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Goodwood CC - 17th August 2003
Generous Kiwis beaten
at Goodwood
In the end, despite some lusty hitting from Michael Deane (110*) and Chris Shaw (50* approx) that threatened to take the Kiwis' score into the realms of the reasonable, Fish achieved his aims admirably. LNZ started in positive fashion with Roger Finlay and Dave Fanning striding to the wicket attired in immaculate fashion with the glorious Goodwood sun beating down upon their broad backs. Findlay was undone by a straight ball from Goodwood's child prodigy and this brought Richard Dellabarca to the wicket. His swift attempt at retribution landed gently in the cover fielder's hands.
The ever-reliable Dave Fanning (43) and the somewhat less dependable, but always entertaining, Andrew Swann (20) set about repairing the damage with a stand of 51, before Swann was caught at mid off.
Mike Deane then set about compiling one of the best-constructed and most boring to watch hundreds ever struck by an LNZ player. Your correspondent's girlfriend was heard to remark loudly that it was the single most dull sporting display she'd witnessed since the 1989 Canvas Town Shearing and Dagging Open Championships. For the record, Deane struck nine fours and a solitary six. When Fanning was sent packing LBW by the trigger-fingered Swann, Deane was joined at the crease by the outstanding Chris Shaw.
Shaw played a magnificent array of strokes and his committed running between the wickets - usually trying to turn Deane's singles into twos, was without doubt the highlight of the pair's undefeated 155-run stand. Fish closed the Kiwis' innings one run shy of 250, leaving chairman Mike Stead, who had been padded up for what seemed like days, all dressed up with no place to go.
Following a hearty ploughman's lunch, the highlight of which was a glass of port provided by Goodwood's birthday boy, the Kiwis took to the field in confident mood.
Stead (2-53), Walsh (1-45) and Holden (1-53) made early breakthroughs for the Kiwis, but Goodwood crawled towards victory without much ado. Kiwi strike bowler Steve Deane (0-21) resorted to admonishing himself mid pitch with a string of creative insults.
Amazingly, some of the Goodwood players misapprehended that the stream of invective was directed at them, as they dead-batted and played and missed at every ball of the medium pacer's 14 overs with devastating effect. It took the introduction of Finlay (2-25) for the Kiwis to finally achieve some cheer. The plucky southerner struck in each of his first two overs, much to the delight of a large contingent of travelling supporters, but it was too little not quite early enough for the Kiwis.
Not even the introduction of skipper Fish, who probably deserved better from his two balls, could prevent Goodwood's inexorable march to glory.
Despite the result it
was a delightful day, perhaps only sullied by one LNZ bowler's refusal to accept
that his 14 overs had cost in excess of 50 runs. The posturing of the player,
who due to his penchant for lengthy correspondence shall remain nameless, not
only called into question the integrity of the scorers, but perhaps was even
responsible for a delay in the presentation of the post-match pizzas. Scoreboard LNZCC 249-4 Declared Goodwood 251-6 - Match Lost by 4 wickets
Batting Runs Catches Stumpings
Rodger Finlay 0 Gerard Walsh DNB 1 Mike Stead DNB Richard Fish DNB Richard Holden DNB 1 Steve Deane DNB
Bowling O M R W
Steve Deane 14 7
21 0 |
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