Coaver Gerries Cricket Club

Gerries versus Exwick Jokers at Exwick on 26 June 2024

20/20

Jokers 124-5 Gerries 125-0 WON by 10 wkts!!

I have been waiting for a long time to write a report like this, so thank heavens I can do it now before June is out.  We won….say it again we won!! While we play for enjoyment and most of our matches have been close, it is good for team morale to win sometimes and this was only the second time we have been able to celebrate a victory this season.

Matches against the Jokers are usually close affairs and we had a strong team out for this one, so we were hopeful that our losing streak would end.  Jonah lost the toss and Jokers batted on a sunny evening at Exwick Playing Fields.

They got off to a good start and while Gilo had the opener caught behind by Mike Seal and Rob Bethune got another batter stumped by Mike, wickets were hard to come by. Three of the first 5 Exwick batters reached the crs of 25 but the scoring never really accelerated. There were late wickets for Lights (catch by Kyson) and Jonah and a runout of the last ball and Jokers closed their innings on 125-5. 

Bowling was shared around with the wicket takers being Gilo 1-18, Lights 1-11, Rob 1-25 and Jonah 1-2.  There was one unfortunate moment when one of the Jokers’ batters hit uppishly to Kyson at point and then called ‘drop it’, which Kyson, no doubt distracted by the call, duly did.  This is not the sort of behaviour that we need at our level of cricket and most agreed that the batter should have been given out for obstructing the field.  Sermon over!!  

Anyway, this looked an eminently gettable total and we got off to an excellent start courtesy of the belligerent Lights and the slightly more orthodox Guesty.  They both reached the crs and were replaced by Jonah and Padders who proceeded in the same vein, keeping the runs ticking over.  Jonah was next to reach the crs. Padders was joined by Kiwi and together they inched the score towards the winning total. Padders gave a chance which was put down and Kiwi likewise but at the end of the 19^th over, Padders reached his crs, the fourth Gerrie to do so leaving Kiwi to hit the winning run off the second ball of the final over and we had won by 10 wickets. 

Throughout our innings, we had always looked likely to win during  but it was not without tension towards the end.  At the death, this was not helped by Padders, who from beyond the boundary, calling new batter Dyer for a second run when only one was wanted for victory. Thankfully Beano….and his pacemaker….. declined the invitation and the defib was not needed!  

Onward to Ide where we hope to repeat last year’s victory.  Are we on a roll now?!

PM28/06/24     

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