Ripley - Sunday 21st July 2002

It was 1:30am and 10 men ascended on to the hallowed grounds of The Oval. The purposeful strides lead them front and centre on the test block. Fuelled with vintage port, amongst other substances, each man knew his purpose. They formed a semi circular arch facing The Long Room, each man knowing his position. Shades of Norm Hewitt's eyeballing, Lomu's march into oppositions territory then ensued as the men of LNZCC pulled off the victory haka akin to momentous Kiwi victory's. This was performed as the final act of the first fifty years of establishment of LNZCC.

The 10 men were escorted from the premises under security guard, but safe in the knowledge that battle would resume in the depths of Surrey on Sunday 21^st to commence LNZCC 2^nd fifty.

An 11's show up time was requested by the day's captain. The reasons were 2-fold. One it was Rodger Finlay's birthday and port was to proceed the event and secondly as LNZCC past record of unpunctuality could well outdate the age of the club.

It was therefore no ironic twist of fate that John Campbell, over from NZ for the week, to celebrate the fiftieth and fresh from delivering a marvellous speech at the dinner, was the first to the 'Green' and the only one to make it on time.

Slowly players turned up and quickly stories were exchanged of the proceeding 36 hours and the port was consumed.

Against fine tradition and etiquette a toss was made. LNZCC were to bat.

Presidents, past and present took centre stage as Stead and Finlay found the Ripley attack intent on injury and snot balls. A local lad 'Psycho' kicked off from the boundary with each delivery, wore shades throughout his spell and frequently performed the double tea pot stare at any edge or full bodied shot, proved ample reason for his name.

Port sediment hardly had time to find its way to Steadies colon as he was called through for a single. Perhaps matters of when grace is best said over a three coarse meal were running through Steadies mind, as he set of for the single with the conviction of a rabbit trapped in headlights.

An early appeal to Marty's index finger resulted in the affirmative. Stead was out and Marty was on fire, ready for a big game.

In his first game for the club Simon Hawk prodigy of John, strode to the crease and cover drove to 3^rd man boundary via the slip cordon off his first delivery. Simon's helmet was later rattled by Psycho off of a genuine lifter. Ripley carried on the aggression, but The Rock wouldn't be budged as they put on 60 for the second wicket.

Another debutant, this time from the Christchurch branch of the South Island (holders) academy Dave Froggie Anderson joined Simon and took matters through till lunch at 102-2 off 23.

Ripley once again pulled out all stops at lunch with abundant amounts of bbq'd farm animals, salads to boot and plenty for the sweet of tooth for over 20 LNZ representatives. Plaques were exchanged, Ripley's 250^th for ours.

Play begrudgingly resumed, Froggies long handle dispersed the ball to the boundary in a quick fire 42 with 8 4's before being replaced by Simon's sibling Tim.

Tim looked in ominous form before booting a long hop onto his wickets for the second time in the weekend.

Pete Tippen crossed batted his first 4 to the boundary but, succumbed to the second victim of village long hops.

Fishy brought out his slice, and proceeded in vain in doing just that to the point boundary off of most deliveries.

John Campbell showed little signs of a NZ winter as he rebuilt the innings precariously poised at 180-7. Showing a penchant for the off side poke to 3^rd man, John gathered singles in a picket fence that Boycott would be proud of.

Simon by this time had reached his century and was finally dismissed hitting out for 112 which included 16 4's, many of which were cover driven.

I implemented a cameo 22 before I was finally taken up on the offer of a third catch. Richard Holden was cruelly run out as J Campbell endeavoured another picket to his fence. The final throw of the dice was left to Dave Morgan, still a little green around the gills from the weekend celebrations. Dave smacked one to the boundary, then miss one on the stumps. John was left on 13* in a well executed innings.

The total of 228 all out after 47 looked thin.

Dave M replacing an injured Aaron Gale (get well soon Southerner) and Pete opened up. Fishy behind the stumps pulled off a catch that would humble Mark Greatbatch. Then Dave hit a few stumps, to leave Ripley 4 - 40 at tea.

Being the modest man Rodger is, he wasn't going to let his birthday go unnoticed. So at tea, Rodger and Emily provided champers for both teams and entourage to accompany endless trays of sandwiches and cakes.

Wickets then continued to fall. Richard H tweaked his leggies, deserving a better return than his 1-13 suggests. John Campbell throwing off the Canterbury winter came in off the long run up for 7 overs of controlled out swingers and claimed a wicket to add to the endless number he got in the 80's.

Fishy was at one stage top scoring with 7 byes, but with it 2 fine catches. Iron Gloves Finlay then took up the mantle.

Froggie undid a couple of the locals to claim 2-28. The Hawk's each took a wicket whilst extracting lift from the pitch and Dave M pushed on to get his 5'for, but the slip cordon was too preoccupied in discussion to entertain any edges that came their way and ended up with 10-2-24-4. Pete Tippen bowled some tidy stuff at the end, but it was Simon claiming the last Ripley wicket at 145 and with it the Player of the day cup and etching that goes upon it.

Proving he's a fine all rounder, he also rose to the challenge of circulation around the horizontal exposed beam, that has often resulted in previous years of honours being shared.

Finally, great thanks must go to John Campbell who flying over from NZ for the celebrations, has entertained us with some good cricket, many finely told stories and great company. No doubt it was that, that his father Trevor had in mind, when he devised this club, from his perch in the NZ consulate in 1952.

Scoreboard    LNZCC 229 All Out     Ripley 145 All Out

Batting

                      Runs    Catches

Mike Stead              0

Rodger Finlay          12

Simon Hawk            112

Dave Anderson          42

Tim Hawk                2

Pete Tippen             4

Richard Fish            3        2

John Campbell          13*

Vance Thompson         22

Richard Holden          0

Dave Morgan             5

 

Bowling

 

Dave Morgan      10   - 2 - 24 - 4

Pete Tippen       6   - 0 - 21 - 0

John Campbell     7   - 0 - 28 - 1

Richard Holden    4   - 1 - 13 - 1

Dave Anderson     5   - 0 - 28 - 2

Tim Hawk          3   - 0 - 14 - 1

Simon Hawk        2.1 - 0 -  6 - 1