In 2005, for the first time Brooklands CC ran an Under 21s tour.
The tour was aimed at players in the university age bracket. Under 18s did not
accompany the party. Players who were still at 6th form but were 18 at
the time of the tour were welcome to tour. The tour was to Bristol where the squad
played 3 games over a 5 day period against teams from the local area.
Itinerary
The dates of the tour were:
Monday 25th July until Friday 29th July 2005
The party departed Brooklands mid morning on Monday. Games were played
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The squad
returned home on Friday.
Squad
The tour party was:
A Batty
D Madden
A Bolton
P Vesey
M Vesey
C Hart
T Mitchell
M Guy
R Wood
M Higginbottom.
Craig McTamney
Accomodation
The party stayed at Hiatt Baker Hall which is a hall of residence on the
campus of Bristol University. More details on Hiatt Baker Hall can be found
at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/HiattBaker/
Tour Report
Day 1
The journey down to Bristol turned out to be somewhat
longer than expected. Apparently someone had decided it was a good day to close
the M6 and Dave of Stafford must have been as disappointed as us to find the
roads around his shop reduced to what the West Indians call ‘total gridlock.’ As
it turned out, it took the three drivers – Batty, Guy and Mitchell
over 5 hours to reach their destination, by which time Pete’s regular emissions
must have made the atmosphere in Tom’s car almost unbreathable.
Having arrived, played a bit of tennis and moved Dave
Madden’s bed into Craig’s room in order to make him think we were all sharing
double rooms, it was time to pick up Bazzer from the station following his
gruelling 6 ½ hour marathon journey from Abersoch. Suspecting nothing, Dave
settled into his new room with Craig and we all prepared for an evening amid the
bright lights of Bristol. In doing so, the squad suffered its first injury of
tour, with Mark Vesey proving that even taking a shower can be dangerous by
losing his footing and booting a wooden door. The night itself proved fairly
uneventful for most, although Ant Bolton was brutally attacked in the club by a
moose which spent several minutes trying to eat his face. The night turned worse
for Ant on the way home though, and turned out to be one of the most expensive
nights out EVA!
Day 2
Tuesday morning passed by in a haze, especially for Woody,
who was almost certainly practicing his one handed handstands. In the afternoon,
we drove across the river and rallied down some country lanes to Failand &
Portbury.
Game 1 vs Failand & Portbury
Failand & Portbury turned out to have one of the smallest
pitches anyone had ever seen, which made quick scoring seem certain. Ant Bolton
therefore (opening), surprised us all by scoring slower than a 15 year old David
Madden and soon had us all bored to tears. After much jeering from the pavilion,
he picked up the rate briefly then obediently got out, although he and Chris
Hart (45) gave us a solid platform. From this, Craig added an unbeaten 103
(including six 6s), assisted by Dave himself, who proved he has left behind the
dullness of yesteryear by scoring 65 including eight 4s and three 6s before
being caught out. Amid bizarre cries of “Beef and Onions!” from the opposition,
the innings was rounded off with style by Rob Wood, who was clean bowled
attempting to reverse-sweep stood up completely straight and Paul Vesey, whose
‘360º drive’ left the opposition in puzzled silence.
The first opposition wicket fell in the first over of their
innings, Andy Batty taking a ‘reflex’ catch down low at square leg after a few
seconds of mental turmoil and the slow dawning realisation that the ball was on
its way. Not long after, Rob Wood felt the full force of Pete Staley’s pace as
he was hit on the shoulder and then the field was reduced to almost
uncontrollable laughter as the batsman attempted to pad one away and only
succeeded in deflecting the ball into Rob’s delicate parts. Staley and Guy both
took two wickets each, with Andy Batty and Tom Mitchell each contributing one.
However as all our bowlers succumbed to niggling injuries, Brooklands were
forced to resort to Chris Hart, who decided it would be best to place a fielder
in the next field to save time in retrieving the ball. For a while, things
looked tight, but a superb run-out by Ant Bolton and a vital wicket from Chris
turned things back our way and the match ended with Brooklands securing a
comfortable win by 37 runs.
Scores
Failand and Portbury won the toss and elected to bowl.
