WCC 193-6d
BOUGHTON 170ish
Weekenders won by some runs.
Everyone has their own method of preparing for a big game. Some like to warm up with a five-mile uphill walk from the station to the ground – Emmett and Desmeules, for example. Others prefer to go to the seaside, get pissed up and stuff themselves with oysters (d’Inverno, Hargroves, Douglas and the Harvey brothers would fall into this category). It’s a matter of respecting your body’s needs.
It’s also about respecting each others’ training regimes. So it was very disappointing last Sunday that while the Whitstable restaurant party frequently rang up the walkers to offer encouragement, liberally laced with salty humour, not once did the walkers ask how the meal was going, whether the oysters were natives, was the wine was properly chilled etc... It’s always a worry when the lads fail to back each other up.
With cruel irony it was walking that proved Emmett’s undoing. In one of several unfortunate incidents he was run out after strolling down the wicket under the impression that the ball was dead. Despite a lack of oysters Hogben and Chiari erected a firm platform until Hogben became Slogben to a straight one. With Pope out soon afterwards the innings appeared to be going flaccid but Mike Harvey played a firm and chunky little knock to help Chiari in a key stand.
After Mike left it was a mainly medical affair in the middle. Hargroves playing Doctor Tap while at the other end Dr Chiari’s ‘Surgery of Style’ was open for business. Debutant Nigel True helped flush the cholesterol from the innings’ arteries yet still d’Inverno felt he hadn’t quite got enough runs. His request for an extra couple of overs before tea went down badly with the oppo skipper, adding yet more grit to the oyster.
The Weekenders bowling was spearheaded by the skipper who conjured a couple of poles against the run of play and PJ Harvey who swung it at a pleasantly stiff pace. Desmeules, bravely bowling without a nickname, roared in and managed to strangle his maiden Weekenders wicket with a full toss. Douglas hobbled in lamely but the rare appearance of someone just as old and heavy as himself at the other end inspired him to dig deep and produce a bouncer. Incident number 3.
With four wickets standing and five overs left d’Inverno turned to Hargroves and asked for a trademark mixed bag. Doctor Tap turned Consultant Kidologist with a bag so mixed it was impossible to tell the liquorice allsorts from the curate’s eggs. Twelve balls later his analysis read two wickets for 18 runs. In another inspired decision d’Inverno replaced him with PJ who obliged with an lbw followed in the final over by a killer blow that hit the top of middle.
So ended a tight contest that saw the hosts sportingly going for the runs all the way. But at the end of the day you’d have to say Sauvignon was the winner.
WCC 194 – 6 (44 overs)
Chiari 67
(Ct), Emmett 1 (Std? Run out? Sawn
off?), Hogben 20 (Bld), Pope 0 (Ct), Harvey M 28 (Ct), Hargroves - 40*, True
8 (Bld), Douglas 4*
Harvey P, Desmeules and d'Inverno DNB
BOUGHTON
170-odd (35 overs)
Harvey
P 9-3-33-3, D'inverno 10-1-41-2, Desmeules 3-0-26-1,
Douglas 7-0-27-2
Chiari 4-0-20-0, Hargroves 2-0-18-2
Catches:
Douglas, Chiari, Hargroves, Hogben,
Debut: N.
True