well , what can i say/…. this was probably our best performance yet and it almost started with disaster.

at 7 oclock 6 of us took to the pitch , batting having won the toss. the astute of you would notice that it was not a 6aside game but in fact 8 aside higgy and kalu were missing in action!! not missing but in action were robt, justin, al, tall dave, ev and jamest

higgy was cruising the streets of bs6 with kalu but without a clue of where he was or where he was meant to be going, as we struggled along with the batting (apologies as i didnt see much of the batting) wickets fell and still no sign , expletives flew on both end of the phone as directions were given , heeded not heeded confusion and frustration ensued!! still no sign!!!! more wickets tumbled and we were 5 down when i went into bat , a sighting was made and a sheepish higgy and kalu appeared, but too late we were down to lat man standing and the umpire said that was that , we appealed for his understandiing and turning to see the two of them ,w ith the kind permission of bitton’s skipper higgy and kalu were allowed to bat ,there was only 2 overs to go and with many apologies both higgy and kalu had a go and managed to add a few runs before bieng bowled and out hit roof respectively. last man standing again the score eeked it’s way up to 69 no said one of their spectators 70′s the score..thanks that one may proove vital later on.

at the interval thanks and apologies were made to bitton and higgy blamed a cyclist for giving him duff directions from underneath the bumper of his 4 x 4 . ‘no worries mate i’ll only be pissed off if we lose’ said their skipper.

ev got our bowling off to a good start taking an early wicket, i didn’t get off to such a good start , going for at least 9 in one ball and being a bit wayward, really annoyed i bowled a maiden !! probably the first of all our games so far, but enough about me , it only just made up for the first over. tall dave came onto bowl and the bat proceeded to hit two firm off drives straight to ev at mid off , thinking to himself he looks a good ground fielder i wonder if he can catch , hit the next one a foot off the ground straight at him. which he gratefully bagged, in answer to the question. tall dave got another wicket , yes, hit roof!

james had an over and took another wicket, combined with some good sharp fielding, and moral support from all to all we really started putting the pressure on bitton but they only needed 23 off of 5 overs , surely they wouldn’t buckle, higgy’s and kalu first overs were tight and they managed to keep the runs down both taking wickets and two excellent stops from tall dave ( finable and hospitalising in the big game) until their skipper was the only one left requiring 6 to win off the last over, higgy seeing the chap only had one shot bowled so he couldnt play it, 4 to win off the last ball , no chance and with great concentration higgy bowled the last delivery and the chap played his other shot for one…. almost to our own disbelief we had won…. it was never in doubt , positive mind set . ‘think bridge and the bridge will be there’ etc

we bowled well fielded extremely well and never excepted we were going to be bitton , congrats and high 5s all round and we all retired to talk about how funny it was almost not having 8 players and how ace sat nav isnt, over a couple of nice tasting winning pints.

Best Batting Performance

Sunday 1st
RobT2 76 vrs Bristol Indians on 21/8 @ Frencahy
Justin 60 vrs Failand & Portbury on 22/5 @ Frenchay
Duncan 59 vrs  Churchways 2nds on 1/5 @ Carsons Ground

Sunday 2nd Team
DC1 66 vrs Farmborough on 19/6 @ Frenchay
Bernie 55 vrs Cheddar on 1/5 @ Frenchay
Angelo 53 vrs Portway on 10/7 @ Frenchay

Saturday Team
Dave B 104 Not Out vrs Shepton Mallet on 30/4 @ Frenchay
Ben P 87 vrs Statton-on-the-Foss 14/5 @ Frenchay
Dave B 84 vrs Midsomer Norton on 3/9 @ Frenchay

Best Batting Average (Innings-Average-Not Outs)

Sunday 1st Team
RonT2 8-27.86-1
Dunc 9-26.13-1
Nail 12-25.75-0

Sunday 2nd Team
DC1 5-24.8-0
Johnsie 6-17.67-0
Reg 7-17.56-0

Saturday Team
Kalu 13-37.3-3
Dave B 9-35-1
Alan 9-31.4-4

Most Runs

Sunday 1st Team
Neil 309 runs
Justin 268 runs
Wilko 225 runs

Sunday 2nd Team
James P 143 runs
Angelo 135 runs
DC1 124 runs

Saturday Team
Kalu 373 runs
Dave B 280 runs
Ben 235 runs

Best Bowling Performance

Sunday 1st Team
Wilko 5 for 18 vrs Failand & Portbury on 22/5 @ Frenchay
Stratto 5 for 26 vrs Harptree on 28/8 @ Frencahy
Wilko 4 for 14 vrs Blagdon on 15/5 @ Blagdon

Sunday 2nd Team
Alex 4 for 29 vrs Downend on 15/5 @ Frenchay
Johnsie 3 for 12 vrs Sratton-on-the-Foss on 14/8 @ Stratton
Wayne 3 for 32 vrs Downend on 31/7 @ Downend

Saturday Team
TimT 6 for 34 vrs Midsomer Norton on 23/7 @ Midsomer Norton
Kalu 5 for 10 vrs Bath on 6/6 @ Bath
Garner 4 for 20 vrs Whitchurch on 30/7 @ Whitchurch

Best Bowling Average (Overs-Maidens-Wickets-Average)

