Six-A-Side Details - 3rd July 2005

A report from the winners - Newbold Verdon

Sundays are of course a national institution. That great fella in the sky didn't say 'and on the seventh day thou shalt rest' for nothing. Sundays are for nursing hangovers, walking dogs, doing diy bodge jobs, for sitting watching Wimbledon, the test match or such like. They are palpably not for running round a large field after a small red sphere called a cricket ball. Unfortunately Huncote - clearly - are not great readers of Genesis and so six 89ers and a bike set off from Newbold for their annual six a side competition.

Well at least skip Dingle thought it was six! As a result of the 89ers honourable first come first served selection policy the motley bunch that left Newbold was, perhaps, not your ideal 6-a-side team. Four openers (in order of boringness/slowness of scoring) - Forrest, Wilko, Chapman and Randall were joined by the devilish spin of the Dingle and the pace of our very own Harmy, Luke French. Thankfully the somewhat distant Dingle had conveniently forgotten his seventh player, Hendo, who arrived hot foot from a hangover inducing wedding in Nottingham minutes before our first game.

So our veritable skipper was now faced with a selection problem - solved quickly by Hendo who required time to sit and contemplate the beauty of all the beer he had consumed the night before. Westonians were our first opposition - with us batting first. Wilko and Chapman strode out to the wicket and five overs later they returned having amassed a respectable if not particularly memorable 51-0. We managed only one boundary - all that running leaving Wilko requiring mouth to mouth resuscitation on the outfield.

A brief interlude followed in which various types of reading material were purchased - The Observer, The Sunday People and The Sunday Sport - and the first sausage sandwiches were consumed! The Observer has now been banned from all future 89ers games on the grounds of its scandalous stories and half truths. Next up in playing terms were Sharnford (Chapman standing down this time) with us in the field. Like Westonians we failed to take a wicket - though Dingle did drop a skier off Randall in front of his adoring Huncote fan club. This blip aside we bowled and fielded tightly keeping the attacking forders down to a very getable 51.

So (for those of you who are confused by my ramblings) at the halfway point in the qualification stage we had scored 53 against Westonians and were set 51 by the fine gentlemen of Sharnford. So back out to the field against Westonians. In the game between Sharnford and the Westies we had witnessed their star man Idris despatch the ball to all corners of the field - including one over Huncote pavilion and one that Dingle failed to catch (notice a pattern here?) as we watched from the side lines. Randall though is a Goose who knows no fear - opening the bowling he wobbled in and confused Idris with his squarking pace! He missed one, hit another for two and then finally connected sending the ball up towards Mars. Thankfully if Dingles are like Venus, Wilkos definately likes balls from Mars clutching the skier gratefully to his chest! That was practically game over - within minutes Westies were four down and it was left to the father and son partnership Don and Dan Nice to restore some order. They finished on thirty odd for four giving the 89ers the full three points.

Overcome by the excitement of it all Randall, Chapman and Frenchie had to leave the ground in search of McFlurry's and the twins. They missed Sharnford failing to overtake Westonians impressive total of 67 meaning that as we went into the final innings of the final game in our group stage the 89ers and Westonians were on 3 points with Sharnford on a big fat zero.

With minutes to go before we batted there was still no sight of the terrible trio. Dingle was getting as close to furious as I’d ever seen him. Then at the last moment the Goose vehicle raced back into the car park – and all was well with the world.

In almost a re run of the one day final Newbold needed ten off the last over. A wide helped our cause early on in the over but then a few misses dropped us well behind the rate. Two full toss no balls were palpably missed by the umpire (causing TK to rush out to square leg). And thank the Carlsberg he did. We needed 4 off the last ball to tie (and win the group). Another high full toss – but this time called no ball and a scrambled two byes meant we had the game, won our group and had – miraculously qualified.

Drawn against the Huncote Spencers side in the semi finals we sat and watched Woodhouse Eaves ease past the Huncote side into the finals. On the grounds that Dingle (in his own words) couldn’t bat, catch or go for less than twelve an over he rested himself but still managed to lose the toss. Batting first we amassed a substantial total – mainly due to the Goose cutting loose – including one awesome upper cut 6 that almost decapitated a small child. Thankfully little Megan saw the funny side herself and with a little prompting claimed the batsman got “35 runs and one child”!!! Back in the field Huncote Spencers never seemed in it and once again we bowled tightly ensuring our rightful passage into the final.

Feeling a late surge of talent come upon him Dingle reinstated himself and dropped the Forrest to his rightful place as vocal support from the side lines. Woodhouse Eaves put us in and Randall and Hendo started briskly in this ten over thrash. We were pushing ten an over when Goose goosed once too often and lost his stumps. That brought Dingle to the wicket who played with a previously unseen class for 30 odd. Meanwhile at the other end Hendo was feeling the heat but still striking the ball like a good ‘un. The more purple he became – the harder he hit – destroying the Eaves attack with a brutal 50 not out. 107-1 was a very competitive total but Eaves were in the hunt for much of the game with their Aussie import keeping them ticking over at 10 an over. Wilko had seen himself effectively dispatched to all corners of the ground until on the final ball of his second over he found heaven and bowled the Aussie! Much jubilation followed, Dingle and Hendo maintained the pressure. Then Harmy – who had been bowling quick and well all day – nearly rounded things off picking up a wicket, a run out, and conceding just a single run. Eaves were a good twenty runs short of our total and the Newbold Seven were duly crowned champions.

A top day out (although I now have some very sun burnt knees) played in a great spirit. A big thanks to the Huncote crew for putting together the event – lets hope our event in September goes as well!!!

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