(York)Shire it anyway!

Despite their severe hangovers, the 12 visiting Yorkshiremen beat us soundly

It was a fun game though, especially since it was played in what was most likely the last drop of sun we're likely to see all year. We had a 36 over, 12 on 12 match, where everyone bowled 3 overs, and batsmen retired on 50. We also decided to bowl out the overs regardless of how many wickets fell, so that anyone who got out cheaply could have another go. Which is good ... knowing how crap it feels to drive down the country for an hour or two and then get out first ball - imagine what it's like flying to a different country and having it happen to you!

They had two batsmen in particular that took the game away from us, both of whom made 50s at a good strike rate. One of them drove a ball from me straight down the ground for 4, and next ball picked up my "sly" attempt at a slower ball - and cracked it back over my head for 6!!! B*****d

My first over only went for about 2 runs, and not a single ball of it was off line. 2nd over he took the attack to me with a couple of big shots in a row as above and it went for about 14 with a couple of wides and a no-ball . I managed to get things back under control a bit in the third over, to finish up with 22 runs off me overall - but no wickets

I didn't finish up with the most expensive spell though surprisingly. It turned out that the two lads were just getting warmed up with me, and really let loose after I came off - hitting one of our lads for 37 and another for 41!! Luckily they both got their 50s and were off - so some normality was restored.

They set us a target of about 180 (5 an over) which looks reasonable on paper, but we never really had the strength in the side to take that on. We got off to a decent start but soon enough there was a collapse and some spirited batting in the tail couldn't compensate.

For my own innings, I got about 6 runs more that normal - that's right, 6 runs! The biggest surprise of all though was that 4 of those runs came off one of the first balls I faced! It was a a slow long hop outside leg, and without thinking about it I managed to go down on one knee and sweep it away to the boundary in front of square leg. It was only afterwards that it occurred to me that that was the first 4 I'd ever hit.

And I don't just mean in matches ... I mean ever! I can literally not think of a single other time - even in training - that I managed to hit a ball well enough for it to go. I'm normally too tensed up over protecting my wicket to attack a ball - but I guess the relaxed nature of the game let me do it. I was feeling pretty confident after it, and played a few other decent shots, picking up two singles - one driven well down the ground and under the bowler, and the other chipped over midwicket. A couple of other balls were struck OK too, but went too close to fielders.

All too soon though it all went to pot. I played across a ball that I thought was going down leg and it smacked into middle. To me it looked like it swung, but I asked the umpire afterwards and he said it didn't. I'm thinking it's some kind of mental block I have with a ball that comes in at a certain angle straight at me. Maybe I'm falling over it and it looks like it's moving away - but it's a ball that keeps bowling me. I'll have to have a think about it and start playing it with a straight bat next year.

For this year - all that is left to do is give my bat it's end of season makeover; pick up my Duck Cup at the club dinner; and start planning for next year. I'm going to wait a few weeks before making any sort of training plan, just to give my head a rest. I'm signing up for the level 1 coaching course in November - so it might make sense to coincide the start of my winter training with that. In the meantime I'll just rest up, and if the mood takes me, knock a tennis ball around at home.

New shoes!

So I have a game lined up this weekend!

I swear - this is the last one.

There are 12 lads coming over from Yorkshire (the county, not the club), so we've lined up a 12 on 12, 35 over match for Saturday. I played them last year too, and they seemed a nice bunch of lads, so it should be a good game. My resounding memory from last years game was being the hat-trick wicket for one of them :( Might get revenge this year >:D

I also have a new pair of spikes that I'm looking forward to trying out. Up until now I was using a pair of GM Catalyst rubber soled spikes, like these:
In the last month or two they've really started falling apart. The tongue on the right shoe is completely detached now, so the laces are all that are keeping it in place. And the lining on the sole inside is worn through in patches.
But yesterday I was off work, and was in town early enough to get into the shops for a change, so I picked up a new set with removable spikes in the end of season sale:
I bought a set of moulded spikes to screw into them too - but when I got them home I found out that there was a set provided with them :< Ah well, at least I'll have spares.

