by the now rampant Ranatunga for three. This was Ranatunga’s third wicket and he had bowled beautifully for Emmanuel.

Johnny Spooner – a newspaper cartoonist by trade then stood tall with Disco McDonald putting on a hard hitting and valuable partnership that gave us renewed hope. Johnny Spooner was eventually dismissed for eighteen priceless runs and Disco contributed an innings top score of twenty seven to eventually get our score to 131 all out. Not a great score by any stretch, but at least we now had something to bowl to which for a long time did not look like being the case.

Emmanuel set off on their chase particularly well losing one of their openers very early on to Disco. It was an innocuous dismissal – but they all count. As the runs mounted, the wickets continued to fall and then Emmanuel started to stumble as they came within sight of victory.

Enter Emmanuel captain James Ralph.

I gave him a bit of needle to remind him that I had not forgotten his earlier sledging of me. In fact, I heaped a plethora of sledges on him and he stared at me like I was insane. Maybe he couldn’t remember that he had started this little tête-à-tête.

In any case, he steadied the ship and batted sensibly – if a little shakily – to get his team home by three wickets. While the game was still alive, Ralph was dropped twice as we failed to land the knock out blow. Ralph was the big wicket. If we had have dismissed him, the last couple of wickets (basically, young kids) would have in all likelihood crumbled under the pressure. As it was, Ralph shepherded his young team mates to the finishing line.

So we lost yet again in a close one and it was hard to take. I kept thinking to myself that if only I had performed my role and batted to at least the fifteen to twenty over mark, I could have contributed some valuable runs, protected the middle order from the swinging ball and helped make a bigger, more defendable total.

It was not to be and we came up short yet again.

My form and confidence have not been so good after Christmas and I need a long stay at the crease to get some confidence back.

See you all next week!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne

The Burnley Blues

Strachany cutting during his innings of 21.

“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.”
~ Zig Ziglar - (1926- ) American author, salesman and motivational speaker.

This weeks game was against Burnley CYMS at our East Como Park home ground. It was to be a rematch of our epic Round One encounter where Burnley's second last pair got them over the line in a cliff hanger. The temperature was hovering on about twenty degrees with occasional light showers scheduled and even more occasional bursts of sunshine through the clouds.

Nice comfortable cricket conditions.

The pitch was an absolute belter. Having a look at it pre game, I could see a lot of runs being scored on it and I was pretty comfortable that I would be able to get amongst it. The outfield was a lot better than last week as the grass had been cut again and the majority of the clippings had been cleared and the most important factor for me was the opponent – Burnley – whom I excelled against in Round One before Nat ran me out when he did not respond for a call for an easy single.

All things considered, I was confident of getting amongst the runs today. As the batting list was being drawn up, I noticed that Chris Connelly was slated to come in at Number Three, which is fair enough as he is a higher grade player “guesting” for us. His last innings for the Fifths was a swash buckling 67, so coming in at Three to move things along was a sensible tactic in my view. Next in line was Julian Lane – a guy who made 51 last time he played for us and then there was Richie the Dragon Halpagoda who had not scored higher than 10 in any innings at any level this season. So, I was somewhat miffed to find myself all the way down at number six in the batting order.

After improving incrementally each week at Number Three until my unfortunate dismissal for eight against Thornbury off a bump ball – I have been moved to number four where I have flopped completely and now instead of being moved back to the more familiar Number Three – I am at Number Six, a position I have never batted in my life. My confidence is taking a battering here with all this instability and changing of roles.

I tried to be philosophical…most weeks our number six batsman comes in around the thirty over mark…sometimes sooner, other times later. I might get ten to fifteen overs of batting if I am lucky. However, something inside told me that I was not going to get a bat at all as the pitch was an absolute pudding with plenty of runs in it.

And so it proved.

Nat playing defensively off the back foot during his innings of 19.

Strachany and Nat got the team off to a patient start putting on forty seven off about twenty overs. Chris Connelly then joined Strachany and they continued on cautiously until Strachany was dismissed for twenty one and the score on seventy two. Penny Lane fell soon after for seven and the score had advanced to 3 for 90.

Finally, the one hundred was reached in the thirty third over – way too slow for such a cracking wicket, but I was seemingly alone in my sentiment. Chris “Digger” Connelly and Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda then set about thrashing the bowling to all parts of the oval before Digger Connelly was dismissed for a fantastic seventy seven and the score was now 4 for 174. Digger was dropped twice in his innings, the first time very early on in the piece – so Digger made Burnley pay and they very nearly rued their lost opportunities.

Chris Connelly playing a push to cover during his hard hitting innings of 77.

The order was now reshuffled and the wicket keeper Sohail Khatwani was sent out in my place with less than two overs to go due to his willingness to smash the ball around. He did just that by hitting a six to the skinny side of the ground with a thick outside edge over point that carried over the short square boundary.

Richie Halpagoda was run out next for a hard hitting and entertaining thirty two – vindicating Strachany’s faith in him. The score was now 5 for 189 and there were only a couple balls left. I was due in now, but there was no way known I was going to allow myself to be shafted in such a way. Going in to bat in such a scenario, you are expected to try and smash a boundary or at least run a suicidal single. Either way, it is more likely than not that you will get out as you have no time to get your eye in and you have to try something suicidal.

Assuming I went in and smacked a four or a six – big deal. A four or six not out is hardly worth the risk of being dismissed for a duck. I am not being selfish here – because despite what the hierarchy at South Yarra (and other clubs) might say about it being honourable to give your wicket away in a suicidal manner for teh benefit of the team – in the final wash up, they count it as a failure against your name.

Nobody remembers that I copped a bum decision against Thornbury when I had made eight in three overs of polished batting. They just look at the eight and say to themselves “VB failed there”…same goes for when I was run out in Round One when my partner was watching the ball and not responding to my call (and it was MY call). Nope. They just see that I was out for eighteen and wasted a great start.

So I sent Conrad out in my place and he made two not out and we finished up with 5 for 193 – our highest score of the season, but still short of what I considered to be a winning score on that feather bed pitch.

My feeling wasn’t wrong. Burnley passed our total for the loss of only three wickets and a comfortable amount of overs in hand. They batted on only out of interest to see if their wicket keeper Dave Wraith could finally score his first fifty in his life, which he duly did and they promptly declared with two overs left. They lost a wicket after passing our total when their Captain John Eaton (a former Yarra) was dismissed for a well made fifty eight. Wraith who made a match winning forty two against us in Round One made a courageous fifty not out this time. Considering he cannot make runs against anyone else – he must love playing against us.

