Greenwich Local Authority vs Carib Beer XI,

Greenwich Park, Wednesday 30th July 2205

The final game of the Carib season was in slightly unexpected sunshine of this year very regular (some would say too regular) venue of Greenwich Park. We were playing new opposition vs Greenwich Local Authority aka Greenwich Council aka Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Whatever they are calling themselves there was nervousness amongst the Caribs early to arrive as it appeared they had a full team present all dressed in proper whites performing an actual cricket warm up involving cricket bats and balls. In response Caribs Moss and Holmes did some (very) light stretching to try and intimidate the opposition back. Carib Holmes arrival was noteworthy in that he was 15 minutes early, clearly fired up by the opportunity to smash some boundaries over his local council, perhaps still fuming over that time they forgot to empty his recycling bin 3 years ago.

As usual the Caribs were slow to arrive and there was some speculation as to the whereabouts of our NT contingent. It was suggested that they might be availing themselves of the hospitality at a local tavern. This idea was dismissed by Carib Captain Martin who was convinced no Carib members would show such a lack of professionalism. Carib Swanand was setting a good example by having a can of alcohol free beer. Caribs Glen and Nitin duly arrived after the non-toss had taken place due to our lack of numbers to the news that Glen had only had 5 pints so he was fine to play.

So the Caribs were put into bat, with another loss of the toss attributed to Carib skipper Haigh. This gave Carib Holmes an early opportunity to wreak havoc against his foes. Carib Weaver was his opening partner. The theme of the day for the Greenwich bowlers was that they were not express pace, but often deadly accurate. Carib Weaver fell foul of the accuracy losing his wicket in the first over. Carib Yusuf looking to end the season as top run scorer for the Caribs was next in and helped steady the ship and the Caribs had progressed to 16-1 after 4 overs and seen off the opening bowling pair. However it seemed the change bowling of Greenwich in the form of Balagopal and Barrett were even more relentlessly accurate and decimated the top order of the Caribs leaving us 35/5 after 9 overs. Carib Holmes was out to an lbw call leaving him fuming further over the number of potholes on his road. Caribs Haigh, Rayner and Moss all then came and went in quick succession all to the same mode of dismissal to the same bowler - bowled Barrett (although Carib Glen wasn't that quick, chewing up a fair number of deliveries for his one run). The Caribs were maybe lucky to be in even this good a position as 3 dropped catches had reprieved us.

A recovery was now staged with a great partnership between Carib Yusuf and Ringer Robert who moved our score along to 80 for the loss of no more wickets before Yusuf retired on 25. Caribs Nitin and Swanand tried to push the score along, with Carib Nitin sacrificing himself in pursuit of quick runs and being run out. Ringer Robert was then also the lucky beneficiary of a dropped catch. However another mini collapse occurred with Carib Berry after a long innings the previous week only sticking around for 2 balls and number 11 Ringer Kunal perhaps slightly unlucky to be out caught first ball to the only catch Greenwich took on the day. Fortunately for the Caribs this allowed Carib Yusuf to return and along with Ringer Rob push the score up to a below par, but defendable 107-9. A big shout out to Greenwich Barrett who finished with the incredible figures of 6/13.

The Caribs were blessed with a strong bowling attack reminiscent of the West Indies of the 1970s with 4 pacers in the form of Caribs Nitin, Swanand, Yusuf and Ringer Kunal. This meant Carib skipper and leading wicket taker for the season so far Carib Haigh could take on the role of 5th bowler. Due to the absence of the scorecard at this point the details of the innings may be added later. What was true was that Greenwich progressed to 24/0 from just 3 overs and it looked like we could be in for an early finish. However Greenwich opener Jordan eventually retired after being dropped by Carib Moss, a drop that looked like it could prove very costly. The Greenwich scorer was heard to remark "Mossy has dropped the Ashes".

However the Carib bowling was excellent throughout against the rest of the Greenwich batters. Ringer Kunal however was denied a better opportunity to complete his cross match hat trick with no change in the field employed by skipper Haigh to assist his first delivery.

The Carib fielding was also excellent with no balls let through costing boundaries, with one exception. In the first over Carib skipper Martin waved on by a ball hit in his direction with an excuse reminiscent of now retired Carib Willis that the ball had been hit "very hard". Carib Kant was enjoying his work and stayed on to bowl his 4 overs straight through and was rewarded with a wicket. Carib Yusuf then came on and bowled an excellent spell ripping the heart out of the attack with him taking 5 wickets for 3 runs which is officially the best ever spell of bowling in Carib history. This left the Caribs defending 24 off the last 2 overs so an excellent economic display of bowling. However by this point Greenwich Jordan had returned to the crease and proceeded to a fantastic 50 helped by his partner Dean at the other end manoeuvring the strike and running a lot of 2s. Carib skipper Martin took the 19th over and conceded 12 runs so keeping both teams in the game. Ringer Kunal was entrusted with the final over and despite conceding a 4 bowled very tightly leaving Greenwich needing 4 runs from the final ball. All the Carib fielders were dispatched to the boundary, but Greenwich Jordan could not make proper contact and no runs were conceded. The Caribs thus winning a finely matched contest, victors by 3 runs.

We all then joined the opposition back at the pub in Blackheath, so Carib Glen could add to his tally of pints for the day. A very enjoyable day and we look forward to playing against Greenwich again in the future.

Carib Beer XI Win by 3 Runs

Scorecard