ACME Dynamite Not Enough to Destroy Vandals’ Chances

Sambo took the reins again on Sunday 24/5/2015 – a show of confidence from captain Hills. Losing the toss this week, Vandals were sent in on a decent Brownacres track. Smokey opened up with Sambo, who was out leg-before for just 12. Matty “Vegas” Holloway - who was more than happy to show off his credentials for the Vandals naked calendar - batted well again with Smokey, the latter falling at 102/2 for 52 – his first fifty for the club. Batted fella. Vegas followed soon after at 109/3 for 30 and Hills followed with 2 runs with the score at 114/4 after 23 overs. Then came the onslaught, with a hungover Baker carving out 58* and Amandeep Singh 108* in an unbeaten 176 partnership, which took Vandals to 290/4 from their 40 overs. The pair added 173 runs in the last 15 overs – showing cricket to be a very funny game indeed at times.

Vandals took the field following another fantastic tea and Sambo, with many runs to play with, was keen to experiment with some funky fields, a la New Zilland, to put some pressure on ACME. Foreman Sr. struck early, removing Johnston for 8 but ACME were soon to show they had plenty of explosives in their arsenal, with the Australian Hoskin taking a liking to Geoffrey and Randall’s bowling. This precipitated regulation field placements from Vandals, in order to try and defend against the volley of ammunition from ACME’s powerful hitting of Hoskin and Sova.

First change was that Wile E. Coyote Chris “Giggsy” Morton and despite some early tap, he showed himself to be the clever competitor with the ball that we know he is. Raj Sahay joined him from the other end and showed balls to keep tossing it up there after being hit around a little, and Raj got his just reward when Vegas took a smart catch in the covers off Sova (28) – who fairly smashed it to him. Raj finished up 5-0-49-1 but bowled better than his figures credit him for. After 18 overs, ACME had 156/2, Hoskin showing himself to me more than an actor, but the real deal with the bat. Giggsy bowled through and had a half-chance when an edge flicked Sambo’s ear at slip, and finished with 8-0-40-0, a spell which was pivotal to Vandals attempts to defend their 290 runs. Going for just 5 runs per over, Giggsy had strangled ACME somewhat and they would need their bigger guns to fire in order to make a real fist of it.

Buckell brought himself on and got the wicket of his opposite number, Miles for 14 runs and a couple of overs later found the breakthrough, taking the scalp of the powerful and entertaining Hoskin (94) with the score on 188/4. The game was far from over however, and ACME threw in their depth charge with Gyan (not the one who played for Sunderland) carving out more vital runs. The tide was brought in when Nikhil “Smokey” Grover came on to bowl, and proved just a little too much for ACME – he picked up three quick wickets and returned 5-0-29-3. Jordan Collins, having had a trundle earlier and not quite feeling it, came back on to bowl and got the wicket he deserved, finishing off the innings with a good delivery to bowl out Mooney for 9 (just after James Randall had come back at the other end and bowled a beautiful line and length and getting just reward for his determination, in the form of a catch behind) – and ACME fell agonisingly short; just 17 runs off Vandals' score in the final over of their innings.

A truly entertaining match with ACME which provided all sorts of drama and entertainment. 563 runs for the loss of 14 wickets in the day showed us that Brownacres can provide high-scoring matches, although that is not to say that the bowlers didn’t have a look-in either: ACME were tight in the first half of Vandals’ innings and all the Vandals bowlers showed that they had what it takes. A thoroughly enjoyable match to play in, and Adrian even found the time to accuse Sambo of “engineering entertaining matches”, which I shall take as a compliment!

Well done all involved today. 4.5/5 for the Vs!

SB