So today’s game ended on the disappointing taste of defeat and doubly disappointing for me was the fact that I played no role what so ever in proceedings. I did not bat nor bowl. I just spent forty five overs in the field making up the numbers. I have to think back to my very first year back in Under Twelves to recall the last time that happened to me and I did not get a bat in a game. Back those days I was a ten year old outsider in a predominantly white Anglo-Celtic club that thought lowly of “dagoes” like me. This time I was just seen as being of lesser ability than six other batsmen – which is very chastening and sobering.

I can never get today back again and the opportunity to have a great hit on an absolute road is lost. I now have to wait three weeks before I get the chance to have a bat again – how I can maintain confidence and form while having (by then) not batted for a month and only having batted once in seven weeks, is a mystery even to me.

That’s life sometimes.

There will be no match day blog for the next two weeks as it is a two week game and unfortunately for the first week of it, I will be in Hayman Island relaxing with my wife celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary on Australia Day. So I will have to sit out the two day game against yet another opponent that I have done well against in the recent past.

I am sure our boys will do well.

See you all in a few weeks time!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

COLES SHARKS - EATEN ALIVE

Surveying a push to backward square leg.

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing”
~ Harriet Beryl Braiker (1949-2004) - psychologist and author.

It was a blazing hot day as I made my way to our Como West ground, our opponents for this week are the high flying Coles Sharks. I arrived in time to learn that we would be bowling first which I was not altogether bothered about. As we made our way out to the middle, I took one look at the pitch and decided that it was an absolute belter being nice and yellow and almost devoid of any cracks. I thought to myself that this pitch will play true and will offer very little assistance to the bowlers.

That was the pitch. The outfield on the other hand was something else! The grass had been recently cut with small mounds of grass clippings left everywhere all over the oval. Also, the grass was not exactly “short” by any stretch of the imagination. So while the pitch was going to play truly, the outfield was going to curtail a lot of scoring opportunities as it would be unbelievably slow for shots played along the deck.

Our new ball bowlers this week were Roshan “Roshy” Peries a left arm fast medium bowler who has played as high as First Grade this season who possesses an occasionally wicked kicking out swinger that catches batsmen by surprise and Santosh “Toshy” Thuniki the hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas where he captured 4 for 19 including three of the top four batsman. So you could say that it was a reasonably solid new ball pairing.

A few overs into the Coles innings, I could already see that the pitch was offering both our new ball bowlers nothing by the way of bounce or sideways movement. The pitch was a road suited to the flat track whackers of which our middle order is composed of. “Going to be good for Tinker and Notty when we have a bat, but an absolute bowlers grave yard for our poor fast bowlers” was what went through mind as the Coles openers started to assert their authority with some lusty strikes bouncing over the boundary. The Coles openers were going aerial often to avoid the ball stopping in the grass once they ascertained that the outfield was treacle slow. This of course meant that there were seemingly abundant opportunities to test our outfield catching. Remarkably, the ball seemed to either just fly over the fieldsmen’s outstretched hands or just in front, or just to the side…you can picture the frustration building in our lads as the opening bowlers were unable to get the break through and the score was steadily rising at an alarming run rate.

Kicking some clumps of dirt off the pitch.

Johnny Scurry was brought on in place of Roshy from the River End and with his slower brand of accurate medium pace I thought that perhaps it might slow the batsmen down somewhat.

I was very wrong.

“Scuzza” opened up with a loose over composed of full tosses and long hops and the Coles openers licked their lips and started depositing his deliveries express post to the long on boundary. Now that the Coles batsmen could smell blood in the water, they went after Scuzza like a pack of blood thirsty piranhas. Even when Scuzza started to pitch the ball on a good length, they were dancing down the pitch and smashing him to the boundary, and on a couple of occasions, clean out of the ground. It was a killing that was performed with calculated brutality. Craig Nott – one of our best outfield fieldsmen – was stationed right on the long on boundary when eventually the Coles batsmen had gorged themselves on Scuzza one time too many as Coles captain Sarianidis eventually holed out to Notty standing almost on the chalk on the boundary when he held an excellent catch. It was good to see that Scuzza had got the big wicket to help restore his confidence after the Coles batsmen had annihilated him.

Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was also introduced into the attack at this time and he was also swept away in the slip stream to be mauled to the tune of fourteen runs off his two overs. Finally, it was Chippy Pringle’s introduction to the fray that finally stopped the haemorrhaging. It was a classy spell of bowling and with Strachany introducing himself belatedly, things turned full circle as wickets started to tumble to Strachany’s wicket to wicket line.

Coles innings finally came to a natural end at the forty five over compulsory innings closure with their score finishing on a rather respectable 8 for 189. It could have been so much worse for us, as at one stage Coles looked like they were cruising to 250. As it stood, 189 was still an excellent score considering the slow nature of the outfield. Strachany was the star with the ball taking 4 for 27 off his nine overs of economical medium pace and Chippy Pringle chimed in with 2 for 34 off nine overs of controlled off spin.

Strachany and Mr Natural Nat Williams strode out to start off our chase and I was confident that they would get us off to a rollicking start. However, before I could even get my pads on, Nat was out bowled for a duck and we were 1 for 1. Not the start I expected. This week Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was sent out to bat in my usual place at number three due to his willingness to “have a go”. The score had barely reached eighteen when Strachany himself was adjudged LBW nine.

A forward defensive stroke.

2 for 18 and I was walking to the crease in a scrambled head space. How were we going to turn things around and score at four and a half an over to overhaul Coles score? I batted in relative comfort as none of the bowling was particularly troubling me. What DID trouble me was the sight of the grass in the outfield stopping my strokes from going anywhere. It took me a while to get off the mark, but when it came, it was well worth savouring. A nicely timed glance off my toes that raced to fine leg for a single.

A study of my stance and backlift.

The bowling was tight, but not overly threatening. However, the tight line and the slow outfield was causing me to have nightmares as to how I was going to get the scoring moving. Soon after I had arrived at the crease, Richie The Dragon perished when he went for a half cocked drive that spooned straight to the mid off fieldsman for an innocuous dismissal that Richie must have been kicking himself over afterwards. 3 for 20 and sinking further into the mire.

