Match report OGCC men’s 4XI vs Aldershot 5XI
Aldershot 3/229 off 40 (K Orr 2/11) def by OGCC 5/230 off 38.2 (Guyot 101* Spreadbrough 34 Brown 17)
The fortress of Long Sutton awaited the mighty OGCC 4XI again this week. With regular skipper Pauly D having skipped off for a week, level 1 Gangsta Drew Birch stepped in. It looked like he was talking to himself as we first got there and we nearly had to call someone to take him home, but he was actually on the phone with a sky gadget in his ear. To play our warm up music, we started playing it out of Drew’s car and you could feel it in your feet. Sheffers tried to bowl in the warm up against the sight screen but spent the whole time looking for the ball instead. We had the most intense warm up the 4s have ever had. It consisted of the cha cha slide and then crowd control (Drew’s gansta music that had us jumping to the left and the right). Drew won the toss and elected to field first.
Joe VDF (sometimes called Josephine) and Kaitlyn Orr (mini Orr for the day sometimes called KK) opened the bowling. Good solid bowling and great variations resulted in Kaitlyn taking the first wicket. The father daughter duo took the wicket, with KK bowling it and Rob catching it at cover. It could’ve been a very awkward car ride home if that was dropped. Joe decided to buy a bunch of plums before the game from Tesco. He gave two to Kaitlyn, kept two for himself and gave one to Rob to save for later. The umpires didn’t want any, they were being a bit sour and didn’t like the plums, ignoring his polite offer. Kaitlyn then decided she liked seeds instead so took the next wicket, sending the top of off stump rocketing away with an absolute seed of a delivery. We got treated to our own personal trooping of the colour, as we had helicopters, red arrows and a bunch of other cool planes and chinooks flying over. The game kept getting stopped so we could watch it, as it seemed to be more interesting than the cricket. Spreadie also decided to bring some plums with him and wanted to share them from behind the stumps. The batter didn’t want any and neither did the square leg umpire. It made Spreadie very upset as he wanted to share them. Drew came onto bowl and since the frogbox wasn’t on this week, he decided there was no point taking any screamers. Sheffers came onto bowl from the other end. About halfway through his third over as he was running in he stopped. It was like an invisible bullet had shot through his leg. He was in pain. Poor Sheffers injured two weeks in a row. He can’t catch a break (maybe it’s cause I put him in my fantasy team before last weeks game and he wants to stay at the top so bad). Who was going to save the day? Mitch had arrived with the fluffy dog he was looking after and like the badger he was still had his kit in the car. The man, the myth, the legend. He got his kit out and came to field with us. He fulfilled his life long dream of playing in shorts (very village) and drew was bumped down to gansta number 2 and Mitch was gansta number 1. We started singing a bit of Beyoncé in the field. 4D cricket had come back, with Mitch having knocked back a beer or two before heading out and kept tricking the batters. Rob bowled a very tight spell with the aldershot batters quite set. It took us a long time to break this partnership but eventually Henry charged in with the batters trying to take a quick single but didn’t realise the gun arm he had, with Spreadie calmly taking the stumps off and getting ourselves a good run out. Spreadie seemed to be on a rollercoaster of emotions and at one point fell very hard on the ground and nearly caused an earthquake. He was like the dwarfs in Snow White. Grumpy. Happy. Hungry. We pushed through even though it was quite hard work in the field. They had a couple big overs towards the end and ended up on 229 off the 40 overs only being 3 down.
Teas was a classic OGCC delight again, with the opposition taking photos of it to put on their social media. They said that teas are a rare sighting now days and it had to be documented. Thanks to Elliot and Liam for making teas for us. They did a stunning job and was well appreciated by both teams.
Matt and Nat opened the batting. A couple loose deliveries put away early got us off to a flying start chasing a big total. The gaps were bit really well and the boundaries found easily. Matt and Nat (nearly nat squared but not quite) we’re having a great time out there, seeing off the openers, with the score 64 when Matt got bowled. Spreadie then came out to bat. After edging one for 4 off his first over, he missed the first 5 off the spinner and then the last ball of the over did a reverse switch hit for 4 right off middle stump. What a shot that was. Spreadie didn’t like punching gloves at the end of the over like a weirdo but I said we had to do it anyway cause it’s cricket tradition. The pitch was good all things considering that it was the 7th game played on it and the proper roller still broken (making it quite interesting but good for the circumstances). We kept it ticking along and having a good time, until their skipper tried to argue a warning. He bowled two beamers at my head and instead of saying sorry tried to argue with Joe and Bruce that he didn’t deserve a warning. It was a little bit silly if I’m being honest. Spreadie didn’t like his lack of apology and neither did I. The next ball he bowled I cover drived for four and got my 50. We were going really well and were right on the run rate. Spreadie got bowled and bringing Henry in just before the second drinks break. He ran really well between the wickets and we kept it ticking over. We needed 7 an over off the last 10 overs. It was going to be tight but we were patient. A big over after drinks got the run rate down to 5. After drinks he played one of the nicest on drives I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately the shot wasn’t caught on camera, instead only him getting hit in the head and having a concussion test was on video. He was caught not too long after, bringing dayshy in. Even though we could get the win in singles, Dayshy wasn’t feeling it as his pad rash had been getting worse and worse as he sat there. A quick two fours and some smart running before he was bowled. The same thing with Joe. Even though we could get it in singles, Joe went big. Two sixes in a row and when he went for the third one, he was caught very very close to the boundary. Drew came in and we needed 5 off the last two overs. A boundary for the skipper and a quick single off a bye and we had won. It was well timed and kept the game exciting right to the second last over.
Another good win for the 4s and a great lot of celebrations back at the club after. Dream team wins again even missing Captain Paul. Another great day of cricket and a really good team effort from all who played.