I had them on for a while yesterday evening, and they seem comfortable. Obviously the acid test will be bowling or fielding in them - so I'm looking forward to giving them a run-out tomorrow before I have to pack them away for the winter (more or less).

I also went into the garden at home for a bit of a practice - bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and playing it with a stump. The biggest problem I was having with this is that the ball was so bouncy that it forces you to play on the back foot a lot. Definitely after last winter I was so used to this that I played everything on the back foot at nets - which resulted in my being bowled a lot under the bat. I've tried a few things to get around this before - like taping up the ball; puncturing it and filling it with rice; using a hockey ball .... all with varying degrees of success.

But what I tried yesterday seems to be a simple solution that works quite well. Basically all I'm doing is pegging the ball at the bottom of the wall. 9 times out of 10 it comes skidding back low - which is generally how the wickets play here. It is usually bouncing more than once - but at least it gives me a viable way to practice a forward defensive. And it's something else to keep me occupied for the off-season.

Why do I do this?

AGM went well last night, the position of secretary is secured and no power-tools were needed :) There was a fairly poor turnout really, but it was still more than last year, so not too bad. There was a lot of talk of improving the facilities at our ground before next season, by putting a proper base under the mat and building concrete net bays - and a sum of money was set aside for this purpose.

It would be nice to have the net bays definitely. There have been plenty of times in the past two years where there's been a very low turnout at practice and too much of our time and energy has been spent running to collect the ball from all corners of the ground rather than focusing on the task at hand. Nets should go some way towards helping with that. I know practice games on the actual square have plenty of benefits too - from the point of view of developing awareness of the field and being able to set up realistic practice scenarios.

I was also accosted by a member of the club that had found his way on here and read some of this! He was disappointed that I hadn't mentioned his heroic 40 not out (carried his bat) in the 2nd game of the season. I've mentioned it a couple of times since then though, especially late in the season when it became apparent that our biggest issue in the 4ths was failing to use our overs. Definitely the only times we've posted a really decent score (anything over 100 at this level), it's been because one or two of the top order hung around around to get a hard fought 40 or 50. Then with the stability at that end a few others managed to chip in with 10s or 20s.

Anyway I explained to him the purpose of these blogs on sC (or BC now I suppose :D ). You never know, if he reads a couple of the other ones over there he might start his own next season :D I know personally I feel like it's helped me a lot. If nothing else, writing this stuff down in a way that has to be mildly comprehensible to others forces you to acknowledge what you're doing wrong - and what you're doing right. And it helps every now and then to skim through what's happened this year to try and spot patterns etc. And on top of this, comments from other people on sC helped to straighten out a few issues and put things in perspective. I may not be international standard (yet :p) but I'm a hell of a lot better that I was last year and at the start of this season, hopefully with some good work in the off season the trend will continue.

Addendum

As an addendum to the last post I've uploaded the pictures for the day (or at least the part of it that our president (pic below) was there)

el Presidenté

This chap was my batting partner for the day. As you can see he generally looks like he knows what he's doing a bit more than me. So unsurprisingly he got most of the runs.

Middle - BOG for the day

I've mentioned Stephen before - he only started playing this year and got a two wickets in his first game for us. He won the cup and was BOG for some very good bowling - some great batting - and a cool head in the field. When he was bowling to me I couldn't get him away for a single that would have got our batsman on strike. And then when he was batting he attacked at the right time (hit two 4s on long grass), and defended at the right time (blocked an over when they had a 5 run lead). Best of all was the run-out on the last ball that won the cup. The batsmen needed 3 to win (a tie would have still lost them the game). They ran the two quickly and turned for the 3rd as the ball was coming back in - Stephen picked it up and instead of throwing down the stumps, scrambled and dived into them to secure the win by about a foot!

