Comedy Cricket At Its Best

Posted on June 18, 2008

The short trip to Simmonds was made after the celebrations for Barmy's 40 birthday the previous night and it would be fair to say that few of the team were sober. After losing yet another toss, Bray were asked to field.

An early wicket for Martell and a sharp caught and bowled from Jones to dismiss dangerman Robinson for 0 left Simmonds in trouble. Anslow played the next delivery straight up in the air, 2 yards behind the bowler Jones. Martell called it but backed off as the sight of Jones' backside moving back towards him was a fearful sight. The ball landed in the 1 yard between them.

Next ball, same shot, straight up in the air back to Jones who didn't have to move and so duly dropped it. This then became a farce when the following also dropped this same batsman - Josh 'Cymbals' Peacock (x2), Barker Snr, McDermid along with the chap teasing the fielders. And he only faced 10 balls!

One man stood out from the crowd. One man was prepared to buck the trend. One man was prepared to rise above the rest and show his true colours. One man desperate to end this farce. One man who was sober. That man, of course, was Philip Spicer.

3 out of 3 catches for this legend taking his career tally to 4 in 6 seasons set him apart from the rest. Which led to a comment being heard, surely never to be repeated - "If only we had 11 Spicers."

Another never before heard comment was "Barmy, you're going to have to come off, you're too good for them". It certainly was bizarre.

Barker Jnr and Roff wrapped up the innings with Jake closing in on his Dad's tally of wickets for the season in 50 less overs, whilst Roff ended up with 4 wickets and his next ball will be a hat-trick delivery as Simmonds were routed for 98.

The early loss of Peacock and McDermid sent some jitters through the team but Harvey and that man Spicer steadied the ship. Spicer's bat, after 6 seasons, finally showed signs of being knocked in as he creamed the ball to the boundary.

Martell hit 22 with some back foot cuts but when he was out 15 was still needed with only 4 wickets remaining. Simmonds were frantically trying to work out who Bray had left and the captain was heard to remark "They've still got Barmy - he can bat." Looks like we weren't the only ones hungover.

Stanton and the local drunk ensured there were no more alarms and took Bray to victory. Stanton tried a Pieterson-esque reverse sweep off the final ball and a bye was duly run.

• Result: Eaton Bray CC - Friendly XI Won by 4 wickets
• Date: Sun 15th Jun 2008 @ 14:30
• Ground: Mentmore Park
• Type: Friendly
• Scoring: Standard
• Toss: Simmons CC - 1st XI won the toss and decided to bat

Source: Eaton Bray Cricket Club