The Valley Of Peace Cricket Club Inc.

(a 50 over match)
A fine day at the Valley of Peace saw St Bede’s XI put in to bat. Facing a lively opening spell from C Jenkins and D Eathorne the St Bede’s openers R Ryan and C Duke dug in well and got the team off to a good start. The Christchurch Boys High School XI attack performed well. An excellent spell from D Burrows saw him bowl several maidens. T Astle was to show his class with a very tidy spell. The pick of the bowlers, however, was S Davis with 4- 10 which helped keep St Bede’s score down to a hard-fought 137.
The anchor for St Bede’s was C Due who played a fine innings for his 41, ably supported S Ermerins and J Bakermans.

CBHS, I am sure, felt well capable of meeting the required target but they did not count on a superb spell of bowling by S Ermerins 4-18 with great support from C Duke 2-15 and J Bakermans 2-13.
Phil McKay, after a fine session in the field with the gloves, was the only batsman to take on the challenge with a swashbuckling 51 but in the end, with only 96 runs on the board and no wickets in hand, CBHS was well beaten by a very good St Bede’s side.

Special thanks to Dave Eathorne, Ryan Eathorne and Dan Hooper for St Bede’s, and Dayle Eathorne for CBHS, for bringing this excellent fixture together.

Brent Bailey

In a 50-over game, in 2 sessions of 25 overs each, it was our pleasure to host our great Australian friends, the Honest Trundlers XI, on our revitalised ground (green and level once more) and minus one large tree removed from cow corner, age having caught up with it. The Trundlers were put in to bat on yet another fine day at the Valley of Peace.

The Saint and Datsun got off to a solid start and were well supported by Carbon and Magic ( both retired) to leave the Trundlers comfortable at 102 for 2 at lunch.. The Valley reached lunch at 1-94 at the lunch back with solid contributions from Lance Ryan Tim Fulton and Phil Smith.

Perhaps the Valley had been too well fed at lunchtime by the culinary delights of Barry Frost as they could not hold back the Trundlers march forward in the afternoon with Stu, Dutchie and Brewery leading the way with valuable contributions and a useful 209 total.

The final session saw the Valley going well at 1- 120 at 30 overs. In the space of 5 overs, the Valley had slumped to 7-135 with Carbon and Rowdy breaking through with unplayable deliveries followed by a superb run out by Carbon. Tony Gray and Harmy (on loan) fought on but their demise saw the Valley all out for 185.

The after-match at the Thai Kitchen was a great evening as always and was capped by Ted’s fine rendition of the Battle Hymn.

Brent Bailey