As for myself - there's the Good(ish):

Leaving one down leg - got a few wides for that
The first on-drive I've managed to hit well
Backing up on the last ball of the over to secure a drop-and-run single

The Bad:

Completely missing one that I tried to hoist over midwicket - very lucky not to get bowled
A wideish ball that I played through cover. The result is OK, but the shot ain't so hot. Not a big enough step forward - and hitting the ball too far in front of myself.

And the Ugly:

I think I was trying to guide it into the gap at cover - but then realised it was too straight. Hence the most awkward and useless forward defensive ever!! (Somehow worked though)

Double-D Cups

The Double-D Cup competition is over and the title has been snatched from my grasp

The Double-D Cup

Basically we had our annual end-of-season double-wicket comp last Saturday, on what was the hottest day I've ever seen of a September. With the weather being so good I was expecting a big turnout, but surprisingly, only 12 actually made it!

Undaunted, we soldiered on with 6 teams of 2. While each pair were batting we all fielded and one of the other teams (chosen at random) bowled at them. Each pair batted 4 overs, and bowled 4 overs and their final score was runs scored - runs conceded. A wicket was -5 too.

It's not a particularly serious competition either, as it was being run in tandem with a BBQ and a few beers - and there was some fundraising going on in the form of "fines". These were handed out for all manner of infractions like "Impersonating a fielder" (for diving over a ball), "having a shoe fetish" (changing spikes numerous times), "Being afraid of a bra" (see pic above), among numerous other offenses. I was fined a few quid for dropping 4 catches! - and then fined again for having the nerve to take two later on!

Our president was there for about 20 minutes with his camera and timed it perfectly to coincide with my batting There are some dodgy looking shots among the pics, but I'm reasonably happy with how some of them look. This one particularly, as it's very rare that I get a ball to go on the on-side. You can also see how bloody long the grass was!

God knows what kinda shot this is

Incidentally, I didn't get a run for this as my partner didn't realise that the cameraman wasn't fielding!!

Later in the week I might stick up a few of the other pics so I can see where I'm going wrong.

AGM tonight, it looks like I'm running uncontested for Secretary - so I'll be busy for the next year!

Hindsight (not much 20-20 though)

I think it's about time I did my end-of-season review :( A word of warning, it's very numbery (yes, it's a word) and not all that interesting, especially if you've been following this season log generally, but I think it might be useful for a comparison at the end of next season.

I'd said at the start of the season that my aim this year was going to be to learn how to play, and that any wickets, catches and runs would be a bonus. On the whole I think I've managed that, as in I'm a better cricketer now than I was then. There's still a long way to go, to be sure, but it's not a bad start. So ...

Games:
23 of them in all, split up as: 12 for the 4ths; 6 for the 3rds; 4 for the 2nds; and 1 for the 1sts. 23 games in 22 weeks ain't bad I suppose, although surprisingly one of the lads managed 25 games! (He also has the most overs, the most wickets, the best bowling figures and the most maidens). I'd prefer if there were a few more 3rds games there, at the very least it would make more sense - 2nds should be stealing from the 3rds and 3rds from the 4ths .... but there were a few occasions that 2nds stole from 4ths?

Batting:
11 runs in total at an average of 1.00 and a strike rate of 13.56. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be considering I managed 6 ducks (2 of them golden), but the 5 not-outs seems to have counterbalanced this a bit. What can I say, I'm a true number 11. Believe it or not, this is better than last year, and I've increased my top score from 4 to 6 :D

Bowling:
Pretty happy with this overall. Picked up 26 wickets at an average of 11.76 and a SR of 17. The economy is the wrong side of 4 though (4.14) which would explain why I got so few overs (relative to the number of games played - 30% of the amount I could have bowled). And 62 of the 74 overs were for the 4th team (resulting in 23 of the wickets). Bizarrely I bowled twice as many overs for the 2nds as I did for the 3rds :? But then again, the 3rds had a very strong bowling line-up ... and the 2nds skipper was very much a "give everyone a go" type chap.

