MGCC were privileged to be invited to participate in one of Westcott’s 125 year celebration events; a 6-a-side tournament. We sent a team with strong credentials to play cricket, eat burgers and drink beer! Skippered by Big Dave, with The Jackal, Cubby, Guns, Anthea and Gregory there was a lot of power in all 3 departments!
The 4 teams (MGCC, Brill and 2 from Westcott) played a league with all playing each other and then the top 2 to play off a Super-Final.
Marsh were determined to approach the day in the right frame of mind so prior to the first game headed straight to the food and beer, with Gregory buying a round….which was his (and our) highlight of the day!! Returning to say “I just got 5 lagers and a coke (for Guns who had been out-drunk by his girlfriend the previous night) for £6.50, I’m coming here again!”
With the refreshments sorted, we moved on to the next most important part of the day: The Fines Structure. It was decided that every dot ball would suffer a 50p fine, but every 6 hit would neutralise a dot fine. At this point Joe checked his bank balance and volunteered to bat last (hoping to not get to the middle at all!)
First up was Westcott ‘A’ who were their 2nd team…Confused? Stuart continued his rich vein of tossing and just to give the day extra spice lost every toss! We were put in with Chaz and Dave opening at a fair lick despatching the ball everywhere. Stu scored 24 and Chaz 33, and Tom added 6 as Marsh scored 77 in the 5 overs. Much too many for Westcott and so one game and one win.
Next came Westcott ‘B’ who were their 1st Team, still confused? We bowled first this time and restricted Westcott to 59 meaning we needed exactly 2 runs per ball for victory. Again, all went pretty smoothly with Dave (“Ooh am I getting a good average now?”) being unbeaten on 24 and Chaz contributing 13, before Stevie decided that he would start to hit the ball and was also unbeaten on 25, scoring the winning runs with 2 balls to spare.
Lastly was Brill, who had not been pulling up trees, so Marsh were solid favourites – and so it transpired…Marsh bowled first and restricted Brill to 42. Unfortunately there is a gap in the correspondence here as I had to leave the ground for an important meeting at Dominoes to arrange Chaz’s next delivery…..but Stu (14*) and Cubby (17*) knocked them off sharpish.
Marsh won the League with 3 wins from 3 matches and several beers and even more burgers and hot dogs consumed….
As the day was proceeding ahead of time, it was decided to interject an extra game prior to the final between Marsh and Westcott ‘A’ (that’s the 2nd team, remember?). No one has any idea why this was done, though probably because half the Brill side had left and Marsh were to play Westcott ‘B’ in the final. And though nice to have another game it was difficult for the highly focused Marsh 6 to keep on the edge of readiness playing a meaningless game. And so new rules, not found in any ECB handbook, were introduced by Marsh for every players’ first ball faced, including: must hit a 6, must run every ball (Joe), must play a switch hit (Steve), must sweep, must leave (Carl) – Must retire after 3 balls! (Stu) Marsh scored a lot again (Cubby 38) and then took to the field where the object was to try to see which bowler would get the worst figures through our own inept fielding. This led to dropped catches, walking to retrieve the ball and even Stuart bowling! (after which he claimed “best figures of the day” by his own calculation).
And so to the Final……
A bit of a damp squib from the boys, perhaps tired out after an emotional weekend of victories, or perhaps full of burgers? But batting first only put up 54 (Stu – 5, Chaz – 9*, Steve – 7, Tom – 15, Joe – 1, Kyle – 6* Xtras – 13). Not a bad total but short of all our earlier scores and without any 6’s. Westcott stayed on track for the total throughout and Reporter: reached the total with 3 balls to spare.
An excellent tournament and we are very appreciative to all those at Westcott that put in the effort to arrange – particularly the catering staff (wink wink!)
So, to the final fines statistics:
Dot Balls faced (50p each) : Stuart – 7. Chaz – 7. Steve – 5. Tom – 2. Joe – 1,437. Kyle – 4.
Sixes Scored (50p reduction each!) : Stuart – 5. Chaz – 3. Steve – 0. Tom – 0. Joe – 1. Kyle (don’t be silly)
Reporter: Kyle The Correspondent!