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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0
Football heroes of yesteryear and David Turner!
President's day cricket match
Sunday 24th August 2014 - Botany Bay CC
And Then There Were Five
Epping CC (139 all out) beat Roger Melling's OSA President's
XI (84 all out) by 55 runs With five of the successful side of 2013
'unavailable' - James Mote and Andy Douglas were on an
'Anniversary Weekend', Martin and Oliver Slatford were on
holiday, and John Jackson was at a wedding - a much changed
side was initially selected to represent Roger Melling's OSA
President's XI However, when Gary Page (who played in 2012)
and Ilyas Malick (who was Man of the Match in 2013) 'cried off
having had operations earlier in August, the squad was starting
to be 'stretched to the limit'.
Then, when Gordon Rose advised that JJ, who had match
managed the Botany Bay side for the last three years, would be
away for this year's game, the alarm bells started ringing, and
they got louder when the match manager was asked, in the week
before the game, whether the OSA had anyone who could play
for the opposition!! Subsequently, the (almost) inevitable
happened and three days before the game Botany Bay conceded
that they were unable to raise a team.
However, Botany Bay officials, in consultation with Gordon
Rose, approached the Club Cricket Conference, to find alternative
opponents, and Epping CCs Sunday XI were identified
and selected. Despite the Match Manager's reservations, Epping
turned out to be ideal opponents, who respected the day, the
game, and the spirit of cricket!! After yet another excellent lunch,
hosted by our President, Roger Melling, and masterminded by
Gordon Rose, it was agreed to play a 'declaration' game, and on
winning the toss, the Epping CC skipper decided to bat - after
being prompted!!
Our new ball attack was Tim Westbrook (who last took a wicket
in 2011) and debutante Neil Jervis - who last played cricket in the
1990s!! As we had been told Epping had two Saturday First XI
players, when their opening bat, Dan Sly raced to 19 in the first
three overs. it became obvious that he was one of the two - and that
was confirmed later. However, Tim Westbrook made the initial
breakthrough removing the other opener, courtesy of a gulley catch
by Tony Pigden - although the look on Tony's face, when he held
it, gave us a clue that he was as shocked as the rest of us!!
Despite that, the 'turning point' in the Epping innings came
three overs later, when Neil Jervis (1-35) persuaded the ball to
keep a little low and bowled Dan Sly - which (probably) stopped
us having to chase in excess of 200. Whilst neither Epping's
numbers three or four looked as 'cultured' as their opener, their
third wicket partnership of 38 started to take the game away
from us, and was only broken when the hard-hitting Sam Rashid
(the second of their first teamers) was well caught by Ross
Blackmore, at deepish' mid-off, off the bowling of Tim
Westbrook, who ended up with 2 for 33. Five balls later, the
batsmen sensed the opportunity of a second leg bye as neither
Terry White (from slip) nor Tim Westbrook (from fine-leg)
looked to be able to stop it, but an excellent chase and throw by
Terry resulted in Richard Slatford demolishing the stumps and
Epping were 71 for 4.
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