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CRICKET'S STAYIN ALIVE |
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Only one year late (and in keeping with John's arrival time) Barry's and John's
sixtieth match took place at the scenic Shoreham cc ground in Kent on Sunday 2 May. John not surprisingly won
the toss and decided to bat on a track that turned out to favour the bowlers with its uneven bounce and lack of pace.
Although the agreed format was a two innings match of 20 overs per innings John duly dug in for 16 and after failing
to run anyone out retired exhausted. The tempo increased with Dan Forman reaching 23no, together with Barry's mate
Chris 7no who had not played for over 20 years. His last match was a game played against Rochdale supporters at
the Lancashire League ground in the town; a few weeks later the ground was demolished and turned into an Asda
(tragedy). Team Bishop reached 87-4 with young Alfie Moxon taking 2-2. |
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In reply the BGs also started slowly with Barry bowled by Alok for 3, Chris T
taking a great catch to dismiss Paul and a hobbling Matt dismissed for 1 caught by Dan off Alok. Dan's fielding
tailed off at this point with 3 dropped catches later in the day. Diwakar 21 and Aaron Harris 26 ret (scoring the
only six of the day) saw Team Gigg up to 100-9. John B rolled back the years with figures of 3-0-4-3. |
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The early drizzle had turned to weak sun and the players and spectators (inc
Neil, Sian and the Phantom) were able to tuck into Izzy's cricket themed sponges and Mary's Victoria sandwich,
ginger cakes and chocolate brownies and a few beers. |
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As the highest run scorers Team Gigg batted first with Barry bringing out
the old fella - the heavily taped Duncan Fearnley bat of 90's vintage. With a heavy clunk Barry duly raced to
25. Aaron again chipped in with 20 and my mate Paul scored his first runs for 30 years before being stumped
for the second time in the match. George swapped his pads during the game for a bowl and took 2-13 and
Chris B took 2-8. John B led from the front with overall match figures of 5-0-6-4. Team Gigg scored 95-9 to
set the JayB's a target of 109 to win. |
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This soon became academic as Konrad 2-3 and Ian Moxon 1-4 saw off the top
order of George, Alok and Chris T with Jason taking a very sharp catch at slip off Ian. Things took a turn
for the worse when Alok came on as sub fielder and duly ran Gary out who had been batting with a 9-2
leg side field and whether he meant it or not scored a run in the off side - hurrah. Dan scored 13 to become
the only player in Team Bishop to get double figures in both innings and Matt caught a tricky one in the deep
for a contender for catch of the day. However the performance of the day was undoubtedly 11 year old Alfie
Moxon who took a sharp caught and bowled and finished with overall figures of 5-1-13-5. Team Bishop were
all out for 83 and thankfully no one was struck down with a night fever as The BGs won by 25 runs |
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Thanks to everyone who contributed to a great day's cricket with
particular thanks to Oliver for keeping the scoreboard ticking over, to Steve for scoring and umpiring
and to Mary and Izzy for keeping us in cake. The champagne moment went to Jason for his outstanding catch.
It was also not unnoticed that Steve and Duggers have significant birthdays over the next year
so it could all happen again? |
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Barry Gigg (c), Arron Harris, Konrad Chodzko-Zajko, Paul Gaught, Matt Conway |
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Diwakar Patwal, Jason Marchant, Paul Blanchard, Ian Moxon, Alfie Moxon, Chrissie Frankland. |
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John Bishop (c), George Warren, Gary Plahe, Richard Abigail, Dan Forman, Chris Thomson, |
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Chris Bates, Alok Singh, Michael Duggan, Will Spry, Steve Meyler. |
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