The Valley Of Peace Cricket Club Inc.

Team Boon was welcomed back to the Valley of Peace, sporting their usual beige attire on the field and a youthful lineup fresh from competing in Division 4 of the CMCA Saturday competitions. As per those match conditions, a 40-over match was agreed. Captain Phil Watson called incorrectly and his team was asked to field, the customary reception of 9 slips and a gully facing our opening batsman.

The cricketing gods (a.k.a. the VOP selection committee) and last-minute ring-in coordinator Hugo Davison had handed me a multi-talented all-round team (with two over 70 NZ reps in the fold), and even with some last-minute changes, hopes were high for a strong showing.

What followed was a cricketing demolition, destruction, devastation, desolation and devastation (I ran out of printable D Words) to match the five ducks recorded on the way to a total of 50. It could have been worse, because at 12 for 7 after 11 overs a certain captain who had batted (2 runs) and already been umpiring for 4 overs really felt that the only good thing would be that apart from the weather, he may never be invited to partake in leadership ever again.

Hats off to Gordon Fulton for his 8 not out, holding firm for 19 of the 26 overs we faced. Chris Nicholson, his first time at the ground, top-scored with 18 batting at number nine.

But the plaudits really go to the Team Boon bowlers. Their captain acknowledged that they bowled superbly but the ball from Welsh to our opener would have accounted for most, the run out by the same player a feat of great athleticism. Not content, the brute of a ball that gloved Ben Larter to remove our dangerman was near unplayable. His figures of 4-3-1-2 are slightly false; the only run he conceded was with the “Team Boon” field in place the second ball. O’Dwyer’s in-ducker to Hugo really did come back two feet off the seam, the off-spinner from Withers to bowl Sam Clark-Hall did the same. Really great pieces of cricket from a very good side. What was the captain thinking batting first?

I know what you Valley readers are expecting. Music would use his vast cricketing nous to engineer a comeback win for the ages. Well, sadly no, not this time.

Patton and Stribling put on an entertaining opening stand of 35 and with McKay’s nice hitting to follow, the win was completed with Captain Watson at the crease after little more than 11 overs. Lunch was still not ready to be consumed. Congrats to Phil and his lads, a comprehensive trashing was metered out.

But wait there’s more …

Some slick negotiating, aided by the fact that it was just after 1pm, meant 22 players and officials were in agreeance that a T20 rematch be played after lunch, which by now was being served with its normal delicious fare on offer.

Watson won the “toss” and Team Boon would bat first.

It will be surprising to readers that Music was retained as captain, my first ever T20 game at any level held a chance at some redemption. The VoP squad responded to this second chance with aplomb, although losing our keeper Gould to a calf strain after his first catch (thanks to Team Boon for playing in the spirit of the game and providing a sub fielder) we got amongst the wickets early of a re-jigged Boon line up. Five of their players made double figures but none passed 20 as they posted a decent 107 all out. James Hamilton bowled well at the start and death for three scalps while John Kerrison excelled with a wicket in his only ever planned one-over comeback spell in our 16th over. We were all learning the intricacies of the T20 game Valley style!

Putting Sam Clark-Hall (Valley debutant) out to open was a masterstroke. What choice did I have, he had put together a well-compiled 3 in the first match which in fact meant he was overqualified for the role. However, it was James Hamilton facing the first ball, to left-arm spinner Patton. The look on umpire Music’s face matched Hamilton’s as the first ball pitched on leg and clipped the top of the off stump, much to the delight of the 5 slips, 2 fly slips, gully and two leg slips gathered behind the wickets.

Fear not, Clark-Hall and Davison to the rescue. Hugo’s 30 was the high score of the day, with some great hitting displayed. Larter came in and showed the form previously displayed when the Cricket Show came to the Valley on the occasion Team Boon was playing 3 years ago and he made a century, the “gentle” timed pulls for 6 are a highlight to watch then and now.

The VoP T20 inexperience then started to show with the finish approaching. Larter’s dismissal and a run-out saw 11 runs off 13 balls needed. Clark-Hall managed a couple of boundaries before getting run out in a scramble for the winning run with 5 balls remaining.

So somewhat poetically after a poor day, Music managed to knock his second ball to the boundary (through the much-protected gully region) for a famous victory with three balls to spare. The Boon bowling was spread, literally, around their whole team but again they showed some great talent coupled with seasoned fielding.

The history books might (or might not ) show a 5 wicket win in the T20 but it was a pleasure to host Team Boon at the Valley and look forward to a (single) rematch in the years to come. The raffles were also drawn one apiece, another small victory for our club. Thanks to Scott for his fine work with lunch, behind the bar and in the lead-up to the game. I think he may have been pleased that there was no super over–coloured clothing, T20 and that in the same day may have been a bit much for some of our past members.