Fielding:
Again, happy with this. I was in the running for the catches cup for most of the season, and ended up taking 11 catches overall. The fact that I have as many runs as I do catches was the source of some merriment in the club; imagine what it was like before I scored the 6 runs! Last year, fielding was the only thing I had to justify my place on the team - so I was generally fairly enthusiastic at cutting out fours and the like. I still do this, but I'd like to be able to slide a bit - could be more effective. I'd also a couple of drops this year, two of which I should have taken, but overall, pretty good.

Next year? :
Obviously I'd like to be better able to bat. There have been some signs of light, but there's a long way to go. Currently my bowling is zero-swing line and length. It's good for cleaning up tails and takes wickets when the batsmen are pushing the rate - but otherwise pretty ineffective. If I can get a bit of movement or some more pace it might allow me to compete at the higher leagues too. With fielding, I need to get better under the high ball and learn to slide - or make sure I get to stay in the ring.

Hopefully Messrs Woolmer and Noakes will be able to help me with that. And there's always a chance that I might get off my ass and finally finish this bowling machine ... maybe.

Going Tepid Turkey

Actually, it's not all bad. There is still some cricket left in the year, not very much mind, but enough to avoid going cold turkey. Maybe we can call it tepid turkey?

Next weekend, for example, we have the Double-D cup - a double wicket competition within the club. I'm facing into this as defending champion, though as you can imagine it was mostly due to the person I was partnered with. Our winning total was 47, of which I think I scored 7! To be fair it was all just a bit of fun, I'd had 2 bottles of beer before batting (which might explain why I scored so many ), and the cup itself comes with a bra attached - which gets cut in half and the winning team have to wear a cup each on their heads

There's also the indoor cricket sessions on Thursdays. Again this is just a bit of fun - 8 lads knocking a tennis ball around, but it should keep me going for a while.

We also have a touring side coming over from England (Yorkshire I think) for a game in two weeks. Though at the moment their schedule seems to be - Arrive, drink, sleep (optional), drink, eat, drink, sleep (optional), drink, eat, cricket, drink, sleep (optional), drink, depart They're a fun bunch of lads too, should be a good weekend.

And then there are the various "end-of-season" type events. There's a delegation from the club going for a weekend in Bratislava (which I can't make unfortunately). There will also be the LCU (league governing body) official end of season dinner and prize-giving ceremony, where we'll be presented with our cups and league titles for the year. I wouldn't mind heading to that, not sure when it's on yet though. Not to mention the club AGM, I've a feeling this will be pretty much a love-in after the successful year!

Pick of the bunch though will have to be the club President's Dinner. All the intra-club awards are handed out for player of the year, and the catches cup, and sixes cup and the like. Nice fancy dinner too, and plenty of speeches (and maybe a song or two ;-) ). I'll be there to pick up the Duck Cup (hmm) I had hoped that I'd be picking up the catching cup too, having been in the shake-up for most of the year, but sadly I was overtaken and couldn't catch up (pun intended). I'd like to think that I'd be in the mix for the 4ths player of the year on account of my bowling, but I reckon my batting might be a deciding factor Besides, there are other lads there that would have taken more wickets than I did if they'd played more, and they already have more runs.

So even if most of the cricket-related activities this year aren't actually cricket, at least they're close. And for now that will have to do.

24 years of hurt

Well, it's over.

It's more than mildly depressing to know that it's at least 7 months until the next competitive game, and probably a whole 5 months until I'll pick a ball up in the company of people who are really interested in what I'll do with it.

There seem to be a good few people on SC who are writing up a review of their season, but I'm going to sit on my one for a few days - partially to try and get a bit of perspective on it, but mostly because there's other more interesting news.

Not that my last game this season was cancelled due to opposition failing to get numbers - on the nicest day we've had in months ... That's not news at this stage, it's been happening so often the last few weeks - it would have been more surprising to actually get a game played.

