The OTP Chargers went received a lesson in humility on Saturday when they fell to fellow Top 4 side East Coast Bays. The idyllic sun & sand of the previous weekends sojourn to Whitianga for Bullets wedding (rumoured to be a smokescereen at best) appeared to be foremost in the minds of the teams when they rolled up to Freyberg Park in Browns Bay.
OTP skipper and occassional David Boon stunt double Jim Dawson called correctly at the toss, and then proceeded to make the incorrect call in electing to bat. The jubilant ECB players were heard to mention something about "inserting something something Brown something something", but this was widely dismissed as homoerotic gibberish with no bearing whatsoever on the game. Not so.
Chargers openers Wind & Haliburton sauntered out to the wicket, and that was about as good as it got for the Chargers all day. Windy was gone first ball, as shock ECB bowling choice Steve Martin had him plumb LBW to a ball that never went anywhere near the bat, and umpire Steve Martin had the finger up like a shot. Wind accepted his fate like a latterday WG Grace, and the scene was set for the worst Chargers start in their 12 season history. With Steve relenquishing the ball to an actual ECB bowler in the form of Craig Cullen, the Chargers played like fools bereft of any sense of patience. Haliburton played on to his stumps attempting to slap one through cover in the 3rd over, Taylor was caught in the slips for 0, Dawson by the 'keeper for 3, Bullet caught at 2nd slip first ball. Chargers 5/5, thanks for coming. Chambers fished about for a relatively Bradman-esque 6 before receiving probably the ball of the day from ECB seamer Rikki and losing his off bail - 12/6, and easily within striking distance of the lowest Chargers score ever. Hoss & Steve got through to 18 before Hoss became Cullens 5th wicket, bowled for 1. Enter Matt Arnerich, the only real ray of light in what had become a cricketing farce.
Receiving solid support from Death, Arnie coasted his way along merrily, depositing a 6 into the bowls club about 90m away and generally flogging everything he could. Death played well in support, and was out with the score at 62. If you include his incisive opening spell to remove Windy, it was a handy allround showing from the OTP reaper. Hammer & Arnie took the score to 80, both playing some lovely shots as if to say "What the hell were you guys doing?" to their top order. Arnie finally went for 39 and Hammer & The Ghost took the score to 89 before McCartain didn't try to pull a ball outside off and was caught behind.
After being 5/5, getting to 89 was a fair effort from the Chargers lower order. It was however unlikely to be anything like enough to prise a victory away from the foaming, snapping jaws of defeat that the OTP boys had foolishly lowered their tasty, BBQ-sauce coated heads into today. The Sword of Damocles wasn't merely hanging over their collective head, it was rushing downwards in an inexorable killing stroke.
Bruiser opened up at the ECB top order, and was promplty top edged for 6. Despite doing their best to impersonate their Cornwall counterparts, the ECB guys managed to find a few gaps and the score mounted at a rather alarming rate. McCartain & Taylor managed to squeeze 4 wickets between them (1 a lovely above-the-head take by Dawson at 2nd slip off of a Taylor flyer, in which Jimbo almost left the ground), but it was never going to be enough. Arnie & Hammer both had a bit of bad luck with edges finding gaps instead of hands and the fat lady finally sung in 15th over, a loss by 6 wickets.
So what now for the gallant OTP Chargers? This weekends final round robin match against 4th place Papatoetoe must be won to get some sembalnce of form, composure and confidence going into the playoffs. A close loss to Eden-Roskill White followed by this showing against ECB shows the Chargers are a long way from where they want to be at this stage of the season, but positives must also be taken. A committed batting effort from the top six has to be seen every week for the next month to give the OTP attack something to work with, and it all starts this weekend on Cornwall Park #2 against a team that gave the Chargers a scare and a damn good fight prior to Christmas. What a way to warm up for the business end of things. GTC!
Last edited by Bullet on Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:52 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: Feb 13, 2006 Posts: 3421 Location: Auckland, NZ
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:17 pm Post subject:
Bullet, you used some wonderfully descriptive language in this piece of writing and you show a real flair for writing. Your reference to the Sword of Damocles was a masterstroke of penmanship.
Remember to edit your work - you will pick up over 90% of your errors by taking five minutes to read your work to a buddy.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
