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Broadhalfpenny Brigands - Sunday 28 June 2009

Warm and humid Sunday on the downs. The Brigands captain won the toss and sent us into bat, which actually suited as batting first would also have been the option had I called correctly.

Pitch looked a bit dry - and the advice from Harry of the Brigands (not playing this year) was that even by the standards of Broadhalfpenny Down, so far this Summer there had been very little rain. So with three LNZCC debutants and gun opening pair, Mike Oliver and Blair Simm padded up and ready to consolidate claims for the '09 batting trophy, all was set for LNZCC to set a target of 250 and then - in a declaration match - tease the opposition out in a hard fought run chase .. er ... ... maybe not.

Less than two hours later and after an early tea, the Brigands had only 127 to get and over three hours in which to get them. Job done for them then. Like last year .... er ...

In the 8th over the Brigands openers had battled through to 13-0, but the LNZCC team spirit was good. Bowlers bowling straight, beating the bat at times. Tight fielding giving nothing away. Newcomer, Max Porlezza ("Pore-letta") may be an Aussie, and may be one of the "Fanatics", thereby sporting a brand new luminescent yellow baseball cap, but with his family connections to Rich Holden there was no doubting his commitment to the cause. And just as important, Blair quickly and memorably coined the fine nickname "Bad Hat", or "BH", or even "Botham" (due similarity to said "Both" circa 1985).

So with Max steaming in from one end; Bernie McAlister getting his radar right for the late away swing in the humid conditions at the other; Ray-Ban attired Mike Oliver in the batsman's face at very short cover; crisp snappy ground fielding from Blair (when not facing west by the only tree on that side of the ground), Glenn Cooper, Brett Radford, Rich Holden, Max and second debutant, Aaron Donaldson; third new boy, Alastair Hill quickly re-acquainting himself with old skills behind the stumps and snaffling rare wide leg-side deliveries; and encouragement for the bowlers ringing out around the ancient arena; the pressure was building.

And the Brigands snapped. Two crazy run outs in two overs, Twice, two batsmen ended up at the same end. Twice, there were LNZ team efforts to effect the dismissal. Brett with a return from the covers followed by Mike coolly running to the unoccupied end for the first. Wicket hit at one end, and then the ball smartly relayed to the 'keeper at the other to take the second. The surviving opener, G Duggan, who had struggled for 2 edgy runs in 10 overs, was on his haunches insisting it was not his fault. But his time was up anyway and 13-2 became 13-3 as Duggan nicked a Bernie special. With the hurriedly padded up batsmen now in disarray, it went to 13-4 as Bernie grabbed another. And then 13-5 as Aaron with his first ball for the club cleaned out still another (a Kiwi in fact - he being the talkative new mine host at the Bat & Ball Inn).

Aaron, though, hurt his ankle with that delivery and then conceded a number of wides and no-balls as thenceforth he had to gingerly focus on his delivery stride. But he also continued to go past the bat and found the edge more than once, so with Bernie's now devastating controlled curve balls adding to the sense of fragility in the batting, we witnessed an unusual event. The LNZCC attack mercilessly in for the kill.

In his 6th over Bernie had two more in two balls. The first an outrageous slider to a left hander that hit leg stump after pitching outside off. The second revived memories of Sam Martin's hat trick on the same turf as the victim, Brigands' captain, Barney Wyld, had also been the 2nd dismissal in Sam's feat.

Bernie snared a fifth in his 7th over, courtesy of a stunning grab by Tony Penman away to his right at second slip. TP was then into the act again, inducing an edge to encore a Lillee-Marsh partnership of "c Hill b Penman" from his school days. And fittingly, Bernie polished things off on the last ball of the next over, giving him the ... er ... figures of 8-4-10-6 as Brigands were all out 38. Yes, all out 38! Top score extras with 12.

So maybe we didn't bat so badly after all?

We probably did, but although the some of the bowling was ordinary, in the made-for-swing conditions there were enough good balls (especially from F Lyons and H Adams) allied to generally sharp fielding and catching from the Brigands, to make it a struggle. We probably didn't have much luck, especially each of the debutants: Alastair was run out when the bowler finger tipped a Brett straight drive into the non-striker's wicket, just catching Alastair out of his ground; a wide leg side delivery ricocheted back off Max's foot/pad to dislodge his leg bail; and Aaron fell to an excellent reflex catch in the gully. Aaron indeed made top score (32) looking comfortable and fluent, easily putting away anything loose. He shared vital partnerships with Coops (26 for the 6th wicket) and Max (32 for the 8th). Brett, too, had looked in good touch with several elegant drives, but sadly perishing when he lifted one of those just slightly. After losing half the side, we thought that 150 to 160 might be enough. So even with the generous contribution of 32 extras, 126 did not seem sufficient. But it was in the end victory by a scarcely believable 88 runs.

Terrific performances by the newcomers, and by those (Bernie and Coops) each making their fourth LNZCC appearances. Finishing early also meant more quality time on a gorgeous mid-Summer evening in the Bat & Ball garden bar.

Unsurprisingly, Bernie was the GBK man of the match.

Thanks to all that turned out and rallied round to pull this one decisively out of the fire. And maybe make history. When did LNZCC last bowl a team out for under 50? When has an opposition had no batsman in double figures?

The Conway last statistical word is below.

But one last note. The Brigands are celebrating their 50 years this year, and as part of it have an all day celebration match on Wednesday, 29 July. They have invited LNZCC to, if we want and can, supply two players for an invitation side. Problem of course is that it is a midweek fixture, and they will need to know this week, preferably by Wednesday, but if you are interested in playing drop me line ASAP.

Cheers

The Swann

Scoreboard LNZCC 126 All Out (28.3 Overs)  Broadhalfpenny Brigands  38 All Out (16 Overs) LNZCC win by 88 runs

Batting

Bowling

                    O    M    R    W     Stats

Max Porlezza        5    2    7    0

Bernie McAlister    8    4   10    6     caught x 3, bowled x 3

Aaron Donaldson     2    0   20    1     bowled

Anthony Penman      6    5    1    1     caught

Extras 12

Umpire: Martin Conway

Scorer: Peter Coleman

GBK Man of the Match – Bernie McAlister