Ze Forth vs. ACC 4

 Ze Forth vs. ACC 4 (105 a.o. – 106 v. 7)

“I have over 300 ties at home. And they are all different” – Harm Jan

The day started in the best way ever, watching Cees Bieren playing tip and run, us sitting in the sun on the terrace and nicking the Old Foxes Marlboro 100’s (Tarick, got the lamest excuse not having any fags as he came cycling though most of Haarlem and “couldn’t fine a shop that was open”). For once the Old Fox was, well not on time, but actually earlier than the opposition. By the time ACC had showed up, the Lizard XI (as Gary MacD. renamed us due to our pre-match warm up (sitting in the sun)) were ready for some action.

Captain Sidebottom won the toss and decided to bat. Slingers and Tarick opened the batting. They provided us with a promising first couple of overs, including a great coverdrive for 4 from Tarick, but unfortunately he was bowled (5) and Scissors took his place in the middle. Scissors hung around for a bit but was caught after scoring just 1. In came Sidebottom, who, so far has been scoring vividly. However, today was not the day and he was bowled for 0. In came Colin, and out he went. And Slingers (6) too. We had managed to go from 14-0-7 to 18-5-10. Even for our standards, this was quite a dramatic collapse.

Luckily, Carl and Tony felt like having a knock and so, slowly, we managed to get some runs. It did help that the ACC bowling was not too tidy. In the end, Mr Extra “got” 36. Nevertheless, Tony did a great job in supporting Carl and when Tony (7) was caught, the Old Fox took over and supported Carl as well. By now, we were hoping to get to 100, but then Carl thought to test the ACC wicketkeeper with a skyer and was caught, departing with a live saving 24.. Harm joined the Old Fox but after just one ball had to go. Gromit took over, and in his first run, bruised his ankle. Thankfully, Harm was still all geared up and got back into the middle, as a runner for Gromit. By this time, El Dotto and Young Slingers had arrived to support their teammates (according to the rumours, Young Slingers had been woken up on the beach. Unfortunately, the rumours didn’t quite specify his actions of the previous night but I shall keep you informed).

Now, the Old Fox and Gromit (and Runner Harm) were enjoying their time in the middle. After 7 overs, 100 was on the board and we had completed our target of 100. Unfortunately, due to a miscount from the umpire, a 7th ball was being bowled which Gromit (12) apparently gloved to the wicketkeeper. Simon (0*) came in for the last couple of overs and him and the Old Fox (14) brought our final score to 105 from 38.3 overs.

Sort of pleased we managed to get at least into triple numbers, we had lunch.

Captain Sidebottom decided to open our bowling with Slingers and Tarick. This turned out to be a rather good thing as Slingers struck in his 3rd over. Immediately, several players got out their fags for that other all important competition: the Smoker of the Year. After this quick break, ACC got the better of the game and it seemed like they would finish us off quite quickly. However, in his 8th and 9th over, Tarick struck with full force (and knowing the size of Tarick, that does say something) giving us a spark of hope. And a spark was only what the Old Fox needed to light up another fag, even though he just finished one the previous over (“well, you just have to seize the opportunity”). Respect, even Captain Sidebottom stood there and couldn’t but agree.

After Slingers (1-23-6) and Tarick (3-23-10) Tony (0-12-5) and the Old Fox (0-2-2) came but couldn’t break through. Colin (1-30-5) and Simon (2-13-4) took over, which resulted in a very important catch by Pieter, who had taken the position of poor Gromit who was barely able to walk by now. 2 other wickets (one for Colin, another for Simon) did bring us close in the end, but unfortunately, ACC did manage to scrape though in the 30th over.

Looking back, the batting side let us down today. Our bowling was good as always, and our fielding quite sharp as well, with great stops from Slingers, Pieter, Harm and Scissors (although the latter admitted to be too slow to get out of the line of the ball). Hopefully, next week (Ajax away) our “usual batsmen” will be able to make a few runs too so we really will have a defendable total. So let come all down to training this Thursday!
Scissors