Effingham Dads schooled by the Gentlemen of Horsley

On a blisteringly hot day at the Calburn Cricket Field, the Effingham Dads reunited to play their old foes The Gentlemen of Horsley.

The heat was obviously better suited to our opponents who had used their full Kolpak allocation. After the toss of an imaginary coin, The Gents decided to bat which allowed Effingham to bat second and set up the braai. The match was a pairs format with each pair batting 4 overs and each player having to bowl 2 overs. Some players moaned that their physical frailty prohibited this (Mr Blair) but a gentle nudge in the ‘man up!’ direction soon resolved any issues. The home team manged to restrict the opposition to a worrying total of 111 and claimed 19 wickets in the process. Highlights of the innings were a great catch on the boundary by David Haylings, 3,yes 3, hat-trick balls,  our 1^st XI Captain spilling a dolly on the boundary, Warren Tebbitts deciding the ball was not a ball but actually an eel and the skipper rolling back the years with figures of 2-0-5-2 !

After some Castle lager between innings Mr Brown and Mr Burlison got us off to a flier with the former hitting some big shots out into the Velt. From then on it was hard work and we continued to lose wickets steadily and not hit the amount of boundariers that the Proteas had done in their innings. We finished about 30 runs short of the required Nelson.

Post match celebrations were duly undertaken along with plenty of Boerewors from the BBQ.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable day and both teams played with a great spirit although I am not sure that cricket itself was the winner!

A new shield, kindly donated by Warren T, was presented to Colin Nicholson,the winning captain and a rematch next year is keenly awaited.

Andy Mead