It's is a sad reflection on the times when a lad as young and unbarstardly as myself needs to play for the OBs. Not to mention Bumby who can't even grow a beard yet. There was a time when the letters OB instilled a hearty sense of fear and trepidation in the minds of young players looking at the fixture list. Sadly such days have passed. Things looked bright to begin with as the OB's played a master stroke in using Chalky as captain after the McNally disaster of last season. However the sense of fear imposed by large bearded men was painfully absent, especially after Bryan Lawrence pulled a 'Framo' and rang in with a lame excuse about having food poisoned himself. One alert punter queried whether it was possible for a vegetarian to get food poisoning. Another pointed out that the under 21 rugby final was being played at Kasam stadium..... With the YB batting looking a little frail Rob bowled some beautiful left arm pace to trouble Quentin outside his off stump. Tony Mac, unusually given the openers bowling role also looked like he'd been practicing with only a couple of 'loosners' each over. However Mike continued his new found form and looked untroubled as the opening partnership reached 50. The breakthrough came when 'cannonball' Casper came on to rattle Mikes stumps with a low angle high velocity projectile delivery. Given an early chance with the ball I was pleased to see that Q now thinks every delivery I bowl is a mystery ball and if spawny hadn't dropped him he wouldn't have been any the wiser. Wanting to fit in as a real OB I then dropped Jason off my own bowling. Bumby came on and bowled a number of wicket taking pies to pick up three for 10 and rip through the lower order while spawny got the other one. All out for 134 was a pretty low score for the YBs and you could almost sense the optimism with which the OB's got stuck into the tea time cakes. A master stroke of tactical captaincy involving a three pint bribe saw Tony Mac opening the batting and smashing the much vaunted YB bowling attack to the boundary with ease. A dashing opening partnership of 42 was only ended after the YB's resorted to using the 'below the belt' australian cad. Steaming in from the boundary rope Jason proved unplayable for Chalky, Tony and myself in quick succession, and finished the game with figures of 5/21 off 7 overs. Casper gave us a shadow of respectability by showing that he's just as good at playing quicks as he is at bowling them with a bright 29. When he was stumped it was all over with the score was 104. Victory to the young'ns.
SD