The North remembers: a 2022 North v South win

The North remembers!

The last decade has seen the South dominate this fixture. The Trevor Campbell has sat proudly on the mantle of South Captain, Samuel Martin’s living room for 9 of the last 12 year. His children have grown up knowing what success looks like and how much he loves his cricket!

In recent years, the South have proved to be the superior side, with wins in 2020 and 2021 that were not that close. The North has struggled to quell the batting prowess that the South possesses and struggled to score runs consistently. It was hoped that 2022 would prove to be the beginning of a new era.

This year saw the introduction of a new Captain, Russell Kyne aka The King of the North. Those that have played cricket with Russell knew the North were going to be in good hands. He was tasked with combatting the mind games of the much-revered skipper of the South. So, with that backdrop, and a bit of banter between friends, the game was on!

Build-up

Teams were not released before gameday, which lead to rumours of former Black Caps and ring-ins being picked. Also, accusations of Northerners jumping on the South bandwagon showed that emotions were strong leading up to the first ball!

The build-up could not have been different for both sides: With a few late scratchings, the North limped into this week’s fixture with an XI with potential. However, the lads were confident that the North were going to be competitive, but it was going to require a strong game by all. On the other hand, the South had 14 men strong with huge reputations that proceeded them. The South were the bookies favourite!

The Toss

All participants were told that the first ball would be bowled at 11:00am. However, in true LNZCC fashion, the game started 20min later. Players struggled to arrive with traffic being heavy.

This resulted in North Captain delegating the toss to Adam “Captain Faff” Khanbhai, who was punctual for a change ;). With a few Signal messages, it was set. If the North won the toss, then they would have a bat.

The toss took place, and low and behold, the North got their wish! Heads it was. With battle lines drawn, both sides went back to their respective changing rooms to prepare for the game ahead.

The North’s Innings

Opening for the North was Daniel Robinson and Adam Khanbhai. Both could not have had more different seasons. Dan has been a run scoring machine, in his pursuit of 1000 for the club before the seasons end has averaged close to 50, whereas Adam has shown promising starts but has not kicked on.

Nicholas “Chewy” Teulon and Michael Gane were given the new ball.

The first spells saw both batters play positive shots, with the score ticking over comfortably with no fall of wicket. Chewy bowled with good heat, and Michael bowled a niggly line outside off stump which resulted in a few edges that flew passed the slip cordon.

Chewy was replaced by Mike McClean in the 9th over. Mike’s in-duckers were proving difficult to get away.

The openers were able to establish a 99-run partnership, and all was going well. With the game starting to get away from them, the Captain of the South took matters into his own hands and brought himself on to bowl his veteran line and length in the 18th over.

This change proved a stroke of genius as the first wicket fell, with Dan being bowled for 42, keeping his interest in scoring runs alive going into Ibiza!

Andrew Neal came next and was soon walking back without troubling the scorers, with Mike getting one to hit the stumps.

In came Shaun “the Sheep” Raumati who proceeded to walk out to heckles from the South about his slow starts. Vaughan and Andrew Barkle reminded both batters that where 2 come 3 then 3 comes 4 then 4 comes 5. The banter reminded the Sheep of Count Dracula on Sesame Street. (Ha ha ha)

But their banter proved accurate as 2 did become 3, with Adam’s innings ending in Sam’s 3rd over caught for a fine 53.

In came Jackson Ellis who is one of North’s fine young players. A product of the Spencer Cricket Club, he was hoping to continue his good form with the bat this season. Unfortunately, due to a combination of yes, yes, no, yes, and the desire for the Sheep to get off the mark, Jackson was run out for nought by Barkle. 3 became 4.

With the tide changing, in came the skipper Russell to try and prevent a classic LNZCC collapse at 105-4 off 23 overs with 17 overs remaining.

The next 13 overs saw the North consolidate wickets. With tight bowling from the South, the run-rate fell but the plan was simple, bat out the 40 overs and see what could be achieved. Both struggled to catch up with the ball. One tight over resulted in Russell skying one to mid- wicket. Unfortunately for the South, the catch was dropped, which proved to be a costly one in the grand scheme of things, with Russell not on many at that stage.

The Sheep and Russell put on 58 for the 5th wicket before the Sheep tried once too many to go after Brogan McIlwick. Gone for 25.

Scores being 163-5 with 4 overs to go. In came Matt Haworth, who had shared with the team that he is competing in the London Marathon on 1 October 2022. His speed between the wickets and Russell’s big hitting got the North to a competitive total of 206 off 40 overs. The skipper cashed in on spending time at the crease, finishing with 60* and Matt provided 11 and lots of running!

In the intermission, banter was exchanged and 206 was seen as probably 30-40 short given the batting XI that the South possessed. The North would need to bowl very well to restrict the South and potentially look at getting under South’s skin.