What a difference a Cover makes!

It’s been a common theme this Summer; sunny and dry from Monday to Thursday and then the wind and rain sets in!  Already this year 4 home games have required our no-expense spared Jewson builders membrane to keep the wet stuff off and last Saturday’s game with Chipping Norton was no exception.

The weather forecast had a ‘Yellow Warning’ for Bucks with torrential rain, high winds and thunderstorms threatened, so the track was prepared early and covered on Thursday morning as the drizzle started.  When midday Saturday arrived and the clouds were still parked resolutely over the Mighty Gibbon it was looking dire.  But, as the track was perfectly dry (though a bit like Grants armpits – sweaty!) it was a question of waiting and waiting and waiting, whilst Neil slept and slept and slept.   The new rules say matches can start as late as 4.10pm and so we were going to give it that long.  At 2.45 the air cleared and the cover came off and 15 minutes later we were underway for a 25 over Blast!

Stand-in Skipper Dave began by losing the Toss and we were inserted – Standard!   (TimDog was away basking in the sunshine of Gran Canaria with the lovely miss Emma)  Joe and Frankie presented another solid start and moved the dial to 38 off 9 before Joe (23) was ‘wrong-footed’ by Molyneux and missed a straight one.  Now was the time to up the rate and up stepped Chaz Gregory Shippo only to sky one early (49 for 2 at halfway).  Long-handle Leonard joined Frankie and the pair moved it along steadily and prepared for the late innings onslaught…..which stalled just as it was to start when Stu was caught behind with Stevie following next ball hoiking to cow.  Crouchie was also in no mood to trouble the scorer and returned a hat trick of ducks!   Satty and Guns came and went and Matt fell after a hard battled substance-over-style 38.  Kyle and Farmer added a critical 20 in the last 2 overs to push the total to 124 off 25 and a competitive score was established.

To score 5 runs an over for 45 overs is a challenge – a total of 225 will win the game more than not, but to score 5 an over for only 25 overs means the bowlers cannot give any margin and the fielders must not miss the chances when they come.  The mark of any team is how it holds its nerve when the margin is small.

And it certainly helps to not have 4 pints of Hen inside you or holding nerve, ball, or bat is a feat!

Steve and Nathan opened straight and sound and in the 4th over Wallington, who was playing with intent snicked to Kyle in gully who snaffled it up between elbow and rib!?!   A breakthrough but by the 8th over the score was 30 for 2 when Millard pushed to our affable Asian at mid on and set off on an anticipated jog, only for the spirit of Jonty Rhodes to enter the Asian soul and infuse it with athleticism and accuracy – sprinting and hurling down the stumps!   The game seemed to have re-balanced again.

There followed a further period when the Norton skipper slowly kept nudging them toward the target, and at 70 for 3 off 13, Norton required 55 runs from 54 balls with 7 wickets in hand.  With so many wickets in hand the smart money had moved on to Norton.

But when a side holds it’s nerve to the end they can make things happen, and that was the case.

In the next 25 balls Marsh took 6 wickets for just 7 runs!

Satty started the rout with Duester skying to Kyle to hold on, then 3 balls later the essential wicket of the skipper as he snicked to Dave behind and the whole house of cards was falling…Kyle The Jackal(?!) stepped in with a double wicket maiden, bowling both through the gate and behind the legs (we were now coming from behind you might say!)   The expensive Vadivale then trapped Molyneux in-front before rounding the day off with a caught and bowled (after a practice effort!)  The now grubby Asian (“get a move on it’s getting dark”) returned exceptional figures of 5 wickets for only 9 runs in 24 deliveries.

Chipping Norton bowled out for 78 in 21 overs.

Nerve-Held.

 

 

 

MGCC Support Westcott 125 Year Celebrations at 6-A-Side Tournament

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!

 

 

 

 

Is Timms Taking Total Control?

Well I’ve heard it said that the skipper is taking control but things are really beginning to get completely out of hand….1st team skipper, mid-week vice (retired), up for treasurer and now he’s won the Bonus Ball – not only does that make the Timms family the luckiest of the lot, you really do wonder what’s going to happen next – will he clone himself – is he really a cyborg sent back from the future (well have you ever seen him and the Terminator in the same room together – no I thought not)!?!?

mikeyT

Anyway congrats to Mikey and also to Saffi Needham who won this week’s draw!