A great day enjoyed by all (except maybe one).

Tom Music
Valley Captain

On a hot day (32 degrees) a 45 over match was agreed on and the Bay City Beavers captain Mahmadullah won the toss, then had no hesitation in asking the Valley of Peace cricket team to bat – as the pitch while a good one, had a definite green tinge and some juice in it. The Beavers are on a 10 match tour of NZ and came into this game having won 3 and tied 1 of their 5 games to date, so were obviously going to be very useful opposition – and so it proved!

After an early wicket, young James Hamilton looked in good form, but after he’d smoothly stroked 5 boundaries in his 11, just about everything went wrong that could! As firstly he was unluckily caught behind down leg on a “strangle” and sportingly walked, then 2 disastrous run-outs in 3 balls torpedoed our middle order and had us reeling at 20/4. The batsmen then naturally dug in, as the Beavers team bowled very tightly and backed it up with very keen fielding, and a sharp catch at slip then saw the scoring dry up completely for over 5 overs. So when we stopped for drinks after 22 overs, the score was only a very sickly 24/5.

And things only got worse, as firstly Paul Bateman (batting well on 12) top-edged a pull on a high full toss and was caught – but it should have been called a no-ball! Then almost unbelievably we had a 3rd run-out, after a total miscommunication, although the run outs were partly as a result of the scoreboard pressure they were putting us under. And then another wicket fell immediately, played on – so the score had slumped from 15/1 to an extremely sorry 31/8!!

But the pitch, though it had some early life, wasn’t a minefield by a long way, this startling collapse of 7 wickets for 16 runs was a mixture of good cricket by them and both bad and unlucky cricket by us. The captain then attempted to dig in, and finally runs started to come in the form of our very confident no 10, Tony Gray.

He batted aggressively but sensibly, picking the right ball to play some wonderfully timed drives to, including twice comfortably clearing the pavilion with lovely big straight hits. So the score at last progressed, and eventually, this 9th wicket recovery partnership reached a very commendable 60 runs. The batsmen’s plan was to get to 3 overs to go, then try and increase the overall low run rate.

Alas, off the 1st ball of the 3rd to last love,r the captain holed out on the mid-wicket boundary (unsuccessfully trying to implement the plan) – then compounded this by thoughtlessly not crossing, leaving the last batsman on strike who was caught 2 balls later. Which left Tony stranded high and dry on 41*, a most splendid inning indeed in the circumstances!

The Beavers had bowled and fielded extremely well, with just one hard chance going down, and after an excellent lunch, their openers then showed plenty of application as they chased our very insubstantial total of 91. And in the heat, the pitch had long since flattened out into a very good batting deck, so obviously, our only chance to get back into the match was going to be early wickets.

But well as our bowlers performed and hard as they tried, despite some near misses the score had reached 44 before “golden arm” Hamish Cochran conjured up a couple of quick wickets – which were at least the result of a couple of good bits of cricket by the Valley, through a full stretch diving catch at mid-on then a smart stumping by Tony Dannenburg (who kept very well indeed).

Their no 4 then attacked with some big hits and though he nicked out during a good spell by Chris House, their captain and his partner eventually saw them home. But it had taken them over 37 overs to get past our very modest total, as the wholehearted effort in the field by our Valley team was at least something to be proud of.

The best of the bowlers was Stan Woolliscroft, who always bowls beautifully here, and he was desperately unlucky not to get at least one wicket in his very fine spell of 7 3 6 0. Brian Plaskett was also commendably accurate with 4.1 1 4 0, but try as we did we just didn’t have enough runs to play with.

The Beavers, and their partners, were a most friendly group indeed, and (apart from our batting collapse!) the whole day with them was an absolute pleasure and the game couldn’t have been played in better spirits. While in the after-match speeches they kindly presented Beaver caps to Tony for his fine innings, plus James for his sportsmanship.

And they also invited the Valley to send a team over to play them, I have no doubt at all that they would be splendid hosts – maybe this could be an add-on to the next Millbrook trip? 🙂

While big thanks are due to our esteemed President Scotty who, given the hot day plus the extra numbers there, was kept very busy indeed with the drinks supply! He did an absolutely splendid job solo behind the bar and with the excellent lunch, for which everyone was rightly very grateful.

And so the sunset on another splendid day at the beautiful Valley of Peace, and for me, it was a particularly memorable one – as since I was lucky enough to play my first game there in 1979, this means that I have now played there in 6 decades! Although in all that time I had never played against a team from America before, but what a very good team it was……..

Bert Walker
(captain – lost the toss, lost the game!)