Played at Victoria Park, pitch 3 (furthest from the nets)
By Matt Wake (captain)

Last midweek game of the season and a truly beautiful summer's evening in the Park.

We were much more organised than the last time I played with 8 cricketers, bats, pads, gloves, opposition and even a ball all at Victoria Park by 6pm (ish).

The problems started at the toss, we lost the toss and they decided to bat.

Our bowling was average, I'd say, and after them going at nearly 10 an over for some time we eventually restricted them to 138 (gettable we thought). The positives from the day were two of the most outstanding catches I have ever witnessed in the flesh (although clothes were worn). Jake was the athletic Aussie who dived to take both of these catches and hats off to you mate (said in a strong Australian accent).

Then came our batting. Tears stream down my phone's screen as a write this and my face twitches as I recall the horror. What is frustrating is they were possibly the weakest team we have played all season and their bowling was slow and often down the leg side for wides. But one after another batsmen were sent on there merry way, leaving us at one point four down for 9 runs. A funny thing happened at this point, in that the opposition then started to sledge us which was very odd as the game was pretty much theirs bar a miracle. I pointed this out to them and the only noise after that was more cheering as they continued to take wickets, albeit slightly less often.

Murmuring amongst the troops was rife, especially about the batting order as batsmen 5, 6, and 7 all played quite nicely with Jack putting 28 runs in the book. The clueless captain pointed out that in the last match the opening pair both retired on 50s and we went onto break records and got 208 runs so surely it would have been ridiculous not to open with them again. History begs to differ.

Any how, the 2016 Victoria Park cricket season ends in a disappointing fashion for the Old Fallopians but overall this season has been a huge success with many more wins that losses.

Here's looking forward to 2017

And finally a massive thank you to everyone who helps organise this team - Steve, Tim, Sir John Shaw, Phil, etc, etc, etc. A lot of time and effort goes into making it all happen and I know that everyone really appreciates it.

Bradgate 138-4

Steve         retired not out 52
Luke        ct Wake b Matharu 17
Andy H ct Wake b Ng-Wai Shing 16
Rob                   b Waqar 16
Rich          c Waters b Wake  3
Ian                   not out 12
Darren                not out  0

Extras: w 12, nb 6, b 1:      19
Total:                       138-4 (16 overs)

Maharu       4-0-34-1
Khan         3-0-26-0
Wright       3-0-21-0
Ng-Wai Shing 3-0-21-1
Wake         2-0-19-1
Waqar        1-0-12-1

Old Fallopians 87-6

Kafh Hasan               b Luke  4
Farhad Waqar              b Ian  0
Rav Matharu              b Luke  1
Wright                    b Ian  0
Matt Wake             b Richard 18
Jack Wright ct Andrew b Richard 28
Hassan Khan             not out 19
Matt Ng-Wai Shing       not out  0
Extras: w 11:                    11
Total                           87-6 (16 overs)

Ian     4-0-16-2
Luke    4-0-19-2
Richard 3-0-25-2
Andrew  3-0-15-0
Steve   2-0-10-0
 

Scorecard on league website here