Week 16 Bonus Ball 25 – Mikey Timms

Week 17 Bonus Ball 24 – Saffi Needham

Followers of the Bonus Ball will realise that there are only a few weeks left to grab your balls for the round – oo’er Matron!  Demand is expected to be heavy – gracious me even young Mr Turner has verbally committed to participating – whatever next?  Sat turns up on time?  Match reports get posted sooner rather than later…?

Bonus Ball oldies but goldies

Before I receive any ageist hate mail I would say that I would classify myself in this group!!

So our 2 most recent winners are….

Bob Summers 09-May Bonus Ball#18
Duke Leonard 16-May Bonus Ball#17

We hadn’t managed to collect the money from Bob so if someone wants to  slip him a £5 in the Dog next time they see him I’ll sub them later.

As for Duke – paid up like a good’un so he needs us to pay him 25 sovs!!  Suggestion is that Joe as he is in need of paying the banker (me!!) plenty of dosh if he pays Duke then he can take that off the bill – and anyway in contradiction of what Bazza would tell you I don’t like caravans!!

Could I also take this opportunity to comment on the lack of match reports…..gentlemen, and you too Satya pull your socks up!!

Bonus Ball – unrequited to the nth degree?

Now dear readers this is a bonus ball update but it also has a moral about unrequited love – the worst kind!

For those of you of a romantic nature (or you haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about – shame on you!) take a listen to this track from the great Loudon Wainwright III…. “Unrequited to the nth degree” – BTW it is a humorous song 🙂

The key words are “I’ll be dead but you can bet I’ll get you back” and I’m sure that’s exactly what Emma will be thinking… why didn’t Timmo pay for my Bonus Ball entry….?  Worse she can see that both Barry and Tracey have now own – oh shame on the new Capt!!!

Actually to be fair she does get a fiver!  Let’s hope Mikey does too!!

There is of course an alternative viewpoint and that’s it was merely a devious plot by Carlos to make sure all the bonus balls were taken last year  – and that Timmo knew nothing!!

You choose dear readers!

Week WINNERS Date Bonus Ball
10 Emma Seward 18-Apr 10
11 Tracey Timms 25-Apr 47
12 Free 02-May 36

Anyway the Bonus Ball Bank says thank you very much – more money to us 🙂

Oh and the moral?  As that other orange man (Dale Winton!) says – you’ve gotta (pay to) be in it to win it…!

Wantage v the Mighty Gibbon – Satya Says…

satWantage Vs Marsh Gibbon Originals

Marsh Gibbon   177-6

Wantage             170-9

Marsh Pilgrims! Welcome to the start of the 2015 Cricket season for the originals. After creating more build up and excitement than the Mayweather-Pacquiao match up, and that’s just for the fantasy league point allocations (Unlucky Stu!), the opening day had finally arrived. All the hours in the nets, all the off season training led to this moment… Sat arriving early! (OMG! – Ed.)

New captain, new era, new division and Carlos still had his camera ready to take pictures and videos of the dressing room! First up on the spunky new fixtures roster (check your e-mails peoples!) was fellow promotees, Wantage. So it was nicely set up, the weather was mild if a little bit chilly, the Wantage ground looked picturesque and the pitch looked absolutely stonking considering it was the first game of the season. Kudos to the Wantage grounds man. As the two captains met in the middle to toss under the watchful eye of the two umpires (I’ll leave the innuendos to the readers!), everyone wondered whether we would bat or bowl. Carlos wondered what sort of worms were used by Wantage! We lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Game…On.

The first depositors to open the Marsh Gibbon batting account were Messrs Joe Leonard and Matt Mead. Make no mistake Wantage are a very good side, they bowl well and bat even better so a good solid start by the new opening pair was essential. The plan was simple: bat positively, keep wickets in hand till the last 10-12 overs then allow the 20/20 specialists (Callow and Turner) to get us up to the 200+ mark. Full batting points and a sizeable total to defend. Joe Leonard, famed for his forward defensive being quicker than his running between the wickets, looked in immediate form defending purposefully and hitting the bad balls hard to the boundary. Matt Mead promoted to opener looked completely at ease and kept the scoreboard ticking with a flurry of chanceless fours. Both complemented each other and the score ticked along steadily towards 50. It was lovely to watch and I look forward to seeing this pair bat together for the rest of the season. It allowed Sat to play around with his new array of coloured pens whilst making the score book a true work of art! The pitch offered no usual early season gremlins, if anything the ball tended to come off the pitch a bit slower. This led to Meady curtailing a fluent 29 by playing too early to a short ball and holing out to point. Sat joined Joe and these two progressed the board to past the 100 mark setting up a good base for 200. With about 12 overs to go Joe (39) fell to a good catch at fine leg. Sat (44) soon fell, fat bugger got run out again, and Messrs Honour (16), Callow (9), Turner (5) made rapid contributions. Messrs Carlos (15*) and Cross (6*) remained undefeated at the end of the 45 overs with Carlos eking the total over the 175 mark (getting us 4 out of 5 batting points). So Marsh ended on 177-6 knowing we had to bowl and field well in order to defend this on what was evidently a batting pitch.

