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On a beautifully sunny evening with a gentle easterly breeze, the Rebels strode out to field after yet another successful ‘non toss’ by El Capitano Coyne. I gave them the option to bat, which they chose correctly. New boy this year Elliott Griffiths was given the honour of opening the bowling, something which took him completely by surprise. After calming the poor old man down (he is 43 you know) he settled straight into a lovely line and rhythm. I must also point out that as vice captain Pugsley had an 18th birthday to attend (his own) he was duly dropped from the team, allowing back up keeper Paul ‘big hands’ Spencer to take his rightful place behind the stumps, something which Spencer called one of the biggest privileges in his 18 year cricketing career as a professional, both in Jersey and also when he was living in a travellers camp just outside of Junction 6 on the M1. Steve McGuinness opened from the other end and both bowled well with various degrees of luck, Elliott collecting 1 for 21 off his 3 overs, which included a stunning reflex catch by Vibsy, and Steve ending up with 1 for 46 having bowled their other opener. Spencer in the meantime was having a blinder behind the stumps, diving to his left, right, up and sometimes forward to ensure that every ball was caught on the full. This is something we have not been used to with Pugsley behind the stumps and it was refreshing to know we had such able back up to the young prince. They ended up with a massive 172 for 3 off their 14 overs.
We had a quick break between innings so that we could try and break the world record for the most pictures being taken of a cricket team in one minutes. The previous record was shattered as we ended up with a total of 5,496 pictures, although we may have to do this again as Rochey was blinking in photo number 4,721. What on earth was he thinking?
We needed big runs from everyone in the order, and first up were Coley and Mitchell. Coley breezed his way to 17 before missing a straight one, Mitchell was on 1. Tristan strode in next determined to nail down the troublesome number 3 spot for the Rebels. After watching the first few balls sail by, Tristan hammered the next ball to the boundary for four. It was a text book cover drive, head and feet in line and a full flow of the bat through the line of the ball. It took the edge and rolled nicely to the fence! Unfortunately Tristan also then fell to the Coley curse and missed a straight one, as did Fosse but not before he had hit a few lusty blows, finally ending up on 13. Mitchell had now made 7. Looking up at the scoreboard, and understanding that the current run rate of 10 an over wasn’t going to get us the win we desperately required, Paul Spencer strode to the wicket, safe in the knowledge that he hadn’t let a single bye past him all innings. Spencer slowly accumulated the runs whilst Mitchell was starting to wake up and smell the boundaries. With the need for quicker runs Mitchell fell to another straight ball for a well played 26. This has been a fine start to the season for the Rebels most fanciable player (as voted for by readers of Geordie digest, May 09 edition). El Capitan Coyne was next up and, with a little luck at times smashed a quick 52 leaving 40 runs required form the final 3 overs. Hansie was now at the crease with Spencer and although the runs were coming, the boundaries were hard to come by and we needed 8 to win off the last ball. Their bowler was coming in off his 6.2km run up and the tension was palpable. Would he bowl a no ball or a wide….nope, he bowled the old straight ball which knocked back Hansie’s middle stump, not before he had hit a very quick 20 runs. Paul Spencer ended up on very good 17 not out and we ended up 165 for 5 from 14 overs.
Yogi Bear
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