Monday mornings are a lot more enjoyable when you win: Balham Roamers 5 June 2005
Report by: Elvis FKA Ginger

Match Report: Click here to add your own comment  |  See all comments

It's been a year of sporting anomalies; unfancied Greece won Euro 2004, the GB men's 4x100 relay team won the Olympic gold (some achievement with a stoned anchorman - he must have a seen someone waving a Mars Bar in the crowd), Wales won the Grand Slam with a team of hairdressers, an unknown so unknown I can't remember his name won the World Snooker championship and, most unbelievably of all, AC Milan made the European Cup final. Thankfully in that last instance, common sense prevailed and the better team won on the day, although I thought an upset was on the cards when that Ukrainian numpty managed to get clear through at the end. Anyway, in this year of sporting miracles, Salix has made their own contribution, winning 4 on the trot for the first time since Charlie was captain and neckerchiefs were fashionable throughout the land.

And so to the match itself. Following in the footsteps of great captains before him, Capn German lost the toss and we were put in to field. A good spell from our opening bowlers kept the runs down and yielded a couple of wickets, most notable of which was a nick behind ably taken by Tony off Roger's bowling, only 4 balls after Tony had told Roger that it was about time a catch came through. Thereafter momentum swung back and forth; the Roamers have batting in depth and spanked the ball around the park, assisted in no small part by some fairly poor Salix fielding, but the odd wicket here and there restricted them to 125 for 8 with not very many overs left. Unfortunately Balham's no.9 is a bit better than our no.9 (much though it hurts to write) and he played a fine late innings to take them to a reasonable total of 177 off the 35 overs. Charlie had bowled well at the end and was unlucky not to pick up a couple more wickets and the German bowled a gem of a first over before letting the more erratic side of his game came to the legside wide fore.

A competitive target, but there's a certain amount of confidence about Salix at the moment, possibly derived from early season success, possibly derived from cocaine addiction (Ed speak for yourself, I'm a lager man myself) and there was a general feeling that we could knock off the 5 an over required. We started slowly, the Nurdler and Daveski building a solid partnership that eventually led to the latter's highest score in Salix colours, a deftly played 43. Charlie came and went without troubling the scorers, as did Raj, and Rog ran himself out for 1 in true Salix comedy fashion. It looked like the familiar middle order collapse; but this is the new improved Salix with extra winning power. New Ginge, neighbour of Ginge kept things ticking over, including a cracking straight six, before Tinker stepped up to deliver the killing blows. A couple of beautifully bludgeoned fours brought the run rate back down and enabled the German, plugging away manfully throughout, to hit the winning runs. The Chancellor would be the first to admit that he's not quite in top nick at the moment, but special mention has to be made of the two sixes he hit, one onto the sports hall roof and the other over the long boundary towards the pavilion.

Thanks to Balham, a good bunch of blokes who probably would have won on any other day. However, the force is with us and we've gone from what I described on the pre-season tour as the "best dressed shit team in London" (I think that should be on the quotes page, btw Editor) (Ed: It's hardly Tennyson is it?) , to a team that looks good and plays passably. As someone said after the match yesterday, Monday mornings are a lot more enjoyable when you win.

Salix CC versus Balham Roamers at Glaxo on 05-06-2005 (35 Over Game) Salix CC (batting second) 181 for 6 off 33.3 overs Match Won Balham Roamers 177 for 8 off 35 overs
No Player Score How Out 1. Dominic Spillane 15 Caught 2. Dave Henig 43 LBW 3. Charlie Hewitt 0 Caught 4. Andy Rayner 39 Not Out 5. Rajeev Sanwalka 0 LBW 6. Roger Heaton 1 Run Out 7. Stuart Lumsden 22 Caught 8. Graham Nannery 14 Not Out 9. Mike Ellis 0 Did Not Bat 10. Tony Fletcher 0 Did Not Bat 11. Steve Jacobs 0 Did Not Bat Extras 47 Total 181		No. Player Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Ave SR Econ 1. Steve Jacobs 7 1 14 2 7.00 21.00 2.00 2. Mike Ellis 7 1 26 1 26.00 42.00 3.71 3. Stuart Lumsden 4 0 33 0 - - 8.25 4. Charlie Hewitt 7 0 33 2 16.50 21.00 4.71 5. Andy Rayner 3 0 19 1 19.00 18.00 6.33 6. Roger Heaton 7 0 23 1 23.00 42.00 3.29
		Dominic Spillane 2 catches Tony Fletcher 1 catch Roger Heaton 1 catch Stuart Lumsden 1 catch Graham Nannery 1 catch Steve Jacobs 1 drop Stuart Lumsden 1 drop Graham Nannery 1 drop

Comments, if any, are shown below: Click here to add your own comment