It’s an early shout but the intermission was complemented by what was the best away tea of the season so far. Warm Chicken and sweet corn soup with a fine array of sandwiches and savoury delicacies. After the inspiring fire and brimstone team talks from Stu our new skipper stamped his mark with his soothing team talk of “We’ll open with Nath and Stevie and then see what happens.” Different styles but equally effective.

So we took to the field and had a perfect start with Stevie bowling one of the openers in the first over. On such a placid pitch, a tight accurate opening spell was needed from our openers and boy did they deliver. Backed up superbly in the field Stevie struck again removing danger man Barry Martin cheaply. With Wantage two wickets down Mercer (97) and the number 4 looked to consolidate and they settled in to developing a partnership collating the runs steadily. Timmo changed it up by resting the openers and introducing Carlos and Sat to the attack the cricket equivalent of a UKIP/Plaed Cymru coalition! Both applied the pressure by bowling tight lines, squeezing the runs and playing on the batsmen’s’ concentration and patience. Their collective hard work was rewarded when the Wantage No 4 was well caught by Stevie in the slips off Sat. So a new batsman came in to face Carlos in the over before the drinks break.

What followed was an extraordinary over which I can only describe as a homage to the Avengers. Clearly told the equivalent of “Hulk….Smash” the batsmen proceeded to do just that. He smashed Carlos for 4 from his first ball, then a biff, a bang, a whack, a woompf and then a dolly catch to Matt Mead in the covers! After drinks the wickets fell at a steady rate but then so did the runs. Enter Grant Cross, freshly returned to the team after his two year stint as a consultant on Geordie Shore. The art of the spin bowler is to create guile, confusion and mystery in the batsman’s psyche through whatever way he can. Granty accomplishes this through a wonderful, skilful whirling of arms and hands (lucky debs!). Suffice to say his was a welcome return to the bowling attack he successfully engineered a control of Wantage’s scoring rate to set up a last over with 11 runs needed to win. The opener Mercer was still in having been given two lives during his wonderful innings. Would March live to rue this? Mercer smashed the first ball out of site for a maximum leaving Wantage needing 6 off 5 balls. Squeaky bum time. Then…a mix up between the batsmen and a calm throw by Matt Mead caused Mercer to be run out. Granty then bowled two magnificent balls to bowl the next two batsmen with the number 11 needing to hit 8 off the last ball. Bowled with unerring accuracy the no 11 could only block it back.

So a win to start of the Originals 2015 campaign, 28 points and a successful start to the Timmo era. As for the rest of the season…..Well, let’s see what happens!

Till the next time Pilgrims!

Fantasy League 2015

The Fantasy League is back just in time for the first league match this Saturday.

Big Dave last years winner has been suitably handicapped (let’s hope his shoulders have recovered after carrying the team so much last season) although after his replacement took 3 catches on Sunday his place could be in jeopardy. For the first time in Fantasy League history Carlos is not in charge so his chances of winning have dramatically reduced.

The more games you play the more points you can amass so make sure your availability is good to see your name at the top of that leader board.

Runs Wickets Catches Run Out
Cameron 20 200 100 100
Carl 7 35 25 25
Charlie W 20 100 50 50
Grant 15 70 50 50
Joe 4 80 25 25
Jules 7 150 50 50
Luke 20 200 100 100
Matt 5 70 25 25
Mikey 10 60 25 25
Nathan 9 30 25 25
Sathya 5 50 25 25
Shippo 6 75 25 25
Steve 8 30 25 25
Stuart 4 25 15 25
Tom 10 60 25 25
Will H 9 150 50 50

Fixture Calendar

The more eagle eyed (and less hung over!) of you will have noticed a new feature on the site – that’s right – our Fixture Calendar!!  All 37 fixtures as circulated by Carlos have been included – so no excuses now – you know who you are!!

The more technically gifted of you can even export the data into files for importing into your chosen diary software – the Google calendar link on the right of the fixtures column allows you to import individual fixtures – one at a time.

