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Ventnor - Sunday 3rd August 2008
The 2008 tour to the Isle of Wight was another successful excursion for the club, with relations restored with the Wellington hotel and the rivalry with Ventnor cricket club back in its right place.
The weekend away was not meet with the customary 30 degree days, but it was warm enough for the LNZCC contingent to be spotted beach side on the Saturday afternoon with most going for a splash in the sea.
Saturday was kicked off with Dave Tikao coercing a local publican to open early so that the Bledisloe match could be watched, and the AB's certainly delivered for all viewers. Thankfully Luaki was not on display though some of his handling skills were on Sunday by the LNZCC fielders.
The dining area at the Wellington was roped off for LNZCC dinner on the Saturday night, and the team and their wags had another great night. Mersus Holden was holding court on the monolithic period of LNZCC history in his address to the nation, with the high light of this period being an on-field fisticuffs with Ventnor team which apparently curtailed relations for some time in the 70's! The night ended with frivolity's leading to Fletch’s room and Ray the Macedonian porter calling through the standard call of complaints from other guests at 2.46am....
When LNZCC arrived at the ground all looked good, a covered pitch as it Had rained the night before and we would start on time on a good track. Only to be told that the covered pitch was actually for an age group county match on Monday and our pitch was the very wet one next door. After an hour of dithering it was decided that big yellow was not going to have an impact on the water logged pitch and that we were to use the artificial wicket for the match. Disappointing stuff with a beautiful kept wicket next to us which we could not use.
The match started an hour or so late with Ventnor batting in a 40 over match. TBE and Dave T opened the innings and took some treatment from the openers, one being the import from SA who looked a little like Lenny from Ripley. The opening pair went onto to score a big opening partnership whilst riding their luck with dropped catches and some very close run out decisions. Fletch and Philip came into put the brakes of the onslaught but even their cunning and guile was not enough, Fletch after been awoken from his drunken slumber at 11am carried on the impersonation of a grumpy bear on the pitch and was not amused by the antics of the Ventnor batters. But he managed to break the opening stand of 183 in partnership with some slick work behind the stumps by the Swann.
At last a master stroke by the skipper to bring on the father and son act and it worked a treat. With Holden Jr stealing the show with some great bowling and landing him 3 wickets in the process, one wicket had Holden senior holding onto a screamer - he was never going to drop that one! Richard H bowled very well tying down the batsmen and reigning in the score and also picking up a valuable wicket. It must be said that the aerial fielding of LNZCC surpassed its usual standards with at least a dozen chances being put down, maybe those round of whisky at the end of the night were not so wise. Ventnor managed to rattle on 318 for 5 off their 40 overs.
After a superb afternoon tea LNZCC set about their pursuit of the 320. With Ventnor opening with their Lenny from Ripley look alike, Simms opened with a lid and Fanning was very envious after taking one of his face with his forearm. The going was slow as the LNZCC batsmen tried to get to grips with the pace of the artificial track and after 4 overs and only 11 runs on the board and 320looked a long way off. With some what more endeavour the openers pushed through to 119 with Fanning taking a liking to particular tree at cow corner before Simms holed out to a superb catch in the 18th over for 29. Gibson came and went pretty quickly by dragging a wide one onto his stumps and with that effort secured the bag for the day. Drinks were taken and then two balls post drinks with Keyse and Fanning unbeaten at the crease on 1 and 65 rain intervened and that was it for the day. LNZCC were 130 / 2 off 19.3 overs Fanning was awarded the GBK man of the match voucher.
A disappointing result to this match but it was again another great weekend for all involved.
Thanks very much to Mike Oliver for his efforts in organising the hotel, dinner and team for the weekend.
Scoreboard Ventnor 318 for 5 (40 overs) LNZCC 130 for 2 (19.2 overs) No result
Batting Runs Catches Stumpings Run Outs Stats Matt Fanning 65* 5 6s Blair Simms 29 Pete Gibson 2 1 Richard Keyse 1* 1 +Andrew Swann DNB 1 Tim Bills-Everett DNB David Tikao DNB Paul Christian DNB Phil Bartle DNB Richard Holden DNB 1 George Holden DNB
Bowling O M R W Stats Tim Bills-Everett 8 0 64 0 David Tikao 8 0 63 0 Paul Christian 8 0 71 1 Phil Bartle 8 0 65 0 Richard Holden 4 0 25 1 George Holden 4 0 24 3 |
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