You get one weekend like this a year. It would have been cooler to stand in the backdraft of Satan’s rear end than to stand out in the heat of this Bowden afternoon.
Such conditions test the best of us but there are those who rise above. Let us then go to the third over when Andy Holmes felt the need to raise both his arms above his head, either to sniff his deodorant or enact the most risky leave since Matt Hancock broke cover and stood under a CCTV camera. Whilst that leave was a near miss he and opening partner Mole soon departed for 19 apiece.
This was an unusual Duckhunters line up . Regulars scattered to the four winds and the team filled with the borrowed , the passing by and the true Fleckney hardcore. Sadly with expediency can come a lack of cohesiveness and the batting split open like the apparel of a Full Monty tribute act. 55 without loss became 89 for 4 and then 98 for 5.
Thankfully a partnership between Yakesh and Tom Wilton who both got to the funkier side of 20 helped the team to 154 at tea and the side who had recorded 7 ducks in their last visit here (hence the Duckhunters moniker) had kept the quackers out of the equation this time.
Even after tea the heat was a serious opponent and Bowden shaped up not too far behind however regular wickets kept things interesting. Caleb Fox bowled with decent pace and accuracy, Yakesh all nibble and guile and the skipper probing with his flight and (very occasional) spin.
However the game was won by the introduction of Tim who pulled off a rare Sunday party trick of bowling on the same side of the wicket with almost unfair regularity and then James Sheath bowling his medium pace and taking three wickets all followed by a galloping celebration akin to a gazelle being electrocuted in a place the prairie doesn’t get to see. It didn’t matter, the Duckhunters had squeezed home by 15 runs.
Thanks to Bowden for their unfailing effort to get the game on and providing an umpire who stood for almost the whole game. Only mad dogs and umpires went out in this sun.
We are off now to sit in a fridge and wrestle esikmos. Come and join us but please bring your own iceberg.