On a gloriously sunny Sunday, 11 cricketers.........and a Bapchild team, took to Radley field for the inaugural BCC vs SHC Twenty20.
A large crowd of SHC members came to show their support and brought their children and numerous dogs too. As soon as we arrived we were made to feel very welcome by the Bapchild Cricket Club members, who had laid out comfortable seating for supporters and a fully stocked bar serving refreshments, with familiar faces greeting us.
Many questions were raised around the teams‘ selection, prior to the day, who would get who and the main argument being which team would be burdened with Jacob Carter! (SHC were the losers and ended up with him).
Captains Page and Cooper went precisely one step past the boundary for the toss (completed without a coin) and Bapchild were put into bat first.
Bapchild elected to send one of the Gunner brothers out to open the batting…no one knows which one is which without a helmet, let alone with one on! Nemo was asked to roll back the years to his slimmer cricketing days and open the bowling. Kicking off the sight screen and almost literally rolling down the hill, there was a hint of his former pace and accuracy, which did for the aforementioned Gunner. The Bapchild innings progressed at pace (somewhere between snail and turtle) thanks to some uncharacteristically accurate bowling from Minty and Ed. There were some clever fielding positions from Captain Cooper, decent catching by Josh Mitchell and Jacob Carter shelling two to keep the lesser batsmen on strike. BCC were limited to 137 runs.
A special mention to Junior for managing to stay in the shade for the whole innings and Kev Cracknell for almost stopping everything behind the wicket, even with only having one knee between two legs.
After a quick liquid lunch break, the Bash Brothers, Craig and Paul Stone, were sent out at the top of the SHC order. Much to ours and Bapchild's (and secretly their) surprise, the see ball, don't move feet and smash ball approach to batting came off as they dispatched the BCC attack to all corners of the ground. The Stone brothers shared an opening 50 run partnership, which meant the job was almost half done when they were forced to retire. Baying to the crowd, Jacob Carter was sent in at No. 3, where he promptly middled his first ball to the keeper and rather unsportingly stood his ground. Somehow the BCC-supplied umpire and SHC Walking Hockey bigshot, Eric Phiilips, who is universally known for cracking under a big shout of Howzat, temporarily lost the use of sight, hearing and arm to raise his finger. He turned it down and Jacob was reprieved - for one over, when he then lobbed one up to cover, much to everyone’s jubilation.
El Capitano was then sent out to steady the ship, soon joined by Junior, who elected to use a full size bat for the first time, which would explain why he couldn't get it near the ball until he dolleyed one up to mid-on. Brooker was due in next, but his adoring daughter Ivy wouldn't let him go, so Nemo had to take his place for a swashbuckling 20 something before getting caught on the boundary. Cooper was then forced to retire, but fortunately Ivy had been placated/bribed with enough sweets to allow Brooker to take the field. From ball one it become clear he was bash stepbrother, dissecting the BCC field, mainly by going over their heads, to score a swift 24 and guiding SHC past the BBC total.