Playing a splendid (though involuntary) late cut for a single down to third man.

In strode Alun “Tinker” Hume our very own genial Irishman and hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas when he made a barnstorming sixty one. His first words of wisdom to me when he arrived at the wicket were “I feel like I am about to throw up…I am not going to last too long today”. Apparently, Tinker was watching at a pub until 6:30am watching his English Premier League team playing on pay TV while drinking a guiness or five. So old Tinker was feeling rather hung over and less than one hundred percent as the afternoon wore on. To his credit, he started batting in an aggressive manner picking up where he left off before Christmas. As for myself, I still had time to play a purposeful push to square leg for a single and a wonderful – but entirely involuntary – late cut also for a single. But for the outfield, it would have raced away for four on any other day.

A push to backward square leg. Fielding at gully is the sledger who gave me the send off.

Drinks were taken and I was very concerned as to how I was going to manufacture an innings that would be fast enough to give us a chance to win the game. With this thought embedded in my mind, I played the first ball from the new bowler Javed after drinks defensively. The second ball, I involuntarily charged down the pitch to the fast bowler and missed the ball in my swipe which proceeded to hit the top hat of my left pad, deflecting onto the top hat of my right pad before dropping enough to clip the top of my off stump to be bowled in the most ridiculous manner. It was totally out of character for me to be giving any bowler the charge, let alone a fast medium bowler. It was a brain explosion pure and simple.

I felt totally ashamed of myself as I walked off the field. As I was making my way off, one of the Coles fieldsman sledged me with the words “he’s got a new bat, but he doesn’t know how to f*@king use it”. It rubbed salt into the wound, more so that the offender lasted only two balls himself when he batted and to be diplomatic, he had a body shape that would see him as a candidate to be conscripted onto the Biggest Loser for his own good. Throw in a Merv Hughes moustache and he had the complete all round image of a philistine.

Alun "Tinker" Hume ready to pounce during his gutsy innings of 43.

Craig Nott joined Tinker at the crease and the two of them set about rebuilding our innings and restoring our fading hopes of winning the game. They played sensible aggressive cricket and took the score to ninety vive before Tinker departed for a streaky but important forty three. A remarkable innings considering Tinkers hung over condition. Sunil Mandalika joined Craig Nott at the crease and they continued scoring freely to give us the feeling that perhaps there was life in the game yet. Sunil smashed two glorious sixes before perishing trying to do it once too often and was bowled for seventeen and the score on 6 for 120 and our hopes fading fast as Craig Nott was the last of the recognized batsmen at the crease.

Notty was eventually second last man out for a courageous thirty five and by now the score 9 for 135. Soon after John Scurry was the last man out and our run chase terminated at 137 to lose the game by fifty two runs. A heavy defeat in the final wash up.

Trying to play a pull shot to a ball that subsequently kept low and cannoned into my thigh pad.

I was extremely disappointed with myself to get myself out in such a silly manner. My concentration is something I really need to work on as it is a shambles. It was no coincidence that todays dismissal was the FIFTH time I had been dismissed this season in the over before or the over after drinks. That is clearly a break in concentration and must be amended if I am going to play any useful roles for the team this summer.

Thinking about things dispassionately this week, I started playing club cricket as a ten year old and stopped playing at the end of under 16’s when I was barely sixteen years old. That in effect means that this is only my seventh season of club cricket which makes me in relative terms a novice. If I count my beginnings in the backyard as an eight year old – I still haven’t totaled ten years of cricket under my belt. I have a long way to go – but I am very confident that quantum leaps in improvement are not far away.

See you all soon!
Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

THE STORY SO FAR

Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.
~ John Madden (10 April 1936- ) Former American Football player and Former Head Coach of Oakland Raiders.

Over this Christmas/New Years season hiatus I have had a lot of time to assess and appraise how my first half season back in club cricket after a twenty six year absense has gone. I have had to be brutally honest with myself in my self examination because that is the only way one can find the answers to improve their game as opposed to living in some kind of delusional fantasy land and keep doing the same thing and getting the same end result.

My first half season scores were as follows:

18 vs Burnley – run out

A terrible mix up with Nat when I had the measure of the bowling and looked set for a big score.
This was a very bad blow in hindsight as a big score on the opening day of the season would have done me a world of good. It was not to be, and the mix up was worthy of a Keystone Kops episode in its clumsiness. It would have been hilarious if it happened to anyone else - as it was, I wasn't laughing. Still, we put on an opening stand of fifty nine in reasonably quick time.

7no vs Canterbury – retired hurt

Ripped both quad muscles during they pre-game warm up. Simply could not run in those frenetic overs when we were trying to secure a miraculous victory. To rip both quad muscles during a pre-game fielding drill is - again - hilarious. That is, if it happens to somebody else. Schadenfreude - just as I would be having a laugh at others expense - I am sure my teammates found my predicament very funny indeed!

0 vs Parkville – bowled

Bowled in freakish manner off my right toe with the ball clipping the leg bail and ending up in first slips hands as they appealed for a catch. Once in a career type of dismissal.

You need some luck early on in an innings and this was one day where I had none.

8 vs Parkville – bowled

Bowled by a jaffa as I went the big drive to move the scoring pace along. I was told at the drinks break that the scoring rate was too slow and that some big shots were needed. I promptly smashed a pull stroke for four on resumption and then missed an inswinger with a big heave aimed for mid off.

17 vs Maccabi – caught

Imploded by throwing my wicket away after surviving more than an hour on a green and seaming deck. Prior to my brain fade, I was looking good for a big score. It was a difficult pitch and the outfield was treacle slow. I was batting very comfortably up until the point I dabbed at a low full toss that careered off the toe of my bat to mid off.

DNB vs Parkdale – washed out

DNB vs National – washed out

21 vs National – bowled

Batted pretty well and had a big score well and truly in my sights when I threw my wicket away playing across the line of a leg break that simply did not bounce. To be fair, I was trying to up the run rate. Still, it was a waste of twenty two overs of grind. Put on a fifty one run stand with Richard Hounslow and batting with Richie was an education in being organized and aware at the crease. Aimed a big pull shot at a long hop that skidded through almost ankle height.