The real news is that our first team have finally gotten their final played (Third time's a charm). And guess what.....

go on ....

Guess ....

They won!!

After 24 long years as a club we actually have a cup. (To be fair, our 2nds won a 20-20 competition earlier this year, but there's nowhere near the same history associated with it.) Our firsts have been in the final of this competition 7 times before and lost them all (once when it would have been much easier to win).

So as you can imagine, there were a lot of teary-eyed players and former players about the place exorcising their demons. And there were a few pints imbibed on Saturday evening (I'm still trying to remember if I said or did anything embarrassing). It was a great day for the club, and it caps off a fantastic season - our 2nds and 3rds both won their leagues, the 2nds won their short-game cup and now this

I don't know how we'll top it next year - but the monkey is off the back now and hopefully it is just the start of a new era for us.

Batting Masterclass ;-)

Again with the lack of people at nets last night! We had a grand total of 6, which is way better than Tuesday, but very disappointing for the last Thursday net of the year; and the very last chance for the 1sts to practice before the final (It HAS to happen this Saturday).

Still, we made the most of it. One of the lads had noticed I wasn't great under the high ball and so fixed me Apparently, I was trying to take the ball too far from my body, which is why it was bouncing out so much. And apparently for covers and midwicket type catches - if it's coming at you hard, fairly low and to your side - it helps to get your leg behind the ball. Firstly, because if you miss, there's a second line of defences. And secondly (and more importantly), it's difficult to judge where your hands are once they go past your knee. I tried his advice, and it's certainly helped so far - I can work on it a bit over the winter and hopefully go the extra mile with the catches next year

Batting went well enough. At one stage I hit a lovely cover drive (in the midst of a load of edges ), where I ended up down on one knee and with the bat above my head pointing towards where the ball had gone. The keeper remarked that I looked exactly like Michael Vaughan.

Next ball I missed completely and it went through the gate and knocked over middle stump. The keeper remarked that I looked exactly like Michael Vaughan.

Bowling was the same as usual - I'm no use as a net bowler, as I need the field or scoreboard pressure to force errors. But it was reasonably accurate, and I worked on my follow-through a bit.

Our game on Saturday now looks like it is back on, so I still have one last opportunity to pick up a few more wickets. Hopefully I'll be a bit more successful than last week - though it was nice to get my economy down a bit to just over 4.

The end is nigh (or at least soon)

The last Tuesday-training of the year was two days ago, and guess how many turned up?

Two.

Again.

We spent about 30 minutes giving each other throwdowns, but to be fair, we were dodging showers for most of that. Apparently all the wind and rain we had at the start of this week was the tail end of hurricane Gustav! It happens a good bit over here, where a couple of fronts associated with a hurricane in the US follow the gulf stream and dump a crap-load of water on us. The one that most people still talk about was hurricane Charley in the 80's, did a lot of damage apparently, though I don't remember it, what with being 2 at the time and all

So with inclement weather, and a maximum of 22 people playing next weekend - it's hardly surprising that nobody made it but it is still disappointing that one of our last opportunities for a hit has passed us by. Hopefully there will be a few there this evening for what is officially the last net of the year.

I started swimming lessons last Monday though, which should give me something to do in the off-season. Nothing challenging so far, but I don't think I'm kicking properly - and it's quite difficult to tell what your feet are doing when you're busy trying not to drown

Other than that I haven't really made any plans for the winter, cricket- or training-wise. Rest up for a few weeks I suppose, then we'll see what happens. That is assuming that we're all still here for the winter.

Wonder of wonders!

Managed to actually get a game in yesterday, but it was a bit of a disaster for us - so I don't know if that was a good thing

We were bowled out of 98, and they got the total, under no real pressure, in about 30 overs and only losing 4 wickets.

