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Day 1: The Shore Club Rocks...

The scene is set... its 14 September 2007, 10:57 pm, Australia is hammering England, Sri Lanka has just hammered poor old Kenya... Steven Bull, captain of the Towers B1 side receives a stream of text messages indicating that half his side is out celebrating at "The Shore Club". A place the veteran Skipper has never heard of. A place the veteran skipper feels might lead his opening bowler and opening batsman astray!

 

The lads manage to dust themselves off at a reasonable hour and arrive on time – only 1 player, now known as ‘space cowboy’ arrives after 1pm and as a result is listed at no. 11.

Spud wins the toss and we start strapping on the pads.  After setting the world alight in 2006/07 Fox Snr gets away to a start reflective of the amount of pre-season training we have done this season, bringing Graze (newly nicknamed on facebook as “gramps”) to the crease earlier than expected. Was the Shore Club going to ruin the start of season 07/08????? Not if the only few not at the Shore Club had anything to say about it! A solid stand of 48 followed before the old man of the side, clearly thinking he needed to get some quick singles out of the system before the body starts packing it in (scheduled for Round 3) runs the captain out for 20… Thankfully Spud is a laid back character!

 

Out strides the Forbinator keen to impress with his newly sculpted Michael Vaughn GM Super Run Scorer Backyard King Super Blade (did I get the plug right Stuey??). An 88 run stand ensues before Graham is out for 76. Forbes follows shortly after with a fine enducing 42. 

 With Bing and Braids at the crease the team looks good at 4/179 at tea – although Spud is still concerned that the spectre of the Shore Club hangs over both of their heads.

After the tea break, Bowling Club employed the curious tactic of taking 1 player off the field for every 100 runs we score… this played perfectly into the hands of Binga who displayed the mental toughness required to push on against a team showing increasing disinterest. Goes to show that going to the Shore Club when you should be elsewhere is great preparation. Morris and Fox Jnr show some fight to hang in there with Binga and card scores in the teens. Unfortunately though the lower order didn’t catch on to what it took and proceeded to play shots best reserved for a day where the bowlers were a bit quicker than they actually were. 6 for 266 quickly turned into 9 for 273.

 

Nobody expected what happened next.

As Doug ‘Space Cowboy’ Wiles strode to the crease at number 11 and Binga stranded on 58, it appeared our batting all-rounder would be ‘robbed of a hundred’ again. Well, 114 runs later Dougie was caught on the boundary for 35 and Binga, after 20 years of trying, finally earned himself the title of CENTURION with an unbeaten 119. Minsky’s would never recover!

 

Day 2: Lets get to the SFS!

With the Scorecard reading Collaroy Plateau 387, the skipper tried to tell us it would be harder than we thought… a fact backed up when we can’t find a cricket ball for some catching practice and resort to using a footy.

 

Amazingly we almost start on time. With strike bowler Forbes and our newly crowned batting all rounder toiling away, the Harbord opening batsman look like they can play. It takes a very generous umpiring decision to get Binga the first mark in the wicket column for the team in 07/08 (Bing claims it was hitting all three). Another quick wicket from Binga leaves Harbord BC at 2 for 23 and causes much discussion in the slips courdon about how much Beaver is going to smash Bowen.

 

Negotiations in the slips continue regarding our plan of attack… get them out before tea and we go for the outright… otherwise… we are off to the SFS early!

 

Thankfully the bowling and fielding comes to the party. An awesome run out from Braids, a couple of wickets from Dougie and 1 each to Forbes, Fox Jnr and Braids sees Harbord Bowling Club all out for 110, including a very well compiled 46 from their Captain who carried his bat. A special mention in the field goes to the catching of the Fox brothers – in particular the gem from Jack to get the monkey off Stuey’s back after he was swinging the ball further than Wasim Akram.

 

After discussing with first slip how much cash to put on Brett Stewart as first try scorer and thinking better of it, Spud decides that putting them back for at least an hour is a good idea.

 

Again their opening batsman displayed some determination against the new ball surviving a pretty quick spell from Binga who really wanted to get to the footy. With a big gamble required to get us to the stadium on time, Spud decides to roll his arm over to their Captain… the move pays off and with his first ball Steve (John Winston Howard the second) strikes their skipper right in front just before it bounces a second time and he is judged LBW! Amazing delivery which had both Stuey and Binga shaking their heads. Another wicket in his first over via a great stumping by Soggy Saio and we are looking good to be over the spit bridge by sunset.

 

Another change at the other end sees the cowboy bowl a truly sensational spell which nearly earnt him the three points in our team MVP awards. After a warm up over that cost 8 runs, Dougie takes 5 for 29 off four overs to skittle them. In the middle of his spell, he was robbed of a hat trick as a result of the square leg umpire counting Indian Miners migrating to Warringah golf course for the evening. With Spud at the other end taking 3 for 12 the Bowling Club batting line up crumbled to a total of 87.

 

The Towers B1s with a big victory and on top of the comp!