Sunday, 28th May 2017
Halverstown: 149
Hugh Ronaldson 30* S.Conroy 25* K.Hodson 19* D.Drumm 18*
D.Drumm 3-0-11-3 H.Ronaldson 3-0-7-1 Sahab 4-1-8-1 J.Brown 5-0-11-1 K.Hodson 3-0-12-1 M.Ronaldson 5-0-14-1 Arston 3-0-12-1 D.O'Ceallaigh 1-0-6-0
Arthur's Knights: 96
T.Millman 25* E.Rankin 15 S.Hayes 10 B.Glascott 9*
E.Rankin 5-0-16-1 W.Barr 5-0-17-1 T.Millman 5-0-29-1
“To begin at the beginning, it is Spring” ...and this was the beginning, the beginning of the season (finally) for the Social team and a new look Halverstown too with no less than 5 debutantes. The day was fine,”the principality of the sky lightens now, over our green
hill, into spring morning larked and crowed and belling”. It was great to be alive and in Harristown on such a day.
“I know there are
Towns lovelier than ours,
And fairer hills and loftier far,
And groves more full of flowers”,
but quite frankly they don't have a cricket pitch like ours.
Arthur's Knights is one of the friendliest of fixtures, not least since there is a noticeable overlap in the membership of the two teams, such that Willie Barr proferred his Knight's match fee to me- and I took it.
We had a strong team and Sean Conroy and Hugh Ronaldson, after the blip of Arston's dismissal, moved the score along nicely, batting with real style. With retirement looming on reaching 25 Hugh finished with a mighty 6 to give him 30 not out. Sahab and Steve Rix had brief innings but both scored 4s, which had a scarcity value and no mean feat in the conditions. Kevin Hodson and myself ran and sweated an awful lot for our runs before we retired to give a bat to others. Deaglan, in his first ever game of cricket, showed promise with his 4 runs as well as a nicely bowled over later. Eric Rankin's bowling for Knights was as canny as ever and Willie bowled tidily too, but it is worth noting that Brian Hamilton conceded just 15 runs off his 4 overs also.
John Brown and Mark Ronaldson opened the bowling for us and had the Knights under pressure from early on. The loss of Eric's wicket was a significant blow before Tim Millman, notably, and Willie steadied the ship. However the final 5 batsmen managed the difficult task of scoring just 2 runs between them, which may indicate a slight weakness in the lower order for skipper Mike Beetlestone when he gets back in the saddle. I must mention my 3 for 11 in that regard; holding myself back in the bowling order has its rewards.
I should mention that Sahab was outstanding with his bowling, such that I had to ask him- and indeed Arston- to bowl slow balls, though still fast by our standards!
And so
“The thin night darkens. A breeze from the creased water sighs... The Wood, the suddenly wind-shaken wood springs awake for the second dark time this one Spring day”.
Another year, another win for Halverstown (OK, two years in a row anyway). “Time passes. Listen. Time passes”. I hope that we are all back to enjoy this great fixture next year.
Des Drumm, 31st May 2017 (apologies to Dylan Thomas, who was out a while ago).
No comments:
Post a Comment