Village win midweek game shock horror!

by Rick Johansen

There was a major shortage of idiots in the Village let night as the Gifford travelled to the home of Old Redcliffians in Brislington for their midweek plate 20/20 game against St Mary Redcliffe.

Does the venue and opposition sound familiar?  Of course: it was where the Gifford lost in the first round of the cup to the same team they were playing on Wednesday who themselves entered the plate after losing in the second round.

The evening started with the Village two players short after – surprise! surprise! – Nathan Daniels and Harry Black left both their remaining brain cells at home and arrived 20 minutes late at the wrong ground. 

Skipper Dan ‘Five Bellies’ Dunt was incandescent with rage and instructed red faced Paul ‘Longy’ Long to give them the correct directions and in less than half an hour, Daniels and Black managed to navigate the half mile from where they were to the correct ground.

The usual piss poor start ensued with Guy Long out for four and Matt Semple run out for nothing.  “I got triggered,” moaned Semple, who, to be fair, was only out by about two yards.

The unlikely saviour, for a few overs, was portly, alcoholic layabout student Nigel Johnson who slogged a few fours before being out for 15.  “You’re batting too straight!” came the advice from ‘Chucker’ Lamb who himself top scored with 27.  ‘Darren’ scored 22.

Calum Meaney-May Morph stumbled out to the wicket with two balls to face and ended up with an unbeaten five.  How crucial this was to prove.

107 did not seem a competitive total and the home team soon rattled past 60 without losing a wicket.

However, the Village fought back with some half-decent bowling from Dunt, Lamber, ‘Darren’ and, astonishingly, Harry Black.

Harry Black and Morph then held onto brilliant catches and suddenly the Gifford had a chance to win.

‘Five Bellies’ Dunt bowled the last over, usually very bad news for the Gifford, but this time he held his nerve and the Village rocked the cricketing world’s foundations with…gulp…a two run victory.

So onwards and upwards for the Village but bad news for Lamber who had to pay yet another fine for dropping a very simple catch.

Man of the match – Calum Meaney May Morph – his late innings and crucial catch swung the game in favour of the visitors and we expect him to be promoted to the first team this week.


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