“Crushing Victory” in Season Opener for the Happy Sundays

Late April, and time again for Graham Hills to lead the Happy Sundays out onto the field for another season of friendly cricket. You could be forgiven for thinking it was midwinter however, with the field wetter than a salamander’s wristwatch and the temperature scarcely getting above absolute zero. Despite this, both captains could be overheard at the toss discussing the “dry” wicket. No-one knew which wicket they were referring to, but it certainly wasn’t the crème de menthe coloured strip which had been left to marinate in rainwater overnight.

Hillsy won the toss and elected to field. A wise choice given the conditions and the bowling talent at the disposal of the Happy Sundays on this wintry day. I’m not sure that Hillsy had ever elected to field in the past, so despite the correct decision being made, there was still some understandable surprise!

Dillo opened the bowling with James “Jimmy Randerson” Randall to offer the Vs a fine combination of experience and athleticism with youthful enthusiasm and determination. The first wicket took a little while to prise out, but Dillo struck with a catch from Aman, Aman Aman, Aman Aman, Aman Amandeep Singh! at cover. The openers bowled through, and shared the top four batsmens’ scalps evenly for figures of 8-1-31-2 (Dillo) and 7-0-15-2 (Randerson).

The scorebook doesn’t provide me with falling of wickets but I know that they had few of the runs at this point. Indeed, their opener Collin top-scored with 17. And so the bowling changes came, with Magill offering right-arm slow and occasional spin and Tony “Vicky” Pollard. Unfortunately for Vandals, Bruce is not related to Stuart McGill, but this wasn’t an issue as Brucey returned figures of 9-1-15-2 and Vicky 8-3-15-1. Typically though, Vicky was unhappy with every facet of his bowling despite going for under two runs per over. Other bowlers were Matt Holloway (“as in the prison”) – who bowled one of the more entertaining maidens I’ve ever seen but returned healthy figures of 3.1-1-9-2 and a very interesting attempt at leg spin from seasoned campaigner Woo “Woono Mars” Powell. It must be said that Woo’s leg spin bore greater resemblance to ballet than Kumble or Warne at their peaks, and returned figures of 3-1-11-0. The other wicket was a direct hit run out from the sloppy rig at mid-on.

A fine bowling and fielding display then for Vandals, who wrapped up Old Wokes’ innings for 97ao in 38.1 overs, possibly inspired by the need to reach base camp before frostbite set-in.

The fine bowling efforts from the Happy Sundays didn’t allow for much batting practice to be shared around however – especially with Aman keen on getting it over in a hurry – he got his eye in early on, assisted by Sambo at the other end. The opening bowling from Old Woking was tricky on a sticky wicket for a cliquey Happy Sundays side, but both batsmen got themselves in and Sambo finished up with a most pedestrian, in fact no – stairlift – 14*, and Amandeep taking the bowling to the cleaners, finishing-up 71* and Vandals reached 101-0 in 15.3 overs.

Captain Hills was delighted with the start to the season and encapsulated the true spirit of Sundee cricket, describing the result as a “crushing victory”.

SB.