Sunday 1st Team
Hidayat  40-1-6-12.7
Omar 50-7-13-14.38
Wilko 70-5-16-18.06

Sunday 2nd Team
Mackie 30-1-6-23.17
Dave L 77-13-12-24.42
Barnaby 34.1-1-8-26.63

Saturday Team
Kalu 57.3-7-20-10.9
TimT 97.5-8-27-13.04
Evan 96.4-19-24-14.04

Most Wickets

Sunday 1st Team
Wilko 16 wickets
Stratto 13 wickets
Omar 13 wickets
RT2 11 wickets

Sunday 2nd Team
Dave L 12 wickets
Wayne 9 wickets
Barnaby 8 wickets

Saturday Team
TimT 27 wickets
Ev 24 wickets
Kalu 20 wickets

Most Catches

All Teams
Wilko 10 catches
Joe 10 catches
Neil 8 catches

Supporter Of The Season

Erica

Most Improved Player

Kalu

Cowboy Of The Season

Ev

Friendly Team Special Awards

For scoring a century:
Neil

For taking 2 wickets with 2 wides:
DC2

a very close game indeed, right down to the last over, mainly due to some eratic behaviour from the ball when bowling slow pace, higgy and tall dave both batted well having to retire and come back in after wickets fell,making a total of 124 robt2 made a decent debut considering the vagueries(?) of both the game and instruction from me ( see above) , our heads were down a little during our bowling, but tall dave continued to temp batsmen into hitting the ball to up be dismissed hit roof, tinks toook a blinding rebound caught and bowled got some runs inc a great straight six unfortunately he was hit for 3 consecutive 6′s when bowling to their best bat, who definately had played the game before! it was all a bit of a blur but somehow they needed 14 of the last over. tall dave bowled straight and took another wicket to win us the game

The sessions are from 12pm until 2pm. Since the cost of hiring the nets is rising a good turn out will help keep the costs down.

last night was he first game in the cricket 8aside league, fate had drawn us the old E nemy for our first match and a couple of admin errors had all 9 of us at the gym in good time for the first match to be played that night, unfortunately we were the second match on so consequently were in either better time. this time was not wasted as we got a chance to see future opponants play and got a few tips on tactics , both how to and how not to play. the time previous to this was spent pondering the game ( it think, although upon discussion it was decided that pondering other things was not yet illegal if pondering something that was legal)) of netball as the 6 form girls were practising this exciting sport.

of the nine , wayne gallantly offered his place to tall dave , only for nelly to have to drop out due to an emergency, wayne was reinstated we had 8 and on to the pitch we strode, when i say pitch think gym and when i say gym vacate your mind of the cold , wet splintered, broken runged gyms of your youth and imagine a top notch facility that you could have only dreamed of when at school. 5 basketball pitches , all lights working air con and glass walls.

the game is alot better format than previous and we managed to lose the ‘which hands the ball in’ and were put into bat we got off to a cracking start mainly due to erratic bowling until a somewhat less erratic ball broke tinx’s stumps, in went higgy who actuall showed signs of restraint for about an over before also getting out , meanwhile ev was keepin up with the extras and was playing some fine stokes, having to retire at 25 he enquired what score he was on and was told not to worry , he was someway away from the magic number, however, supported well by tall dave he quickly made the 25 and had to retire , jim p played a rash shot and was dismissed hit sealing, then tall dave was out, wayne was then run out having been called through by aaron on a run ussain bolt would have had problems achieving out i strode and not even managing a rash shot was comprensively bowled for a golden and strode back to the pavillion ( store cupboard) ev was allowed to return and with some great support from aaron with only one justinesque moment of madness managed to force our score to an above par 125 all out with ev reaching his 50 , the first in the leagues history in doing so, now to bowl them out!

wayne opened the bowling and was as tight as a gnats ass, for his first two supported by myself , and some excellent fielding and keeping after 5 the old e were well behind the run rate, even with balls just missing leg stump by millimeters been given wide ! ( rules are any thing leg is wide)

tinx and higgy bowled well but we hadn’t any wickets yet… until ev took a blinder off of higgys bowling then aaron took a good spinning catch, the wickets began to tumble and runs were not forthcoming due to very tight well supported fielding. up came the last over with a win to the old e still mathematically possible , as ev pointed out, and then proceeded to be hit for two 6′s in a row, maths hate it ! no worries though as the equqtion changed when ev bowled out the bat with the next delivery, two balls to go and the game was won, they went and we won.. hurrah

we all had a good time and retired to the highbury to reminis(?) and agreed that beating the old e at any thing was a good day.

a good game, was the general consensus so if you are interested please make yourself available when the time comes, we are up top 6 definates and two maybes dependant on a visit to iceland but we will definately require a bigger squad for t efuture matches

don’t know if i’ll have the energy to write this much next time or whether i am up to the high standards of our correspondants of the summer but all are welcome to right a report , maybe i shall delegate each week.

signing off. stop.

rubbertoe

The Cricket Team AGM will be on Wednesday 2nd November at Hawks Gym at 7pm.

The Cricket Awards Do will be announced soon and will be at Bristol West Indies on either 21^st or 22^nd October.

The Team have entered an 8-a-side indoor league at Cottham School gym. This is on Tuesday nights at 7pm from Tuesday 4^th. If you fancy playing contact Rob (or email webgimp@eastoncowboys.org.uk and I will forward it). This league is not like the ‘cage’ cricket we previously played and is meant to be a little more like real cricket.

Winter indoor nets will start at the beginning of November in the Indoor School at the County Ground.

And so the Cricket season finishes with a little whimper. But what is this? Winter cricket? There will be winter nets starting in early November and Rob is once again entering a team into the indoor league which starts quite soon.