Hat Trick! (39 page)

BATTING SCORES

Like Jim Oldfield, Rodney Thwaites is a cricket historian. He has been the chief scorer and statistician for the Under-13 Southwestern Cricket Competition since it began 34 years ago. He has spent many hours going through old notes, scorecards, match reports and statistics to present a selection of his favourite match highlights.

John Simpson (TCC) struck a six with such force that it cracked a windscreen. The driver of the vehicle next door jokingly decided to sit on the bonnet of her car to protect her windscreen. Three overs later John repeated the shot, though a few metres to the left. With a cry of alarm, the lady managed to throw a hand up to protect herself and her windscreen from being smashed. (Oddly enough, it turned out that the two were John’s parents, who had arrived in separate cars!)

Lenny Harrow, bowling for George St, accidentally caught his bowling hand in his trouser pocket as he was bowling the second ball of the game. The ball dropped out of his hand and rolled halfway down the pitch. The batter left his crease and took a huge swing at the ball, missing it completely and falling over in the process. Quick-thinking Lenny kicked the ball onto the batter’s stumps before he could regain his crease and the batter was given out (run out) for zero.

Cal Whitten (St Patrick’s Saints) was so annoyed with himself for getting out in the first over of the day that he managed to convince Timmy Spencer (the team’s number 11 batter) that he should replace him. He strode out to the wicket wearing a large jumper and helmet to help with
the disguise. While Timmy hid in a nearby toilet block, Cal (batting left-handed) managed to hit two fours before suspicion was aroused, given that Timmy’s previous highest score in five games was one.

Timmy was discovered and given a bat, though he didn’t score any runs. St John’s was awarded the game, and Cal didn’t play again for St Patrick’s Saints.

George St could only field nine players on this hot day and Riverwall generously allowed Tommy Barnett to play for them in this one-day fixture. The move backfired spectacularly. Not only did Tommy score 23 crucial runs for George St, but he took the final two catches of the Riverwall innings to help ‘his’ team to a two-run victory. In tears after the game, Tommy was heard to remark, ‘I just couldn’t help it. It’s harder to drop a catch on purpose in a game of cricket. It didn’t matter who I was playing for. There was a catch to be taken and I took it.’ Both clubs were full of praise for Tommy. George St offered to declare the game a draw, but Riverwall refused. The story made the newspapers and Tommy received many letters of admiration, including one from the Prime Minister.

Jeremy Pasco (TCC) hit a magpie with a full-blooded hook shot. The ball still went for four. His father took the injured bird to the vet and the family later adopted the magpie and looked after it. It was named Hook, on account of the shot Jeremy played and the new shape one of its legs had taken.

Playing on the Kobrow College main oval, one of the home team batters struck a ball which rolled into a sprinkler hole out at deep mid-wicket. To the delight of the local supporters, the batters ran an amazing 23 runs. The ball had got stuck. Seven fielders tried to pull it out. The two umpires (both from Kobrow) made no move to intervene. One of the Riverwall fielders came rushing towards the wicket pleading to the umpires to stop the game. Suddenly, he pulled a wet cricket ball from his
pocket and tossed it to the bowler who ran out one of the batters. The umpires decided later that because the ball was not in a fit state for play (it was soaked through) that the run-out would not stand, but the 23 runs would, as it couldn’t be determined when the ball got wet. (Kobrow won the game by 19 runs.)

The longest over took place on a hot morning at St Mary’s home ground. It commenced at 10.46 a.m. and finished 37 minutes later at

11.23. Strangely enough, the first three deliveries were bowled without incident. The fourth ball was hit into the church gardens for six. It took 11 minutes for the ball to be found. The fifth ball struck the batter a nasty blow. When a runner was finally called out, another nine minutes had elapsed. Two no balls followed. Just as the next ball was about to be bowled, a swarm of bees appeared. The players and umpires fell to the ground as the swarm passed overhead. Eight minutes later the players were ready again. The next delivery was edged into the slips. The catch was taken but unfortunately the fielder split the webbing between thumb and first finger. The final delivery was played calmly back to the bowler. It was the seventh ball, but the umpires had apparently lost count!

(Thanks to Reverend Kosta for his extraordinary memory and his meticulous scoring, which included times.)

