2005 SEASON

CRUSADERS -V- BRASTED INVICTA at VALENCE SCHOOL 24th APRIL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite poor weather during the week the season got under way with our traditional visit to Brasted. With last year's defeat still fresh enough in the memory, any thoughts of a charitable declaration were far from Danglers mind. The clear and abundant message was to stick it right up them. An absence of donkeys in the end field was compensated by hopping bunnies and the appearance of a dozing field-mouse from the sawdust bag, but that’s where the niceties ended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wajih and Chand confounded those that felt scoring quickly would be a tall order by rattling along at a good rate. Helped by the Brasted bowler’s inability to keep the ball pitched up, they passed fifty before Chand skied to mid-off for 32. Sumo, who had been happily practising on the boundary edge at hitting it gently- did just that- straight in to the hands of short-leg. This proved to be only the briefest of respite for our hosts, who then spent the rest of the afternoon retrieving balls from the tenth fairway of Westerham Golf Club, struck mainly by the Antipodean. When Richard departed for a fluent 71 the middle order were given the opportunity to collapse and duly obliged. It’s good to see that some things will never change. Spud and Slack trudged their way through to a tea time declaration of 201 for 8, while the weather deteriorated in to what most people had expected.

The Brasted of today are a different kettle of fish from the sides that have been randomly slaughtered over the past twenty years and they showed last year that they have a few decent bats. With this in mind Darren decided not to chance the likes of Burr and Taylor – last year’s lambs to the slaughter - , preferring to use himself and Spud to counteract the threat of The Don (Ladbrokes 8-1 leading run scorer) and a young lad who amusingly wore a helmet to face Moysey, doubtless having been regaled with stories that Danglers had once bowled with pace. He soon dispensed with it.

Brasted found runs hard to come by, but were resolute until the introduction of Mike. Probably sensing this was the moment to seize the initiative and doubtless remembering the carnage of last year they attempted to take the limp bowling of Taylor and Burr to task. Amazingly this back-fired, with Mikey helping himself to another four tame victims and even Simon finding someone poor enough to get himself out. Time and the weather were against us however and we were close to calling it a day, before a salvo of late wickets and the cessation of the rain, produced a nail-biting finish that would not have involved any nail-biting if GT had been half awake at slip to snaffle a potentially match winning catch.

CRUSADERS-V- CHARLATANS at WOOLWICH GARRISON 01st MAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crusaders romped to a convincing victory at the picturesque Woolwich Garrison in our first ever meeting with the Charlatans. Struggling all week to raise a full complement, we were indebted to John Denton - complete with forehead tattoo – for taking our numbers to ten and had the promise of cameo appearances from Blind Pugh and Slack to bolster us further.

Danglers won the toss and despite only eight of us present, decided to field; a captaincy tactic he has doubtless learnt from Brearley-Webb. It has been a number of years since we met a side whose average age was higher than us, but Charlatans looked and moved like a team of Glen Timms’. This helped the eight men fielding, as Charlatans made a slow and purposeful start against the accurate bowling of Moyse and Taylor. Simon and JD eventually materialised and the now ten men in the field started to take control. The ‘strike’ bowlers were replaced by Spud and Richard and almost immediately the wickets started to tumble. Richard was bowling like his parents had flown over and Spud was his normal incisive self.

Only a mid innings flurry of boundaries taken from Sugarboy, gave the Charlatans score any respectability and with Mikey and Danglers polishing off the rabbits, they were duly dismissed inside the forty overs for 93.

Tea was a sumptuous cake dominated affair, which probably accounted for our treacly response. We found runs equally hard to accumulate as Charlatans openers turned the screw. 11-4 after 10 overs was probably not the start Moysey had envisaged, but he showed little signs of distress, knowing there was still a wealth of talent in the hutch. Wajih and Richard righted the stricken vessel, taking the score to 40 before a reckless foxtrot down the track resulted in Wajih’s exit via a dubious stumping. The Oz continued where he had left off last week, bludgeoning the ball to all parts, while Spud struggled to time anything for a second successive week. There were no more alarms, with the target overhauled with 8 overs to spare.