My recommendation is that you open the first fixture on the list and then you’ll find an “all Events” link top left. This will display ALL the events – clever that!  If you use the “ICAL EXPORT”  link you can export all the data into a file which can be imported into your chosen diary software – simples!

When I recover from this effort I will go through the fixtures that Joe sent to check they’re aren’t any omissions!!

Oh I think you’ll see the first event is indeed this Sunday!!

Mid-Week League and Cup Fixtures

Courtesy of your Captain!! Here are the fixtures for this season’s Mid-Week League and Cup games.  Get the dates in your diaries gentlemen!!

Wednesday 6th May
LEAGUE
Marsh Gibbon v Winslow
Gawcott v M.Moreton
Fringford v Hinton
Gt Horwood v Preston B
Monday 11th May
BUCKINGHAM AD CUP 1st ROUND
1 Fringford v Marsh Gibbon
2 Hinton v Winslow
3 Gt Horwood v Gawcott
4 Preston B v M.Moreton
Replay date Wednesday 13th May
Replay date Monday 18th May
Wednesday 20th May
LEAGUE
Preston B v Marsh Gibbon
Winslow v Gt Horwood
Hinton v Gawcott
M.Moreton v Fringford
Wednesday 27th May
LEAGUE
Preston B v Fringford
Marsh Gibbon v M.Moreton
Gawcott v Winslow
Gt Horwood v Hinton
Monday 1st June
BUCKINGHAM AD CUP SEMI-FINALS
Winner of 1 v Winner of 2
Winner of 3 v Winner of 4
Replay date Wednesday 3rd June
Replay date Monday 8th June

 

Wednesday 10th June
LEAGUE SHIELD GROUP MATCHES
1 Hinton v Fringford
1 Preston B v Gt Horwood
2 Winslow v Gawcott
2 M.Moreton v Marsh Gibbon
Wednesday 17th June
LEAGUE SHIELD GROUP MATCHES
1 Fringford v Gt Horwood
1 Preston B v Hinton
2 Marsh Gibbon v Gawcott
2 Winslow v M.Moreton
Monday 22nd June
BUCKINGHAM AD CUP FINAL
v
Buckingham Town C.C
Replay date 29th June
Wednesday 24th June
LEAGUE SHIELD GROUP MATCHES
1 Gt Horwood v Hinton
1 Fringford v Preston B
2 Marsh Gibbon v Winslow
2 Gawcott v M.Moreton
Wednesday 1st July
LEAGUE
Hinton v Marsh Gibbon
M.Moreton v Gt Horwood
Winslow v Preston B
Fringford v Gawcott

 

Monday 6th July
GEORGE BLOW CUP SEMI-FINALS
Runner up L/S 1 v 3rd L/S 2
Runner up L/S 2 v 3rd L/S 1
Replay date Wednesday 8th July
Replay date Monday 13th July
Friday 10th July
LEAGUE SHIELD FINAL
Winner of L/S 1 v Winner of L/S 2
Gt Horwood C.C
Replay date Friday 17th July
Wednesday 15th July
LEAGUE
Marsh Gibbon v Gt Horwood
Preston v Gawcott
Fringford v Winslow
M.Moreton v Hinton
Wednesday 22nd July
LEAGUE
Gawcott v Marsh Gibbon
Winslow v M.Moreton
Gt Horwood v Fringford
Hinton v Preston
Friday 24th July
GEORGE BLOW CUP FINAL
v
Fringford C.C
Replay date Friday 31st July
Wednesday 29th July
LEAGUE
Marsh Gibbon v Fringford
Winslow v Hinton
Gawcott v Gt Horwood
M.Moreton v Preston B

Bonus Ball – and we have a repeat winner!

We’ll get to that shortly but first let’s run through the most recent winners.

  • Week 5 – March 21st – bonus ball #30 – the lucky winner is Martha Leonard!
  • Week 6 – March 28th – bonus ball #8 – Mr Barry Timms!!

Cash will be paid out at tomorrow’s committee meeting – so you better be there Stu and Timmo!

  • Week 7 – it’s no April Fool (it was the 4th!) – bonus ball #43 – Izzy Honour wins AGAIN, luckily that’s another £25 I don’t need to collect 🙂
  • Week 8 – April 11th – bonus ball #19 – Vicky Cross – so that’s £25 less you owe Tef!!

Remember, you’ve gotta be init to win it! Numbers 22, 36 and 46 are FREE.  And they haven’t won yet so now’s the time to jump in…..you’ve only got yourselves to blame!!