8 vs Thornbury – caught behind

Umpiring error. Given out caught behind off a bump ball that passed underneath the toe of my bat after looking comfortable to that point. I felt extremely confident during my short stay at the crease. I aimed a big cover drive at a widish delivery that caught the toe of my bat and the ground at the same time before the keeper took the "catch" at chest height. I was furious at teh decision, but, realistically, it was the only bad decision I have recieved so far this season - so I cannot complain. At this level, to have even half reasonable umpires is a blessing!

1 vs Thornbury – bowled

Bowled around my legs by a leg spinner. Simply a once in a season delivery. The first delivery I recieved after the drinks break.

My first half season assessment based on not converting any starts into meaningful scores is therefore 3/10.

That may sound somewhat harsh, but there are very good reasons for me feeling that way about my performance.

If the three scores of 18, 17 and 21 were converted into innings of 30+ runs each, then I would have considered my first half of the season to have been a 5/10.

Furthermore, if those three starts were converted into scores of 40 plus with maybe one of the innings being greater than 50 – then I would have considered my half season rating to have been as high as 7/10.

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Season Hilights

Undoubtably the two stands over fifty. The fifty nine opening stand in round one with Nat Williams was sensational, but could easily have been over seventy as neither Nat nor myself are the swiftest runners between wickets. The fifty one run stand with Richard Hounslow was a great learning experience for me in how to organize an innings and set targets. Richie Hounslow's constant updates of deliveries left in an over, runs scored off the over, etc was fantastic and made batting with him a real eye opener. It is something that I am consciously trying to emulate and incorporate into my game.

Season Downers

The two outright failures of a duck in round three and a score of one in round seven just before the Christmas break. Both were freakish dismissals of the likes that are not going to be repeated too many times over the course of my second coming as a club cricketer. Still, there was a lesson to be learned in both dismissals. In both instances opening up my stance a little bit more would have aided me greatly to combat those deliveries.

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With all the practice I have put in at official training with the club and private training with my club mates on other days, not to mention private technical tuition with Happy each Friday with the bowling machine at Hawthorn Indoor Centre – I really should have made some bigger scores.

My form has been good throughout and my confidence has remained unshakeable. I really feel I am one good innings away from cracking the code so to speak. Early on when I noticed some technical deficiencies, I worked diligently to iron them out as best as I could.

I have learnt a lot in my first half season of adult turf cricket. My stamina out in the middle is not what it used to be as I found myself wilting after only a few overs. This is in contrast to my formerly boundless stamina as a teenager when I could bat for two to three hours without any great problem.

Happy suggested that I eat a banana for breakfast on game day and then another banana just before the game to give my body the energy levels to get through an innings. Leading Yarras run scorer from our First Eleven - Kim Price - suggested that I drink an energy drink at drinks instead of the usual cordial that is doled out. He suggested something like a Powerade.

I am taking both those suggestions on board as I am staggered as to why I am fading fast so early in all my innings. Another though that occurred to me is that I show most of the symptoms associated with Type Two Diabetes, namely:

• Being excessively thirsty
• Feeling tired and lethargic
• Always feeling hungry
• Having cuts that heal slowly
• Itching, skin infections
• Leg cramps.

I had absolutely no idea that I was a candidate for Type Two Diabetes until I was listening to a sports talkback program that was discussing the symptoms associated with Type Two Diabetes and I immediately recognized that I have most of the symptoms that were mentioned.

So, I will be booking in for a thorough medical examination shortly to ascertain whether I genuinely have Type Two Diabetes (which I am pretty sure I have) or whether it is an overreaction and simply some other minor problem like lack of fitness. Either way, a full health check by a GP is a must.

I am going to leave no stone unturned to achieve my optimum level of performance which (rightly or wrongly) I feel I am capable of much more than what I have shown. I feel that I have nearly all the shots. The only shot that I lack that I need to work on is the late cut. I have seen a few batsmen use it to good effect as a scoring stroke.

Another facet that I want to improve in is my scoring rate. In my comeback this season, I have batted slower than I can ever remember. I would like to get back to scoring at a faster rate with more boundaries. All my boundaries so far this season have come either behind or square of the wicket. It has been greatly disappointing that I have not even looked like scoring a boundary with a drive.

That has to change and has to improve for me to make bigger scores and to score quicker. I have grown up as essentially a back foot player because of playing my junior cricket on coir matting. On low bouncing turf wickets, I have to construct a better front foot game and learn the art of lofting bowlers back over their heads. It is a different type of batting to what I am used to, but I am enjoying the challenge of learning new ways to play an old familiar game. At any rate, I have to double my scoring rate from now on for the benefit of my team.

Easier said than done, but one thing that is certain, I will be in there trying!

See you all soon.

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

THORNBURY II

One of the few balls I faced in this weeks game.

"A man's errors are his portals of discovery."
~ James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish novelist.

This week we played Thornbury as the second part of our split round. Again it was at our Como Park home and there seemed to be a sense of déjà vu as I arrived for the game to see many of the same people from both sides going through their pre game routines.

After last weeks heart breaking loss that replicated the dramatic loss against the top team National CC the week before, I was hell bent (as I am sure were the rest of my team mates were) to finish the first half of the season off with a win. We really should have won last week.

What would we do differently this week? Firstly, our plans in dealing with Thornbury batsman Hagan who compiled a match winning fifty five in last week’s game were certainly going to be different. Last week we failed to restrict Hagan’s pet shot of planting his left foot down the pitch and smacking the ball back over the bowlers head. This week we resolved to plant two good fieldsmen at mid on and mid off and set them back a little to virtually dare Hagan into committing Hari Kiri. Would Hagan fall for such an obvious trap? I certainly thought he wouldn’t be able to resist.

As per usual, we were batting first and instead of being slated to go in at number three as is my custom, I was penciled in at number four to allow the brilliant Ben Higgins to come in at number three. “Hurricane” Higgins is a young lad in his late twenties who stars for our South Yarra CC First Eleven. To this point Hurricane was averaging 116.33 and we thoroughly expected that he would tear Thornbury to shreds. Hurricane ever the self effacing chap that he is certainly did not make any lofty proclamations.

Also new to the team this week were Santosh a young medium fast bowler joining his room mate and country man Vishnu in bolstering our bowling battery. Alun “Tinker” Hume the Yarras resident Irishman who had been missing so far this season due to spending time up in the Northern parts of the country. Conrad De Souza was also back after an extended absence with a broken finger. So in terms of batting and bowling, our team was considerably strengthened, so I was feeling rather confident of reversing last weeks result.

