AUSTRALIA
050S UK TOUR 2017
GAME
9 AUSTRALIA 050S VS WORCESTERSHIRE 050S
AT
KIDDERMINISTER CC WORCESTERSHIRE
FRIDAY
27th JULY 2017
The
game of cricket is world-renown
And
mostly played by gents,
But
in this game are many things
that
really don’t make sense.
One
thing that appeared to make no sense was when Worcestershire won the
toss and sent the Australian Over 50s cricket team into bat on a
glorious hot afternoon on a hard and fast county wicket. Maybe it was
the foibles of new stand in Captain and President of Australian Over
50s Association Mal Coleman and the adoption of pink balls for
today’s game. However it may make sense when the weather forecast
was taken into account. The usual prediction- sunny but prospect of
rain.
We
had finally reached our last game of our Midland’s tour and today
we were at picturesque Kidderminster oval and the carpet kingdom of
the world.
The
team for today was Mal Coleman Capt; Alan Chellew; Gordon McGurk;
Ross Belstead; Clayton Johnson wkper; Tim Sargent; Paul Stenhouse;
Geoff Doyle; Steve Moore; Mick Munro;;Peter Judd; Noel Raymond
Opener
Alan Chellew had developed neck stiffness from a defective pillow and
so was in some grief. Nevertheless he opened the batting with
“Pirate” Ross Belstead who hadn’t seen much of the strike
recently. His stay on the high seas was short lived and he walked the
plank on 1 at the score on 7. Gordon McGurk hit his usual 41 before
being bowled and in the meantime Chellew bashed 40 retired. Things
were making more sense now.
Newly
arrived wicketkeeper Clayton Johnson showed his wares with 28
including a massive 6 and 4x 4s whilst opening bowler Tim Sargent
went the same way as Pirate –out caught off his plank for 4.
Despite Geoff Doyle accumulating 39 we continued to lose wickets
until the final bell tolled at 9-211 off 35 overs. In all of this
flurry rain had interrupted play for an hour so it was now a 36 over
game. Local West Indian Leo Monclieffe had captured 4-26 in a fiery
spell of fast bowling reminiscent of Malcom Marshall.
