St Peters Dad vs Carib Beer XI, Battersea Park,

Thursday 8th June 2023

On a warm summers evening the Caribs opened their 2023 season against now regular opponents St Peters Dad. Due to the usual latecomers the toss was dispensed with as there were only 5 Caribs in attendance 15 minutes after the designated start time. Rewarded for being on time Carib Weaver and Ringer Akansh opened the batting.

Carib Weaver had an electric start hitting his first ball to the boundary, showing that maybe having some net practice is not a bad idea. Some quick running and further boundary hitting led to Weaver retiring on 25 at a strike rate above 100. Ringer Akansh was playing a supporting role before also retiring at a slightly slower run-rate, however this was not before running out further Ringer Gopi who was perhaps slow off the mark at the non strikers end.

Newest Carib member Yusuf was in next to show his power hitting including the only 6 of the match to retire after just 10 balls. A strike rate that absent Northern Pie Bakery Magnate Carib Cordey would have been proud off. By now the rest of the team had turned up so we were up to a full 11. Carib Holmes was in next, but prior to this he delivered an incredible pre-match confession/apology of a gravitas not seen since the public revelations of Bill Clinton. Finally the mystery of the missing Carib kit bag from 2020 was resolved.

Alex perhaps feeling remorseful after his incredible admission was in for a sadly brief innings. Carib Skipper Haigh and Carib Moss then shared a partnership with a rare boundary from Moss in an innings of 9, possibly equalling his entire run tally for last season. Both departed sacrificing wickets in search of quick runs. The Carib final batters were ringer Nick and Carib Bowen. Ringer Nick also hit his first ball for 4, but unfortunately Carib Bowen looked like he could have done with some net practice as he scratched his way to one not out off eight balls. Despite some positive words at the innings break from skipper Haigh there was a feeling we were probably 15-20 runs short of where we could have been on a very quick outfield.

The St Peter's dad innings started in a good fashion from a Carib perspective with some tight opening overs. However the boundaries soon flowed and even our opening pair of Carib Nitin and Carib Archie and support act of Carib Yusuf and Ringer Akansh were powerless to stop the flow of runs. The top 3 dads all reached 25 and retired. There were a few near misses with edges just missing stumps and every false shot falling between fielders, but the wicket just would not come for the Caribs. Not a lot was happening for the Caribs, only other items of note were Carib Moss, hobbling around the outfield with a knee injury showing all the agility of Mike Gatting after a particularly large Lords Lunch and Ringer Gopi who was at near collapse which seemed to have been caused by sunstroke/lack of pre-match fuelling.

It took until about the 15th over for the solitary wicket to fall from an inside edge onto stumps off Carib Haigh. This didn't slow down the dads too much and they always looked like achieving their target which was knocked off with 11 balls to spare for the loss of just that one wicket.

So not the start to the season the Caribs would have hoped for, but the St Peters Dad team are usually a good match for us, so we hope for better things as the season goes on.

Carib Beer XI Lose by 9 Wickets

Scorecard