Mr Natural and Strachany got us off to a solid start scoring at about three runs an over. It was good sensible batting that was only marred by Nat not grounding his bat when running a two off a lusty Strachany stroke thus having it reduced to a single. All that effort expended for just one run. Not exactly a hanging offence, but it was the prelude for what was to happen next.

The lads were just starting to get themselves in a position to launch an assault on the Thornbury bowlers when the first wicket fell in the most unusual circumstances. Strachany walloped a delivery over mid on and an easy three runs beckoned. As the lads ran, Strachany started to almost lap the less svelte Mr Natural. As they crossed each other mid pitch for the second run, Strachany in frustration bellowed “come on Nat” in obvious frustration at a certain three being reduced to two runs due to Nat’s inability to keep up the pace. Somehow, Nat misunderstood and interpreted the “come on” to imply “let’s run a third”, even though the ball was already nearly in the bowlers hand as he stood perched over the stumps. Nat comfortably made his ground as the bowler took the ball over the stumps when Nat inexplicably turned and started running a few paces in the opposite direction – all this while the shocked bowler was standing by the stumps with the ball safely in his hand wondering what the hell Nat was doing. It was with unexpected glee that he whipped off the bails with Nat standing all of two meters out of his ground bewildered at what had just transpired.

Surely he must have seen that the ball was already in flight to the bowler’s hands as he was just about to complete the second run? Nobody could possibly have that little awareness…surely? My mind immediately cast back to round one when Nat accidently ran me out when a comfortable single was there to be had when he watched the ball rather than respond to the call or at the very least negate the call. So keeping that in mind, it was perhaps not such a surprise that Nat had met his demise in such bizarre circumstances. Nat made sixteen and looked set to tee off until his brain explosion.

Hurricane Higgins entered the fray with the score sitting on 1 for 42, a wonderful platform for this prodigy to launch an assault on the Thornbury bowlers and put us in an unassailable position. Hurricane and Strachany advanced the score to sixty five when Strachany departed for a well made twenty five. In their partnership of twenty three, Hurricane had contributed a subdued two runs. Apparently, this is par for the course for Ben Higgins who by all accounts starts off each innings in a very careful, watchful manner until he sizes up the bowlers and conditions and then proceeds to annihilate all comers.

I walked out to bat in the unfamiliar number four slot – I am fairly certain the first time in my cricketing life that I have batted in this position. The score was 2 for 65 and Benny Higgins was at the crease – I was already thinking to myself, “I just have to rotate the strike over to Hurricane and he will make it happen – and then when I have got my eye in, I will be able to join in the carnage”. At least that was the plan.

Ben "Hurricane" Higgins readies himself to give this ball the full treatment.

As I reached the centre, Hurricane offered “it is coming through straight up and down with the occasional one keeping a little low – you will be fine. It is the end of the over, so you don’t have to face first up”. Reassuring words from a master batsman, so I felt quite confident that I was not only going to get to bat with someone I respect enormously, but that we would knock up a big partnership to boot.

I looked down at the pitch and it was dry and cracked with a one inch by a one and half inch hole in the middle of the pitch just short of a length at one end. I tried not to worry too much as sometimes some pitches look worse than what they end up playing.

Coinciding with my arrival at the wicket was a Thornbury bowling change. Thornbury bowler Evan Kane paced out his run up and I had to almost do a double take at this bloke who could not have even been five foot tall. Throw in the fact that Kane is also completely devoid of any hair and I was somewhat flummoxed as to how this little guy was going to make any impact on the mighty Hurricane Higgins.

Kane ambled in and flighted a top spinner that Hurricane stroked along the ground to mid on where there was no run. The next delivery by Kane pitched just outside leg stump, spun off the pitch and crashed into Hurricanes outstretched pad with his bat missing the ball as it unexpectedly kept a little low. “Hurricane is sizing him up here before he goes wham” I thought to myself. The next delivery was pitched in pretty much the same spot and again it crashed into Hurricanes outstretched pad. “This is looking a lot more difficult than I expected…this little bloke can bowl!”

The very next delivery Kane pitched the ball a fair bit shorter. It seemed like a stock leg spinner but pitched in line with the stumps. Hurricane seeing how short it was instinctively moved back and across and took an almighty swipe attempting a big pull shot. The ball barely spun, but it kept wickedly low and it cannoned into Hurricanes right thigh as he was in full follow through from this attempted big stroke. It was smack bang in line with the stumps and my heart was in my mouth as the Thornbury players went up in unison. The umpire had no hesitation in raising his finger in the affirmative.

Hurricane was out for two and I think I needed smelling salts to revive me as I had gone into shock. Next batsman in was Alun “Tinker” Hume the genial Irishman. “We’ve got to rebuild the innings here Tinker” I said and Tinker nodded his head in agreement. The next two balls from Kane gave Tinker a bit of difficulty.

The next over was the last over before drinks and I was finally going to be facing up. The Thornbury bowler John Viner bowls at speeds that could be considered medium to fast medium. His first delivery to me slid down the leg side and I was unable to get any bat on it. The second delivery was pitched up into my pads and I peeled off a nicely timed on drive for an easy single. It was a relief to get off the mark early and I proceeded to watch the remainder of the over as Tinker nearly got himself out by thumping an off drive straight to short mid off where the force of the shot broke through the hands of the fieldsman breaking his finger and running away for us to run two. The rest of the over was uneventful with Tinker taking a single off the last ball and we trudged off to drinks with my mind racing as to how we were going to kick start our innings. I knew nothing of Tinkers abilities as a barn storming batsman.

Alun "Tinker" Hume playing with a copy book straight bat in his heroic innings.

Tinker faced the first over after drinks from Kane and was immediately like Hurricane in some bother dealing with the leggy. Tinker then breathed a massive sigh of relief when he chopped a delivery from Kane just millimeters past his leg stump and we ran a single. As I stood up to take strike against Kane for the first time, all that went through my mind was “play the first few defensively to get a feel of what he is doing”.

Kane’s first delivery floated towards me and I took a stride down the wicket with my bat next to my pad to smother the spin. The ball drifted down the leg side and pitched about six or so inches beside my right foot hitting the bowlers foot marks on the crease. By the time I turned around I heard ball hitting wood and the whoops of joy from the Thornbury wicket keeper and surrounding fieldsmen. The ball had clipped my leg stump. I had been bowled around my legs – a freak delivery.

