New Skipper, Same Result in Fantastic Friendly at Byfleet

The Happy Sundays ventured down to Byfleet CC for this friendly, the fourth of the season, where Sambo took charge in his homevillage, along with other local boys Connor “Delboy” Baker, Matty “Vegas” Holloway and all-round sportsman Dale “Sex Panther” Burnham. The Vs also took new boy Nikhil Grover, the overseas import for 2015 down to Byfleet, fresh from a flight from Delhi and his first couple of nights of fun in Waldock’s Casa of Dreams.

Sambo showed himself to be the complete tosser – winning his first friendly toss and electing to bat. Up stepped Pup and Baker to open the batting against some strong bowling from M. Rannie and Ben Tyler of Byfleet. Alistair showed patience and experience but was caught by a fine catch in the gully by one of the Quizzee Rascals for 8, following Baker’s hard-push which presented a caught and bowled for Rannie on just 3. Delboy was probably still in last-night mode, with hands as firm as that.

The big lad Nikhil “Smokey” Grover entered at three and showed the patience of Black Rod during the opening of parliament, eventually being caught for a well-constructed 45, and all the while assisted by positive batting from a Graham Hills free of the captaincy duty. He made 16. At five was the man the fans had been waiting for, the eccentric, passionate and enigmatic Matty “Vegas” Holloway. He forged a 69-run partnership with Amandeep Singh (65*) and notched a truly classy 36 with his father watching from the boundary rope. That 36 equalled his top-score. Burnham finished 0* and Vandals ended up 189/5 from their forty overs – a fair score having been 16/2.

After a fine tea, Vandals took to the field and Byfleet took to the bat and cricket was to be played once again, as is the usual procedure for cricket. The two Hockins opened up for Byfleet, and after some lusty blows, both were removed by Sambo for 16 and 4, with Geoff Foreman’s wicket sandwiched in the middle leaving Byfleet 20/3. Geoffrey bowled tidily to finish up 8-1-29-3, taking the vital wicket of Tyler (25) who looked classy and determined to win the game quickly for the Fleeters. At 51-5 though, the game was well in the balance with Byfleet showing they still had lots of liquid in their batting tank.

Malcolm "Miley" Cammack made his first appearance of the season for Vandals, which is surprising as I had expected him to be either shouting about Chelsea somewhere in the UK or on holiday spending all of our membership fees. However, his head was in the game and this wily ol’ fox returned fantastic figures of 7-1-26-1, including a ripping catch in the gully from Pup, who made that “phwoar” sound you make when you know you’ve done well, when the ball was still in mid-air. 60-6, but Vandals would have to wait for more wickets. Vegas had a trundle but didn’t pay dividends, and so the scene was set for the Sex Panther to purr. What this man can’t do with balls isn’t worth considering; after a loose start and a tighter second over, it was one natural sportsman to another as Baker caught an edge behind from the threatening M. Rannie (17) off the Panther’s bowling. Sex Panther wasn’t finished though, as a catch from Smokey to dismiss Coyne left Burnham with bowling figures of 5-0-36-2. Pup and Smokey also had a trundle and both showed wisdom and control to snare a wicket apiece, and figures of 4-0-10-1 and 1.3-0-6-1 respectively, and Byfleet finished up 151 all out, 38 short of Vandals’ total. In truth though, the game was much tighter and Byfleet always looked like having a chance – the game just stolen away from them at the last.

A good game all around, enjoyed by the several supporters and players alike, and cheers to Byfleet CC for a quality game of cricket.

SB