A weakened Goodwill side travelled to North Enfield for a new
fixture. So weak and short of bodies were the Goodwill that Derek
returned to the team! He wasn't in his usual position behind the
sticks as back-up 'keeper, nor did he bat in THAT hat.Which may
have been a positive as he batted really well. He did wear it in
the field though, and wasn't helped by his shirt (which is about 6
sizes too big, though acted as a wind-break).
So short were the Wanderers missing amongst others Andrew Callanan,
Marcus Wilson, Subhakanta Das, Gareth Hughes, Tim Custance and
Paul Hiscock (no, that's really his name) that we had to borrow
two players from the home side, thus Dan Van and Simon Phillips
became 'Willers numbers 131 and 132.
The Goodwill were to bat first in a timed, village game and
openers Sayers and Westwood Jnr set about their task. Trigger was
bowled trying to drive, Mowgli then enjoyed his stroll to the
middle…and promptly strolled back with a golden duck under his
belt. Cashy then came and went and Ollie played on. Credit to Del
who batted really well, to Dan who batted really well and to Steve
who batted really well. Without these three it was game over. With
a nice cameo from Westwood Snr, the Goodwill were bowled out for
125.
After a splendid tea, the lads set about the task at hand, to
defend a low score. Tight bowling early on from Graves and Correa
kept North Enfield under the pump, a couple of chances were just
out of reach, and after the initial breakthrough it took a fine
catch from Trigger to really get the wheels in motion. However,
with Moxyon coming in at number 4 and striking the ball cleanly on
his way to a half-century and captain Malleson batting fluently,
the game was heading towards North Enfield. As the final 20 overs
were being counted down the required rate was dropping and the
wickets weren't coming. Disco bowled a spell from the pavillion
end which went unrewarded and Darren "Wwwwwwaaaaaiting there"
Westwood weighed in with just one wicket as opposed to his usual
bagful, thanks to a splendid catch from Disco. So it fell to
captain Sayers to return his best bowling figures for the Goodwill
and bag 6 victims which somehow gave the boys an 8-run victory,
another close scrape to add to the list for this season.
Victory is nice, but never the be-all-and-end-all, especially for
our club. In North Enfield, we found a team that seem to play the
game the same as us, to try and win, to try and give everyone a
game, and to try and enjoy it. Even their banter and mickey-taking
out of each other was similar to us. But not as good. And none of
them had shiny whites like Sach.
We extend our sincere thanks to North Enfield for their
hospitality and for loaning us two players. Without this fantastic
gesture we would have had to cancel the game, thus missing out on
a good fixture, and enjoyable afternoon. Hopefully we will be
invited back next year.