This game will be remembered as the shortest completed match in the competition—especially memorable because it involved four innings. Batting first, St Mary’s were bundled out for 24 in 43 minutes. Kobrow College declared their first innings at 0/0, without facing a ball. Ten minutes later Kobrow were bowling again. St Mary’s second innings was little better than its first. They were bowled out for 31, this time lasting only 34 minutes. After the compulsory 10 minutes between innings, Kobrow came out and knocked up the required runs (56) in just 22 minutes. The whole game had lasted just under two hours. Both teams had a bye the following Saturday!

Ty Jacobs, captain of TCC, was to bowl the last over of the game. The opposition needed just six runs from the over to win the match. His first ball was hit for four, and in bowling it Ty fell to the pitch heavily, dislocating his elbow. To the surprise of everyone, and with his arm heavily strapped and covered in ice, Ty chose to complete his over rather than get a replacement. He bowled the remaining deliveries under-arm, with his left hand. The next three deliveries grubbed along the pitch. After heckles and complaints from the batting team, he tossed the next two balls higher. The first was missed by the batter and the second (and final) delivery landed on the top of the stumps, smashing one of the bails. (There were unsubstantiated reports from a variety of sources that Ty was seen that afternoon playing basketball with the TBC Under–14 basketball team.)

Playing on one of the windiest days ever recorded, and with the temperature hovering around 43
^o
Celsius, Rachel McKinnon took guard for St Mary’s. A fierce northerly wind was blowing into her face. As she prepared to play her first ball, the wind gusted, toppling her backwards and onto her stumps. No one appealed and Rachel was able to continue her innings after all three stumps had been put back into the ground.

A strange event occurred when Peter Robinson, playing for St John’s, was given not out by umpire James Findlay. At the exact moment when the stumps were broken and the appeal was made, a pigeon dropped onto the umpire’s head. He fell to the ground in shock. The pigeon had apparently struck overhead power lines. Findlay was unable to rule on the appeal and had to give the batter the benefit of the doubt, ruling not out. After a moment’s hesitation, Peter Robinson gave himself out, acknowledging that he clearly hadn’t made his ground. He was applauded by the entire George St team for his sportsmanship.

The scorecard from this game was a delight—a statistician’s dream! Although there was nothing remarkable about the game itself, a look at the St Mary’s batting scores makes for interesting reading.

Craig Farmer (Motherwell) scored 28 runs off one over. He hit the first two balls each for four, then the third for six. The fourth, a no ball, was hit for two. Craig then struck two sixes off the next two deliveries, the second of these another no ball. He was clean bowled by the last delivery! The scorers hadn’t realised he had reached his 30 runs. (He was on two at the start of the over.) If they had, they would have alerted the umpires and Craig would have been forced to retire before the last ball was bowled.

The score was 7 for 123 when little Danny Clifford, only eight years old, strode out to bat for Benchley Park, who were three players short in their attempt to chase 132 runs against TCC. He had been playing on a nearby swing. Katie Hong managed to score the last 10 runs herself to get
Benchley Park past their opponents’ score. Danny had to face only four deliveries during the 20 minutes he was out there. He missed the ball each time. (TCC later protested that Benchley Park had played an unregistered player. TCC were awarded the game and received all of Benchley Park’s points as well.)

Damian Monk had an extraordinary day in the field for Kobrow College. He took four catches, including a catch that many described as the finest out-field catch they had ever witnessed. Sprinting around the boundary line at deep third man, Damian launched himself into the air and with one hand managed to parry the ball. He fell to the ground, catching the rebound. He was rolling towards the rope though. Immediately he tossed the ball into the air, rolled onto the rope, then recovered his balance and re-caught the ball back in the playing field. Damian also effected two run-outs and took the final two wickets to fall. He had contributed to eight Riverwall wickets.

Keegan Thomson (TCC) managed to break two bats during his short but entertaining innings. When he was 11, he struck a ball out past mid-on. The bat fell just short of the fielder. A few overs later, when Keegan was 17, he repeated the shot, breaking a second bat. His father, who works in a sports shop, said that he wouldn’t be purchasing any more of the bats his son had been using. Keegan never got to use his third bat, being run out from the next delivery.