Thank goodness for the Osmans! (never thought I say that !)
Well in the aftermath of the Alderney tour, with Braz, Culmer and Hally testing positive for Covid, we were without a match manager.
Hally had build an eleven only for it to start falling apart. No Campbell, no Braziers and only one Hillier ( and the wrong one!)…
Rinaldo, Nall, this year’s regulars, were joined by Martin Hawthorne, my neighbour Mark and 4 Osmans – Dad Tim and his three offspring, Isla, Harry and Zac who had brought a mate – Callum.
We put Crawley in to bat and shared the bowling around and Crawley batted methodically amassing a decent 278 for 8. Captain Martin White retiring with a century to his name.
Mark and Zak opened up bowling well and with a quick outfield and only ten players 278 was not bad effort. Helped by great fielding by Callum, saving many would-be boundaries. All bowled who wanted to with fine debuts from Isla and Mark McGettigan and a first Rioteer wicket for Mark Nall ! Tim and I pitched in with a few overs and even Hawthorne had an over.
Tea was delicious and we were joined by Dessie and Val and my parents which made up our supporters along with Cal’s brother. Braz had had enough of scoring so took himself home.
278 to win with about 2 hours in which to do it. Crawley opened with Jake a quick left arm around and we faced him with two Osmen? Harry and Tim after a few classy strokes past a helmeted silly mid-off we lost Harry. Hawthorne came in three and when Tim was given LBW we were on around 50. Mark came in and hit a wonderful 75 including a run-out with Hawthorne (who didn’t run his bat in – note to all!)
I was out cheaply bowled through the gate bringing Rinaldo in and he and Mark put a good partnership together. When they were both out, Crawley were expecting to breeze through us. But Zac and Cal had just come to make up the numbers.
They hit an array of great shots and ended unbeaten with a partnership of 50+. Well played boys! No need to nearly take your Dad’s head off though Zac
And we still had Isla and Mark N yet to bat.
So a well earned Draw was the outcome, Rioteers ending up on about 225-6
Special thanks to Isla – great debut and best bowling action of the day. For Harry it’s back to work with Roy ???? – no, well kept, it was a long afternoon in the field.
So on to BroadHa’penny Down …
Martin