I trudged off with a couple of the Thornbury players yelling out “Warney” in appreciation of what their leg spinner had just done. I was angry at myself thinking of ways that I should have combated this delivery. I could have stepped to leg and let it hit my pad – it would never be given LBW…I could have…

As I took off my padding and I started to calm down, I began to realize that there was precious little I could have done to have dealt with such a great ball that was the first I had faced from this bowler. It was a magnificent delivery that Kane himself never replicated for the rest of the innings which led me to believe that it was simply a freak delivery that he did not intend.

That is cricket sometimes.

Nashi "False" Alam turns one to leg.

Nashi came in next and inspite of some lucky escapes batted sensibly and hung in there with a rampant Tinker going on the attack. With each smacked boundary from Tinker, I could almost hear the chorus of “You can’t beat the Irish”. Tinker was playing a blinder. Nashi was eventually out for a stubborn ten and in tandem with Tinker had advanced our score by forty seven to 5 for 115. Conrad in his comeback innings strode in at number seven and with Tinker put on a partnership of forty eight when Tinker was eventually controversially deemed run out when he looked to be marginally in for a sparkling sixty one.

There was still time in the innings for Vishnu to smash a towering six as he and Conrad and then Willo took the score up to 7 for 181 off our forty five overs. A competitive total and I felt with a bit of luck – enough to win this game. Nothing can be taken for granted however, as we have already painfully found out the previous two weeks where we lost both times at the death after looking in control.

Vishi took the new ball along with Willo, but unlike last week, neither bowler was able to make any inroads into Thornbury’s top order. Both bowlers were economical, but unable to make any impression on this deck that seemed to be getting slower. Santosh was brought on at first change for his first spell for the Yarras and with immediate success. Bowling a beautiful line Toshy got the much needed break through bowling Patrick Barry for a laborious twelve. The score was 1 for 46 and we breathed a sigh of relief as the Thornbury openers looked rather untroubled.

Next in was last weeks match winner for Thornbury, the attacking Amesbury Hagan. As earlier mentioned, all week I had been thinking of how to counter Hagan who had top scored last week with a buccaneering fifty five largely scored through planting his left foot down the pitch and heaving the ball back over the bowlers head with apparent disregard for the mid on and mid off fielders. Strachany set the mid on and mid off a little deeper than normal and we dared Hagan to take on the bowler and the field.

Hagan played some risky strokes as he did the week before, but this time he clearly looked restricted in his options and the pressure of the tight bowling was slowly suffocating him. Eventually, Hagan was dismissed by Toshy when he could not resist sparring at a delivery just outside his off stump – the much talked about “corridor of uncertainty” - and outside edged a catch to the keeper the irrepressible Tinker Hume who held onto a splendid catch. At 2 for 62 and having seen the back of Hagan, I felt that barring any unforeseen heroics from Thornbury’s middle order, we were well on the way to victory.

I hadn’t counted on the stubborn resistance of Johnny Viner who was batting beautifully. It should have come as no surprise, because last week Viner played the supporting role to Hagan’s match winning fifty five with a gutsy forty five himself sharing in a game turning partnership of eighty for the third wicket which brought Thornbury in sight of victory. Here he was again attempting to rally the Thornbury cause by batting with intelligence and skill.

Hazelman and McMath fell soon afterwards within one run of each other to bring the total to 4 for 72. Viner was playing a lone hand and it was apparent that as soon as we secured his wicket – the citadel would fall. And so it proved. Benny Higgins in a wonderful spell removed Viner when the latter attempted a risky shot and was caught.

By now I was so certain that we would win the game that my interest turned to the game being played on the oval alongside ours. Our First Eleven were playing against Monash University Gryphons and were marching toward victory in the most emphatic manner. As the afternoon wore on, we (Ben Higgins and I) noticed that South Yarra opening batsman Kim Price was still there.

Now Kimba has been in sensational form all season and would quite possibly be the most in form batsman in the MCA competition along with the one and only Ben “Hurricane” Higgins. Unfortunately for Kimba, he had made a sequence of excellent scores in the seventies and sixties without cracking the ton. His highest score had been ninety six compiled on the last day of the 2008/2009 season. Here he was surely about to break this barrier and post his first ton.

“He must be getting close by now?” I asked Hurricane and he agreed. Eventually we heard whoops of joy emanating from the Como pavilion and Kimba raising his bat in triumph…then a strange thing happened, first myself and then Ben Higgins broke out into spontaneous applause soon followed by practically every member of our team. We had stopped our game momentarily and we were all facing the other pitch giving Kimba an ovation and Kim didn’t let us down, after saluting his team mates in the pavilion, he turned and raised his bat in salute at us - his fellow club mates – on the adjacent oval.

Kim "Kimba" Price takes guard.

It was a magic moment that is very hard to put into words – but I am certain that Kim would have been delighted that he scored his maiden Yarras century at home where he was saluted from all directions. Kim is a lovely bloke and everybody was delighted for him. May this be the first of many!

Back to our game, the denouement was being played out and with each wicket we marched on closer to victory until Chips Pringle captured the last wicket and we could celebrate a good win. Toshy took 4 for 19 off nine overs of controlled medium fast bowling. Hurricane Higgins took 3 for 18 with his medium pacers and a fine catch to boot. It was a wonderful feeling to prosper in the last game before the Christmas break. Afterwards in the pavilion Strachany awarded joint Man of the Match awards – to Tinker Hume for his gutsy sixty one which rescued our innings and to Toshy whose four wickets included crucial top order incisions which were vital to our chances.

All up it was happy day and a nice way to go into the Christmas hiatus. I hope that we can finally start winning the crunch moments more often in games and win more games – we have deserved a lot more than our paltry two wins so far this season.

Anyways, I hope everybody out there has a happy Christmas and Happy 2010!

See you all soon!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

THORNBURY - CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WORST KIND

“When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear.”
~Mark Twain (1835-1910) American humourist, writer and lecturer.

Many days later and I am still trying to contain my anger. It was that sort of day.

Before the start of play, I noticed that my camera wasn’t working for some reason. Afterwards, I discovered that the battery was nearly flat, but other than the shutter not working, everything else was fine. So no photos this week.

