Due to the deluge of interest in the cricketing Stallion's progress, a double report follows, reporting on our twin victories. Modest types, us cricketing winners, but if you insist on hearing all the news...
Boycott biffs, Vampire slays, Stallions trot past Norths at Kura Park
A second consecutive win for the Stallions against North City at Kura Park. After skillfully having ourselves inserted on a track sporting a fair amount of crack we struggled a little against their tidy openers, being 3 down for circa 20 (the scorebook is a little hazy here) when Rob came in to join Butch. Thankfully these two old campaigners managed to put together another one of our familiar middle-order recovery missions. Butch was rolling the right dice and played some fine shots off both back and front foot in between the numerous chances, finishing up with a useful 48. Rob's innings was as usual chanceless-ish, and with some good running and effective risk-taking we were back on a fairly even keel before Tony came in after the fall of two (extremely unlucky) wickets. After being talked up as some kind of Boycott-esque throwback, Mr Liefting duly turned in a Jekyll of a performance, thrashing away in the hopes of avoiding having to do anything as strenuous as jogging a single. Rob was inspired and tried to clear the ropes, perishing for 28. T made 47 invaluable runs before gratefully staggering off for a lie down. Their openers returned to keep the last five overs tidy despite Keast's surgical incisions, meaning that we finished on a respectable 181-9.
Our efforts in the field didn't get off to the best of starts as we started the first over with 9 players due to Cantabrian subterfuge/ineptitude. The first three overs went for a few, with the bat thrown at anything near off stump and the hungover, angry 'all-rounder' not quite justifying his hogging of the new ball. Rich bowled extremely well, applying pressure at one end and starting the rot by bowling the 'danger man' around his legs. From there we began to pick them off, giving away very few runs and leaving them at 5-40 off 13. Rich ended up with four maidens in a row (he says) and figures of 7-4-12-2. A chance went down soon after, and from shaky ground they built up a steady partnership as the drizzle started to threaten our chances. Glen and Graham both started well, and the required run rate was still slowly building. Mike "Vampire" Sleyer found his rhythm after five overs, and the partnership was broken when a second lofted chance at long-off was spectacularly intercepted by that fleet fox Liefting. Mike ran through the rest of their batsmen with a mixture of line, length and accurate use of cracks, ending with 4-27. Ever the gentleman, on picking up consecutive wickets Mike decided that he'd pass up the opportunity for a hattrick and instead aim a beamer at the new batsman in order to give him a sighter. Jase toiled away with impressive control over the drizzly ball and absolutely no luck, finally being rewarded with the last wicket when the ball hit the bat followed by the pad, then being caught by the wicket keeper- confusion reigned, even after the batsman was given out. It's a perplexing game at times. Norths all out for 140, a 41 run victory for the Stallions.
Great effort in the field to keep plugging away in the damp conditions when things weren't going our way. We're still not putting the runs on the board in a consistent manner, though it is good to see different batsmen putting their hand up each week to save our arses. With a few tweaks we should be good to continue our rise up the table- we're now comfortably fifth, and those early losses are a distant memory.
Good attendance at the Four Kings for a thorough fine session well 'lubed' with cheap Speights. Luckily, Ravishing Ricky Tay only made us wait half an hour for his fragrant body. The Chch boys BC and Jake the Muss kept us entertained with stories from the deep, dark, depraved end of the world, and Iain's stalker seemed happy just to be a part of proceedings, a mere table-length away from the handsome devil himself. Once again we didn't manage to come up with a candidate for Pony on the night... somehow I think that forgetting the scorebook might swing things my way. Sorry fullas. I'll stay off the margaritas until at least April, I reckon.
05/12/09
A solid first win for the Stallions on Saturday in the unseasonal sunshine at Kelburn Park. Onslow put us in on a hard bouncy track and we suffered another unsteady start, with two wickets down before we'd broken our collective duck. Jase hung around for a while and toyed with us all by smashing one straight onto the croquet green before departing for 19. Rob and Hamish came together with the score at 43-4 and put together an excellent partnership to drag us out of trouble. Both batsmen regained the fluency of old and it was classy stuff, only tempered by the overgrown outfield which probably took about 20-30% off their totals. Which is a shame for Rob, since he fell 1 short of a well-deserved fifty (having believed that our astounded applause following his pulled six was intended to mark this milestone...). Hamish fell shortly after for a very well compiled and timely 73. Glen and Mike Sleyer managed to put together a handy partnership in the last few overs, each clearing the longish boundaries with actual cricket shots. Our final total of 189-9 was tidy given the outfield, and impressive given our unfortunate start. We are starting to regularly build big partnerships in the middle order, but obviously these will ideally follow solid starts as well.
The hard bouncy track was enough to lure me and my ego out of bowling retirement (that, and my pathetic dismissal earlier in the day), and with Rich bowling well into a very light breeze we had a tidy start, picking up their openers and conceding very few runs in the first 12 overs. Glen bowled another excellent spell and was supported by Henry at the other end, who has the knack of putting the ball in the 'right areas' consistently. These bowling partnerships are also vital as we all know and this continued throughout Onslow's innings so that there was never any let up in pressure. Onslow were 58-4 at drinks and needed nearly six an over already. Jase bowled a good spell from the croquet club end and Sleyer went from strength to strength, bowling 8 overs on the trot and picking up two vital wickets, including the partnership breaker. It was great to see the control from the bowlers, with very few four balls handed out and some enthusiastic and even at times athletic fielding to back it up. Hamish swapped the gloves with Rob and as usual beguiled his way through an unlucky spell, as Onslow withered and faded without much fight. Glen and Rich came back to finish things off, with Rich deservedly picking up some tail end wickets to finish with 3-23. Onslow finished all out for 149, 40 runs short of victory with only an over in hand. Butch and I reckon we can't remember a more consistent team bowling effort in ten years playing for this team.
