The Golden Ducks 76 a/o
Cansick 26 (31)
Rodwell 18 (17)
Two Bats or Not to Bat 77/1
Allison 1/20
Arblaster 0/13
“Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat.”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where it all went wrong for The Golden Ducks on a cloudy, overcast day at the Clapham Common Oval. Captain Cansick’s brutal bout of food poisoning, stand-in skipper Rodwell incorrectly calling tails at the toss, Allison’s torturous six-ball duck, or Proctor missing what must go down as one of the easiest run out chances in recent history. Take your pick. Of course, one might say the writing was on the wall at 4am that morning as over half the team stumbled back from Shoreditch having consumed their body weight in Jägerbombs.
Either way, we (just about) had a full complement of men and with the toss having been lost, there was still optimism in the air as Coops and Barn strode to the crease, practicing their full array of shots on the walk in. With the first over survived, dreams of a first win were already starting to cross minds, but any hopefulness soon evaporated into the air as our first three wickets tumbled. All three were clean bowled.
A rebuilding job was required from Cansick and Rodwell, and the two didn’t completely disappoint. Cansick kept the board ticking over on his way to a team high 26, off of only 31 balls, whilst Rodwell found space on both sides of the wicket in his 18 off 17, also hitting The Golden Ducks’ first ever boundary during his innings.
We were never able to halt the flow of wickets though. Once Rodwell departed, Allison hit an erratic 0 – gaining the honour of being the first official duck – and Richards struck a bright and breezy 6. The most controversial moment of the innings came with Arblaster’s dismissal – a wide ball thudded into the Yorkshireman’s thigh, and before the opposition could turn around and break into a muted appeal, the umpire’s finger was already raised. Whilst the defeat cannot be completely blamed on the umpire’s performance, there has been speculation of an official complaint. On the other hand, Rodwell may be deemed fortunate not to be fined his match fee for continued dissent.
With 17.1 overs on the board, Cansick eventually fell, desperately trying to accelerate the scoring rate, and thus ended the innings – 76 all out. Only two batsmen managed to get more than six. A nice touch was to follow though as the Ducks formed a tunnel of glory for the heroic batsman, who had this to say after the match, ‘It's still early days and we've yet to decide on our best bowling attack and batting order, but for the time being the focus is on all-round improvement - both with bat & ball and in the field.’
After a quick turnaround, the Ducks were back out on the pitch, knowing an early wicket was a must. The new-ball pairing of Arblaster and Allison were more than solid, creating chances, bowling on a tight line and keeping the scoring rate down. With the Ducks starting to believe a miracle could happen, and the opposition getting frustrated by the lack of runs, one of the openers set off on a suicidal run.
What happened next will go down in Ducks folklore - the ball fell to Cooper and he lobbed an inch-perfect throw right into the hands of Proctor. Yarker came running into to celebrate, Richards and Arblaster started to go for high-fives, and then the unthinkable happened! An eternity seemed to pass as Proctor scrambled around like a helpless seal, eventually allowing the aforementioned opener to get back into his crease before the bails were finally whipped off.
This clearly fired Allison up as he sent down a beauty in the next to pick up the Ducks’ first ever wicket – clean bowled no less, and well deserved after a pleasing opening spell. Unfortunately, this was the high point. With the bowlers having to be rotated, TBONTB sensed an opportunity and a succession of loose balls, wides and misfields meant the match soon came to an end, the total chased down after exactly 10 overs.
Were there positives? Sure. Were there negatives? When isn’t there. To paraphrase the ‘Little Master’, “As far as the [Clapham Sunday League] is concerned, it is a process. We don't want to jump to the 50th floor straight away. We must start on the ground floor.”
Proctor offered a reasonable insight into his performance, “Not happy with my batting, bowling a good place to build from” and more importantly, some inspirational words from our ailing skipper, “The sooner we can get the first win on the board the better, but as long as we're showing an improvement from game to game I'll be happy. Small landmarks will make a difference; getting past 100, someone making a 50, things like that. But there's no guarantee that will win you a game, so let’s just take each game as it comes without setting any specific targets.”
