The last few weeks have been really busy around here, partly due to work issues, and partly self inflicted. I have finally finished up at Colgate. After 3 years, literally, they ran our of money! Perhaps there will be an opportunity to return in the future, we will see. This did mean that for the past few weeks, it was a mad scramble to wrap everything up and to transfer all of my responsibilities to Colgate people.
Now to the fun, self-inflicted stuff...
Last week was the Philly Cricket Festival. We had a decent side going down there, full of drinkers and a few people with some cricket ability so we had all areas covered there. There were always going to be 3 games that were the tough ones in our group...Littleton; "Dream Cricket" and Toronto. Our first game was against Littleton so we had to be quick out of the gates. Additionally, I was the captain of the squad for the festival so there was a lot of additional stuff to think of.
The format of the festival was T20 this year, so we had to make sure that the runs were coming quickly and we remained focused on setting a decent score. We actually batted really well in this game. Lots of people chipped in with some quick knocks and we finished our innings 9 down for 151. I came in in the later overs and scored 14 from about 10 balls and was quite happy with how things were going. Things started well for us in the field, getting a wicket of the first ball! A great catch a few overs later saw us well on top and it was only a matter of time before the game would be wrapped up (or so it seemed). Then they began smashing us to all parts of the ground, not only keeping up with the run rate...but actually were ahead of it. It came down to the last two overs, with them having one good batsman left. The needed 10 runs from 12 balls and Boyke delivered a great over, only conceeding two runs! Even better, their good batsman was down the non-striker's end. First ball was a dot that popped off a length and caught our keeper under the chin making him lose the ball...so they ran a bye!! So not only, not a dot ball...but their hitter now was on strike. However, Coatsey knocked him over next ball and we all knew that would wrap it up for us. In the end, they got to 148...so a great start.
Game two was against "Dream Cricket", a group of 16-21 year olds with a couple of old heads to run things. We again batted first, I did nothing in this one but we got to what was another decent total - 131. At one point in the chase it looked like they were going to make it interesting but we held them under the rate for long enough to wrap things up and in the end, won by about 15 runs.
The afternoon game on Friday was against Philadelphia, a weak side but they had added the festival guest Michael Kasprowicz to their team for this game. The Aussies in our side all wanted a crack at him and so we were all thrown into the top 4 for this game. He was not bowling quickly but was accurate and swinging the ball around. I got a single, squirting one through square leg but as kept on the crease by his lenght and movement and he bowled a cutter that beat the bat and took out my off stump. Great experience to face him however, a really nice bloke too. The game did not go so well. We found a way to play down to the oppo and also, were giving all in our squad a chance to get a game so there were some of the better players who were sitting out. In the end, too many runs conceeded with 3 bad overs cost us the game.
Toronto was next up and we knew this was the biggest game for us to play. They had several former first class players in their ranks and 4 people who are current members of the Canadian national side. They had us very overmatched but one interesting thing happened during their innings. There were strict festival rules regarding getting through the game as they were playing 3 matches per day. Mid way through their innings a wicket fell and nobody was ready to come in. Also, nobody was even too worried about padding up. The umpires had already given us a hurry up for our overs and were then telling us that they have 90 seconds to get to the middle (festival rule) or he could be out if we appealed. Then one thing happened that really pissed me off. They stepped inside the boundary rope and arrogantly stated, we are on the field of play, so we are OK with the time. A quick poll of the team and we agreed that we should put him on his way, so I waited until the next player had begin his walk to the middle (one of their 1st Class players) and appealed. Never been a part of a timed out before... When I batted (and got a duck) I received all manner of abuse from their team (as was expected). Later that night their team walked into the bar quite late and I told them they only had 90 seconds to get a drink. I think they saw the funny side by then...also, since they won the game, it was a non-issue.
The rest of the festival was then focused on getting everyone a game and drinking. We certainly did our best at this!
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