We lost the toss and were put in to bat. Nothing new there. Strachany decided to open the batting with Mr Natural to try and get the innings off to a faster start. I had suggested this at the start of the season, but Strachany ever the modest self effacing soul declined. However, today was the day he was going to give it a go and see if he could personally get things moving a bit faster.

The lads too strike and it was obvious that Nat was not himself. I must explain that we had our club karaoke the night before and aside for some very heavy drinking, Nat did not get home until 6:30am…come to think of it, neither did Strachany. So we had two very hung over batsmen out there. Strachany seemed to bat better hung over, whereas Nat looked pale as a ghost. Strachany from the first started to play some dare devil shots, but Mr Natural was looking like he wanted to find a hole to crawl into to die. So it was no surprise when Nat was out soon after caught at short leg to what looked like a bump ball to us on the side line, but was assuredly a catch according to both batsmen out in the middle.

I entered the fray very early, but I felt a strange calm come over me. I felt good – not least because unlike my teammates, I had a full nights sleep, but also because the conditions seemed to be just about perfect. The temperature was a comfortable twenty two degrees with a nice breeze and the pitch had some green in it, but over all seemed to be playing true.

As I was about to take strike I noticed that Thornbury had a short leg in place wearing a helmet, and I thought to myself, “if the opportunity arises, I am going to sweep or pull one straight into him as hard as I can and take him out”. With that sadistic thought I took block. The first ball delivered to me by Thornbury fast medium bowler Gary Newman was a slightly over pitched Yorker that I met with the full face of the bat and caressed it past mid on for two.

That felt nice. It just pinged off the middle of the bat and I could not help thinking that it was nice to get off the mark so quickly compared to last week which took about five overs of struggle. For some reason, I simply knew that the next ball would be short pitched and as it came out of Newman’s hand I was already waiting on my back foot and I swiveled and played a neat pull shot straight to the deep fielder for a single. Three runs off my first two balls…it really did feel to be a good day.

In the coming couple of overs, I only played one false stroke and that was off Newman who saw me coming down the pitch to him (for some reason I premeditated a charge) and he dropped it short in front of me as I advanced to drive. So I quickly checked my stroke rather swinging through the line and the ball popped up and floated over the bowler and just out of Mid On’s reach. A stroke of luck as I should have gone through with the stroke as it would have sailed half way to the unguarded boundary if I did.

I did have another awkward moment off the same bowler when a ball struck my pad at the same time as I swiped the top of my pad with the bat creating a noise that sounded similar to an edge because of the timing and the ball ricocheting to the right of short leg who took a spectacular diving catch as the Thornbury players celebrated what they were certain was a bat pad catch. I stood my ground nervously wondering if the umpire saw my bat hit pad and not the ball. Luckily, he did and gave me not out.

Coming on from the other end was the left arm bowler Adrian Blackburn who not only bowled accurately, but swung the ball away at a reasonable speed. I played and missed a number of times, but also played some reasonable shots that unfortunately went straight to fielders.

I still had time to play a nice cut shot off Newman, but unfortunately only got a single for my efforts. I was playing an over from Blackburn and starting to feel more and more comfortable when Blackburn finally dished up a widish full delivery that was ripe to be smashed through the covers. I play a big cover drive, but the ball snuck under the toe of my bat, onto the ground and then commenced its upward trajectory to the keeper. A bump ball. So I was unconcerned when the Thornbury players appealed enthusiastically for caught behind. Surely the umpire would be intelligent to realize that any ball passing under and catching the toe of the bat can only go down first before going up?

Apparently not, because after a pause of a few seconds the umpire gave me out. At this point I yelled down the pitch “you have to be kidding…it has come off the toe of the bat into the ground and then to the keeper!” A player can be cited for showing dissent, but I kept enough control so as not to go overboard. Strachany then cautioned down the pitch “No VB” as a reminder that if I carried on any longer, I would surely get into trouble. However, I had made my point and I started my walk off muttering curses under my breath.

Ben McLean passed me as the next man in and set about with Strachany to building a decent foundation to our innings. Ben is a guy who has worked diligently on his game and has improved with each year at the Yarras. A padlock defense and the ability to find gaps are the hallmarks of Ben’s game and this day he did not let us down. With Strachany in season best form, the two of them put on a valuable partnership of fifty five with Strachany the aggressor and Benny McLean dropping the sheet anchor.

Strachany was eventually out for a highly entertaining forty eight. Thornbury appealed for caught behind and the umpire demurred only for Strachany to walk when in all likelihood he would have been given not out. No one could ever doubt Strachany’s sportsmanship, however, later events would cast a different light on this selfless and honest act.

Strachany’s forty eight was a far from chanceless innings, but having said that, after all the bad luck Strachany has had so far this season, it seemed only fitting that he would finally get a slice of luck go his way. One incident summed up Strachany’s innings to a tee. Strachany played an awful shot that ballooned straight to the fielder. While the ball was in its arc, Strachany started running just in case the catch went down. As luck would have it, the Thornbury fieldsman dropped a sitter, but if that wasn’t enough, Benny McLean had been watching the ball and had not responded to Strachany’s call and both batsmen were virtually at one end. While Strachany was lucky to be dropped, surely the fieldsman would make amends by running him out by virtually the length of the pitch?

Don’t bet on it!

The fieldsman in his enthusiasm, threw his return wildly and no one from the fielding team could get a hand on it – so not only had Strachany avoided being caught or run out, the ball flew away for four over throws handing Strachany five runs for his horrible shot!

When it is your day – it is your day!

Benny McLean continued on with his carefully crafted innings, but unfortunately the unlucky Nashi Alam was run out for a “diamond duck” (where the batsman does not get to face a ball). Craig Nott strode to the crease looking very confident as he joined Benny to push our score further along. Soon after, disaster struck when “Black” Nott pulled his quad muscle badly thus necessitating that he had to bat on with a runner. Strachany went back out to do the honours. Craig Nott then smashed a glorious six to show that while he could not run, he was still deadly with a bat in his hands. Things were going well when yet another umpiring blunder swung the momentum of the game. Craig played a shot away for a comfortable single. The fieldsmen threw the ball to the bowlers end and the bowler whipped off the bails with the Thornbury players erupting in an ecstatic appeal.