One final quote for you to ponder over, “That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.” Never truer words spoken…
Onwards and upwards! #quackquack
Cansick 26 (31)
Rodwell 18 (17)
Two Bats or Not to Bat 77/1
Allison 1/20
Arblaster 0/13
“Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat.”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where it all went wrong for The Golden Ducks on a cloudy, overcast day at the Clapham Common Oval. Captain Cansick’s brutal bout of food poisoning, stand-in skipper Rodwell incorrectly calling tails at the toss, Allison’s torturous six-ball duck, or Proctor missing what must go down as one of the easiest run out chances in recent history. Take your pick. Of course, one might say the writing was on the wall at 4am that morning as over half the team stumbled back from Shoreditch having consumed their body weight in Jägerbombs.
Either way, we (just about) had a full complement of men and with the toss having been lost, there was still optimism in the air as Coops and Barn strode to the crease, practicing their full array of shots on the walk in. With the first over survived, dreams of a first win were already starting to cross minds, but any hopefulness soon evaporated into the air as our first three wickets tumbled. All three were clean bowled.
A rebuilding job was required from Cansick and Rodwell, and the two didn’t completely disappoint. Cansick kept the board ticking over on his way to a team high 26, off of only 31 balls, whilst Rodwell found space on both sides of the wicket in his 18 off 17, also hitting The Golden Ducks’ first ever boundary during his innings.
We were never able to halt the flow of wickets though. Once Rodwell departed, Allison hit an erratic 0 – gaining the honour of being the first official duck – and Richards struck a bright and breezy 6. The most controversial moment of the innings came with Arblaster’s dismissal – a wide ball thudded into the Yorkshireman’s thigh, and before the opposition could turn around and break into a muted appeal, the umpire’s finger was already raised. Whilst the defeat cannot be completely blamed on the umpire’s performance, there has been speculation of an official complaint. On the other hand, Rodwell may be deemed fortunate not to be fined his match fee for continued dissent.
With 17.1 overs on the board, Cansick eventually fell, desperately trying to accelerate the scoring rate, and thus ended the innings – 76 all out. Only two batsmen managed to get more than six. A nice touch was to follow though as the Ducks formed a tunnel of glory for the heroic batsman, who had this to say after the match, ‘It's still early days and we've yet to decide on our best bowling attack and batting order, but for the time being the focus is on all-round improvement - both with bat & ball and in the field.’
After a quick turnaround, the Ducks were back out on the pitch, knowing an early wicket was a must. The new-ball pairing of Arblaster and Allison were more than solid, creating chances, bowling on a tight line and keeping the scoring rate down. With the Ducks starting to believe a miracle could happen, and the opposition getting frustrated by the lack of runs, one of the openers set off on a suicidal run.
What happened next will go down in Ducks folklore - the ball fell to Cooper and he lobbed an inch-perfect throw right into the hands of Proctor. Yarker came running into to celebrate, Richards and Arblaster started to go for high-fives, and then the unthinkable happened! An eternity seemed to pass as Proctor scrambled around like a helpless seal, eventually allowing the aforementioned opener to get back into his crease before the bails were finally whipped off.
This clearly fired Allison up as he sent down a beauty in the next to pick up the Ducks’ first ever wicket – clean bowled no less, and well deserved after a pleasing opening spell. Unfortunately, this was the high point. With the bowlers having to be rotated, TBONTB sensed an opportunity and a succession of loose balls, wides and misfields meant the match soon came to an end, the total chased down after exactly 10 overs.
Were there positives? Sure. Were there negatives? When isn’t there. To paraphrase the ‘Little Master’, “As far as the [Clapham Sunday League] is concerned, it is a process. We don't want to jump to the 50th floor straight away. We must start on the ground floor.”
Proctor offered a reasonable insight into his performance, “Not happy with my batting, bowling a good place to build from” and more importantly, some inspirational words from our ailing skipper, “The sooner we can get the first win on the board the better, but as long as we're showing an improvement from game to game I'll be happy. Small landmarks will make a difference; getting past 100, someone making a 50, things like that. But there's no guarantee that will win you a game, so let’s just take each game as it comes without setting any specific targets.”
One final quote for you to ponder over, “That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.” Never truer words spoken…
Onwards and upwards! #quackquack
