To Gillingham and Back
(My half report on a great 30 points for the 4th Team)
No not another downtrodden Albion fans 24 year journey of hardship, but a genuine 6 hour round trip to Gillingham to take my 87 year old Mother to see her 95 year old sister for the first time in almost 2 years.
Quick synopsis, both hard of hearing and bad sight, lunch in a noisy pup with more cockneys than London, Beefeater style lunch, lots of shouting and repeating conversations and finding out it’s easier to sell property in Beirut than Gillingham! That explains the Albion dedication and hardship stories post the Goldstone.
So arrived at SCMG at the beginning of Captain Oliver’s 4th teams innings, chasing 222(all cricketing aficionados please jump up and down twice)
That’s why it’s only half a report…..so the Copthorne innings and Nomads bowling will be factual, statistical and precise, without prejudice, yet accusations from deductions and hearsay.
Faisal 4 – 29
West Country Hick 3 – 35
Mike Burney 2- 26 and a run out( more about our new 4th’s superstar later)
Oscar Sheffield
Luca Smith
Baz Noorzai
& Luke Owen
All bowled with what looked like on paper, good tight lines, but……when checking Copthorne’s batting totals it seems the opener scored a fine 86 odd with the other 10 batsmen scoring only 7 runs more than Mr Extra at a grand total of 65!!!!!!!
Haven’t questioned Captain Oliver re byes, but as ever in the 4ths, let’s make it harder as we don’t like it easy!!!!!
One Chinese whisper was that the mighty West Country Hick, was on a hat trick, but bowled a wide!
So I arrived had some carrot cake(mmmm) sat down to watch a tough chase, suddenly saw a hologram of Steve Gatting but it wasn’t, it was actually him and even though he wasn’t playing, he still played better than Ollie today.
Watto clubbed a few and was again caught by a great catch, so Big Jim Downey was on the attack, dancing down the wicket(well I say dancing but not in a dancing way) and was going very nicely, poised on 46, then disaster struck and Big Jim fell over and had to retire with a nasty ankle injury, get well soon Big man as even though Symsey wanted you to drop to the 4ths to get some runs, which you did, he was victorious and your name was not even mentioned!!!
So our new Superman Mike Burney set about the Copthorne bowling and runs were coming thick and fast, Luca gave him support but was unlucky to get run out and in came Baz, the two of them started peppering the boundary and all of a sudden we needed 47 off 7.
Mike then got his hundred(105 not out), Baz hit a quick fire 34 and in came Captain Oliver, who looking trim and weak was assumed by the opposition to be a tickler and nurdler.
Wrong, don’t judge a book by its cover as 2 big fours later the Mighty 4ths had again got a team out and even better, had chased down a good score with 2 overs to spare.
A good competitive game, or in my case half a game, which was the best half.
Well done guys, same again next week
Garthy