[ played at Swannanoa ] On a very warm morning the Valley of Peace captain won the toss and invited the Christchurch Police XI to bat, raising some eyebrows from his team! Who were eyeing up the sun shining on the compo pitch, which of course looked like providing lots of runs – his reasoning being that with rain strongly forecast for mid afternoon and beyond, he’d rather the opposition had the wet ball and slippery run-ups to deal with. While the Police X1, after their rare loss last year in this fixture, had a very strong line-up out and needed no invitation to make hay in the heat on the flat track! As despite steady bowling the openers quickly had 40 on the board before the first wicket fell, although 2 quick wickets leaving the score at 76/3 gave us some hope.
But at this stage 2 very good left handers came together – their captain Nick Johnston, and (ex All White) Glenn Collins, who both batted extremely well for chanceless 50s. They took the score to 123/3 at drinks after 23 overs, and accelerated smoothly after that. Then after they’d retired the next 2 batsmen kept up the progress, until the score stood at 227/5 after 40 overs. So with the 2 retired batsmen able to be recycled if needed, we were potentially looking down the barrel of a score of 280+ at this stage.
Then the captain made his 2nd blunder, bowling Geoff Olsen for 1 more over than the mandatory maximum of 7 agreed on. However this actually worked out well, as a batsman smashed the 2nd ball straight at the afore mentioned captain at mid on – who couldn’t get out of the way of it so caught it, then Geoff skittled the next batsman. And after another over Dan Byrne (who’d taken some tap earlier) then returned to bowled an excellent over, in which the last 3 wickets fell – one of them a run out. So the final total was 246, with 2 overs unbowled – still a very formidable total, but the last 5 wickets falling for 19 did reflect the way the bowlers and fielders had stuck to their jobs.
As no catches were dropped, while Struan George (with a rocket arm from long on) and Jesse Tritschler both hit the stumps with direct throws to achieve excellent run outs. The 5 main bowlers Struan, Gareth Gibson, Nick Thomas, Tom Byrne and Geoff Olsen all bowled very well, bowling their maximum allotment (well okay one extra one for Geoff!) of overs for between 30-46 runs in an admirable effort.
After a tasty lunch (thanks Scotty!) we began our reply with high hopes of good runs from in form opener Tom Music, who’d got a ton in club cricket the day before. But alas he was soon gone for a duck, well caught in the gully off classy ex Canterbury (like Struan) opening bowler Willie Lonsdale, who followed this up by bowling Kent Somerfield (who’d been our best fielder) with a great nut next ball. Both opening bowlers were very accurate, and when Tom fell the score was 14/3 off 12 overs, with any chance of victory already looking a long way away. The only batsman making any progress was Jesse – as dark clouds were building up, rain began and got heavier, till everyone came off the field with the score at 30/3.
So it now seemed that the captain’s plan might be justified, and he announced that the complicated Duckworth/Lewis/Walker system somehow mysteriously just had the Valley minutely ahead on run rate at this stage! 🙂 But alas the rain slowed then stopped, and everyone eventually returned to the field. We soon became 37/4, but then came a good partnership between Jesse and Dan, which took the score to 85. Jesse was out then for a fine innings of 43, featuring a number of excellent cut and pull shots, but when Dan fell at 101/7 for a good 31 it was all but over. However led by Struan (who hit the only 6 of the match, a soaring hit over long on) the tail hit out to at least get the score up to a more respectable 144, before we were all out with 5 overs to go. With the captain left to ponder his reliance on the weather forecast of persistent rain, and wondering what might have happened had we batted first…..
It was an enjoyable match, as always the Police X1 are most sporting and friendly opposition to play against – while it was good to see their usual captain the legendary Dave (Crash) Robertson there, albeit with his arm in a sling. And the earlier finish did at least give a number of our team the chance to sample the hospitality of the new (open since September) bar, café and restaurant at Mandeville, just down the road from the ground – a very nice indoor/outdoor set up indeed! Finally my thanks to Scotty Cartwright and Jesse Tritschler, for all their work and efforts, both before the match and on the day.
Captain Blunder, aka Bert Walker