The umpire looked up and saw that Craig Nott was still standing at the strikers end and that Ben McLean had joined him at that end…so in perverse relief at how simple this decision seemed to be, he gave Craig run out by the length of the pitch. What the umpire had forgotten and seemingly the Thornbury players as well, was that Craig had employed Strachany as a runner and Strachany was NOT out of his ground when the bowler broke the stumps, but was past the stumps and in by nearly two meters. It was clearly a massive gaffe and the umpire realized he had made a mistake within seconds of making the decision– but the umpire did not reverse his decision and even more disappointing, the Thornbury captain Blenkiron made no attempt to recall Craig Nott as he trudged disconsolately off the ground after making an impressive and comfortable fifteen.

Remarkably, that was two weeks in a row that Craig had been given out incorrectly after being given out caught from a chest high full toss against nationals the week before. Talk about rough luck. Notty and Benny had put on twenty nine runs together before their innings was terminated in this unfortunate manner.

Timmy Miller came in and immediately started turning over the strike and playing smart cricket as he is capable of doing. Then as the partnership with Benny reached nineteen, Tim edged one through to the keeper in much the same manner as Strachany, and like Strachany, was given not out. Just like Strachany again, he honourably walked. Ian “Chips” Pringle came and went quickly and then Vishnu entered the fray and made an immediate impact smacking a two and then a boundary. Vishi then smashed one in the direction of square leg that was absolutely flying. A foot either side of the square leg fieldsman and it was four runs all the way. However, the ball unerringly slammed into the hands of the Thornbury fieldsman who held onto a super catch.

Benny McLean was eventually bowled out in the last over trying to smash quick runs for a stoic thirty one and our innings ultimately closed on 9/159 after our compulsory closure of innings at the forty five over mark.

I felt that we needed about fifteen runs more, but also reasoned that if this season was any form guide, Thornbury had struggled to get to one hundred most weeks and had a top score of 146. So I was quietly confident that we should be able to route them.

In his first game for the Yarras, Vishnu took the new ball and almost immediately had the Thornbury captain Blenkiron caught behind with a big nick that flew almost to first slip where keeper Timmy Miller took a splendid catch. Amazingly, the same umpire that had given me out incorrectly, Notty out incorrectly and had blundered on both Strachany and Timmy’s decisions where both saved his blushes by walking again was in tehs potlight when he gave the decision not out much to our chagrin. Timmy Miller is very non demonstrative sort of bloke as you would expect from someone who is a university lecturer by profession, but he was so incensed by the umpires huge mistake that he turned to Blenkiron and in a loud voice that was just a few decibels below shouting said “why don’t you walk?”

The batsman has a right to hold his ground of course – but after two of our batsmen had walked and two others had been given out incorrectly, a bit of honour would have been appreciated. In any case, in his next over Vishnu trapped Thornbury opener Pat Barry LBW for three for his first Yarras wicket. Thornbury batsmen Hagan and Viner both dug in for a critical match defining partnership.

Viner batted doggedly for the most part as opposed to Hagan who played a more aggressive game with some risky stroke play. I lost count of the amount of times Hagan planted his foot straight down the pitch and lofted the ball back over the bowlers head each time somehow avoiding the mid on or mid off fieldsmens clutches by centimeters. The one time Hagan did loft the ball directly to a fielder, the normally reliable Strachany dropped what he would normally catch with his eyes closed on any other day.

We were rather flat for most of the afternoon, but we seemed to grow flatter and flatter as the Viner and Hagan partnership grew. At 2 for 118 with both batsmen in control, the game looked to have slipped beyond our grasp. Thornbury only needed a further forty two runs and with plenty of wickets and overs in hand – a Thornbury win started to look like a formality.

Suddenly, “Chips” Pringle lured Viner down the pitch and floated they ball past the Thornbury batsmans despairing swipe to have him cleverly stumped by the alert Timmy Miller. 3 for 118 and we suddenly awoke from our torpor. Within minutes, Sandosh brilliantly fielded the ball and rifled his return to Corky Miller who whipped off the bails with the batsman out of his ground. 4 for 121 and we could sense panic starting to creep into the Thornbury camp.

I kept thinking that we had to somehow get rid of Hagan who had brought up his fifty and was still there. We needed to slightly drop back the mid on and mid off and put two excellent catchers there as I knew Hagan could not resist going for his pet shot. Ben McLean seemed to read my mind as he called out to Nashi at Mid Off to switch with him at cover. Within two balls of the switch being made, Hagan again lofted Chips Pringle and this time Ben McLean got underneath the skier and made no mistake taking an excellent catch. Nice one Benny!

5 for 127 with twenty three runs to get for a win and Thornbury were starting to wobble. With some near suicidal running between wickets and some close the eyes and swing stroke play, Thornbury added a further sixteen priceless runs to get the score up to 5 for 143 and again looked safe. But the Mighty Yarra Fifth Eleven were not dead yet and as so often has happened this year, we conjured another wicket to keep the game alive when Thornbury batsman Taylor was caught and bowled by Benny McLean.

6 for 143.soon became 7 for 144 when Cummings was caught by Vishnu at mid wicket from the bowling of Strachany. Sixteen runs to win for Thornbury and three wickets left for an unlikely win for us. We had really ramped up the pressure and were suddenly buzzing in the field when half an hour earlier it was more like a morgue. The very next ball Strachany trapped Thornbury batsman Collier LBW for a golden duck and it was 8 for 144.

Still sixteen needed and we now only had to get two wickets to win. It was last weeks game repeating itself. Surely this week we could pull off the win? Blackburn joined Newman out in the middle and neither of them looked capable of surviving for very long. Surely, one mistake and we would then have a crack at the number eleven. They swung and missed. They swung and connected scoring some unlikely runs. A mistake had to come? They edged closer and closer when all they needed was four runs to win with nine balls to bowl. Strachany then bowled his only bad ball – a full toss that had “slog me” written all over it and Newman threw his bat at it and connected sweetly much like the Nationals number eleven batsman had the week before. I knew it was four the moment it left the bat.

Sunk by tail enders yet again!

The forth nail biter this year we had lost and the third by tail enders getting the winning runs. Devastation again, but unlike last week where I felt we could not have done much more, this week we did not really play well and the umpiring absolutely gutted what chance we had of winning the game.

The Thornbury lads showed themselves to be a lot more forth coming than the Nationals lads from the week before by coming to our bar and sharing post game drinks with us.

We play them all over again at our home ground this week in a quirk in the fixturing.. I really hope we can turn the tables on them and hopefully get a better rub of the green with the men in white.

More next week!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA