Bath 4ths vs Bristol match report
14 June 2021
4th XI Match report - 12th June - Bristol Away
Over the last 7 weeks, the tension and air of expectation among the 4th team squad has been steadily rising. Will the run continue, will it be as impressive as expected, will we let ourselves down, what if it’s a disappointment?
On Saturday against Brislington, with less than a week to go, and tensions reaching fever pitch, it was inevitable that something would have to give and Harley was the first to crack with an explosion of emotion. He’s young, he’ll learn!
Finally, on Friday 11th June, at the 4th Team BBQ, the moment arrived as Thiaan, our South African superstar revealed and uncoiled his meaty South Africa sausage.
The gasp from the crowd as he opened his large cardboard box, that had not one, but 4 of the meaty beasts saw jaws drop and squeals of delight, more akin to a Take That concert, not the hyped up reveal of a South African snake-like sausage.
The sense of relief was immense, people could breathe again and return to more normal, mundane life, no longer dictated by the aforementioned sausage.
The hangover of emotion was still there as players arrived at Bristol cricket club on Saturday, poor Scott had to be excused from the team talk, still in awe and a wee bit constipated.
Kerr won the toss, and after putting the decision to the committee, a vote of 6 to 5, saw us elect to bowl, and bowl we did.
A small ground, with square boundaries set inside the 30 metre discs, saw a huge total being likely. A wiley old local said scores of 350 weren’t defendable. CB and Chloe had other ideas. CB, lockdown locks flowing steamed in downhill, after graciously suggesting Chloe take the other end. Runs were hard to come by.
It was a solid performance in the field, with Fred, Toby, Scott (2 for 36) and Thiaan all doing their part, backed up with some enthusiastic fielding, in restricting Bristol to 222 for 7, which included 3 run outs, off their 40 overs.
Thiaan and Jake looked comfortable in the early exchanges until Jake got run out at the non-strikers. Dan got a steady, nervous 15 until he was caught trying to improve the run rate. This brought together the 2 trusty old pros as Scott walked to the crease, looking far more comfortable after ridding himself of his constipation during the tea break, proudly strolling out with his new M&H.
The bowling was disciplined, but Thiaan and Scott kept us up with run rate, T passed 50, Scott was eventually dismissed by the young quick from the top end for another decent 41 (taking him to 370 runs for the season)
This brings us onto the highlight of the day, with Thiaan passing 100 and eventually finishing on 136 not out (534 runs for the season) and a little cameo from Vik at the end to score the winning runs.
