The Woodpeckers awoke to a cloudless Sunday in London town with a hotly anticipated fixture against Kew Cricket Club on the cards. Upon arrival, you’d have been forgiven for thinking we were playing in Karachi rather than South West London, such was the dustbowl outfield at Kew CC. A well prepared wicket and hard and fast outfield would prove influential throughout the game as value for well struck shots was high.
There were a few heavy heads and latecomers in the Peckers’ ranks as we started with just 9 men. Ollie “Beetle” Dunger opened up from the church end to Kew openers Chauhan and Ruske, combining with Chris “Tiddles” Palmer from the river end. Neither found beautiful rhythm immediately, however after the ball was hit hard into Kew’s signature concrete path, it returned looking like it had seen the inside of Cameron Bancroft’s pocket and there was suddenly a bit of swing on offer. Shortly after, a pitched up ball from Beetle removed Ruske for just 1.
Kew Captain Stukins marched to the middle and showed some good ball striking starting with 10 straight 4s including one straight through Patrick’s legs to earn him the first bonnet appearance of the day. It could be argued that the bonnet didn’t help as he proceeded to shell a tricky catch at the other end shortly after. After reaching 50, Stukins was removed by a straight one from Beetle in his final over to earn final stats of 27-2 off 8 overs.
Fingers, Pobsy, Bison, Kami, Levers, Cat, Greasy, Beetle, Bomber, Tiddles, Chef
Tiddles was replaced by Tim “Cheffrey” Morgan at the river end who probed with his signature flight and guile. Whilst the umpire stood still in the face of a seemingly plum LBW shout, there was no saving Chauhan the very next ball as he picked out the safe hands of James “Kamikaze” Gaunt to remove the opener for 35.
Beetle was replaced by Henry “Greasy” Glaister who probed with an array of full tosses until the first ball after drinks when a full in-swinger picked up his first of the day, knocking back the leg stump of Berg. The very next ball saw Croft chop onto his own stumps to set Greasy up for a hat-trick ball. The valiant Jed came to the crease for his first game of cricket since primary school and safely left the hat-trick ball before making a good account of himself with the bat in hand before being removed by Cheffrey as he holed out to Rich “Levers” Anthony at mid on. The ever reliable Cheffrey finished with stats of 24-2 off 8 including 2 maidens. At this point I reminded Greasy that his son GK Smeagol had taken his first Peckers ‘Michelle’ Five-for at this ground the year before (his other feline son looked on jealously’
Another beauty from Greasy saw the back of Blitz and after a lapse in concentration saw Beetle shell a catch at first slip, he safely pouched a top edge for Greasy to take his third and fourth of the day. In came Lizzie, marking her first ever game of cricket, to face Greasy’s pace off variation. Lizzie kept a few out before a straight one went through the gate and Greasy picked up his fifth of the day, finishing with 5-33 off 8 overs. Greasy’s death spells at Marlow and Brook were excellent and this was just reward.
Chefrey very proud but also suddenly concerned about the contender for his ‘Shane Warne’ trophy
Creative offerings with the ball from Henry “Bomber” Walpole, Kamikazi, Felix “Cat” Wood and Levers stretched the game to the 39th over. Tiddles, having been run ragged in the field (including a prime Ronaldinho like piece of control with the right boot at square leg), came back on at the church end to bowl his tweaking off break variation. This dangerous action soon saw a ball skied to cover where Levers was busy watching the flightpath into Heathrow in the other direction. Snapping away from the A380 going over and onto the flight of the ball, Levers charged in and safely pouched it to help Tiddles to a deserved wicket and ending Kew’s innings at 190 runs.
A nice tea in the Kew pavilion was complemented by our very own Snax who had brought some other tasty offerings for the team including his house special 50% scotch egg 50% Colman's Original English Mustard which nearly brought Kami to tears.
Muy Piccante
The Peckers opened up with Kamikazi and Luke “Bison” Marjarson who started positively, both running hard and finding the boundary rope with some crisp ball striking. Kew’s Gauran, with the assistance of our very own Freddie “Fingers” Peters, then removed Kamikazi leg before wicket. Fingers later described the delivery as “hitting middle of middle” which did not exactly match Kamikazi’s description, albeit taking his dismissal with complete class.
Our 6’4” second row partnership of Bison and Levers proceeded to dig in to build an excellent partnership, littered with classy power hitting from both. Levers caught up to Bison and pushed past as he took the game to the Kew bowlers with three consecutive boundaries to take him to 51 before retiring, giving way to Cat. Bison was not far behind, reaching 52 retired, replaced by Bomber.
Big Levers
A majestic Bison striding across the lusher part of the Kew Savannah…
Cat, coming off a strong showing with the bat the previous week, looked confident at the crease, reverse sweeping Blitz for four before carving him deep into the leg side for another boundary to make a quick start. He was caused some issues by Kew debutant Lizzie, with some near miss opportunities in the field and probing flight. Lizzie finishing her first game of cricket well with stats of 9-0 off 2 overs.
Bomber confidently beat the ball around the park at the other end including two large sixes, reminiscent of his performance against the Woodpeckers for Barnes Common a few weeks ago – certainly nice to have him back on our side! With a well struck boundary, Bomber took us over the line, finishing on 26 not out with Cat not far behind making 19 not out. 190 safely chased down losing just one wicket, and in 17.2 overs, so the run rate of over 11 was seriously impressive and surely a record for a full game.
After a speedbump at Brook last week, the Peckers rebounded to their winning ways with a comprehensive win at Kew. Chef had a pink ticket so many ales were consumed, on to the Northcote for more, and the night ended at the Golden Arches at 10.30!.
Next week holds the annual fixture against the HAC, which promises to be a cracker followed by a big Saturday night in central London. Peckers up!
The Cat Bomber brought us home
Serious openers
Greasy’s 1st Pecker Michelle…..priceless