Maltesers trump touring Strollers (part one) posted: November 21, 2011
The first game on tour kicked off with a coach arriving to pick the Strollers up at the ungodly hour of 9.30am. With a tour group of exactly 11 it was vital that every able-bodied Stroller report for duty on time, and this first obstacle was successfully negotiated. Up against the Marsa cricket club, the team were warmly greeted by a delightful eccentric English expat named Gordon who was to figure large in our experience of fine Maltese hospitality.
Onto the cricket, and Spencer immediately lost the toss and the battle-weary Strollers were sent out to field. The ground was large with long boundaries, and the artificial wicket provided some assistance to bowlers like Simon Boughey who could extract decent lift. After being hooked for 4 off the very first ball of the innings, Boughey settled into a fuller length and proceeded to trouble the batsmen throughout the day. At the other end Jez Gilles, bowling into the wind and finding considerable swing, proved difficult to get away.
The breakthrough came when Boughey induced one of the Maltese openers Crabbe to edge onto his stumps. Azzopardi and the other opener Rhosla settled into a solid partnership although the scoring rate never got away too much. George Brown finally made the next breakthrough following an excellent miserly spell which seemed to lull batsmen and fielders alike into a trance-like soporific state, watching the ball slowly traverse its looping arc to a length on off stump… bounce… block… yawn…
Spencer kept things lively at the other end and was unlucky not to have a wicket but conceded few runs. Gavin Richardson and Dave Couldrey chipped in with a few overs each, Gav mysteriously even claiming another wicket to add to his season tally. Boughey came back to continue where he left off with his excellent first spell and finished up with three wickets, despite a dropped catch which he eventually stopped grizzling about sometime late on Sunday. A top performance nevertheless from the young man, though not enough to prevent Marsa captain Naudi from scoring 89 excellent runs in an innings punctuated with a number of hook and pull shots through mid-wicket.
The Strollers were set a target of 225 off 40 overs. However the rains came down whilst some of the Strollers were refuelling their veins in the lunch break, and the target was reduced to 168 off 30 overs. Normally this should be a gettable target but the boundaries as mentioned were huge and with the outfield soggy it became extremely difficult to score any boundaries at all.
Richard Betts opened the batting with Spencer but was dismissed cheaply after looking to get away to a brisk start. The opening bowlers, Krishna and Krishna (some kind of Maltese removals company? — Ed), were quality and Spencer and Matt dug in to see them off. Unfortunately however the acceleration of the run rate never came. Spencer looked like he might unleash when he smacked a huge six and a four off the next ball, but in difficult conditions the run-scoring remained treacle-like, much like the outfield. After a couple of quick wickets Tim joined Spencer at the crease and tried to smack the ball around a bit but the game was out of reach. There was however time for some interesting by-play as wily old Gordon, bowling slow, straight and full, and somehow without conceding many runs, successfully endeavoured to get under Spencer’s skin and some friendly words of encouragement were exchanged between the two.
And back in the bar Gordon was holding forth before taking us out to a fantastic Maltese restaurant to kick-start the night’s events, but that’s another story…
Our thanks to Marsa on being deserved winners and fine and friendly hosts.