Me? I got a third ball duck , and am going to have to add "Batting against swing" to my already long list of pending improvements. I also bowled 8 overs for 18 runs, but didn't manage to take a single wicket. It was extremely frustrating, as it was by far the quickest and most consistent spell I've ever bowled, with no wides, and only 5 or 6 balls not going where I wanted them to.

I think this actually made it less likely for me to take a wicket though - as the opposition batters were refusing to chase the ball ... instead dead-batting the majority back to me, and turning the odd one down to fine leg. It didn't help that they were under no scoreboard pressure either I suppose. Normally, I get wickets from people being tempted into chasing my innocuous bowling - missing the pace of it - and so getting bowled or caught off a miss-hit.

So perhaps straight line and length bowling is only really effective when it's really slow - or when they have to chase it? Not that I was chanceless - I was dropped twice (one a dolly), and had a few LBW shouts turned down. I beat the bat a few times too, but no luck

The obvious next step is to get some swing out of the ball. If I can keep up this pace so that they try to defend more often, then a touch of outswing has a chance of taking an edge.

I'm bloody knackered today after it, not necessarily because of the physical exertion (8 overs ain't a marathon after all), but more from disappointment. I bloody put everything into the game, both in the bowling and trying to get the team going in the field, and have ended up with nothing to show for it.

Ah, hopefully I'll manage to get in a better game next week. Still need 4 more wickets to get 30 for the season, which isn't really significant - just a nice round number , and if I can get two more catches I'll be back in with a shout for that cup.

I also haven't really used the camera since I was away, I'll have to get back into the habit.

Smash-fest Nets

Even with the club's most important game of the year coming up this Saturday - I was still surprised by the turnout at nets yesterday! I think there were around 15 there in total, with 8 from the 1sts in attendance. The emphasis was on letting people have a chance to get their eye in and their confidence up, so it was more of a smash-fest than any sort of considered drilling of skills. It was still fun though, with plenty of banter between the lads about who can hit it furthest, and trying to hit skiers (skyers? Though who wouldn't like to hit a skier, smug gits ) in the general direction of certain sledgers so you can take the mick out of them when they drop it.

In this atmosphere my bowling was obviously taken apart! No death bowler me I was still happy with my bowling though, line and length were consistent, and my slower balls caused aggro every time I put one down there. Batting went fairly well too, managed to keep my wicket intact and played a few decent strokes. I also played a chinese cut or two, but a run's a run ... no-one remembers how you scored them unless you land on your ass during the shot

There are only four games at most left in the season, but I suspect that there's little hope of tomorrows game going ahead. It's been solid rain since early this morning, and there's still no sign of a let-up. Hopefully Sunday will still happen though. I'm going to try for a late season charge to get up to 30 wickets, I've been on 26 for almost a month due to cancelled games and not getting overs. I'm also in joint 2nd for the catches cup, so I need at least 2 more to get a clear lead. I'll be bugging the skippers to field me in the ring, as my high catching has been pretty poor this season.

Obviously some runs would be nice too, especially since my batting is just starting to come together. There's even a chance that I might not have the Duck Cup in the bag. There's one other lad that now has 4 (to my 5), and if he gets one more his ducks percentage will be higher than mine so he'll end up with the cup I'm not counting my chickens though, chances are I'll get ducks myself in all the remaining games

The Real Mother of Invention

Gah .... Woeful turnout at nets last night. A whole 2 peoples. And the second only turned up as I was leaving. I think the end-of-season rot has well and truly set in. I remember this happened last year too, where for the last month everyone gave up nets and it was very difficult to get a team out (not that I'm complaining too much - it got me my debut on the 1sts ).

I was more surprised than usual last night though, as our first team have their cup final next Saturday, and I thought some of them would be down sharpening their skills. Unless they were hiding in the bushes waiting for me to leave I know the skipper was working late, but surely a couple of them would have still pitched up to get a bat in their hands to check if they still remember how to use it! Especially after the last 5 weeks of cancellations and a drubbing last weekend to dash our hopes of promotion.

