After the 2019 match was moved to Little River, the Peninsula Goat Herders XI came up and around the hills to visit the Valley of Peace Cricket Club, the ground itself looking a resplendent shade of green, the outfield even more than the pitch.  After arriving early, the VOP skipper was in deep consultation with groundsman Tony Polson regarding the best options for the day.  The opposition rolled up with a good mix of old and new blood, and a management team led by Bob Masefield ready to offer plenty of advice from the sidelines.   A 45 over match was agreed on a fine summer’s day.

After successfully winning (or not losing) the toss, we invited the Goatherders to bat on a slightly dewy wicket.  Recent recruit Ramesh lived up to Bert Walker’s high praise with a quality opening spell of pace bowling.  4 overs 1 for 11 does not do justice to the fantastic control of line and plethora of seam movement on show.   At the other end, James Tobin, a Valley debutant, was just finding his bearings in his first spell.  Keeper Music was kept on his toes at both ends,  the lifter from Ramesh that went past his left ear untouched was the highlight of the 6 byes on show early.

An unfortunate hook shot into an eyebrow bought the end of opener Britmeyer’s innings.  7 stitches were needed to clean up the damage later that day but thankfully all was well.  Helmets a good idea at the Valley.  But the next wicket to fall would bring Tom Johnston to the wicket.  What followed was some of the cleanest hitting in a fine innings with 5 long fours.  At the other end, Nick Thomas came on for the Valley, his first bowl of the season started exceptionally well with two wickets with his first two balls!  56 runs between Johnston and R Britmeyer in 7 overs had the VoP reeling.  Nick Thomas had the solution.  Shift Tony Gray to the covers, fresh in the memory of his sharp slips catch off his first ball.  Lo and behold, the first ball of his fourth over, Johnston, on 45, smashed it straight and flat at Gray’s sternum, another catch safely grabbed and a world of hurt on the scoreboard avoided.

After that onslaught ended, what followed then was some excellent line and length bowling from George Ritchie, Jeremy Wilson and Tony Gray, each getting amongst the wickets.  The Goatherders continued to attack, but the fielders backed our bowlers with some fine catching.  After taking an excellent skyer at backward square, Tobin came back to the bowling crease looking confident and took one ball to clean up the tail, there was some excellent resistance from captain Guy Wiseman for 22 not out at number 10.  100% of the bowlers took wickets to match the 100% catching stats – a rare feat for the Valley.

The Goatherders were all out for 125 in the 28th over leaving a tricky 10 over spell for the Valley openers to negotiate before lunch.  Dove and Bateman knuckled down but in the 8th over, Johnston broke through, leaving VoP 18 for 1 at the interval.

After the resumption, the loss of in-form Bateman brought Jeremy Wilson together with Tim Fulton.  Chasing under 3 per over, the general plan seemed to be to bat at around three per over most of the day, interspersed with some nice strokeplay to the boundary. George Ritchie came in a solidified up an end, leaving Tim Fulton to be the backbone of the side by working his way to an excellent 54.  Despite some very tight bowling (Johnston, Stuart and Wedlake conceding just 9,10 and 17 of their respective 8 overs ) our men had consistently been getting three an over, the 20 off 6 overs needed was down to 6 off 12 balls when both set batsmen fell.  Some calm batting by Ramesh and a “quick” single or two by the skipper (who admittedly had a heart murmur or two during the chase)  took the Valley of Peace to victory with 1.1 overs to spare.

A really good match played, as usual, in great spirit.   Nick Thomas the VoP player of the day, Johnston for the Goatherders.   Guy, Bob and the Goatherders mentioned how much they are looking forward to the fixture in 2021.  The same can be said for the Valley players.  Bert Walker wants me to mention his one catch, two runs, one bruise (fielding) and one raffle win so I can’t disappoint him.  Thanks to Paul and Hugo D for finding Ramesh and James, we hope they join us for more matches in the future.   Thanks to Scott, Barry and Derek behind the bar for the fantastic hospitality and Scott for selecting a winning team.   Great day at a cricketing mecca.

Match Summary

Peninsula Goat Herders  125 all out from 28 overs.

T. Johnston 45, G. Wiseman 22*, N. Thomas 4 – 27, A.H. Gray 2 – 13

Valley of Peace 126 for 6  from 43.5 overs

T. Fulton 54, J. Wilson 22, M. Britmeyer 2 – 12, G. Wedlake 2 – 17

Valley of Peace win by 4 wickets with 7 balls to spare

 

Tom Music

Valley of Peace Captain for the day