Innings of Brooklands CC
|
1 |
Chris |
"Cornelius" |
Hart |
|
stumped |
Dungey |
45 |
|
2 |
Anthony |
"Gordon" |
Bolton |
|
stumped |
Dungey |
15 |
|
3 |
Craig |
"Bruce" |
McTamney |
|
Not out |
103 |
|
4 |
David |
"Bernard" |
Madden* |
|
caught |
Mistery |
65 |
|
5 |
Mike |
"Ralph" |
Higginbottom |
|
caught |
Humphreys |
13 |
|
6 |
Rob |
"Nigel" |
Wood+ |
|
bowled |
Teasdale |
7 |
|
7 |
Paul |
"Roger" |
Vesey |
|
Not out |
1 |
|
8 |
Matt |
"Bert" |
Guy |
|
Did not bat |
|
9 |
Tom |
"Bob" |
Mitchell |
|
Did not bat |
|
10 |
Andy |
"Trevor" |
Batty |
|
Did not bat |
|
11 |
Pete |
"Gavin" |
Staley |
|
Did not bat |
|
Extras: w - 12, lb - 7, b - 12 |
|
|
|
|
31 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
280 |
for 5 |
off 40 overs |
Innings of Failand & Portbury CC
|
1 |
Bachelor |
J |
|
|
caught Batty |
Guy |
0 |
|
2 |
Shepherd |
B |
|
|
caught Bolton |
Guy |
0 |
|
3 |
Humphries |
E |
|
|
bowled |
Staley |
33 |
|
4 |
Hantchet |
H |
|
|
bowled |
Staley |
6 |
|
5 |
Whittington |
Dick |
|
|
caught Hart |
Batty |
13 |
|
6 |
Humphries |
W |
|
|
Run out |
53 |
|
7 |
Teasdale |
B |
|
|
Run out |
25 |
|
8 |
Humphries |
G |
|
|
bowled |
Hart |
47 |
|
9 |
Pursey |
S |
|
|
caught & bowled |
Hart |
24 |
|
10 |
Dungey |
P |
|
|
bowled |
Mitchell |
3 |
|
11 |
Mistery |
S |
|
|
Not out |
3 |
|
Extras: nb - 5, w - 9, lb - 5, b - 5 |
|
|
|
24 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
233 |
all out |
Result: Brooklands won
by 37 runs
Bowling figures of Brooklands CC
| |
|
|
|
|
Overs |
Maidens |
Runs |
Wickets |
|
1 |
Matt |
"Bert" |
Guy |
|
8 |
0 |
52 |
2 |
|
2 |
Pete |
"Gavin" |
Staley |
|
8 |
2 |
16 |
2 |
|
3 |
Andy |
"Trevor" |
Batty |
|
6 |
0 |
41 |
1 |
|
4 |
Tom |
"Bob" |
Mitchell |
|
5 |
0 |
29 |
1 |
|
5 |
Anthony |
"Gordon" |
Bolton |
|
3 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
|
6 |
Paul |
"Roger" |
Vesey |
|
3 |
0 |
30 |
0 |
|
7 |
Chris |
"Cornelius" |
Hart |
|
4 |
0 |
35 |
2 |
As we enjoyed a beer with the opposition after the game, we
were treated to a description of the best spots to go ‘dogging’ in Bristol, but
decided instead to get some pizzas in and play poker. Dave and Craig settled
down together for a good night’s rest.
Day 3
Wednesday saw us travel to Old Down CC just north of
Bristol. Almost all of us were pleasantly surprised to arrive and be told that
the meet was actually in the local pub – the Fox, which served a murky and
extremely strong cider somewhat ominously called ‘Black Rat.’
Game 2 vs Old Down
Our senses slightly dulled, the game began with Hart and
Wood at the crease, although Hart was soon replaced by Mitchell who in turn
decided to leave the batting in Dave Madden’s capable hands. Rob especially was
batting well, perhaps aided slightly by a pitch which was more uneven than a
fight between Elliot Woodage and Dave Bolton. However it wasn’t long before a
steady drizzle set in and this eventually made the pitch too slippery to
continue play, leaving Rob on 58 not out and Dave on 27. We all retired inside
to play some more poker, buy enough pints of Fosters to win a free t-shirt and
beat the locals convincingly at a game of ‘killer’ pool. Unfortunately, our
winnings were minimal, with most of the pot having been spent on buying filthy
pints of mixed spirits from the bar for Mark Vesey to drink for the honour of
being the first person knocked out.
Scores
Old Down asked Brooklands to bat.
Innings of Brooklands CC
| 1 |
Chris |
"Cornelius" |
Hart |
|
bowled |
Knight |
18 |
| 2 |
Rob |
"Nigel" |
Wood+ |
|
Not out |
58 |
| 3 |
Tom |
"Bob" |
Mitchell |
|
caught Rowen |
B. Osman |
21 |
| 4 |
David |
"Bernard" |
Madden |
|
Not out |
27 |
| 5 |
Matt |
"Bert" |
Guy |
|
Did not bat |
| 6 |
Mark |
"Derek" |
Vesey |
|
Did not bat |
| 7 |
Paul |
"Roger" |
Vesey |
|
Did not bat |
| 8 |
Andy |
"Trevor" |
Batty |
|
Did not bat |
| 9 |
Anthony |
"Gordon" |
Bolton |
|
Did not bat |
| 10 |
Mike |
"Ralph" |
Higginbottom |
|
Did not bat |
| 11 |
Craig |
"Bruce" |
McTamney* |
|
Did not bat |
| Extras: nb - 4, w - 3, lb - 4 |
|
|
|
|
