Teamsheet: Mount vs President's XI, Sunday 20th June 2021
Our annual match against the President's XI took place on Sunday and with the weather taking a turn for the worse after some glorious sunshine the previous week.
However the weather held off enough to make a start with the president deciding he would bat first with a terrier style format match.
This consisted of batting in pairs for 6 overs each and if you were out your team lost 5 runs.
I decided to open the bowling with Monty and unbeknownst to everyone on the field of play Monty decided not to do his trademark warning to the batman at the non-strikers end and actually decided to deliver the ball in the direction of the batman. Unfortunately Green Snr was also surprised not only by the ball being released but also the fact it was a very high yorker which the unfortunate Richard missed and hit him on the side of the face.
I had thought this was supposed to be a friendly fixture!
This was the beginning of an eventful day which perhaps in hindsight we should of stopped at that point before more damage was done.
Richard was ok and continued to bat with the next injury happening to Green Jnr having batted well one hefty hit resulted in his good shoulder popping out briefly. After a few minutes he decided to bat on and all was well.
Eventually after all the President's men had batted the net score we were left to chase was 197 off 36 overs.
Our innings started after a nice bit of cake and tea thanks to Ros, Helen and Anita.
I opened with the pairing of of Ilan and Josh Frankel which was nice to see. They got us off to a good start but we had lost a few wickets which would affect our net score. The next pairing saw a couple of players brought in. With a few shots being clubbed to the boundary these were being negated by regular loss of wickets. After a couple of four's from AJ, who was beginning to get his eye in, as he was going for another big hit he missed and was bowled. However the main concern was the fact he fell awkwardly and looked in some discomfort. When we approached him he took his pad off to find he had what appeared to look like a dislocated knee cap.
At this point the game came to a halt and an ambulance was called. I would like to thank everyone who came to help once again Anita and Sarah to make AJ as comfortable as possible.
After about an hour or more the ambulance arrived and as he left the field to the tune of "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter this put a big smile on AJ's face (could of been the gas and air though) as well as the ambulance crew.
The decision had already been taken to call the game off and with the pizzas being made everyone tucked in to them in their socially distanced groups.
I'm sure I can speak for the President in thanking Bill for organizing the pizza van which was a great success.
The update on AJ is he is in a cast and on crutches
Will popped his shoulder out and is sidelined for 2 weeks
Richard after receiving the blow to his head has been talking sense for the first time in 35 years!!!
Regards Steve
p.s This Sunday's fixture v St Aidens is off unfortunately after not being able to use the School field. I had managed to get a pitch at Southchurch Park courtesy of Southend EMTCC. I then received an email from St Aidens saying they wont be able to fulfill the fixture as they only have 5 players available.
Our next game is now 4th July v Brentwood Victorians Away