1st XI v Old Boys

The Belhaven Hill 1^st XI took on the Old Boys here at Belhaven in a good, high spirited Twenty20 game.

 

The Old Boys batted first and with a little help from the not-so-little Swanny, proceeded to hammer to ball to, and over, the boundary. Some good bowling saw little reward as bowler after bowler saw his bowling averages plummet. As we have come to expect from this team, there were moments of brilliance in the field, most notably when Plowden threw down the stumps to run out Galbraith. Peter Dalrymple sauntered in to bat looking very dapper; he left shortly thereafter looking a little less sprightly. Ferrand, Gladwin and Clough all proved to be ornithologists although their expertise was limited to ducks. L. De Klee and R. Barnes made a few each. And then, lo and behold, Max Barnes entered the arena and hit the ball. Then he hit again, and again. In fact he scored quite freely and racked up an impressive 33 runs not out - amazing. It just goes to show what a good coach can do (The one he has now as opposed to the one he had when at Belhaven Hill. Who was that?). By the end of 20 overs, the Old Boys had amassed a formidable total: 133.

 

It is fair to say that the 1^st XI batsmen were a little nervous going in to face some of the giants whose reputation of fierce bowling preceded them. Never-the-less, this was perhaps our finest batting performance thus far with some boys doing brilliantly with the bat and everyone chipping in.Although there were not quite as many sixes hit in the 1^st XI innings, the runs did come quickly, helped on in no small part by some very generous overs by the Barnes brothers. Gladwin bowled quite briskly but demonstrated that his time spent in detention would have been better spent playing cricket. Galbraith sent down some lightning bolts but could not beat Stodart. Stodart stuck around for most of the innings and scored an impressive 56 before edging de Klee to slip after being told that he was to be retired in two balls’ time. Farr scored a solid 20 before falling victim to one of the lightning bolts.

 

Eventually the score crept up to around 125 then higher. Six runs were needed off the final two overs and then 2 off the final over. They came with a couple of balls to spare and the current 1^st XI were jubilant.

 

It was a super day for all. The cricket was, mostly, pleasing and the game was played in good spirit. We all enjoyed seeing and catching up with the exploits of the old boys, and some old past parents, again. Well done all.