I got to the park just before 6 to open the place up, and while I was waiting I got out the stump and a few hockey balls to have a bit of a hit myself. At home I've been bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and practising driving it, but I hadn't been able to find a suitable place to do this at the pitch. However yesterday, what with boredom being the mother of invention and all, I managed to circumvent such petty obstacles :)

Basically, I dragged the roller over in front of the door of the equipment container, stood about 10 feet away with the stump, and then pegged the ball at the curved surface of the roller. This worked surprisingly well, with the hockey balls pinging back to me at a reasonable clip (but not too fast), and the length gets a natural variation based on where on the roller the ball hits! Errant throws also weren't too bad, as the container behind the roller stopped the ball going too far.

I think this new method might keep me going for a while, I'll have to find something similar for the tennis courts near my house. It's coming into the time of year when they'll be empty more often, so I might be able to get down and use them myself.

Tavs v Cavs

This is the match report for the taverners match at the weekend - it was an exciting game and so might be worth a read. Original post here (needs registration).

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I missed the first innings but hopefully one of the lads will fill in the gaps.

On an unexpectedly fine day the Taverners had their flagship fixture of a 35 over a side match against the Theatrical Cavaliers. The venue was Three Rock, which unfortunately looked like it hadn't been cut in some weeks When I arrived, the Cavs had about two overs left to bat, a quick look at the book showed that it was fairly low-scoring, which was unsurprising given the state of the field.

One of the first balls I witnessed was a full toss by Anto Howard that was smashed straight at Tosh stationed at backward square leg. A good catch elicited a cry of "It's one of those f***ing Sandyforders" from one of the Cavs Nice to know our presence was noted and appreciated

A quick look at the book showed some good performances with the ball from John Pike and Dave Gray (possibly from the others too, was only a quick look). Pick of the bowlers was Peter Soutter with 1 for 5 from 5 overs

At 35 overs the score stood at 128, and so after a quick tea, the chase began with Baz and Mick Fitz at the crease. There were some fine strokes played by Mick, who seemed to be hogging the strike (Baz faced about 3 balls in the first 5 overs), but due to the grass again, these shots often produced no runs. Despite not getting much of the strike, Baz was busy causing aggro at the other end, which one of their players from Leinster didn't seem to appreciate. Eventually the umpire had to tell them both to shut up but there was no harm done.

An excellent direct-hit run-out of Mick brought Peter Soutter to the crease, who played some very nice shots, and when he was out John Pike and Baz tried to up the rate which was flagging somewhat (43 runs at 18 overs). Baz was run out in this endeavor, but Tosh was well up to the challenge, with himself and Pikie really pushing the rate with some fantastic (read suicidal) running between the wickets. Singles were keeping us in it, just about, but with the rate at 6 an over, Dave Larkin was put up the order as a pinch hitter. I was a little nervous when he swung at and missed his first two balls, but the concerns were unfounded as he scored a great quick-fire 18 before being bowled.

This effort managed to get the rate back under 5 an over, and when Tosh was out a short while later Dermot and John Rowe kept up the big hitting. When Dermot's wicket fell, things were starting to get tight. With Anto and John at the crease we needed just under a run a ball. The tension was getting unbearable with 9 needed from 11 balls and three wickets in hand - but then, John Rowe hit a massive shot into the leg side which just cleared the boundary! A six, leaving us just 3 to win from 10 balls. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief - until John was out next ball

Dave Gray strolled out with advice from all sides ringing in his ears - then took off for a crazy single first ball that resulted in Anto being run out

Owen Rowe was then our last hope. 3 to win with from 9 balls. But unfortunately it was not to be. First ball he was bowled behind his legs

So the trophy goes back to the Cavs leaving it 3 wins and 3 losses from the last 6 years. A very exciting game, and one that both captains claimed they wouldn't have been too dissappointed to lose during the game due to the drama (liars )