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The magnificent 9 pictured below went to Cardiff with
high hopes, read on to find out what happened on and off the field!
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| Fixtures |
| Date |
Vs |
Result |
Card |
Photos |
| 6th Aug |
Whitchurch Heath |
Won by 4 wickets |
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| 7th Aug |
Cowbridge |
Lost by 4 wickets |
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| 8th Aug |
Blackwood Town |
Lost by 5 wickets |
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Day 1 v Whitchurch Heath
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Sonning's touring heroes immediately
secured a tour win under stand-in skipper Nigel Thorpe, in the
familiar surroundings of Whitchurch Hospital. Unfortunately the
team had been reduced to 8 thanks to the non-appearance of the
enigma that is Jethro, as he had conveniently re-arranged a 4
hour interview for the afternoon, on the basis that it would be
less traumatic than skippering Sonning's Golden Oldies in a foreign
country. Anyway Whitchurch kindly lent us two youthful players
and thanks to some excellent bowling by Banjo (5 for 26), some
improbable stuff by Aligadiver (2 for 13) and three catches and
a stumping by Thorpey, we restricted Whitchurch Heath to 130-odd.
After comfortably winning the tea, Sonning got off to a solid
start with a 51 partnership from Aligadiver (36) and Trout who
went on to make an excellent 44. After a little bit of a wobble
in the middle, the legend that is Mark Anderson 20* and the leg-end
that is Thorpey (10*) saw Sonning home with 3 wickets to spare.
On the basis that it was the first night of the tour and that
cricket was paramount, the party agreed that a quiet night in
with a good book and a nice cup of cocoa was the way to round
of a jolly good day
Day 2 v Cowbridge
Bolstered by Wildthing's generous order of lagers for breakfast
and the arrival of Jethro, and in the knowledge that Whitchurch
had lent us two of their better young players, the tour party
arrived at Ye Old Ram and Wellies Public House in Cowbridge with
a fair degree of optimism. Despite the fact that "Big Nick" Marks
tried to knock himself out on a piece of village infrastructure
and fell in the road whilst recovering, a full team took the field
shortly afterwards.
Unfortunately skipper for the day Phil Swan fell for the wily
old Cowbridge skipper's line of "we'll let you bat first but let's
have a timed game - we'll have 20 overs after 6.15". This of course
means that we were always going to bowl more overs, unless everyone
adopted a Phil Wilding run-up starting somewhere in the Brecon
Beacons. Nevertheless Swannie was confident and declared on 199
for 4, thanks to a superb knock of 114 from Jethro, admirably
backed up by Whitchurch recruits Dave Tibbs (48) and young Vim
Patel (18*). Jethro's innings spawned the birth of the Jethro
Song, a delightful little ditty which goes as follows:
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"He can't read and he can't write
but he can wield the willow,
he's a wurzel full of shite and his name is Jethro"
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After another storming tea session, Sonning took the field calmly
confident that their strong bowling attack could prevail. After
a couple of quick wickets this looked likely but then the Bahrein
Broom and a couple of young Welsh Boshers steadied the Cowbridge
ship and a draw looked likely. Then Swannie did what on the face
of it most people would do - he ignored Jethro's advice. However
that advice was for once sound, in that it involved keeping the
miserly Anners on at one end and bringing back the even more miserly
Trout at the other end. Swannie decided to bring himself back
on and kept Dave on at the other and thus managed to snatch defeat
from the jaws of a draw!
That evening the tour awards were presented for the first and
indeed only time on tour. (As Anners was at pains to point out
to anyone who listened, there simply weren't enough idiots in
the tour party, which is something the club is going to have to
address in future). The winner of the Man of the Match medallion
was of course Jethro and the Gower Award for the Champagne Moment
went to Banjo for a stupendous one-handed slip catch worthy of
any test match (involving Wales). As for the Wilt of the Day Award,
well that was firmly secured by Thorpey for his Care in the Community
work. We don't want to make a big issue out of this but his actions
beggar belief.
Later on in the evening the tour party gathered at Earl's place
for an excellent evening with a superb live band and food laid
on by our old friend and Mayor of Cardiff, Earl Smikle, who did
us proud yet again. Even our singing sounded good that night !
Day 3 v Blackwood
The third and final day of the tour saw a far wearier squad make
the trip up the valleys to Blackwood. After a large cod and chips
at the Ewe in a Skirt Public House, the chaps stumbled down the
road to what they knew would be a toughie.
Trout was skipper for the day and he immediately put his faith
in two of the best tail-enders in 9 counties, by asking Swannie
and Anners to open. They didn't disappoint with both driving fluently
like pros from the start. Unfortunately Blackwood had the services
of the Wales youth team captain and he soon had them both back
in the pavilion for 18 each, with a couple of cracking deliveries.
This brought the by now familiar Dave Tibbs and the in-form Jethro
to the crease and they began what proved to be a superb 200 partnership
dominated by Dave's excellent shot placement and Jethro's sheer
brutality. Eventually Jethro was out for 100, which Dave would
have been able to emulate if ether Trout or Thorpey had been able
to give him the strike in the last over. Unfortunately they declined
to do so on the grounds that he was still talking in a Welsh accent
despite being warned repeatedly and the poor chap was left stranded
on 96 *. Nevertheless the total of 248 for 4 was a great effort.
After the third consecutive victory in the cake-eating, we embarked
on the final session with quiet confidence. However watching Swannie
and Trout get pasted for an average 6 an over and then Jethro
and Thing going for an average 7 and 8 an over respectively, as
a Glamorgan first class player and a couple of Welsh youth batsmen
got stuck into their task, it soon became apparent that 248 was
probably 50 runs short! At this stage the entertainment was divided
between watching the ball being launched into Blackwood High Street
and watching the rampant wildebeest that is Big Nick attempting
to launch himself over the boundary fence and down the valley-side.
There's no doubt he's got the turning circle of Jupiter. Shortly
after almost leaving the field involuntarily Nick then came on
to bowl and probably wished he had left, because his first over
was scattered liberally throughout the Borough of Blackwood for
a mere 28 runs. The situation wasn't exactly helped by Aligadiver
then coming on to bowl like spastic and a left-handed girl spastic
at that, but it did help to hasten the inevitable defeat a few
overs earlier than it would have otherwise occurred.
That night we were joined by the legend that is John Russell Page
Esq, and the rest is history. |
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